ROFLCon

"Mix up a bunch of super famous internet memes, some brainy academics, a big audience, dump them in Cambridge, MA, and you've got ROFLCon."

So boasts the website for ROFLCon, a conference-plus-parties slated for April 25-26 at Harvard University. ("ROFL," by the way, is a chatroom acronym for "rolling on the floor laughing"; and "Con" is what we fanboys and hobbyists call conventions dedicated to our passions.) ROFLCon will be dedicated to analyzing "internet culture" -- what makes it tick, where it's been and where it's headed. Who better to discuss this sort of thing with then the originators and propagators of the aforementioned internet memes (thought viruses, infectious ideas, the cultural equivalent of genes)?

I'm talking about online-only celebrities like Jay Maynard, whose website Tronguy.net is dedicated to photos and videos of him dressed like the protagonist of the cult trapped-in-a-videogame movie "Tron"; and Martin Grondin of the LOLCat Bible Translation Project (Genesis 1:1: "Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem"); and Brian Finklestein of Snakes on a Blog; and reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian; and Chris Hastings of Dr. McNinja; and someone from the StupidFilter Project; and many, many more.

As promised, there will also be some (less colorful) brainy academics at ROFLCon, including "Harvard's own English/Visual and Environmental Studies rock star, J.D. Connor" -- a very impressive thinker and writer (see his brilliant analysis of the 2000 submarine movie "U-571" in The Baffler no. 15) who used to be Slate's Fraymaster.

You don't know what a Fraymaster is, you say? You're way, way behind the curve. Dr. McNinja suggests that you attend ROFLCon to seek a faith cure.