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Top ten Internet memes

By Nate Lanxon on 09 November 2007, 9:00am


The 'Series of Tubes' Speech

WARNING: Naughty language!

"The Internet is not a big truck... it's a series of tubes." These were the infamous words spoken by ageing US Senator Ted Stevens, during a speech arguing against Net neutrality in 2006. The analogy was so utterly ill-informed, and the result of such a complete misunderstanding of the fundamental structure of the Internet, that Stevens was ridiculed worldwide. The real problem is that a man with considerable power to change the Internet has no understanding of what the Internet is.

Many, many viral videos and multimedia mickey-takings have since been made, and even the killer Xbox 360 game Gears of War included an achievement called 'A Series of Tubes', which players received after hosting and completing 50 ranked matches on Xbox Live.

One of the most popular viral videos containing Stevens' catchphrase is seen above, and takes the form of a song that includes many quotes made by Stevens on that fateful day.

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