Kittens with portal guns sing Justin Bieber

The internet is a strange place. Middle-aged women become overnight singing sensations, million dollar book deals appear at the whim of the collective consciousness, and quirky people discover that their quirkiness becomes star quality. Are we laughing with them, or at them? Does it matter when they're getting thousands of hits per day?

It would appear to be a marketer's dream. Just find out what is trending and sell it, right? In an effort to capitalise on the search engine power of Justin Bieber's name  and draw attention to his Youtube channel, my son recently did a take-off of Baby. Within hours, Bieber's 'people' had ordered him to shut it down.

I'm not sure what it says about our collective consciousness that kittens and Justin Bieber are perennial favourites on YouTube. Other topics like portal guns and the iPhone 4 are trending flash in the pans. When I last looked, the top YouTube topics were cats, kids, pets and babies.

I thought I might call my next book Cute Kittens and Fluffy Rabbits do Funny Things. At least it will rank well on Google.