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"If you've been anywhere near Twitter in the past 24 hours, you've probably been sucked into the phenomenon that is Sharknado. The campy Syfy TV movie, which aired Thursday night, has dominated conversation on the service for the past day. How did a low-budget B movie become the hottest thing on the Internet?\nTwitter dissected Sharknado's rise in a blog post Friday night. The movie about tornadoes that scoop up sharks from the ocean and dispense them on unfortunate Los Angeles residents was the most-tweeted TV show from the night, generating 318,232 tweets during broadcast and 5,000 tweets per minute at its peak. That put it well ahead of competing shows Big Brother and a Royals-Yankees baseball game.\nSEE ALSO: Meet the Woman Who Owns the Sharknado Twitter Handle\n\nTwo key factors contributed to Sharknado chewing up the evening, wrote Twitter Data Editor Simon Rogers: smart buzz generation, led by Syfy's senior vice president of digital, Craig Engler, and participation by leading Twitter celebrities such as Wil Wheaton, Damon Lindelof and others (disclosure: I used to work for Engler as editor of Syfy's DVICE).\nA few hours before the movie aired, Engler began to retweet what fans were saying about the movie on the official @Syfy Twitter account in addition to a few Sharknado \"warnings.\" Engler says the \"feeding frenzy\" really began about 20 minutes before the movie was due to start.\nThe thing that transformed a otherwise normal Syfy campfest into a Level 5 Sharknado, however, was the participation of Twitter A-listers. Wil Wheaton tweeted a Vine counting down to the movie to his 2.4 million followers, then proceeded to live-tweet the movie. So did Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof (although he also said he wasn't actually watching it). Patton Oswalt and Mia Farrow even got into the action.\n\nI am easily amused. T minus 85 minutes. https://t.co/1m1Nqz5Eho\n\u2014 Wil Wheaton (@wilw) July 11, 2013\n\nAt one point, Engler says he was having a Twitter conversation with Olivia Wilde and Elizabeth Banks about the Sharknado sequel (which is already in the works) and the roles they wanted to play. Lindelof said we was writing it. (Note: Not everyone may be serious.)\nRogers says 495 accounts contributed 15% of the Sharknado conversation. Wheaton \"dominated\" the conversation around the movie, Rogers wrote, and Twitter created a graphic that illustrates who on Twitter was the most influential on the topic (the big ball in the middle is the total conversation, Rogers says):\n\nThe next morning, the effects of the phenomenon were probably best summed by by this tweet from the real mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti:\n\nLooks like a great LA day today. Unless of course #sharknado is coming. Fingers crossed...\n\u2014 Eric Garcetti (@ericgarcetti) July 12, 2013\n\nShare your thoughts on the Sharknado social-media phenomenon in the comments.\nBONUS: Best Shark Memes Ever\n\n\n\n15 \u2018Jaws\u2019-Dropping Shark Memes Circling the Web\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. Photoshopped?\nTumblr site BrainVacancy posted this elaborate image of a raptor riding a shark.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Excuse Me\nIt's hard to track down the original photo, but the \"Excuse Me, I Was Looking at the Water\" meme most likely sparked after a Reddit user captioned it in this thread.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Fuck Yeah Sharks\n\n\nTumblr has indicated that this shark-loving blog is what started the \"Fuck Yeah\" trend.\nWhat we do know is that if you're a fan of sharks, this is probably the number one Tumblr site for you.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. YOLO\n\nBlogger Brian McDaniel altered this shark photo in Apple Paintbrush, adding an inspirational \"YOLO\" and photoshopping himself falling into the shark's mouth.\n\"I'm very proud of it,\" says McDaniel.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5. Sharks With People Teeth\nReddit user bloodrobots noticed this photoshopped masterpiece of various sharks with human teeth.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6. Shark Tank\nPhotographerJamie King created this altered image of two sharks swimming in a flooded Toronto shopping center, which received a lot of attention online.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7. Samuel L. Jaws-ckson\nThere is a brilliantly unexpected twist to this GIF at the end.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8. Sharks and Recreation\nThis mashup Tumblr incorporates sharks into scenes from TV series Parks and Recreation, and it's pretty hilarious.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9. Kiddie Pool\nThis photoshopped image of a father casually throwing his son into a shark's mouth was created by Tumblr user evanwhoareyou.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10. OctoSharkBear\n\nDid you know that there is a shark subreddit? \nUser FrilledShark submitted this image, which is pretty amazing.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11. Hoop Dreams\nIt's simultaneously amazing and terrifying that this shark can leap out of the ocean that high.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12. Misunderstood\nThis is just one of many sad captions on the poor \"Misunderstood Shark\" meme.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n13. Pretty Girl\nDon't let this shark fool you, he probably doesn't want to read your blog.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14. Crazy Eyes\nAs you can see, this particular image of a shark has received multiple photoshop treatments. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n15. Riding Dirty\nAnother more obviously photoshopped image came from the Website Shopped or Not.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage courtesy of Syfy\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/07/12/twitter-sharknado/>