8 Ordinary People Who Went Viral Overnight!

#1 Mason – Skeptical Baby Meme

In 2011, Dave and Rhianon took their son, Mason, to the Museum of Natural Sciences. Neither of them knew that a picture they took of their son that day would turn into one of the most famous memes ever. After Dave posted his son's picture on a Reddit thread, Mason turned into the skeptical baby meme. The meme has many different forms, but they all follow the same basic structure. The phrase usually begins with "You mean to tell me," then concludes with a baby-like realization.

#2 Caitlyn McNeill – The Gold/White or Black/Blue Dress

Though her dress may be more recognizable than she is, Caitlyn McNeill is the one that posted it. When the 21-year-old, who plays guitar in a Scottish band, posted a picture of this dress on her Tumblr, things spiralled out of control. The dress is, of course, the dress that sparked the black and blue or white and gold debate. Celebrities like Swift, Kardashian, and Mindy Kaling even joined in on the fun. Following the frenzy, there were several articles published that explained the scientific reason why some people saw the dress as blue and black, and others saw the dress as gold and white.

#3 Sam Griner – Success Kid Meme

There's a good chance you've seen this meme of a baby with a determined face and a clenched fist. This meme has been everywhere and was even used by the White House at one time. It all started with a photo shoot on the beach. According to Laney Griner, the photo was snapped while Sam Griner was trying to eat sand. She posted the photo on Flickr and suddenly, her child became one of the most popular memes of all time. The story doesn't end there. In 2015, the family used the fame of the "success kid meme" to raise $100,000 on GoFundMe for Sam's father Justin Griner to have a kidney transplant.

#4 Justine Sacco – “Just kidding. I’m white!”

Not everyone's story of going viral is a happy story. The story of Justine Sacco, a normal woman who went viral, is one of the darker stories of social media. In 2013, Justine Sacco, 30 years old at the time, was the senior director of corporate communications at IAC. That was about to change. (Actually, her entire life was about to change.)

Before a flight, she tweeted: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" While she was on her 11-hour flight, the tweet went viral. There was even a trending hashtag of #HasJustineLanded, all the while she was peacefully unaware on her plane.

Her employer tweeted: "This is an outrageous, offensive comment. Employee in question currently unreachable on an intl flight." Suffice to say that when Justine Sacco landed, she was no longer employed and was the most hated woman on Twitter. Justine received death threats and threats for her family's safety. It was extremely difficult for her to find another job in PR because her life was basically a PR nightmare.

After the outrage died down, Justine found a new job in communications, though she won't disclose where, stating that "Anything that puts the spotlight on me is a negative."

#5 Alex Lee – #AlexFromTarget

Alex from Target may be the most random of all the normal people who have gone viral. At the time, Alex was a 16-year-old kid living in Frisco, Texas, and he just so happened to work at Target. That was it. Being that Alex is attractive, someone snapped a photo of him while he was putting items in a bag. A teenage girl from Britain found the photo on Tumblr and posted it to her Twitter account with a caption "YOOOOOOOOOOO."

For whatever reason, the photo of Alex kept being shared and the hashtag #AlexFromTarget took off and became a sensation. His new found fame even bought him an appearance on Ellen. Alex continued to work at Target but was transferred to the stockroom, as his presence on the floor would cause frenzies in the store. Following the #AlexFromTarget craze, he gained 788,000 followers on Twitter and 1.9 million followers on Instagram. Now that he has this platform, he is trying to hand at the entertainment business.

#6 Charlie Davies-Carr and Harry Davies-Carr – “Charlie bit my finger!”

Who would have thought that a video of a toddler's reaction to his baby brother biting his finger would become one of the most watched videos on YouTube of all time? Probably absolutely nobody. In the 55-second clip, Harry puts his finger in baby brother Charlie's mouth, then, you guess it, Charlie bites his finger. The video was uploaded so family members in the United States could see the two boys growing up, but it exploded. It is the 25th most watched video on YouTube with over 830 million views, and it was named number one on Time's list of YouTube's 50 Greatest Viral Videos.

#7 Jonathan Esponda – The Dancing Miami Marlins Fan

Jonathan Esponda's hips made him a viral superstar. A year after Esponda busted a move at a Marlins game, the clip was included in some outtakes on the Jumbotron, and after that, the rest is Internet history. From there, somebody posted a Vine video and the video took off. Jonathan Esponda credits his parents with teaching him how to dance. After the video went viral, the eight-year-old got to throw the first pitch before a Marlins vs. Phillies game.

#8 Kimberly Wilkins – “Ain’t nobody got time for that”

After escaping a fire in her apartment complex in 2012, Kimberly Wilkins, also known as "Sweet Brown," gave an interview to a local news station. The interview seemed like business as usual, with Wilkins recounting the events of her escape from the burning building. "Sweet Brown's" 42 second video, which spurred the catchphrase "Ain't nobody got time for that," went viral with 1 million views in only 2 days. Not only was she a guest on The View, she also had a cameo in A Maeda Christmas. But it wasn't entirely a happy ending for the viral superstar Wilkins. She went on to sue Apple for releasing a song called "I Got Bronchitis," which featured many of her phrases from the news interview.