Let's speculate on actors (and to a lesser extent trends) that are likely to be the subject of future hipster/nerd internet fads

You'll notice that among the loads of fads are a lot of celebrities enjoying a career resurrection as part of hipster/nerd camp. Although the meteoric rise some of these people have is seemingly random (and that is arguably part of the appeal) you can spot trends in who is more likely to become popular again as a joke on the "the internet" and college campuses. Take Chuck Norris for example. Spun off from the Vin Diesel facts the Chuck Norris ones were allowed to become a bigger phenomenon (in my own opinion) in part because Norris is more obscure and his somewhat "traditional" appeal as the all-American tough guy provided more room for the camp to work. The running Walker-Lever gag on Conan O'Brian helped but you could argue it would've happened without it. It was only a matter of time before some smug 20-year-old smart ass figured out that Norris' persona was camp-ready. I'm sure there were probably YTMNDs preceding it by years.

Now there was always camp humor (relatively) and the art of using washed up actors for it is hardly new; although shows like the Ben Stiller show and the Simpsons arguably anticipated this generation's obsession with using more and more obscure actors and references for humor. (This may have to do with the fact that as the media expanded you had to--or at least had the option to--dig a bit deeper to reference something that was campy and yet could go over "the mainstream's" head. I don't know.) Right now the most popular generation to reference something from is the 1980s but as the next wave of hipter-nerds come in you can expect them to scour 90s junk for esoteric in-jokes and fads in the near future. Who and what do you think is the easiest stuff to go for?

This may be hard for some of you as the type of junk that becomes a fad is usually by nature esoteric and is supposed to go over most people's knowledge of pop culture. It also helps if it is generation exclusive and can really weed out who will understand the joke. Children's shows from ten to twenty years back are a popular place to pick fads up and I expect all sorts of junk to be taken from early-90s Nickelodeon and Disney Channel any year now. The one actor I think is most likely to become a walking piece of nostalgia and camp for an entire generation of young adults and the source of at least a few fads? Actor/rapper Kel Mitchel, naturally.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8058/kel11re.jpg

Kel Mitchell was an actor on a couple of mid-90s Nick shows (All That, Kenan and Kel) and starred in Good Burger in 1997. Kel had great comedic timing for a young actor and he spawned many memorable catchphrases that I've seen crop up again both on the internet and outside of it. From All That alone I see potential in: "Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order?", "I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, 'cause we're all dudes, hey!", "Jupiter!", "Oh, yeah, kick it!", "I'm...Repairmanman-man-man-man-man!" (Thank you, Wikiquote)

I would bet some serious money (e-money, perhaps) that Kel Mitchell will become the next Bob Saget, Mr. T, Chuck Norris, etc. In other words an obnoxious, collegiate camp/irony fad that will be spread primarily through the internet. He is era-specific (mid to late-90s), he was always sort of a caricature of himself, he has enough random quotes that could be pulled out at any time for random use and he is relatively forgotten as of now. You just need to wait for more of the original audience to become college age and possibly for Kel to stop looking so damn young (I remember Susan Sontag's Notes on Camp mentioning pity as being a factor in camp). He'll be ideal.

I'm too tired to think of general 90s fads but I'd like to hear other people's predictions.