This simple shirt, sold on Amazon for $12.15-$18.95, inspired one customer to write a glowing review. Which in turn roused a tumult in all the comments following. Witness:

7,949 of 8,015 people found the following review helpful:

November 10, 2008

This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that’s when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my shirt that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to ‘howl at the moon’ from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called mehth. I told them no, because they didn’t have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn’t settle for the first thing that comes to him.

I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my shirt, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you wolf shirt.

Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the ‘guns’), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.

Not only does Bee-Dot (a.k.a. Brian Govern, a Rutgers Law student) have a 99% favorable rating, he has inspired over 750 reviews of the same general sentiment.

Overlook1977 wrote, “Unfortunately I already had this exact picture tattooed on my chest, but this shirt is very useful in colder weather.” Another fan said, “I knew when i got home from work and saw a purple glow coming out of the cracks in my mailbox that i would soon be face to face with God.”

Praise the lord! The 11th commandment: Thou Shalt Wear Wolves.

Consider that this originated in November of 2008. It’s now May 2009. Within the last week, 11 major newspapers and magazines have published “stories” on Three Moon Wolf, including the NY Times, LA Times, GQ, and the Irish Times.

Most focus on the fact that this little meme has made the shirt a bestseller at Amazon. Business value! ROI! Profit! I’m not sure they truly understand the weight of it all. The fact that this thing has gone way past early adopters and kids on message boards means that the thing is dead.

Forget Oprah. The death bell tolls when Clovis News Journal starts ruminating about wolves and moons and Chuck Norris.

Should we lament a meme’s death? Should we host a service to pass it on to the main stream of stuff? Or should we plug on and discover new gems, like the ones on the “Customers who bought X also viewed Y” list:

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