Web Currents

UNDERGROUND IN CYBERSPACE

The five minutes it took for the wildly popular "Whassuuup!" Budweiser ads to spawn their own Web parody, the Superfriends Whassuuup! (both boosted by AdCritic.com) indicates that Web subculture—a curious dialogue among TV ads, 70s cartoons, hit movies, and primitive animation—is growing exponentially. At myboot.com, enterprising cartoon junkie Craig Mitchell is quickly stockpiling a kind of underground Web Hall of Fame, including such classics as "The Scooby Doo Project," "Tie-Tanic," and a whole page of Star Wars parodies. And though William Shatner's recent pitches for priceline.com speak volumes about the Web's link to a certain generation of TV-watchers, his latest incarnation, the Dancing Shatners (GeoCities.com/Hollywood/Set/1931/dance.htmI), a rip-off of Ally McBeal's dancing baby, proves even late-90s Fox material is fair game. -ANNE FULENWIDER

ANNE FULENWIDER