Sock and Awe and others...

And to follow up on that last post, here's an online game that has been developed within less than a week, based on the now famous Iraqi news conference...
www.sockandawe.com (a pun on the "shock and awe" strategy of the American Military in Iraq), is a simple game where one has to aim and throw a shoe at a president Bush figure who keeps popping from behind a lectern. News worthy events also become entertainment worthy events.
The same thing occurred in 2006, at the end of the Football World Cup (read Soccer), after French player (and team captain) Zinedine Zidane head-butted Italian defence player Materazzi. http://www.aceviper.net/zidane.php The very next day the game had been very basically designed and made available on the net. (Note that there is now a more difficult version of the game, Zidane 2.0 of sorts also available at the link above). In the case of the World Cup, a couple of (very frustrated) French supporters decided to make the best out of a bad situation, and recorded a spoof song, with tongue-in-cheek lyrics, which became an official "hit" on the radio and online within a week of its first release online. The song, Coup de Boule [HeadButt], can be found on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWAJhUNj8Xg&feature=related.

I wonder whether these two incidents were so quickly caught and adapted, because they involved violence, and I mean in terms of why the games online where developed. Either way, as far as popularity contests go, Al Zairdi has a growing fanbase on facebook, including four groups, which describe him as Hero. (One of them also demands his release from police custody).