Before the anti-internet piracy initiatives were withdrawn, celebs stumped for anti-SOPA and PIPA efforts, signing letters and tweeting their opposition. In recent days, pro-SOPA Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter to rant — again.
But for others, the protest of the twin bills inspired silliness. Hunger, even.
"uuuuugh all this sopa talk just makes me want to eat mexican food," tweeted @wavveswavves.
Related trends: Take Facebook, asking CEO Mark Zuckerberg to take down Facebook for a day in solidarity, as well as the all-important Wtf is SOPA.
"dear SOPA, you can take facebook. but id (if) you take twitter or tumblr i'm driving into a lake," remarked @laurrrrob.
Etta James in 2009.Today Etta James and her classic song "At Last" again topped Twitter following news she had died after a long struggle with illness, including leukemia, kidney failure and dementia. Fans had been tweeting about her last month when her doctor spoke out about her health.
Following the Golden Globes, a man named Martin Henderson became a top Google search on Monday. Peter Dinklage, who won a best supporting actor award for his part in "Game of Thrones," said his name during the awards show.
"I want to mention a gentleman I'm thinking about in England," said Dinklage. "His name is Martin Henderson. Google him."
Henderson, a British man who has achondroplasia dwarfism and spinal stenosis, was the victim of an October assault that was reportedly brought on by news of a "dwarf tossing" competition in New Zealand. Members of the English rugby team had been punished for attending the event, the Daily Mail and the Sun reported. In the seemingly related assault, Henderson was picked up outside a pub in Somerset, England, and dropped on the ground. His back and legs were seriously injured, the damage compounded by a recent back surgery.
#Uggie, the dog from big Globes winner "The Artist," was a Twitter winner, too. (There's a "Consider Uggie" Facebook page. Started by Movieline, it has more than 7,000 "likes.") And the dog was infinitely more entertaining than the film's producer during his acceptance speech.
Trending worldwide Thursday was Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, 29, who died yesterday after sustaining injuries during a halfpipe practice on Jan. 10. A Winter X Games champion, Burke had lobbied, successfully, to get the superpipe accepted into Olympic competition, set to debut in 2014.
Al Green also trended Thursday because of what happened in the video above. President Obama, speaking at the Apollo Theater in New York as part of a fundraiser, sang a tidbit of the Green song "Let's Stay Together," to applause and his own amusement. Spin has called Obama "R&B smoothie-in-chief."
Happy MLK Day trended Monday, but so did Blue Monday, and not because of the Giants win, or the New Order song. Why? Because of the story that rolls around every year claiming that Jan. 16 is the most depressing day of the year.
Slightly less headline-y: Thursday night's episode of "Jersey Shore" brought "Pauly D is 31" to Twitter, with most saying they didn't realize he was that old, but many also saying he looks younger than The Situation, who by all accounts is 29. Pretty impressive since Pauly is known to adore the T in "GTL" as much as any of the cast, even accidentally "burning his face off" in a recent episode.
Adding to the SOPA-PIPA rage was the buzz surrounding file-sharing site Megaupload after the announcement of an indictment against the company for charges of piracy. That got people talking about hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz, its CEO. Not long after, the site came back to life on a new server.
Another of today's trends: Absinthe. Not the green liquor, but the rumored release of a program that reportedly makes it possible to "jailbreak" the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.
The late 2011 video "(Stuff) Girls Say," posted to YouTube by Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard with a guest spot from actress Juliette Lewis, has inspired a burgeoning genre of like-minded videos, including "(Stuff) White Girls Say to Black Girls" and "(Stuff) Girls Say to Gay Guys."
The first video set the pace for the rest: In each, the subject (whether girl or guy) wears a wig and rifles off "things girls say" with comedic zeal.
Here's a few memorable quotes from some of these videos, which you've likely seen passed around Facebook at some point in the past few weeks:
"I know, right??" -- "(Stuff) Girls Say."
"This is so ghetto!" and "Not to sound racist, but ..." -- "(Stuff) White Girls Say to Black Girls."
"I know this guy, right, he's gay too. You should totally meet him." -- "(Stuff ) Girls Say to Gay Guys."
"Are you going to have to get an arranged marriage?" -- "(Stuff) White Girls Say to Brown (Desi/Indian) Girls."
Trending is a weekly column that monitors Twitter, Google and the web. Follow Amy Kuperinsky on Twitter @AmyKup.
Last week in Trending:
Blue Ivy takes the web by storm while Drake gets hit with some Canada Dry