Crazy Frog

Originally known as "the Annoying Thing," the helium-voiced, bluish-gray, anatomically correct CGI lump Crazy Frog became a pop culture epidemic in Europe and especially the U.K., with ringtones, TV commercials, pop songs, and other forms of (over)exposure. Though Crazy Frog mania began its momentum in 2004, the character's creation took several years. In the late '90s, Swedish teen Daniel Malmedahl began recording his impressions of internal combustion motors; after he performed on a television show, the impressions were posted on the Internet and became a fad among file-shar...