Balloon Boy also rises

On Oct. 15, 2009, the world stopped what it was doing and thought it was watching a boy float away 2,000 feet above Ft. Collins, Colo.

Although his name is now Balloon Boy, he was never actually in the balloon.

The Internet has given us plenty of instances in which an unimportant event was elevated to undeserving heights of ubiquity. But I cannot recall an instance where the subject matter at hand so thoroughly rises to the level of absurdity of the culture nurturing it—that is to say, Balloon Boy may be the perfect way to articulate how an Internet economy built on the exchange of user-generated “news” content has ushered in a new Zeitgeist of irreverence.

Let’s get the facts straight: Falcon Heene is the youngest of the offspring produced by a couple who have been on ABC’s “Wife Swap” (twice), are fond of testing shoddy hovercrafts on ice rinks (with their kids inside), take their children on potentially deadly storm-chasing missions (to test an experimental “tornado cannon,” father Richard explained) and have been on a few UFO-hunting expeditions (yes, UFOs). And before his would-be airborne adventure, Falcon’s only previous experience in showbiz included a weirdly profane rap video shot with his brothers and displayed on the family’s YouTube site.

Last Thursday afternoon, I saw “Denver” moving up on the trending topics. Upon clicking on it, I discovered the story that would soon steal the attention of much of the blogosphere: a boy was trapped in a balloon high above his Colorado home.

The appeal of a story like this is obvious. There is the voyeuristic desire to watch what could be a lurid tragedy unfold—is he going to fall out? On the other hand, there’s the powerful drama that erupts when you start to hope that this boy will be OK. But then there’s also the part that eventually gives the story staying power within the memosphere and even in-person conversation: the surrealist idea of a balloon—a symbol of innocence and whimsy—actually flying away with a child inside. Once the deception was revealed—and the name “Balloon Boy” proved to be an ironic misnomer—the consummation was complete, and the collective sense of humor that germinates all those dumb-joke laden e-mails began to mine the story for inspiration.

Twitter trending topics were suddenly awash with news about Balloon Boy. News about his parents gets out? “Wife Swap” starts trending. Someone makes the connection to Kanye? “Imma” starts trending (i.e. YO BALLOON BOY IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT ANNE FRANK HAD ONE OF THE BEST ATTIC HIDEOUTS OF ALL TIME!”). And eventually, when the Balloon Boy Mania hit fever pitch, the top 10 Google Hot Trends and Twitter trending topics were all Falcon Heene-related.

Not everyone found insight in the national preoccupation with this bizarre turn of events. Arianna Huffington took to her eponymous blog to bemoan everyone’s unyielding interest in something so inconsequential: “I find the media’s obsession with these non-stories especially galling when they lead to endless agonizing over the welfare of a child—agonizing that is sorely missing when there isn’t a hot air balloon or inner tube in shark-infested waters involved,” she wrote in an Oct. 19 post. Her reaction to the spectacle was similar to Falcon’s regurgitory performance on Good Morning America the day after the incident: “No matter what happens in the unfolding legal saga of the Heene family, the most appropriate response to the whole matter was that of Falcon Heene. He vomited. Twice. On national TV.”