Hard-to-Swallow Trend

The World Wide Web, offering the golden promise of digital commerce, has long been the catch-all for wasted electrons.

For every “serious” business or government Web site, there are dozens--even hundreds--of useless sites. People lovingly detailing their extensive tape and CD collections. Menus of what graduate students at Purdue University are eating for lunch. Cameras pointing at coffee pots and sending updated photos--every minute, every day--of the java maker.

The latest trend among Net-savvy goof-offs is mixing celebrity images with the childish slogan “ate my [insert body part here].”

“It’s a ridiculous thing to do, totally offensive and completely in line with geek humor,” said Jonathan Miller, 24, a Costa Mesa-based programmer who launched a “Duran Duran ate my” page in June. “Someone started the craze with a Mr. T page, and suddenly people were copying it all over the place.”

Over the last 18 months, the phenomenon has spread like a sophomoric virus, spawning pages devoted to everything from Alf to Barney to the Beatles. The search engine Yahoo! lists 231 sites that fall under this ridiculous heading.

Miller’s own pages, however, no longer exist. His girlfriend, Sally Rother, was not amused.

“He can be a dork to me and that’s fine. If he’s a dork online and my friends find out, it’s over,” said Rother, 27, a Huntington Beach waitress.

“Besides, I’ve always liked Duran Duran.”

P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at [email protected]