By Shaun Davies
ninemsn
A wildly popular internet video showing police shooting a conspiracy theorist with a taser gun may have lodged a new catchphrase into our cultural consciousness — "don't tase me, bro".
The video shows police attempting to remove known prankster Andrew Meyer from a hall at the University of Florida, after he asked US Senator John Kerry if he was a member of a secret society.
Meyer struggles with police for over a minute and is warned several times that he will be shot with the taser if he does not stop resisting.
"I didn't do anything. Don't tase me bro," Meyer yells. When police finally shoot him with the taser, he unleashes a series of agonising screams.
Three days after it first appeared, it is still the most popular viral video on the web, with over 3 million page views, according to viralvideochart.com.
Tech-savvy website Wired has dubbed the video "the newest cultural touchstone of our pop-cultural lexicon".
And in a sure sign that phrase has become a bone fide phenomenon, numerous entrepreneurial designers have now emblazoned "don't tase me bro" on T-shirts.
There's even mashup of the video on YouTube, complete with a techno soundtrack, along with various responses from video bloggers.
The tasering incident has sparked debate, both on the internet and in the mainstream media, about whether Meyer deserved his harsh treatment.
Senator Kerry, a former Democrats presidential candidate, condemned the manner of the arrest, saying he could have dealt with Meyer himself.
The campus police officers involved in the incident have been place on leave. Meyer has been released from prison and has not yet been formally charged.
Meyer's history as a prankster has also led to claims that the whole incident was a stunt. Police have claimed Meyer acted very differently once the cameras were turned off, asking if there were going to be television cameras at the prison.
But Meyer's friends have denied the whole incident was a publicity-seeking stunt.
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