Finding Community In Meaninglessness: How the mystery of 'Celebrity Number Six' captured the minds of the internet

The group grew and inspired Redditors to send emails to photographers and DM models, search internet archives, purchase old catalogs, and make spreadsheets. It was a remarkable amount of energy paid to a scrap of frankly unsightly fabric. Hopefuls sent off posts every day for four years. Friendships bloomed, arguments raged, and community was forged, all with the common purpose of solving this mystery, even though it began to look like they might be left wondering forever... 

But how did this mini-story manage to hook in such an impressive number of internet randoms? One possible explanation is our culture, where everyone and everyone’s mom is a self-professed “true crime junkie.” We’re no strangers to sinking our teeth into a cold case. Much of the appeal of podcasts like “Crime Junkie” and “Serial” is the chance to play detective, assessing the evidence and making your own judgment call well before the real answer is revealed (if ever). But true crime, by nature, tends to be patently disturbing. The chance to play Nancy Drew about a piece of fabric instead of a real-life tragedy is appealing. There were clues to compile, dead ends, red herrings, and corrupt detectives. It was a respite from the bleakness of the news with all the intrigue of a murder mystery.

But more than that, the mystery can exist in the first place because pointlessness is king on the internet. Think about the classic memes Left Shark, Alex from Target, or Hawk Tuah. At face value, a costumed dancer danced a little weirdly. A Target employee was a little handsome. A girl said something funnily crass. Nothing profound or meaningful. But when we started sharing pictures and videos of them, cracking jokes, and sending them in our group chats, they became important. Memes come about because someone paid a little too much attention to something that doesn’t functionally matter. Attention is the currency of the internet, and we decide what’s important. 

Celebrity Six also exemplifies a key tenant of memedom: it created an in-group and an out-group. Either you knew about the mystery or you didn’t, and by virtue of knowing, you were in on the joke. The joke, in this case, is the self-conscious ridiculousness of this wild internet goose chase, the result of which will have no impact on culture other than to scratch an itch.

The internet has the power to uplift the absurd in its own form of trollish populism. A staunch, irreverent refusal to take anything too seriously pervades forums, comment sections, and threads. We successfully named a British research vessel “Boaty McBoatface” just because we could, and it was funnier than naming it something serious. Hand anything over to the vast claws of netizens, and expect it to return deep-fried, memed, and with a flippant attitude. If the character of the internet could be condensed into one person, it might be a snarky teenager with a penchant for pranks. So it follows that there’s a certain level of delight taken when a story like Celebrity Six is picked up by The New York Times. It’s a testament to an internet for, by, and of the people. 

After some years, some thought the hunt was hopeless, a piece of media lost to the annals of time. That is until September 8th, when user stefanmorse wielded a previously unused lookalike software to find Leticia Sardá, a Spanish model. Then, the exact photo was finally identified by a user named IndigoRoom. Mystery solved. Sardá herself even confirmed it herself by posting a photo. It was a wholesome internet moment brought to a satisfying close.

It so happens that what brings out the best in us can also bring out the worst. Right after IndigoRoom posted the original picture, a wave of doubting haters flooded in, including from a moderator who swore the result was AI-generated. Things got ugly quickly, and death threats were launched (as is the apparent custom of the internet). Admittedly, the reaction of initial denial was almost understandable. How could it be true? It was too obvious. The results too uncanny. How could a search so seemingly hopeless produce such a neat and tidy ending? But the naysayers were quickly forced to eat crow when the results were verified. Every community has its fits of mania. When something stupid becomes important, it starts to mean something to us.

And what, as humans, do we search for if not meaning? We ache for purpose, for a path, and we hope that it brings us together along the way. Since memes are the language of the internet, they’re the perfect medium for connection. The best memes transcend cultural, religious, and political differences and celebrate the ridiculous, foolish, and banal. In a divided world, it’s easy to see how coming together to find a photo of an unknown model from the early aughts is a lot more attractive, and simpler, than coming together to solve than say, climate change.