Laugh online and the world laughs with you

Outrageous and contagious

Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, until May 8

Anyone on campus over the age of 30 is likely to think that the word "viral" could refer only to some kind of nasty infectious affliction.

Not so. For our students, "virals", or more properly "viral e-mails", are a 21st-century cultural phenomenon that includes anything from animated political satire and spoof clips to hilarious bloopers and pornographic jokes. They are viewed, laughed at and passed on, turning the web and mobile phone network into a global online comedy club.

This week, the world's first exhibition of virals at the Institute of Contemporary Arts offers us a glimpse of the kind of content likely to be hiding in our students' inboxes. Those behind Outrageous and Contagious maintain that virals represent a democratisation of creativity.

Using relatively cheap digital tools such as mobile video phones, Photoshop, digital video recorders and iMovie editing software, almost anyone can make a film or cartoon. Like any joke, the acid test of a viral is simply whether or not it is funny. One of my favourites was a spoof advertisement that showed a garish portrait of Christ with a beaming smile and the caption "IT'S A MIRACLE" across his chest. Beneath his imperforated palms were tubes of the UniBond adhesive No More Nails.

The poet e. e. cummings said the most wasted of all days is one without laughter. Loud eruptions of mirth provided the exhibits' soundtrack as individuals crowded around the PCs in a room that was ill-equipped to deal with the level of interest. The hundreds of people who queued through the corridors of the ICA to view the exhibition were not squandering the bank holiday.

Virals are coming to the curriculum as universities start to use them as "live briefs" on communications and design courses. They may prove difficult to contain academically if the content of BoreMe.com, one of the exhibition's sponsors, is anything to go by. We are accustomed to students texting each other on mobiles during lectures but we could also have to cope with irrepressible eruptions of laughter. If they are not receiving them already, students will soon be able to have virals delivered directly to their phones.

That's not all. A group of American viral-makers going under the name of Prangstgrup chose a lecture given by a chemistry professor at Columbia University as the location for their "viral shoot".

His innocent invitation for further questions is met by a student who stands and shouts: "Hey, Teach - I got a question." The academic hush is broken. From somewhere in the auditorium the rhythm of an orchestral arrangement strikes up in the style of a Broadway show. The protagonist launches into song: "We come to class each day it seems, we all fall asleep, we've lost our dreams." This undergraduate Jean Valjean leads a full cast of accomplices through a routine that would rival any stage production. The hapless professor can do no more than laugh it off and join in the final applause. His humiliation is preserved for viral eternity, and Reach! A Lecture Musical can be viewed worldwide at BoreMe.com.

Mark Twain said the only really effective weapon is laughter. A viral spoof could soon be playing in a lecture hall very near you. Les Back is professor of sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London.