The Origin of the "Paper Moon" Craze of the 1980s

It's rare to be able to pinpoint the exact origin of a fad or a meme, as in who first thought of it, but we sometimes have documentation of the incident that made it popular. It was 45 years ago that a John Deere office got a new Xerox machine, and 21-year-old Jodi Stutz thought it would be funny to sit on the machine and photocopy her butt. After all, other employees were having fun copying their faces and hands. What made it a sensation was that Stutz was fired for the prank after the story was blown out of proportion. That firing made the national news, and suddenly similar incidents were seen in offices everywhere -or at least the results were seen. They usually consisted of just a white piece of paper with a line across it, so it didn't last long.  

Stutz became an instant celebrity, thanks in part to Johnny Carson, since the story was right up his alley. Read about the firing that led to celebrity status at Weird Universe. -via Nag on the Lake