Fame Could Be a Few Clicks Away

March 2, 2007— -- To become famous, you used to have to shoot for the stars -- but not anymore. Now all you need to shoot are a couple of naughty photos or a random act of violence, post them on the Internet, and 80,000 hits later, you've go t… fame.

More than 70,000 new videos get posted every day on YouTube.com alone. One of the most recent rise-to-fame stories is that of Adam Schleichkorn, self-proclaimed inventor of the sport of "fence plowing."

Schleichkorn was visiting family in Florida, happened to see a fence in the post-hurricane aftermath, and thought, "We could run right through it." And run right through it they did.

The "first guy runs through -- just barrels through," he said. "The second guy, my cousin John, gave up halfway, got stuck midway through. I think that was another twist to the comedic aspect."

Their horseplay on Schleichkorn's family's property was initially meant to be seen by a list of maybe 30 friends, but those 30 friends sent it to their friends, and so on. At one point, he retitled his video from "Guy Runs Through a Fence" to "Fence Plowing," garnering thousands more hits on YouTube.com.

It wasn't long before Schleichkorn and his cronies were being mimicked by other boys who saw their video. The difference is, those boys crossed the line between horseplay and public vandalism, resulting in their arrest.

"It really took off around the end of January, when the five kids in Deer Park [N.Y.] got arrested," Schleichkorn said. "They were basically copying my video. … They were doing it to public property, to property not owned by them. I was doing it on my cousin's property and of course … I really have to put it out there: I really don't promote vandalism at all."

Schleichkorn has used his newfound fame as both a lesson in marketing and a catapult toward a career in the music industry -- he is starting his own record label.

While becoming famous may be just a few clicks away, there is one caveat: Grabbing your 15 megabytes of fame requires increasingly extreme measures. Suddenly not only is the line between horseplay and vandalism being crossed, but the line between shocking and violent or obscene is as well.