Angelina Jolie's Bare Leg Turns from Post Oscar Joke to Internet Celebrity

Angelina Jolie's bare leg led to many post-Oscar jokes, but by Tuesday it had kicked back at critics and become an Internet celebrity in its own right followed by thousands.

Jolie, accustomed to having the spotlight on her and perhaps not her appendage, attended the Oscars on Sunday in a black Atelier Versace dress with a daring slit. The often serious actress playfully revealed her right leg onstage leading many to question her motivation for the daring pose.

Denise Warner, executive editor of HollywoodLife.com, speculated that it might have been an inside joke between her and companion Brad Pitt who was sitting in the front row.

We don't see (Angelina's) sexy side, even though she's incredibly sexy, she's never been so deliberate with her sexuality and that's why everyone's latched onto it. Especially now that she's a mother and she tries to be more reserved. This was completely out of character for her, said Warner.

Regardless of why Jolie did it, within minutes of the leg's appearance -- which was imitated by The Descendants writer Jim Rash as he accepted his Oscar from the actress -- the twitter handle @AngiesRightLeg popped up and quickly amassed a few thousand followers.

As of Tuesday, more than 34,000 followers including celebrities such as Rob Lowe, were drawn to the parody account, which posts quips such as Look at the leg! and You have to admit I'm one hell of a leg.

Jolie's right leg surpassed rival parody account @JLosNipple, which currently has 4900 followers and appeared right after singer Jennifer Lopez took to the Oscars stage in a dress with a risqué plunging neckline. It sparked a debate that the singer had a near wardrobe malfunction on stage.

But there was no argument over whether Jolie's display was all skin, and the appendage soon went viral. Social media aggregator Buzzfeed set up a page dedicated to users legbombing, which is uploading a picture then imposing a cutout of Jolie's leg into it at odd angles.

Internet memes imitating the actress and her leg circulated social media sites through Tuesday, following on the recent viral phenomenon of New York Knicks basketball player Jeremy Lin, who became a hot meme trend as fans devised nicknames for him including Linsanity, Linning and Linfatuation.

Even TV shows jumped in, with the female hosts of CBS chat show The Talk all baring their legs on Monday's episode, while Jolie's now-famous limb legbombed the Today Show on Tuesday.

While @AngiesRightLeg is still going strong, it is likely to be a short-lived trend as the Oscars fade from memory in the next week. But the picture will probably go down as one of the Oscars memorable moments.