Used to be cheerleaders were the cruel ones. But the ambush beatdown video of Lakeland, Florida, cheerleader Victoria Lindsay not only flips the script and represents a new wave of girls behaving badly, it threatens to destroy an entire genre of YouTube clips. For quite a while now, the site has been the unofficial repository of underage trimscraps, teenage ponywails, and blue collar skirtmishes.

"They lured here there to beat her and beat her and beat her," said Polk County (Florida) Sheriff Grady Judd of the girls (and one token dude, an alleged lookout), ages 14 to 18, who are said to have pummeled Lindsay, 16, into unconsciousness. Eight of them were arrested on charges of felony battery and false imprisonment. Lindsay's alleged offense: Posting negative comments on MySpace (could this be her private profile?). "It makes my blood boil and certainly it will the people in our community," said the sheriff.

It did. But rather than blaming the local 24-hour Wal-Mart for making video cameras and laptops affordable or wondering whether they should have spent less time watching DVR'd NASCAR races on their flat screen surround sound systems, parents blamed MySpace and YouTube for making worldwide DIY videos so easy. (Back in the day, capturing these moments with Polaroids then mimeographing those onto fliers and posting them around school was enough to make a would-be bully say "fuck it.")

Sadly, the critics are, in at least a small way, on the mark. Here's a sample of the YouTube BRAwls currently available.

This is seemingly too prissy to cause any real damage, other than, you know, the emotional kind ...

This nugget, possibly featuring ladies on the mature end of things, is a sample of the fare available at Batavia, Ohio's "Taste of Clermont." Wanna bet you can get a turkey leg there?

This one has all the classic elements: A pickup truck, a car parked in someone's front lawn, a fat lady just standing aside watching, and both girls' classic postures—a sort of leaned-back, feet-first shuffle that always ends in a hair-pull. Again, it's nasty, wrong, and all. Not hot in any way. Quit it.

This one represents a genre of suspiciously well-scored, neatly compiled clips. Feature film to come in roughly 2010 ...

Lest you think this thing is confined to rural burghs and redneck enclaves, a Malaysian and Indian girl go at it in this United Nations of gashscrapping. That they're speaking a foreign language doesn't detract from it a bit. You can't understand most of the English in other clips, anyway.

And finally, this one's not embeddable, but it's worth noting for the buildup, the length, the frightening similarity in premeditation to the Victoria Lindsay clip, and the fact that its star is named "ZanDREah."

Related: The 10 most hated people on the Internet