Ten years or so ago
When I'd not long got involved with teh internets and also was on my first mobile phone, I arranged a Christmas meal after a match so some of us who had got to know each other on a certain football club's internet mailing list could finally meet up in meatspace.

The meal went really well, it was great, lovely (yet reasonably priced) Italian restaurant, fantastic food and wine.

Someone's phone rang. They had what anywhere else - home, office, supermarket, train - would have been a distinctive ringtone.

Not so distinctive on this particular evening, though. Of the 20 or so people sat round the table, I think 19 had Go West by the Pet Shop Boys (aka One Nil To the Arsenal) set as their ringtone (the 20th person didn't have a mobile).

Billy The Kid wouldn't have stood a chance in the quick-draw stakes as everyone whipped their mobile out...
(Capo, Thu 30 Jul 2009, 22:20, 1 reply)

A modern reimagining....
Amongst my circle of friends, four have iPhones, and until very recently, all had the same message tone for quite some time.

It became a running joke, or possibly a meme, in the pub that everytime we heard that little fairy chime, every bugger would whip their phones out, then 3/4s of them would look rather sheepish :)
(Fleximus Rex briefly gave up lurking on, Tue 4 Aug 2009, 3:12, closed)