fellow Hexbear user ennemi just posted about Chuck Norris jokes, and it got me thinking about excavating the early Web 2.0 days. Remember in the mid 2000s, early 2010s, when mustaches and bacon were like the peak of online humor? I also seem to remember epic saxophone solos and Chuck Norris in the mix. Did that whole ethos go on to inform reddit culture? It'd be interesting to see an infographic showing what memes/jokes contributed to the discourses of online platforms today (though also very cringe, lol)
I remember when php forums was like basically social networks before garbage like twitter.
I've been saying for over 15 years that all Mark did was take PHPNuke, launch a site with it, and make YOU the moderator of a forum about you.
Individualism is baked into it's very core and is owned by cryptofash libertarian yet self purported leftists insist that they will never leave.
Did that whole ethos go on to inform reddit culture?
It became :reddit-logo: culture, with a whole lot of :libertarian-alert: thrown into the mix because that was also a big part of Web 2.0, along with "ironic" bigotry.
All of those memes aged like milk. Leak Spin is the only one that I can think of that properly aged because it showed up again in that cat vibing meme
Also it was hell being vegan in middle and high school during the height of the epic bacon memes
Also it was hell being vegan in middle and high school during the height of the epic bacon memes
So much casual le edgy cruelty tied to it, like those shirts that said "for every burger you don't eat, I'm eating two" or le Ronald McDonald holding a chainsaw to a crying cow. :so-true:
I believe the latter example started as a vegan messaging attempt but then contrarian assholes decided that the image was hilarious and made it their own. :hypersus:
So much casual le edgy cruelty tied to it, like those shirts that said “for every burger you don’t eat, I’m eating two” or le Ronald McDonald holding a chainsaw to a crying cow.
And vegetarians were the close-minded ones?
Remember in the mid 2000s, early 2010s, when mustaches and bacon were like the peak of online humor?
Honestly... no?
I remember long running web comics with a mix of low quality sprite copypasta (8-bit theater) and high quality original art (Dr. McNinja). I remember Flash animations, like Strongbad and resubbed old game intros like All Your Base. I remember Duckrolling and Rickrolling and various HTML gags that messed with the user interface by exploiting javascript vulnerabilities. I remember blog reviews of bad video games that had me rolling on the floor and laughing out loud (Lum the Mad reviewing WWII Online, desperately trying to figure out how to get a plane to work for half an hour before shouting "I WILL TAXI TO VICTORY!" as he gently coasted down the airstrip still sticks in my head). I remember Something Awful Photoshop Fridays.
The "lel it's drawn on my le finger" mustaches and le epic bacon had a lot of offline leakage. Maybe you were fortunate to not be around such proto-bazingas.
I mean, it definitely existed. But there was so much good content back then. I can't imagine fixating on mustache fingers and neglecting Homestar Runner or even YTMND.
"I am Strong Bad. I am from 2002. Ask your parents."
-Actual Strong Bad quote during a convention.
I distinctly remember the first time I saw a beige 2005 Toyota Camry with a pink mustache.
Damn forgot how much I loved dr mcninja. Haven't read it in years, but at the time it was the funniest thing I could imagine.
King Radical, the most radical man in the Radical Lands. What a villain.
I haven't watched action films the same since learning the universe Ninja principle
low quality sprite copypasta (8-bit theater)
It's funny you mention that because by the middle of its run 8-bit theater was one of the most well produced comics around and one of the few of its era that's decent on a reread, the author even made the jump to professional comics writing which almost nobody else who made a sprite comic can say. Compare it to, say, Bob and George (which might have been the first one? or at least the first popular one) and the difference is massive.
I know he started Atomic Robo after 8-bit finished and I think I've got the first volume somewhere.
But there are plenty of '00s era web comic artists that have gone big. PA, SMBC, XKCD, Menage A 3, Goats, It's Walky...
I guess sprite comics had a harder time of it. But nobody can fault Clevenger for a lack of writing talent. It doesn't hurt that he hooked up with a talented artist either.
PA, SMBC, XKCD, Menage A 3, Goats, It’s Walky
I guess I overstated it a bit, my main thing was just objecting to calling 8 bit theater "low quality" lmao
I lived through he birth and death of Digg and I'm still not sure what Digg is.
I remember recognizing Digg usernames of people I knew in highschool while browsing Digg and not already knowing they were on Digg. It was wasn't even "that's the same as their AIM username", it was just obvious it was them and confirmable by the contents of their other comments and you kind of knew who spent too much time online and who barely understood the internet exists.
Remember when something awful was the nexus of internet culture? 4chan started there. Some of the first memes. A swinger community. Every video game had at least one goon dev. There was a board for government employees. At the time it felt like the internet the old books talked about
Yeah, everyone who blew up from that generation was not ready for fame. Not that they were any worse people than the old entertainment but they just didn't have the opsec skills
magic hexbear fairies, I humbly ask for a homestar runner emote of some kind, for times like this, just for me.
I think the DAE BACON culture was the first step in Reddit going from Le Epic Gentlesirs to Marvel Soy as a primary demographic
It also indirectly fueled the cultural migration to :up-yours-woke-moralists: and Joe Rogan fandom.
What’s really wild is the bad Web 1.0 cult websites like heaven’s gate and time cube
staring at the abyss: :shinji-screm:
the abyss staring back: :shinji-impact:
In 2018? People were posting orange cheeto man Drumpf :cheeto-man: memes
One of the most cringeworthy cultural blips I recall seeing during that time was a Youtube video showing the real God Emperor of Mankind in Warhammer 40k being so offended by the, quote, "Orange Cheeto" being called "God Emperor" that he did a little genocide against the "Orange Cheeto's" followers. Because the Imperium of Man is based and wholesome chungus unlike :cheeto-man:
Libs have just as abysmal levels of media literacy as chuds
Trollface is older than that. In fact it's one of the few survivors of the "rage comics" days.
I remember being a dumbass kid who thought that Chuck Norris jokes were funny until I learned he was reactionary piece of shit and personal friend of :no-oil: who I had the good sense to hate
Chuck Norris jokes were mostly funny because it enraged people when I copied them into Barrens general chat for 30 minutes straight.
There's still remnants of that contrarian anti-humor persisting today. The most reliable way on Hexbear to get people to post threads about something, for example, is to post a thread where one states that they dislike something. The most recent example is all the spinoffs of the rant about lowercase corporate logos.
