The Wikipedia of obscure Internet memes, particularly those on the sites that follow. ED is run like Wikipedia, but its style is the opposite; most of its information is biased and opinionated, not to mention racist, homophobic and spiteful, but on the upside its snide attitude makes it spot-on about most Internet memes it covers. However net-savvy you are, ED is edgier, and it will perform 2 girls 1 cup on you to prove it.
4chan:
An English-language forum based on what is possibly the largest forum in the world, the Japanese 2channel. While 4chan's topic areas cover several aspects of Japanese culture, anime, and plenty of dirty hentai, the only board that matters is /b/.
/b/:
A subset of 4chan, technically a "random image board," where completely anonymous -- no login, no username -- people try to shock, entertain, and coax free porn from each other. Encyclopedia Dramatica calls it the asshole of the Internet. It's where LOLcats started as the edgier, funnier Caturdays, in which photos of cats (particularly on Saturday) were posted and captioned with forumspeak, which degenerated into the LOLspeak you now think is so clever.
Customs on /b/ include posts promising photos of personal degradation in return for certain kinds of porn or other helpful information; sarcastically asking for advice on teen romance; sarcastically asking/telling anything; pretending to have insider info or be privy to breaking news; posting image puzzles; and raiding other people's sites. Major media coverage is always full of fear and loathing, and is sometimes hilarious, as in this investigation by the Fox news reporter who played himself on Arrested Development:
/b/ has no rules; pretty much the only thing guaranteed to get a user banned is child porn, and even that gets constantly joked about. Reading /b/ will melt your brain, but sometimes you need that. It's like how I can't start a rough draft without a beer, but the analogy works better with heroin mixed with fiberglass.
Something Awful:
A comedy site on the level of Ebaum's World, Fark or College Humor. SA specializes in full-length articles about pop culture and weird web sites. The site is at its best when it mocks bizarre forum writers, such as this string of weird posts from Dogster, where users often post in character as their dogs.
It started with this web page, a sound bite looped over an image and some floating text: "You're the man now dog!" YTMND creator Max made it after seeing Finding Forrester and pinpointing the "you're the man" line as the moment Sean Connery lost his dignity. He then made a site for other such mini-pages, which have evolved into mini-movies. The site, like any decent forum, developed a rich set of in-jokes, especially because interaction relies on creating a little mesh of several concepts. Popular in-jokes include Star Trek's Captain Picard (personal favorite: "The line must be drawn here!"), a joke about Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the phrase "Nigga stole my bike," and a song called "Bake a Pretty Cake" from a kids' show called "Lazytown." The Lazytown character Stephanie (pictured) has inspired deep research on YTMND into ages of consent around the world. Stephanie and other fads are constantly recontextualized and mashed up with each other; for example, "Bake a Pretty Cake" works well when played over a flaming body fleeing a burning building with the words "She didn't do the cooking by the book." It's like mashups only with less of the creeping feeling that you're just listening to two crap dance songs at once. Actually, it's exactly like that.
YTMND culture is much less abusive than 4chan but less accessible than Something Awful; it's another of the early churners of fads that haven't yet popularized on Fark, Digg, and Boing Boing.
Moral: You're not old, Gabe, you just have more comprehensible sites to read.
And barely any of "the kids" are reading the sites above; most of them are glittering out their MySpaces. Right, I think that covers the most important fad factories that most people haven't heard of. If you need more sites explained so you don't have to actually visit them, or if you really want an exploration of MySpace glitter culture and a definition of "Thanks for the add," e-mail me at nick at toomuchnick dot com.
The troubled pop star has agreed to host the Scandinavian Style Mansion gala, a swank... Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2008 | 5:59 am
Say hello to a new Baldwin babe.
Daniel, the second-oldest of the famed siblings, welcomed his first child with wife Joanne Smith-Baldwin, daughter Avis Ann Baldwin, on Thursday in Los Angeles,... Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2008 | 5:01 am
Penelope Cruz wants to keep her vacation memories in camera.
The Spanish actress' digital camera either was stolen out of her baggage or otherwise lost while she was traveling abroad... Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2008 | 3:59 am
Make way for the newest crop of girls who want to be on top.
Tyra Banks and Co. have selected the 14 finalists who will stand before the former cover girl when the 10th cycle of "America's... Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2008 | 2:19 am
Order has been restored to the Hollywood food chain. Now, it's wait and see if the writers and actors follow the directors' lead.
After just five days of negotiations, the Directors... Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 18 Jan 2008 | 1:32 am
Those AFI lists are like tribbles. They keep multiplying.
I woke up in the middle of the night last night, thinking about how I'm well on my way to becoming a cougar. Except probably not as hot as Demi though... Or maybe it's because I just found out that my high school boyfriend is now engaged and my long-term college boyfriend is buying a place with his girlfriend... I mean, I am literally a part of the Facebook group "My Friends Are All Getting Married And I'm Just Getting Drunk."
Aww, and her commenters are of no help, either.
Why should I have to console a friend about being at my wedding single?
Prosecutors have dropped a drug charge against actor David Faustino, best known for playing Bud Bundy on the TV series "Married With Children." Source: FOXNews.com | 17 Jan 2008 | 5:39 pm
A Pennsylvania couple is suing Martha Stewart and K-Mart, claiming the domestic diva's "Everyday" dinnerware contains lead and is responsible for poisoning their children, TMZ.com reported. Source: FOXNews.com | 17 Jan 2008 | 5:36 pm
Think it's easy to turn a book into a film? What do you do with the internal monologues? What if the book is beloved by millions? The job is harder than it seems.
In what his publisher calls a record-breaking deal, British pop superstar George Michael is working on a memoir to come out in the fall of 2009. Source: FOXNews.com | 17 Jan 2008 | 3:14 pm
Eddie Murphy symbolically tied the knot with film producer Tracey Edmonds two weeks ago but that's as far as their wedding plans will go, they announced Wednesday. Source: FOXNews.com | 17 Jan 2008 | 2:15 pm
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Say hello to a new Baldwin babe.
Daniel, the second-oldest of the famed siblings, welcomed his first child with wife Joanne Smith-Baldwin, daughter Avis Ann Baldwin, on Thursday in Los Angeles,...
Penelope Cruz wants to keep her vacation memories in camera.
The Spanish actress' digital camera either was stolen out of her baggage or otherwise lost while she was traveling abroad...
Make way for the newest crop of girls who want to be on top.
Tyra Banks and Co. have selected the 14 finalists who will stand before the former cover girl when the 10th cycle of "America's...
Order has been restored to the Hollywood food chain. Now, it's wait and see if the writers and actors follow the directors' lead.
After just five days of negotiations, the Directors...
Those AFI lists are like tribbles. They keep multiplying.
