5 ms·
A huge chunk of what we now consider internet culture was derived from the Something Awful forums and some of the other sites that sprouted out of it (4chan). I
by Exmoor 6y ago
A huge chunk of what we now consider internet culture was derived from the Something Awful forums and some of the other sites that sprouted out of it (4chan). I believe most/all the images in the video the OP is derived from were from a "Photoshop Friday" content from Something Awful.
I remember the first time I saw what we'd now call "memes", but were then called "image macros" on some of these forums. (This is the most work friendly example I remember: http://bensbargains.net/thecheckout/wp- http://bensbargains.net/thecheckout/wp- content/uploads/2014/01/discount-tent.jpg )
It's incredible to me that the form of media is been largely unchanged in almost two decades of accelerated cultural change. 20 years ago the big joke was photoshopping "All Your Base" into some photo. The biggest meme of 2020 was photoshopping Bernie Sanders into some photo. The biggest difference is that these things used to have a relatively burn as they worked their way through the culture and now they burn white hot for a few days and are immediately dated a week later.
- gfodor 6y agoHonestly the SA photoshop contests were different (and in many ways, more entertaining and impressive) than contemporary memes.
- jonny_eh 6y agoI feel the same, but I suspect it's old man nostalgia.
- crtasm 6y agoI was never on SA but am curious if you'd enjoy https://b3ta.com/ https://b3ta.com/ , they've run a weekly(?) Image Challenge since the early 2000s. Currently 'boxes' https://b3ta.com/challenge/boxes/popular https://b3ta.com/challenge/boxes/popular Previous challenges: https://b3ta.com/challenge/ https://b3ta.com/challenge/
- gfodor 6y agoI only looked briefly but those jokes are way less funny than what I remember from SA. SA's photoshop contests today probably would get some posters doxxed by the New York Times for wrongthink.
- sharkweek 6y agoAhhhh Something Awful. I was more of a GenMay guy myself but both were such fun places to hang out in my high school and college years.
- ahawkins 6y agoWow! Gemany...I haven’t heard that in a long time. Still some of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life come from that forum.
- coldpie 6y agoSA is still a fun place to hang out. I've been a member there for 15 years now.
- lenocinor 6y agoAgreed. I’ve been there almost 20 years now and still read the forums every day. It was weird to read this article and not even see SA called out as the original source. I think maybe a lot of old humor during SA’s heyday was like that.
- zby 6y agoI think the "first internet meme" title should go to ASCII cows. https://cruzio.com/2019/10/ascii-cows/ https://cruzio.com/2019/10/ascii-cows/ (I don't know what would be a cannonical source for this - this is a first googled link) I remember viewing them and thinking that the internet is really a crazy thing.
- jessaustin 6y agoThat link says 1989; I'd consider that pre-internet.
- hyperman1 6y agoAFAIK the internet was growing fast already in the 1980´s in academia. E.g. RFC793 which defines TCP is dated september 1981. Also, there was a network community before the internet. Cliff Stoll’s The cuckoo’s nest, describing events from 1986, mostly happens on tymnet. There’s a paragraph in there comparing tymnet with internet. You might be right about the www. I remember receiving my first chernobyl cows by email. The link above has only ASCII cows, the chernobyl aspect came from embedding ANSI escape sequences in there to colorize or blink the cow. The first mail programs were not escape resistant, so the cows could leak into the gui and even mess with your keyboard.
- zby 6y agoIt might have started in 1989 - but in 1993 when I encountered it it was still alive.
- jessaustin 6y agoFrom my terminal, just now: ~$ cowsay "This meme hasn't died yet..." ______________________________ < This meme hasn't died yet... > ------------------------------ \ ^__^ \ (oo)\_______ (__)\ )\/\ ||----w | || ||
- toyg 6y agoThere were fewer memes as well, so there was more of a sense of “netspeak” imho. Now each subculture has its own set of memes, and there are so many subcultures that it’s impossible to consider them all. I guess this is a natural evolution but it makes me a bit sad.