A blast from the past: SA invents the internet's first memes (IMAGE MACROS)

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > A blast from the past: SA invents the internet's first memes (IMAGE MACROS)

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Squashing Machine: Jul 5, 2005; I mean boning, the wild mambo, the hunka chunka

You can really trace the entire weird twitter internet irony age back to All Your Base, which makes this forum the Pandora's Box of the social media era

# ? Apr 19, 2018 08:51

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 21:43

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Sekenr posted:

Why, hello, I am a member of influential message board Something Awful

and I'm proud of it.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 09:06

Marta Velasquez: Mar 9, 2013; Good thing I was feeling suicidal this morning...; Fallen Rib

Grumbletron 4000 posted:

This fuckin thing...

Was the reply to one of my first posts here. I think it was pics of me and my dumb rear end friends. That poo poo shut me down quick.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 09:07

Kasumeat: Nov 18, 2004; I SHOULD GO AND GET FUCKED

Pretty sure this originated here. A friend of mine printed and laminated copies to give to people, it holds a special place in my heart.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Apr 19, 2018 09:15

Pixelponny: Oct 30, 2007; Two bloody great handfuls; Pillbug

It's actually my first time seeing these macros that you've posted and I gotta say, these are much better than what 4chan came up with, especially better than those "advice penguin" or "angry wolf" poo poo that everyone else was crazy about (once).
I think you shouldn't be hard on yourself because looking at some popular communities today, holy poo poo are they full of uncreative and uninspired users across the board. This might be a major reason why SA is irreplaceable.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 09:28

Fanelien: Nov 23, 2003

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them this garbage started on this dead, gay internet comedy forum.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 09:34

Heath: Apr 30, 2008; 🍂🎃🏞️💦

Looking at all those gave me the same kind of nostalgic feeling as looking at old Pogs

# ? Apr 19, 2018 10:01

Mooey Cow: Jan 27, 2018; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS; Pillbug

Pixelponny posted:

It's actually my first time seeing these macros that you've posted and I gotta say, these are much better than what 4chan came up with, especially better than those "advice penguin" or "angry wolf" poo poo that everyone else was crazy about (once).
I think you shouldn't be hard on yourself because looking at some popular communities today, holy poo poo are they full of uncreative and uninspired users across the board. This might be a major reason why SA is irreplaceable.

The whole basis for "meme humor" is exactly uncreative repetitiveness; "it's funny because I've seen it before". The laughs are like some kind of conditioned response. To be honest, the way I've seen people use those sites is that they're usually scrolling past dozens of boring pointless posts for the one that's kinda sorta funny.
Perhaps some people remember YTMND. They made a randomiser that was often at least equally funny as anything the actual people there put together. 9gag could undoubtedly do the same.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 10:11

Isaac: Aug 3, 2006; Fun Shoe

Squashing Machine posted:

You can really trace the entire weird twitter internet irony age back to All Your Base, which makes this forum the Pandora's Box of the social media era

Weird twitter i thought was directly related. Lots of the early people were posters from here. Like docevil and grayalien posting on twitter instead of fyad.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 10:17

Pixelponny: Oct 30, 2007; Two bloody great handfuls; Pillbug

The GIF button on WhatsApp is I think one of the things Lowtax is pointing at. Does it sound retarded that one would want to express a feeling or a situation in form of a short video clip? I think it does.

Not most of the modern/current communication tools have an "insert meme" button, but most of them support the extended emoji set. Which I think should be considered. The standardized emoji set has some characters that conveys "meme-like" messages. The thinking face becoming a meme itself is a good example.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 11:30

Olympic Mathlete: Feb 25, 2011

Isaac posted:

Weird twitter i thought was directly related. Lots of the early people were posters from here. Like docevil and grayalien posting on twitter instead of fyad.

Whatever happened to weird twitter? There was a point where there was a stack of stuff that'd make me chortle but then it kinda stopped being a thing.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 11:37

Kharnifex: Sep 11, 2001; The Banter is better in AusGBS

The huge disabled man from the 404 page

# ? Apr 19, 2018 11:48

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

ToxicSlurpee posted:

Nah, we're the internet grandpas that internet hipsters get their ironically worn styles from.

No, no we're the hipsters. The only thing about this era I've seen kids approximate is Vaporwave and they're legitimately too stupid to do anything other than slap teal and hot pink on everything.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 12:05

Real Mean Queen: Jun 2, 2004; Zesty.

Pixelponny posted:

I think you shouldn't be hard on yourself because looking at some popular communities today, holy poo poo are they full of uncreative and uninspired users across the board. This might be a major reason why SA is irreplaceable.

I think that what sets SA apart is that the internet is largely populated by a bunch of idiots acting like twelve year olds at a slumber party. Some kid farts and then another kid says a thing, and then that�s the only thing anyone wants to say for years after that because it�s sooooo funny. SA is the only place that has the equivalent of the older brother who is willing to say �okay, enough with that, time for a new joke.�

Go on reddit and tell them that another hundred comment long chain of �I�m not your buddy, pal� variations isn�t needed. You�ll be scourged and yelled at for daring to say that some things aren�t very good. Here, that poo poo doesn�t even happen in the first place, because there are standards. That�s unheard of, this is the only decent-sized place on the internet that I know of that discourages that level of lovely repetition. As the rest of the internet heads off into increasingly troubling depths of relativism and gets mad at you for saying that dudes who are still bronies are probably bad news, SA is on an increasingly short list of places where it�s okay to notice that a lot of things suck

# ? Apr 19, 2018 12:08

Soup du Journey: Mar 20, 2006; by FactsAreUseless

Real Mean Queen posted:

I think that what sets SA apart is that the internet is largely populated by a bunch of idiots acting like twelve year olds at a slumber party. Some kid farts and then another kid says a thing, and then that�s the only thing anyone wants to say for years after that because it�s sooooo funny. SA is the only place that has the equivalent of the older brother who is willing to say �okay, enough with that, time for a new joke.�

i like moderation too, but i dunno if it's as great an asset as you think it is. there's turnover on reddit and 4chan as well, it just happens organically through consensus and trends. it might be slower and more diffuse, since it's not top-down and lacks a coherent chortle-maximizing agenda, but that's not necessarily the worst thing, since by its nature it better reflects the community. plus, mods are often hit or miss: we've had pedophiles and dumdums moderating here (thankfully now it's just dumdums).

i think we're served more by being dead and gay: there's no new blood in our leaky veins, so everyone either ages into some semblance of maturity or filters out over time.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 12:31

yello: Nov 28, 2000; Jesus Fucking Christ I posted in a stupid GBS avatar thread and some piece of shit saddled me with this spiteful nightmare fuel.; Grimey Drawer

Real Mean Queen posted:

SA is on an increasingly short list of places where it�s okay to notice that a lot of things suck

I feel like, while this was always the premise, SA has also come a long way from being the insular cool kids� club it was back in the early oughts. Everything still sucks though.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 12:31

Rutibex: Sep 9, 2001; by Fluffdaddy

say hi to Richard Stallman for me Lowtax!

# ? Apr 19, 2018 12:42

a_pineapple: Dec 23, 2005

Trig Discipline posted:

Can you file an intellectual property lawsuit against the rest of internet? You could buy a lot of spines with that kind of money.

Lowtax, I would contribute $20 to Crabs' fee if there was any way to do this.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 13:03

Mongolian Queef: May 6, 2004

Does anyone have the "I SHALL HELP SOLVE THIS PROBLEM" dog / owl thingy? Wet dog photoshopped into looking like an owl, I think.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 13:06

tote up a bags: Jun 8, 2006; die stoats die

Just think, if old man Lowtax had invested in memes when he had the chance, he could've bought THREE spines by now

# ? Apr 19, 2018 13:12

Pixelponny: Oct 30, 2007; Two bloody great handfuls; Pillbug

Real Mean Queen posted:

Go on reddit and tell them that another hundred comment long chain of �I�m not your buddy, pal� variations isn�t needed.

Other than agreeing with the points you made, I just want to vent my frustrations with Reddit a little; I'm just sick of "Reddit humor". I don't care enough for anyone who participate in that to even find it cringe worthy, I think it's just painful. Stupid jokes one after another makes that place almost impossible to discuss anything. Not to mention the Reddit format clearly isn't designed for discussions. It's also painful to find or reference any post that was made there. Of course if the poster didn't delete it before, or deleted their account altogether.

Oh boy that felt good. The points I made were obvious to everyone I think, I just needed to rant a little about it. Thank you.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 13:35

Lacey: Jul 10, 2001; _{Guess where this lollipop's going?}

Charles posted:

Anyways I opened the article and just read the parts you wrote. Nice work.

Same but I might go back and read what some non-SA people have to say. It was a really interesting read.

Seeing Lowtax on Nymag is almost as weird as the time I stumbled across a mention of moot and 4chan in a book (like a literal book made of paper)

# ? Apr 19, 2018 13:38

Renegret: May 26, 2007; THANK YOU FOR CALLING HELP DOG, INC.

YOUR POSITION IN THE QUEUE IS *pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt*

Cat Army Sworn Enemy

That nymag article further cemented my belief that Stallman is loving nuts

The internet was a mistake

# ? Apr 19, 2018 13:39

Solice Kirsk: Jun 1, 2004; .

Wasn't there one of a rainbow? Not the TFR rainbow gun guy, but a different one.

# ? Apr 19, 2018 13:47

Slugnoid: Jun 23, 2006; Nap Ghost

dads friend steve posted:

I thought there was a super slam macro as well?

Slugnoid fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Apr 19, 2018

# ? Apr 19, 2018 14:26

Stevie Lee: Oct 8, 2007

Mooey Cow posted:

Perhaps some people remember YTMND. They made a randomiser that was often at least equally funny as anything the actual people there put together. 9gag could undoubtedly do the same.

I checked recently and was happy to see that all my ytmnd creations from middle school/freshman year of HS are still online

# ? Apr 19, 2018 14:39