Culturally significant artifacts of the internet

[Still a Youth]

The other day, I posted a video from YouTube of Deadmau5' old Coffee runs. This video is, on it's surface, pretty mundane. Dude buys coffee, but for EDM kids, it was a bit more than that.

Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5, had started a video series where he would take fellow DJ/producers on coffee runs. While on these runs, they would discuss industry happenings, personal music taste, and of course, the luxury of Canada's own coffee house Tim Hortons. This series was so popular that comedian Jerry Seinfeld, before his bitch fit about collage campuses, would start a Netflix series based on the exact same premise (I'm at a loss as to why Joel never issued a cease and dissist, since he's the kind of guy to have done so).

The particular video I posted was of Joel's run in Miami with Dillon Francis and Skrillex.

View: https://youtu.be/EFEOw9SjjU4

These two names were huge, but probably not as big as they are now. But regardless, this video partly changed the way I viewed the internet, music industry, and "the world" writ large. Upon retrospect, it's actually kinda amazing how much it influenced me.


So with that in mind, what are some things that impressed you in a similar way? What are some things that you think should be deemed culturally important to internet culture?

 

[dorgon]

RAGE COMICS!!!! Rage comics are probably one of the things I cherish the most about Internet culture. They were so innocent and genuine back then from around 2009-2013 or whenever. I think they are quite important, as they still have influence to this day and I think they even inspired the whole ironic movement and shit. I always wonder when the memes we have now will eventually come full circle and come back to stuff like rage comics, because I've always liked how geniune and relatable they were. God damn i sound like a 9fagger but they were my shit when i was like 8-10, and i still like them to this day. green frogs and wojaks can't even compare.

Another thing is the whole MLG shit. I think that brought the whole irony shit to full force with the compilations. It was a wild ride, my friends and I tried to make some of those in like elementary school and i would binge watch them. I don't like them as much as rage comics (we should bring back rage comics) but they also had their hand.

 

[Still a Youth]

RAGE COMICS!!!! Rage comics are probably one of the things I cherish the most about Internet culture. They were so innocent and genuine back then from around 2009-2013 or whenever. I think they are quite important, as they still have influence to this day and I think they even inspired the whole ironic movement and shit. I always wonder when the memes we have now will eventually come full circle and come back to stuff like rage comics, because I've always liked how geniune and relatable they were. God damn i sound like a 9fagger but they were my shit when i was like 8-10, and i still like them to this day. green frogs and wojaks can't even compare.

Another thing is the whole MLG shit. I think that brought the whole irony shit to full force with the compilations. It was a wild ride, my friends and I tried to make some of those in like elementary school and i would binge watch them. I don't like them as much as rage comics (we should bring back rage comics) but they also had their hand.

Bruh pro mlg gamer culture was peak irony fr. This was the anthem iirc
View: https://youtu.be/i1BDGqIfm8U

 

[stonehead]

This legendary forum argument about how many times a week you work out if you work out every other day. https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=107926751&page=1. (Here's a video summary if you don't like reading.)

I know it comes from 'you know where', but I legitimately think that the original r/place image was a perfect snapshot of internet culture ~5 years ago. Things were generally more open and optimistic. More dominated by unironic fandom, and it's pretty nostalgic to me.
View: https://i.imgur.com/EZJsdqC.png
It's the kind of image you can legitimately look at for hours and still find new details. I think I helped with some of the Fire Emblem sprites, I was a big fan of the gba games.

None pizza with left beef. This probably isn't actually culturally significant, but it's one of my favorite stories on the internet, and I still joke about it with friends occasionally.

Bash.org chat logs. I think a lot of the style of "internet humor" can be traced back to these chat logs. The irreverent, absurdist, often trolling trend that still differentiates internet humor from 'mainstream' humor today started, as far as I can tell, here. Here's some of my favorites, you can read more here: http://bash.org/?top

'hunter2' is as iconic of a fake password as 'password' itself.

 

[shinobu]

This legendary forum argument about how many times a week you work out if you work out every other day. https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=107926751&page=1. (Here's a video summary if you don't like reading.)

I love the dichotomy in these two messages

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

Any of the 4chan pranks that manage to hit the mainstream. My favorites include the ones that tricked people into bricking their iPhones:

Sam Hyde always getting away with it is great too.

Feels like ages since 4chan last had a proper prank or even troll op succeed.

 

[WhoGoesThere]

RAGE COMICS!!!! Rage comics are probably one of the things I cherish the most about Internet culture. They were so innocent and genuine back then from around 2009-2013 or whenever. I think they are quite important, as they still have influence to this day and I think they even inspired the whole ironic movement and shit. I always wonder when the memes we have now will eventually come full circle and come back to stuff like rage comics, because I've always liked how geniune and relatable they were. God damn i sound like a 9fagger but they were my shit when i was like 8-10, and i still like them to this day. green frogs and wojaks can't even compare.

Another thing is the whole MLG shit. I think that brought the whole irony shit to full force with the compilations. It was a wild ride, my friends and I tried to make some of those in like elementary school and i would binge watch them. I don't like them as much as rage comics (we should bring back rage comics) but they also had their hand.

I personally vehemently despise them but the Nordic gamer trad girl goth girl meme templates you see on normie >reddit so often are basically a continuation of rage comics in essence, no? Tbh rage comics were just before my time so I don't know.

 

[Imnotpervertedjustitalian]

This destoryed one of the most famous white supremacists back in the day

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QrHDL0yyoo

This is one of the most used samples ever

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6f2OiYXx5E

Harlem shake

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJiSSAMNWw

This was my introduction to what trolling is

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqp3vkd1GeY




This probably harmed more people than most mass shootings

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwwDutZgQrQ

 

[splashy]

RAGE COMICS!!!! Rage comics are probably one of the things I cherish the most about Internet culture. They were so innocent and genuine back then from around 2009-2013 or whenever. I think they are quite important, as they still have influence to this day and I think they even inspired the whole ironic movement and shit. I always wonder when the memes we have now will eventually come full circle and come back to stuff like rage comics, because I've always liked how geniune and relatable they were. God damn i sound like a 9fagger but they were my shit when i was like 8-10, and i still like them to this day. green frogs and wojaks can't even compare.

Another thing is the whole MLG shit. I think that brought the whole irony shit to full force with the compilations. It was a wild ride, my friends and I tried to make some of those in like elementary school and i would binge watch them. I don't like them as much as rage comics (we should bring back rage comics) but they also had their hand.

wojak memes are an evolution of rage comics and 21st century humour is an evolution of montage parodies with a different, larger set of videos used in 21st century humour and more variety as the meme evolved.

 

[Pseudiom]

Naruto vs. Haku

This is likely the oldest surviving Naruto video and likely oldest surviving AMV on Youtube: September 23, 2005.

Harlem shake

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJiSSAMNWw

What a strange career evolution Frank-Joji has had. I wonder sometimes if he will pull a later career move and revive the Frank character, but I think he said it was impacting his health which makes it difficult. He seems to be pretty happy as a full musician though.

I personally vehemently despise them but the Nordic gamer trad girl goth girl meme templates you see on normie >reddit so often are basically a continuation of rage comics in essence, no? Tbh rage comics were just before my time so I don't know.

Le Nordic face and le Med face were originally, purely used by Europeans on /int/ to bait each other into inter-European ethnic flamewars (i.e. "my ancestors"). It was introduced into the Twitter ecosystem via 4chan cultural links and absorbed by the the greater wojak culture on Twitter. As far as I can recall, it originally had no association with wojaks or ragic comics-esque scenarios. It is interesting how le Nordic gamer and Gigachad essentially replaced the original incarnation of Chad Thundercock too. They inadvertently filled the space rage comics had once inhabited in the wider Internet Noosphere.

 

[Regal]

This is likely the oldest surviving Naruto video and likely oldest surviving AMV on Youtube: September 23, 2005.

I have been using the same account for almost 2 decades. I thought I could beat 2005 but my oldest videos I favorited go back to 2006.

 

[Imnotpervertedjustitalian]

What a strange career evolution Frank-Joji has had. I wonder sometimes if he will pull a later career move and revive the Frank character, but I think he said it was impacting his health which makes it difficult. He seems to be pretty happy as a full musician though.

He will never revive frank, there is a reason most of the 2011 -2015 videos are deleted off his original channel anymore and why he created one tvflithyfrank after he started getting popular, they would never fly nowadays in a million years due to the topics(lol at the Trayvon Martin jokes), he also before fame tried to kill the character to push a more normal youtube/music career to no success, doing the voice was messing up his vocal cords too, also adpocalypse happened which is why people like idubz and h3 became what they are now, him doing music and ending on a high note was the best thing that could've happened to ff.

Its of an time and era bygone now dont b sad its over bee happy it happened.

 

[HammerKoopa]

Unironically My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the brony fandom.

Early to mid 2010's was the peak of internet fandom culture as i see it. Doctor Who, Homestuck, Supernatural, just to name a few had their titanic sizes but nothing compared to the brony fandom of the time as far as im aware. Big enough to flip youtube, shift the culture of tumblr, and force 4chan to create a containment board, and even breach into the mainstream eye the idea of grown men being into little girl cartoons.
Being part of the fandom during those days was an intense wild ride, from the documentaries, music, art, CONVENTIONS, to the endless tales of teens "coming out" to their parents as bronies, to cursed artifacts such as the Rainbow Dash cum jar and the Lyra Plushie with the pussy pocket.

I find it insane how in its short lifespan, compared to something like Furries, the MLP fandom sent shockwaves across the internet in such a scale that i would even dare compare to a virtual equivalent of the Cambrian explosion.

 

[Some_porcupine]

Unironically My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the brony fandom.

Early to mid 2010's was the peak of internet fandom culture as i see it. Doctor Who, Homestuck, Supernatural, just to name a few had their titanic sizes but nothing compared to the brony fandom of the time as far as im aware. Big enough to flip youtube, shift the culture of tumblr, and force 4chan to create a containment board, and even breach into the mainstream eye the idea of grown men being into little girl cartoons.
Being part of the fandom during those days was an intense wild ride, from the documentaries, music, art, CONVENTIONS, to the endless tales of teens "coming out" to their parents as bronies, to cursed artifacts such as the Rainbow Dash cum jar and the Lyra Plushie with the pussy pocket.

View attachment 65528View attachment 65529

I find it insane how in its short lifespan, compared to something like Furries, the MLP fandom sent shockwaves across the internet in such a scale that i would even dare compare to a virtual equivalent of the Cambrian explosion.

audience vs reality meme at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[Drifloon]

View attachment 65541

audience vs reality meme at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

I don't know if I'm not getting this but for Pokémon it should have been the neckbeard instead of the teen and the Wii one should either be the same as MLP or have the child in both spaces.

 

[Imnotpervertedjustitalian]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lC4hYaoJJA



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBOgtp0Hac



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t7D3_Ffppg



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-uTnqYHZ-I

Depict1

Do NOT play this game!

www.newgrounds.com

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.video.sony-playstation/c/JZsDIXL2uAA/m/DT7WpKEU_e0J

 

[Regal]

View: https://youtu.be/Cqd1Gvq-RBY


Simpler times.

 

[Guru Meditation]

Spongmonkeys

 

[PraxHeadroom]

The distilled essence of the 2009 xbox live experience is contained in these 2 videos.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqB1uoDTdKM


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CapLbFlOVOs


Also I feel like people don't talk enough about how influential youtube poop was in shaping the humor of the website. People think youtube poops died out but really the jokes and editing style became ubiquitous enough that people just stopped calling them youtube poops.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MnrAw8Icfs


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEJqd3a9EZk