Splitsider

 
The Internet

'Cracked': From 'MAD' Ripoff to the Internet's Nerdy Older Cousin

by | July 2nd, 2012

Daniel O’Brien is very much like a lot of us. In his mid-twenties, he’s a big Simpsons fan and spends a lot of time reading, watching TV, and listening to podcasts. O’Brien is also a writer. He is, in fact, the Senior Writer for a website that gets over 300 million pageviews a month. For the last two years, O’Brien has been handling those responsibilities and more while working for Cracked.

First launched in 2005, Cracked began its life as an online extension of Cracked magazine, a long running Mad competitor. But as its print-media predecessor closed up shop in 2007, the Cracked that we know today began to [...]

The Internet

Shit X Says: The State of a Meme at the End of Its Life (Hopefully)

by | January 27th, 2012

It all began on December 12, 2011.

That's when "Shit Girls Say" was uploaded to YouTube and nearly broke the Internet when it was picked up by Reddit, the Huffington Post, and pretty much every other website, too. A month and a half later, it's racked up over 12 million views. "Shit Girls Say" began as a Twitter account created by Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard, before they, along with some help from Juliette Lewis, put together the 79-second video that almost instantly "changed" the Internet, for better or worse (worse). Ever since, hundreds of parodies have popped up online, ranging from the inevitable "Shit Black Girls [...]

The Internet

SNL's Stefon Is All Up in Yelp Like It's a Nightclub Called Fffffrhhgh

by | January 13th, 2012

Ooooooh, Stefon has a Yelp page. And about time, too. How else would we know about New York's hottest clubs?

This club has EVERYTHING. Jeffries, live-action Furbies, Jewish pole vaulters, closeted guidos and flaming straight guys making out with none other than THE Nelson Mandela!

And just when you think it's all over, walk into the back room to be met by a gaggle of human donkeys.

What are human donkeys you ask? It's like that thing, where you have a midget glue some big ears on, wear a Mexican blanket, and carry your stuff over their back in wicker baskets.

It's unclear if his account [...]

The Internet

Why the Internet Loves Community

by | April 11th, 2012

"But the shifting ground between internet, mainstream and geek cultures has other ramifications beyond the cultural meaning of Dungeons and Dragons and Star Trek. There's an interesting parallel between the two shows' best characters, Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper and Community's Abed Nadir, played excellently by Jim Parsons and Danny Pudi, respectively. Both men are geniuses, in different ways; both difficult to read; and both unwilling or unable to empathize with their friends. This affect — which Parsons and Pudi have both connected to Asperger's syndrome — is played for laughs on both shows, but only in Community does it meaningfully affect the other characters, and only in Community does [...]

The Internet

Watching Hipster Runoff Eat its Own Tail

by | January 19th, 2012

Viral success on the internet is a strange phenomenon. Marketers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to create something people will share with their friends, only to be beaten time and time again by accidents and genuine ineptitude. That’s part of the fun of the web — halfway decent singers wallow in obscurity while Rebecca Black gets 20 million hits, and your meticulously edited Tweet will never be as funny as a horse avatar poorly hawking ebooks. The content we share the most is stuff we can have conversations about, especially when the conversation goes something like, “This is weird and terrible and hilarious and I can’t look [...]

The Internet

Check Out Adult Swim's "Not a Blog"

by | March 27th, 2012

Did you know that Mike Sacks, author of the much-loved And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on their Craft, is now the editor of Adult Swim's Not a Blog? Well, he is! And he's running fun things like today's Movie Reviewer Trapped in a Wall by The Onion's Dan Mirk. So go check it out why don't you?

The Internet

Jim-A-Day Might Be the Best Online Video Daily Calendar of the Year

by | January 19th, 2012

It's January 19th, 2012, and it's as good a day as any to catch up on the year's best live-action desk calendar. What will Jim say today, we wonder, our eyes lighting up with the endless possibilities blooming in the promise of the next 24 hours. Let's find out, together.

-->