You're The Man Once Again, Dog
April 1, 2020 3:02 PM   Subscribe

 
Back when this was a thing, I could never get the pages to work on whichever browser I had for Linux, so I never really got what this site was about.

So now that I've got a modern browser that can view modern HTML, I can see it in all its glory.

I still don't get it.
posted by suetanvil at 3:33 PM on April 1, 2020 [10 favorites]


I still don't get it.

That's kind of the point.
posted by tclark at 3:33 PM on April 1, 2020 [15 favorites]


But it's great that this piece of Internet history is still around.
posted by suetanvil at 3:33 PM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]


Context: Launched in 2001, YTMND (short for You're The Man Now Dog) was a popular early web meme community that let anyone easily create a single-serving site with an image, optional shadow text, and looping background audio. Like any pseudonymous meme ecosystem, it gravitated towards edgelord content, with no shortage of pornographic, racist, and sexist posts. (Here's a representative example.)

With development funded by Google Adwords, creator Max Goldberg spent most of his time dealing with community issues, separating NSFW content and trying to keep the site ad-friendly. Eventually, Google just cut him off entirely and the site fell into disrepair as people moved on. In the meantime, browsers also phased out Flash, which killed the audio.

The site shut down entirely after a catastrophic database failure took it offline last year. Surprised that anyone cared, he set up a Patreon and fans rallied to support development. Over the last year, Max rewrote it to work with modern browsers with HTML5 audio, SSL, and restored the archives from old backups, relaunching it this week after a year of downtime.

For more information, The Verge, Vice Motherboard, and Paste all covered the story.
posted by waxpancake at 3:34 PM on April 1, 2020 [26 favorites]


He is truly the man, especially now, dog.
posted by bleep at 3:41 PM on April 1, 2020 [10 favorites]


Previously! With some behind-the-scenes updates towards the bottom.

The archive links in the post still work, but I'll see about changing them over to the official pages in a bit.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:48 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


And, waxpancake's representative link doesn't work on the old iPad I'm still using...

FWIW
posted by Windopaene at 3:58 PM on April 1, 2020


The whole site is getting the internet hug of death at the moment, I suspect.
posted by tclark at 4:00 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]


And here we go! (thank u regex)

The most-viewed YTMNDs of all time

Comprehensive list of YTMND memes (fads) on the wiki; each has a page listing background info and examples

Selections:

Picard Song [YT] — UALUEALUEALEUALE [YT] — 3.141592653589793... [YT] — Arnold shares his deepest feelings [YT]

Paris Hilton Doesn't Change Facial Expressions [YT] — Mom's Spaghetti [YT] — Blue Ball Machine [YT or mirror] — The Future of Our World [YT]

The UnFunny Truth About Scientology [YT] — What is love? [YT remix] — HamsterDance [mirror] — Safety Not Guaranteed [YT; also a movie!]

Hippo [YT] — Cosby Bebop [YT] — Holy f*cking shit, it's a dinosaur! [YT] — What you see when you die [YT]

lol, internet [YT compilation] — Cuppycake Gumdrops [mirror] — Chewbacca's Christmas Carol [YT] — New Talent on 60 Minutes [YT]

Ultimate Bedside Surprise [YT compilation] — OMG secret nazi forestReligion and politics [YT] — We Didn't Start This Website [YT]

And some of my personal favorites:

Free Cow! [YT] — 2001: A Baby OdysseyStupid Sexy Flanders! - Artemis - Final Staring Contest for the Fate of the Internet

Darth Vader gets his Christmas wish [YT] — Stephen Hawking's Time Machine [YT] — Text-to-speech generator fails at life

MacGyver saves the cast of LostFractal Air ForceButtering Obama128 Pianos

MeFi on YTMND

2002 post on the original one-shot yourethemannowdog.com
2004 post on the growing platform
2005 dissection of the Vader NOOOOOO! meme
2006 discussion of the epic YTMND vs. eBaumsworld feud
2007 post on one YTMND that led to communal sharing of favorite sites
An excellent round-up post by WCityMike deleted for being a double of the previous discussion
Discussion of a heartbreaking YTMND about Animal Crossing [mirror of the source comic]
MeFites enjoy the purring of a virtual cat
The weird true story behind the original "X never changes facial expressions" meme
posted by Rhaomi at 4:07 PM on April 1, 2020 [19 favorites]


EXTREME POWER METAL
posted by Apocryphon at 4:10 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


OMG. like a flashback in party hats.

see, once your the man, you become the dog.
posted by clavdivs at 5:05 PM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]


but you can do anything you want at zombo dot com
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:06 PM on April 1, 2020 [8 favorites]


I hope that website is still up 30 years from now when I'm high as a kite in a nursing home.
posted by CynicalKnight at 5:20 PM on April 1, 2020 [10 favorites]


The next thing, you know?
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:38 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've nearly favorited every comment in this thread. I'm almost tempted to make a new YTMND myself, I have the perfect clips in mind.
posted by JHarris at 5:38 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


I'm almost tempted to make a new YTMND myself

Yes please! When it really started to falter, all the witty talent slowly melted away and all that remained was pungent prepubescence and the stench of approaching death.
posted by CynicalKnight at 5:47 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


Now I've got to put together an Icy Hot Stuntaz/Real Ultimate Power mashup YTMND, for old-time's sake.
posted by adamrice at 6:11 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


你才是人,老狗 !
posted by mono blanco at 7:58 PM on April 1, 2020


Oh man, I miss the early days of the internet. Thanks for this, I finally got to send the Captain Picard song to my friend after referencing it a bunch of times only to be met with a totally confused response.
posted by carlypennylane at 9:13 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


I had to re-watch Cosby Bebop, despite the troubling developments that 2006 Internet hadn't yet seen.

It's still breathtaking, even if it samples a problematic source. Complete dedication to parody, and astonishing that they could sync it up so well given the platform's image/audio split.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:06 AM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


Fiasco da Gama: a monitoring service we use at work was bought by a company called "Zoho Corp." I started referring to them as "Zombo Com" in all internal emails, and we started accidentally using that name when contacting them.

They never even blinked.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:25 AM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]


All of this, and no Stapler Called Love? For shame, MetaFilter.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:58 AM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]


I'm happy I'll be able to link my favorite in full HD glory on September 7th.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:30 AM on April 2, 2020


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