My new favorite website is explodingdog.com

June 8, 2000 9:30 AM

My new favorite website is explodingdog.com which is the best of a new genre of websites (new to me anyhow) on which an artist creates something based on your suggestions. The artist at this site will draw a portrait of your pet if you donate $75 dollars to an animal shelter. Too bad my hamster died. Another variation on this theme is the digital doodlebox which displays a simple graphic and invites anyone to submit a variation of it. These fun sites have inspired me to add something similar to my site. Do you folks know of any other good sites like these?
posted by grumblebee (7 comments total)

Emotion Eric. He's just so darn cute. Plus, who among you fails to recognize yourself here?
posted by lbergstr at 12:12 PM on June 8, 2000

exploding dog: cute, nifty idea. Emotion Eric: not cute, inane idea. I can make these expressions to my mirror; why have someone else do them?

"Hey, Eric! Can you do the face one makes when he thinks something might be over his head? Thanks!"
posted by hijinx at 2:20 PM on June 8, 2000

Everything you said about emotioneric is true, but I spent a long time looking at it today, and it got to me. At first I thought "ho hum," then as I looked at more and more of the photos, a little smile appeared on my face, then I started to giggle. Then everyone else at work wanted to know what I was laughing at. Then suddenly everyone was looking at the site and laughing.

Just because you can do something yourself, it doesn't mean that someone else's version is bad. There are a lot of abstract paintings that I love. True, I could have painted them myself. But that doesn't matter--unless you look at art and humor as a sort of circus act, in which the really fun part is seeing some very difficult feat.
posted by grumblebee at 4:59 PM on June 8, 2000

The point isn't that you could make the faces that Eric makes, though arguably he comes up with some interesting & original interpretations of the feelings and situations that people submit to him. The point is that he *did* make those faces and he *did* make a website devoted to it. Anyone could have done it, but Eric actually did it, and lots of people enjoy it. Sounds good to me.
posted by wiremommy at 6:12 PM on June 8, 2000

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that because Eric is doing it and I'm not, it's bad. :) I personally didn't like it... 'twas all.

Inter-thread discussion: Now, is that site art? ;)
posted by hijinx at 9:33 AM on June 9, 2000

I agree! The explodingdog (.com!!!) is certainly a new genre of web site. The doodle thing is great, but what I find truly amazing is the dog genre, which is really gonna be grrreat. Another site like is the Blog for Dogs, which is at http://www.doggieblog.com/
posted by betterdog at 5:36 PM on June 11, 2000

that eric site was hilarious.. my favorites being "caught your girlfriend with someone else," "that's not toothpaste," and "visiting emotioneric.com for the first time."

but holy crap that guy looks like me... i recognized those facial expressions because i've made the same ones in front of my mirror... he even has the same wardrobe as i do! not to mention my name is eric too... bah... sorry, just had to mention it.
posted by lotsofno at 3:54 PM on June 29, 2001