epic lulz

January 14, 2008 5:54 AM

I Can Has Rezearch Papar? via roflcon
posted by signal (63 comments total)

tl;dr.
posted by champthom at 5:57 AM on January 14 [6 favorites]

The essay is vastly more interesting and entertaining than I expected it to be. I expected terrible in-jokes and vapid misunderstandings, and instead, I feel as if actual analysis and insight were available. Good stuff! Thanks, signal.
posted by cgc373 at 6:00 AM on January 14

I was hoping for a research paper written in lulz:

Significance. I haz it (p<.05).
posted by logicpunk at 6:15 AM on January 14 [11 favorites]

INVISIBLE THESIS COMMITTEE
posted by ardgedee at 6:22 AM on January 14 [5 favorites]

Also, cocks xD !
posted by elpapacito at 6:34 AM on January 14

Index.

Cocks. See "Bucket of"
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:35 AM on January 14

Flagged for rule 1.
posted by cavalier at 6:37 AM on January 14

and eBaum's did it.
posted by cavalier at 6:39 AM on January 14

Surprisingly lucid for someone who's apparently spent a lot of time on 4chan.
posted by Kadin2048 at 6:41 AM on January 14 [4 favorites]

This was actually very well done. Not exactly publishable, but it's easily digestible and does a good job of framing the retarded chaos that is 4chan.
posted by xthlc at 6:42 AM on January 14

LURK MOAR
posted by briank at 6:48 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

sage
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:49 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

You know who else wrote research papers?
posted by uaudio at 6:51 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

Man, the Internet is funny when it keeps to being the internet. I know it has to be done (hell, I have an ex who wrote her M.A. thesis about a message board we both frequented years ago) but academically approaching the internet and its mysteries kills a little bit of the magic for me.

That being said, it's a well-written research paper. I am glad, at least, that it was not written in whatever obnoxious language people are calling LOLcat these days.
posted by m0nm0n at 6:52 AM on January 14

I stopped at the mention of long cat.

Long cat is long satisfying.
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:53 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

You know who else wrote research papers?

The Nazis?
posted by fusinski at 7:10 AM on January 14

I can't wait for my next review assignment. My God, it'll be beautiful.

Heteroskedasticity is in ur OLS, fuckin up ur SEs.

U has endogeneity.

HELLO GENTLEMEN. YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SATISFY THE IIA ASSUMPTIONS. MAKE YOUR MULTINOMIAL PROBIT.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:13 AM on January 14 [4 favorites]

I found it kind of sad that anyone would spend this amount of effort on such a trivial and ephemeral subject.
posted by chuckdarwin at 8:10 AM on January 14

I, for one, welcome our new anonymous warlords.
posted by lunit at 8:12 AM on January 14

chicken.
posted by cog_nate at 8:13 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

4chan is where most internet culture stems from.

I didn't know that. I guess the Internet I'm on must be culture-free.
posted by Malor at 8:24 AM on January 14

This is good but, by stating that 4chan is the genesis of most of these memes, he either is unaware of, or unwilling to break the first rule, of the true font of these memes.

This very rule hinders me from correcting him!
posted by Mick at 8:30 AM on January 14

cog_nate: Chicken chicken
posted by grouse at 8:35 AM on January 14

chicken.

chicken_chicken: Chicken chicken chickens. [ChickenChicken]
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:48 AM on January 14

I found it kind of sad that anyone would spend this amount of effort on such a trivial and ephemeral subject.

Fightin' words, son.
posted by cortex at 8:52 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

It's also interesting how this jargon is used to validate in-group membership in crucial ways for people whose actual subsistence relies on exploits. I've spent some time with spammers, anti-spammers and hackers who are leeter-than-thou and set on troll 24/7. Spouting anti-jew rhetoric steers most people well clear; one must be of the lulz to gain their trust and decipher what they're really on about.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:13 AM on January 14

Fightin' words, son.

*holds arms up*

pew pew pew
posted by quin at 9:25 AM on January 14

"The answer is Anonymous. Their motto: We do not forgive. We do not forget. We are legion. Because none of us are as cruel as all of us. "

We R in ur internetz, spoilin yer Potter endins.

please go stand by the stairs so that we may protekt y00!
posted by ZachsMind at 9:26 AM on January 14

I half expected that the whole thing would conclude with:

"...The internet is expanding more and more into everyday life, and with sites like YouTube and Facebook comes an undercurrent of internet culture slowly rising to the surface of the average user. With artifacts like LOLCats and YTMND leading the way, it will not be long before we will be encouraged to move in with our aunts and uncles who happen to live in a more affluent neighborhood. I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said 'Fresh' and had a dice in the mirror. I fanything I could say that this cab was rare, but I thought, 'Nah forget it, yo home to Bel-Air!' I pulled up to the house about seven or eight and I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo, homes, smell ya later!' Looked at my kingdom, I was finally there. To settle my throne as the Prince of Bel-Air."
posted by kkokkodalk at 9:29 AM on January 14 [11 favorites]

Speaking of which, anyone else going to ROFLCon?
posted by danb at 9:34 AM on January 14

I found it kind of sad that anyone would spend this amount of effort on such a trivial and ephemeral subject.

tits or gtfo
posted by Mikey-San at 9:34 AM on January 14

one must be of the lulz

That should go in here somewhere.

Yea, one must be of the lulz to know within thyself true div1nity.
posted by cashman at 9:35 AM on January 14

I found it kind of sad that anyone would spend this amount of effort on such a trivial and ephemeral subject.


you damn right!
posted by wyspa03 at 9:36 AM on January 14

finally: The words "meme" and "fad" mean the same thing.
posted by boo_radley at 9:42 AM on January 14

So this internet expansion.. it vibrates?
posted by ZachsMind at 9:43 AM on January 14

TITS OR GTFO
posted by Down10 at 9:48 AM on January 14

I herd MeFi lieks mudkipz. (Actually I didn't herd. I guessed from the color scheme).

also
posted by fleetmouse at 9:49 AM on January 14

Fightin' words, son.

Surely we don't need to resort to mere violence. Yes, I'm calling you Surely.
posted by chuckdarwin at 9:54 AM on January 14

I've spent some time with spammers, anti-spammers and hackers who are leeter-than-thou and set on troll 24/7.

Wow, they sound like awesome fun to be around. Where do you find such cool friends?

(I particularly want to know where the spammers hang out. I mean, physically)
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:58 AM on January 14

Belair. mostly.
posted by localhuman at 10:07 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

Interweb Memeticist.
posted by DenOfSizer at 10:37 AM on January 14

This article avoids the dangerous side of the chan world.

Y'know, when that Fox news video was posted here a few months ago, I joined in the laughter, thinking "Silly clueless mainstream media, not understanding what 'anonymous' means, ha ha!". Then I took a peek into the whole *chan boards.

Monsters- they're all fucking monsters. Racist, bigoted, sociopathic monsters. Alongside their frightening love of violent imagery and complete lack of empathy for anything but their own genitalia, they spew incredibly offensive comments and racism non-stop, and worse still they target actual people and try to tear them down like the worst kind of bullies. Whether simply to attack or deface memorial sites parents put up for children lost to suicide, despite not knowing these people, or going further to attack online people in the real world: driving to their homes, photographing them and their cars, mass phone pranking, defacing their employer's sites with details of their online life, etc. I recall one example I saw where a woman who apparently dared to dismiss "anonymous" really did have the psychotic hordes descend on her: thread after thread detailing personal information, chan members driving to her home, phoning her landlord, hacking her employer's school website with personal pictures and libelous information about her. This wasn't just a message board raid, this was criminal harassment. The next time it will probably escalate to full fledged physical attack.

They. Are. Monsters. And all the joking ha ha doesn't erase that we have a small army of Eric and Dylans, empowered by their anonymity to act more and more boldly as a de facto Cultural Revolution squad. Want to know what the American SS will look like? They'll look like Anonymous.
posted by hincandenza at 10:46 AM on January 14 [6 favorites]

Monsters- they're all fucking monsters. Racist, bigoted, sociopathic monsters. Alongside their frightening love of violent imagery and complete lack of empathy for anything but their own genitalia, they spew incredibly offensive comments and racism non-stop, and worse still they target actual people and try to tear them down like the worst kind of bullies. Whether simply to attack or deface memorial sites parents put up for children lost to suicide, despite not knowing these people, or going further to attack online people in the real world: driving to their homes, photographing them and their cars, mass phone pranking, defacing their employer's sites with details of their online life, etc. I recall one example I saw where a woman who apparently dared to dismiss "anonymous" really did have the psychotic hordes descend on her: thread after thread detailing personal information, chan members driving to her home, phoning her landlord, hacking her employer's school website with personal pictures and libelous information about her and my mom got scared and said, "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air." I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror if anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought, "Nah, forget it. Yo home to Bel-Air!" I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabby yo holmes smell ya later! Looked at my kingdom I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel-Air.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:57 AM on January 14 [9 favorites]

Hm- on reflection, sarcasm doesn't go well with the typed word. I want to be clear I was being facetious to make a point: it's all too easy to box the "online world" as somehow distinct, or separate from, our offline existence or "real lives". The thing is, with each passing year that distinction becomes less and less meaningful, and the "anonymous" of 4chan et al are forcibly blurring that line with genuinely damaging attacks on people for no reason other than amusement or a psychopathic obsession with "respect" and "submission". In the case I mentioned, the 4channers chanted in their little thread about how the only way they'd stop harassing the woman is if she "submitted forever". The places I'd seen such an obsession with submission and domination of a person was in neo-Nazi writings; the desire to utterly control another human life is at the heart of our worst actions, and 4chan is no different.

Somehow, I think if Ambrosia Voyeur or any other MeFite were the target of a 4chan attack, to the point of disrupting their jobs, personal relationships or even sense of safety in walking down the street, we wouldn't be so cavalier. But ah, these are people we don't know, so who cares?

Things are generally quite civil here at Metafilter, but that is the exception, not the rule, to both the online and "real" worlds.
posted by hincandenza at 11:30 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

I nodded at hincandenza, and laughed at Ambrosia's reply. They're both true.

and also, cocks.
posted by lysdexic at 11:41 AM on January 14

well, now I look reallysilly.
posted by lysdexic at 11:42 AM on January 14

Got two or three paragraphs in; couldn't hack how poorly written the article was. Epic lulz --> epic fail.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:40 PM on January 14

Well, my last comment doesn't make much sense, since the comment before it was deleted.
posted by hincandenza at 12:48 PM on January 14

What the hell, no mention of the rickroll?
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 1:07 PM on January 14

Well, my last comment doesn't make much sense, since the comment before it was deleted.

Things are generally quite civil here at Metafilter

QED.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:16 PM on January 14

hincandenza: At least according to what I had read, and the youtube videos of hers, wasn't the person you were talking about acting as a "online dominatrix" or sorts, cajoling submissives into sending her money. I thought that the whole point of the "submitted forever" was putting the shoe on the other foot, so to speak.
posted by zabuni at 1:21 PM on January 14

Yeah, I'm sorry, as poor taste as some of those internet boards are, I have a hard time equating a bunch of anonymous f?cktards with a bunch of deranged homicidal killers. Are there xenophobes, racists, sexists, etc on the internet? Yeah, there sure are. But I don't necessarily see chatting on an internet message board even in a faux-anonymous situation as a precursor to violence -- even for the lulz. I think the many different takes on the puff local news scare piece, even with its exploding van, all seemed to agree on the notion that such a concept of the folks on ?chan was absurd.
posted by cavalier at 1:40 PM on January 14

Somehow, I think if Ambrosia Voyeur or any other MeFite were the target of a 4chan attack, to the point of disrupting their jobs, personal relationships or even sense of safety in walking down the street, we wouldn't be so cavalier.

No, we'd get curtains made of dogs.
posted by Sticherbeast at 1:52 PM on January 14

Pool's closed.
posted by infidelpants at 2:07 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

QED.

Um. No, not really.
posted by dersins at 2:24 PM on January 14

Good Heavens, just look at the time!
posted by ryoshu at 2:43 PM on January 14

Are there xenophobes, racists, sexists, etc on the internet? Yeah, there sure are.

Don't lump me in with them. Idiran-lover.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:20 PM on January 14

cavalier: Yeah, I'm sorry, as poor taste as some of those internet boards are, I have a hard time equating a bunch of anonymous f?cktards with a bunch of deranged homicidal killers.

Eponysterical? You're awfully cavalier about this. Does it have to be homicide before it's dangerous? What about if someone kills themselves after constant abuse from "anonymous"? What about when that one 4channer in the same town takes the "joke" that little bit too far? As the many 4channers suggested when her home address and phone number were posted, "Can it be raep time?!" Because that's HILARIOUS fresh prince of belair haw haw haw.

This is the most recent example I'm thinking of. The pictures and info aren't there- ED has apparently edited them- but for a time it included personal info, home addresses and phone numbers, logins for online accounts and yes photos of her home and her landlord's phone number. You should have read the bile on the 4chan threads themselves to really taste the dehumanizing monstrosity. People were harassing her and her co-workers and her landlord, with the expressed purpose of trying to ruin her life- this wasn't just some internet joke, it had long since passed that.

But I guess she deserved it- she was a filthy fucking Jew, and we all know how them and the niggers deserve this treatment. That's the Metafilter spirit!

zabuni: hincandenza: At least according to what I had read, and the youtube videos of hers, wasn't the person you were talking about acting as a "online dominatrix" or sorts, cajoling submissives into sending her money. I thought that the whole point of the "submitted forever" was putting the shoe on the other foot, so to speak.

Wait, so if someone's a dominatrix, they deserve to get death threats to their home, and have some anonymous fucktard try to get them fired and ruin their public and personal life? Jeez- what hatred you must reserve for women who wear provocative clothing! Whether she was sleazy or dumb, or found suckers to give her money so she could insult them, it was neither illegal or immoral; it was her and their free choice. But somehow because a few hateful and dangerous morons decide her Jewishness is a mortal sin, or she slighted them in some petty way, she has harassment brought down upon her? Just how far should satire or irony go, exactly? Maybe if they HAD broken into her apartment and raped her, that would have REALLY made the whole "dominance/submission" joke super funny!

I seriously wonder why you people aren't getting this. If you read the 4chan threads I did, it wasn't satirical comedy stylings, they were literally suggesting that unless she publicly paraded herself for forgiveness and ultimate submission, they'd not let up on the direct and non-stop personal harassment. That's a flat-out crime, and all for what? For any good reason? Nope, no good reason except some imagined slight.

If anyone did that in "real life"- hair trigger temper, overblown sense of self-importance and belief they had the right to dole out harsh punishment to anyone who slighted them in whatever way, a dehumanizing, racist, element, and a lack of emotional resonance as they simply enjoyed the brutality because it was "funny" or "win"- they'd be a clear cut sociopath. But somehow, if it's just anonymous people you don't know on the interwebs, oh, then it's just good, mocking fun?

Now, if one person were to, say, make a fake myspace page, and mock a vulnerable teenage girl to the point that she committed suicide... well, that would be something to get pissed about, eh? But the thought that there are hordes of online bullies who have no qualms about intruding into the offline world or holding themselves in check, and with no moral or ethical restraint other than "I did it for the lulz"... aren't these stereotypical definitions of a clinical psychopath, yet many of them working in concert?
posted by hincandenza at 6:59 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

I was going to write this, and now it exists. Internet provides.

However, I still don't think he captured the true essence of the lols (or "lulz".) Perhaps I shall write a rebuttal. We need to have a journal.

New Millenium Journal of Lolology?
posted by blacklite at 7:27 PM on January 14

hincandenza, anonymous is a clinical psychopath. But what can you do?
posted by blacklite at 7:29 PM on January 14

Weird to read this after reading Rainbows End.

What happens when Anonymous controls enough votes to elect Ron Paul?
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 10:24 PM on January 14

I hate these things. Who says that cats don't have proper grammar skillz?
posted by dasheekeejones at 4:00 AM on January 15

However, I still don't think he captured the true essence of the lols (or "lulz".) Perhaps I shall write a rebuttal. We need to have a journal.

New Millenium Journal of Lolology?

I swear I read about an allegedly "peer reviewed" journal for online-culture 'research' a while back. I think there was some rather sophomoric piece in it about sociology in WoW that got a lot of online press (Slashdot, Digg, the usual) six months or so ago. It seemed pretty close to your Journal.

I can't seem to find it now, though.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:43 PM on January 15