I, for one, welcome our new image hosting masters

December 30, 2010 2:50 PM

"We tried to pick images that quickly became popular, generated hundreds of thousands of views, were interesting, and/or somehow changed the Internet as we knew it." Imgur has become the standard among social news and media websites for sharing images. With the weight of 20 billion annual views, Imgur presents The Best Images of 2010. (Anti-memesters beware, the list is full of 'em)
posted by Taft (51 comments total)

Anti-memesters beware, the list is full of 'em

Which makes sense, since Imgur was created by a Redditor.
posted by Gator at 3:00 PM on December 30, 2010

Well fuck me, what have I been doing on the internet all year?

I don't recall having seen any of these.
posted by jontyjago at 3:02 PM on December 30, 2010

But I'm happy to discover I have a trustworthy beard.
posted by jontyjago at 3:04 PM on December 30, 2010 [6 favorites]

The #1 image of the year goes to Keanu Reeves. This image became a huge Internet meme after being released, and is one of the most popular images of all time.

What a revolting development.
posted by blucevalo at 3:05 PM on December 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

1 for 10... and I guess what they really mean is the 10 images that where the most popular, which of course s different that "best".

I kinda liked the old ladies one though.
posted by edgeways at 3:05 PM on December 30, 2010

Riley the Birthday Dog looks like a Muppet With Human Eyes. Just saying.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:05 PM on December 30, 2010 [14 favorites]

I fucking hate memes. You can stand right the fuck there and wait for the wasp to finish its business.
posted by doublehappy at 3:06 PM on December 30, 2010

blucevalo: What a revolting development.

That's a terrible thing to say. Keanu Reeves is a stellar guy and a great action flick actor.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 3:10 PM on December 30, 2010 [10 favorites]

Last time I was stung by a wasp was the day my mother died. That was a bad day.
posted by tigrefacile at 3:13 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh my god. That dog comic.
posted by wayland at 3:14 PM on December 30, 2010 [21 favorites]

I hate that picture of Keanu because he's a whole two month's younger than me and he looks like that and I look like your dad.
posted by octothorpe at 3:23 PM on December 30, 2010 [21 favorites]

most popular, which of course s different that "best".

Not on the internet.

TEXT 50503 TO A HUGE CORPORATION TO VOTE FOR MY PROJECT!! CROWDSOURCING!!!!1 AMAZON STUDIOS!!!!!onespittle
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:25 PM on December 30, 2010

I kind of love the meme inspired by Keanu, whose flat affect lends itself to both the appearance of depression when not onscreen shooting something as well as the kind of facial linelessness that feeds into the immortality trope, the two recombining into a narrative of a man who got the immortality he asked for but could not enjoy it. Instead, he's gets a sandwich. He's eaten that particular blend of sandwich thousands of times since the sandwich concept came around and he knows that he'll have to have it again and again, while everyone he loves dies around him.

You don't get to 500,000 years without a few personal tragedies.
posted by adipocere at 3:27 PM on December 30, 2010 [19 favorites]

I hit like 50% of having seen those. I don't really hang out on reddit or dig though.
posted by codacorolla at 3:45 PM on December 30, 2010

the dog story [ tears ]
posted by seawallrunner at 3:46 PM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Keanu approves

What is awesome about Keanu is that he only has one outfit.
posted by Ad hominem at 3:51 PM on December 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

Well fuck me, what have I been doing on the internet all year?

Not visiting reddit.com.


We tried to pick images that ... somehow changed the Internet as we knew it.

That's the funniest thing on that page.
posted by anti social order at 3:51 PM on December 30, 2010

Oh my god. That dog comic.

Yeah, who the fuck would treat their dog like that?
posted by mrnutty at 4:10 PM on December 30, 2010

I feel like the beard image needs to have "The Chaplin" on the very left to create a balance with "The Hitler" as the apex of "disastrous".
posted by egypturnash at 4:12 PM on December 30, 2010 [5 favorites]

I can not only recognize that the movie Happiness* is a comedy, but I can laugh heartily at it. But then show me a shitty comic about some asshole (with an untrustworthy beard) abandoning his dog and rooms get all dusty and shit.
posted by cmoj at 4:21 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Speaking of free image hosts that are popular on Reddit, I've seen a lot of people using min.us, which I rather liked myself after I linked to one of their galleries in a recent post. But after I found out they ripped their design off of an open source alternative (Dropmocks.com) with minimal crediting, the shine came off a bit. And after the founder spammed that post with press-releasey comments, and *then* posted a spammy AskMe after I'd already messaged him to cut it out, I decided against using them in the future.

If you ever need an instant gallery-maker like that, just use Dropmocks -- it works the same, doesn't have ads, and won't spam Mefi with press releases whenever you link to them.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:25 PM on December 30, 2010 [4 favorites]

Keanu Reeves is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.
posted by vibrotronica at 4:29 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

*oops. Happiness is about rape and pedophilia, mostly.**

**Do not take out of context.
posted by cmoj at 4:30 PM on December 30, 2010

DON'T READ THE DOG COMIC
posted by sonic meat machine at 4:37 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm sorry to hear that octothorpe - I guess you needed to have one of your parents have been Asian. Don't worry though, when you're both 70, he's going to look 210.

For consolation right now, though, he looks absolutely awful in Street Kings.
posted by porpoise at 5:06 PM on December 30, 2010

i have been stung once by a wasp, around the neck area, and still remember that extreme stinging. yea, by a M F wasp( not allowed to use that M F word), and the M F wasp did not die afterwords, like a bee.
posted by tustinrick at 5:18 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wasps (common wasps, that is) do in fact pollinate flowers; they're just not as single-minded about it as bees are. And then of course there are the vast unsung majority - the parasitic wasps - which do a wonderful job keeping various crop-eating nasties under control.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 5:33 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

I was looking at this one, but because of the size of my monitor, didn't realize that I was only looking at half of it.

"Interesting," I thought. Then I continued to scroll down to look at the rest of the images and my eyes just popped out when I realized that this photo continued.

It's not a mind-blowingly awesome picture necessarily, but it's very good. Fun and sad at the same time. Remininding us of the limited time we have on this planet, but if we're lucky, still enough time to do good things, nurture relationships and grow with each other.
posted by bitteroldman at 5:33 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

yea, by a M F wasp( not allowed to use that M F word)
Nah dude, it's okay. You can totally do that on The Internet.
posted by EmGeeJay at 5:37 PM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

I hate that picture of Keanu because he's a whole two month's younger than me and he looks like that and I look like your dad.

This is a man on the cusp of fifty. Fifty! I can't help but wonder if he has curiously aging self-portrait hidden away in the attic, although probably it's just a personal chef and a trainer living up there.
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:16 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Does anyone know where I can find the story on the photo of the 3 old ladies?
posted by Sal and Richard at 6:29 PM on December 30, 2010

This is a man on the cusp of fifty.

Woah!
posted by dirigibleman at 6:39 PM on December 30, 2010

that dog cartoon must be full of allergens.














*sob*
posted by liza at 6:42 PM on December 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

I read the dog comic, and was all, "Well that was trite and manipulative and dumb, jeez"

Then I proceeded to snuggle my cats for like a half hour and tearfully tell them how much I love them

even the cat that farts all the time
posted by Greg Nog at 6:49 PM on December 30, 2010 [9 favorites]

Keanu looks quite good for 46 (not quite cusp of 50), and he's going to keep looking good for many years to come, I think, but that scraggly beard doesn't completely hide the fact that his jawline is softening. Gravity happens.

(If someone can provide a reasonably recent photo of a clean-shaven Keanu that shows a chiseled jawline and no signs of sag, that's OK because then I'll have a very nice picture to look at while I weep inside at being proven wrong.)
posted by rosebuddy at 6:58 PM on December 30, 2010

I was on reddit this year.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:00 PM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

"We tried to pick images that ... somehow changed the Internet as we knew it."

I love how after people decide the Internet is so vast that they should filter it all and show us only the best stuff, those same people seem to devolve to the point where the "Internet" is only the stuff they've filtered.

Good "best of" list for their tiny little island, but if the best "The Internet" can offer is an LOL captioned Keanu pic.........
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:10 PM on December 30, 2010

There's ten times as much pathos in the portrait of the two women with their earlier portrait behind them than there is in the douchey artist emoting over the dog he neglected.
posted by alidarbac at 7:42 PM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

So many Sad Keanu parodies, and nobody has answered the most important question.

What kind of sandwich?
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:27 PM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Lolcats makes you point and laugh... loldogs makes you cry and wish you were a better person.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:30 PM on December 30, 2010

OH MY GOD, A DOG WITH A PARTY HAT!!!!

Aaaand this is why reddit is now such shit.
posted by the noob at 8:41 PM on December 30, 2010

I know, the noob. We'd never do something like post funny pictures of cats to the front page, ever.
posted by flatluigi at 8:57 PM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Anti-memesters

This is a thing? people are bored.
posted by IvoShandor at 10:44 PM on December 30, 2010

I was looking at this one, but because of the size of my monitor, didn't realize that I was only looking at half of it.

Same here. That's because it said "image," not "images." They repeat that mistake with Keanu and I don't care for it. I don't care for it at all.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 11:02 PM on December 30, 2010

ps: I call him Canoe.

pps: Who else dwelt on the advert between #4 and #3 trying to figure out why it was such a good image?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 11:05 PM on December 30, 2010

What is awesome about Keanu is that he only has one outfit.

Do I have permission from the mods to link that photo of Keanu trying to have a sneaky power-puke out of the car door while it's waiting at traffic lights? I think he's wearing that outfit.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 11:09 PM on December 30, 2010

I saw a shiny black wasp, that looked something like a special forces airship, seemingly trapped in a spider web; struggling, then succombing to a quiet fatigue. The spider came out to retrieve his prey, the wasp grabbed him, gave him a few quick bites, and then flew away carrying the twitching body.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:26 PM on December 30, 2010

The wasp probably took the spider away so it could lay eggs in its body, leaving the spider paralysed by venom while the wasp larvae hatch and chew their way through its organs.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 11:38 PM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

The old lady on the right is the spitting image of Buddy Hackett in the last photo.
posted by adamdschneider at 11:50 PM on December 30, 2010

The wasp probably took the spider away so it could lay eggs in its body, leaving the spider paralysed by venom while the wasp larvae hatch and chew their way through its organs.

We get paper wasps everywhere, but the general population has learnt to live with them, along with the hundreds of other harmful beasties poised to strike at any time.

But a much rarer site over here is one of those spider hunting wasps. They'd probably be the most physically imposing insect I've seen, on top of the loud droning noise of their flight. You can feel the wind from their wings from easily 2 feet away.

They are not stop action, too, always looking for spiders. I believe our local one hunts for ground dwelling wolf spiders. Once I saw one fly by carrying an absolutely fuck-off big wolf spider, I had to do a triple take. A fuck-off big, droning insect carrying a fuck-off big spider with the wind of its wings beating against my face. Quite a memorable experience.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 12:07 AM on December 31, 2010 [2 favorites]

I really wonder which entities wanted the piracy picture taken down. Maybe I'm crediting the MPAA with too much intelligence, but I'd assume they were smart enough to recognize their lack of a case here.
posted by ymgve at 4:14 AM on December 31, 2010