A Logic Named Joe is a short science-fiction story by Murray Leinster. Published in 1946, the story depicts data-mining, massively networked computers, search engines, privacy/censorship filters and internet porn. Read it here.
posted by The Whelk on May 13, 2013 - 35 comments

What is art, really? Is it dependent on context? Do you need an art history degree to appreciate it? Was Jackson Pollock an artist or a scam artist? Are Grand Tour portraits considered art merely because of their age? These questions have been objectively unanswerable - until now. Through the power of the internet, and the experience of Hot or Not, we can measure the democratic answer to these questions.
posted by Pants! on Dec 29, 2011 - 93 comments

Start a home business, get rich quick, win financial freedom! If you watch late-night TV, you've heard it all before. But what's the story behind these slick pitchmen and their dubious schemes? Enter The Salty Droid, your ornery metal guide to the corrupt underworld of scam-marketing scum. This charmingly acerbic bot (owned and operated by mild-mannered Chicago dog-lover Jason Michael Jones [inter-view, long talk + transcript]) is a valiant crusader against the vile con-men who bankrupt the elderly and the desperate with beautiful lies. Exposed so far: A shadowy "Syndicate" of frauduct-pushing personality cults polluting the media with blogspam and woo-woo talking points. Boiler rooms in the Utah desert where telemarketers farm credit from easy targets with cunning, probing scripts [PDF]. Powerful politicians bought wholesale. Believers left to die in fraudulent new-age vision quests. It's a soul-crushing beat, enough to make one feel like a regular catcher-bot in the digital rye. But somebody's got to do it -- preferably someone with plasma nunchucks and titanium skin.
posted by Rhaomi on Aug 31, 2011 - 47 comments

Social news site Reddit recently held their "Best of Reddit 2010" awards honoring key players in the site over the last year, including the progenitor of the Rally to Restore Sanity, the clever drive-by cartoonist Sure_Ill_Draw_That, unofficial image host Imgur, and feel-good story of the year "Today you, tomorrow me." But perhaps most interesting was the winner for Best Big Community: FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU! Originally inspired by 4chan's popular Rage Guy meme, F7U12 (for short) is a clearinghouse for user-made web comics, slice-of-life affairs that tell a story or share a common frustration using a small collection of crudely drawn yet highly evocative facial expressions. Several have become small memes in their own right -- the wily Trolldad, the doormat Okay, the prideful Fuck Yea, the melodramatic Gasp. And one comic, inspired by the warped text randomly generated by reCAPTCHAs (previously), has given us Lord Inglip -- god of a dark religion now rivaling FSM whose cryptic commands marshal loyal armies of gropagas, falcows, Sellicks, and... canary into exploits both monstrous and inconvenient (timeline, wiki). Obey him -- or else! More fun with F7U12: rage face origins, rage faces in real life, Twitter feed, search comics, create your own (alternate).
posted by Rhaomi on Feb 8, 2011 - 168 comments

Jezebel compiles a glossary of gifs for only of your gif related needs. More to be found in the comments.
posted by lauratheexplorer on Oct 18, 2010 - 71 comments

Web Site Story West Side Story without the race issues and more about internet dating.
posted by Del Far on Jul 1, 2009 - 26 comments

"Wow, a new user... That's Great! We'd be happy to show you the ropes!" a PSA on conversation starters in forums and comment threads online that have never been heard or used before. Brought to you by Red Vs. Blue.
posted by Del Far on Jun 25, 2008 - 18 comments

Live from her minivan, it’s The Jeannie Tate Show! Everyone’s favorite soccer mom runs errands around town with the help of special guests like Bill Hader (SNL), Rashida Jones (The Office), Lonny Ross (30 Rock), and Rob Riggle (The Daily Show). Of course, she’s willing to leave the van behind to visit her heroines, Hillary and Oprah. [more inside]
posted by the littlest brussels sprout on Mar 24, 2008 - 14 comments

The '...is your new bicycle' meme is your new bicycle. I like bikes.
posted by fixedgear on Feb 21, 2008 - 44 comments

What did the Internet look like in 1996? "...very few web designers had even the most rudimentary of aesthetic sensibilities, and nearly half of them were clinically retarded."
posted by desjardins on Jan 26, 2008 - 89 comments

The Internet Party: When the Google's parents leave town all those Web 2.0 kids go crazy. [video via]
posted by donovan on Jan 17, 2008 - 47 comments

A beginner's guide to faking your death on the internet - a post without an omg is a post incomplete. (YouTube alert - via Borklog)
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 19, 2007 - 44 comments

commercialsihate.com is an old-school site that had me laughing so much that i hyperventilated. does anyone do stuff like this still?
posted by sdn on Sep 11, 2006 - 49 comments

I am stuck on The Borowitz Report and The Onion when it comes to favorite regularly updated satire on the Internet. I also enjoy the Slate cartoons, the JibJab animated cartoons, and Mark Fiore's flash. There is also the Specious Report, and the very meta SatireSearch. I am sure that I am still missing some good satire. MeFi'ers, where do you go for your satire?
posted by Adamchik on Feb 18, 2006 - 37 comments

Standup comedy cultural hot button Wikipedia hack. Standup comics! Need a cultural hot button topic for a joke? Check out Wikipedia articles with the most revisions. Comedy gold. Just pick a topic and start riffing.
posted by basilwhite on Nov 30, 2005 - 55 comments

drew*#*#^*# - among the few sites about which I wax nostalgic, drew was one of the first really hilarious (imo) inter-net sites I discovered. Unfortunately, the site has become defunct (for the most part), but that's why God made the Wayback Machine, which allows you to view the past archives. Besides his various writings (including an unfinished novel entitled Temp Jobbin'), he gained relative internet stardom for his lego porn site, which due to litigation he had to change to block-structure porn. He also popularized Domokun and received a great deal of hate for his instructions on how to kill squirrels with electricity. He even took the time to register morrisseydance.com. Lately drew has been writing for .net magazine and drawing and sellings images through toothpaste for dinner. drew doesn't suit your taste? Perhaps you'd like other dumbrella member sites including diesel sweeties and exploding dog.
posted by Frankieist on Dec 13, 2004 - 16 comments

Want to know what the difference is between real life and the internet? The funny folk at Red vs. Blue would be happy to demonstate. (Warning: 22.125MB Quicktime .mov file but worth the wait, I thought. The Red vs. Blue site also offers a DivX download.) Metafilterians may enjoy the Political Section, where they do political discussions as badly as we do. One naughty word may make the audio NSFW in some locations. Seen at Bifurcated Rivets.
posted by Lynsey on Aug 18, 2004 - 12 comments

What should I do if the internet goes down?
posted by Orange Goblin on Nov 20, 2003 - 14 comments

This was originally posted over three years ago, but has been significantly updated since that time with the addition of many new Flame Warriors. I thought it was worth another look-see. I hope it's new to most of you, because it's a good laugh.
posted by vito90 on Jun 24, 2003 - 10 comments

In the first of two stories from Scotland's Scotland on Sunday newspaper, a father is found selling his son into child slavery on the internet. The child is rescued by a vigilant Canadian woman living in the US. - A tale of gullibillitie (that's the new spelling of "gullibility")
posted by Blue Stone on May 3, 2003 - 1 comment

SatireWire is closing up shop. Andrew Marlatt, the multi-trick pony behind the site, is citing "creative differences" with himself and is opting to walk away from one of the better-known bastions of Web humor, as well as one of those rare free content sites that, according to Marlatt, is profitable:

The site actually makes money — through advertising, through the book "Economy of Errors," and (primarily) through selling pieces from the site to publications like, say, the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, or the National Post in Canada. Nice little setup, actually. I've been very lucky. But the bottom line is, it has ceased to be fun. My heart is not in it. My head is not in it.

But just because Marlatt has chosen a different route to the dead pool that those sites that gave up the ghost because they were broke doesn't make this story much more discussion-worthy than any other croaked dotcom. In proper obit style, let's instead remember the great stuff we got from the site; if you've never been, you'll find all sorts of treasures.
posted by blueshammer on Aug 27, 2002 - 15 comments

What the....? Where's the punchline? I don't get it. Why, that's just plain disgusting! I can't *even* believe my eyes. Channeling the spirit of B1FF in the early morning. o<
posted by Settle on Apr 20, 2002 - 49 comments

What a downer. Oh well, that was a fun 6 years or so.
posted by sandor on Mar 7, 2000 - 4 comments