Founded in 2004 as a place to catalog LiveJournal drama rejected from Wikipedia,
Encyclopedia Dramatica rapidly became the premier site on the web for all manner of
lulz. Intended
"in the spirit of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary," ED grew into a sprawling crowdsourced compendium of memes, subcultures, communities, personalities, and the endless feuds and controversies spawned by
4chan and
other anonymous imageboards. While comprehensive, the site developed a reputation for nastiness -- full of "ironic" (?) racism, gratuitous porn, organized attacks on other sites, and disturbingly thorough dossiers on perceived enemies, all dripping with vicious snark (just check out
their entry on MetaFilter). But now, after more than six years, it appears the troll has become the trolled. Founder Sherrod "Girlvinyl" DeGrippo, allegedly
disillusioned by the site's
legal woes and
nihilistic trajectory, has
permanently shuttered the site and replaced it with
OhInternet, a slicker, cleaner, Web 2.0 effort modeled after more respectable internet guides like
Know Your Meme (which recently sold to
Cheezburger Networks for a cool
$N million, discussed
here).
Backups and mirrors abound, but as for the source? Pool's closed...
forever.
posted by Rhaomi
on Apr 15, 2011 -
85 comments
10 O'Clock Live is a show currently airing on Channel 4 in the UK. It could be considered a British take on the Daily Show, but longer, weekly, with more discussion, and performed live. MeFi favorite
Charlie Brooker is one of their presenters, along with David Mitchel, Lauren Laverne and Jimmy Carr. While focused on British issues, the show sometimes covers international topics, and is wildly funny. Here are some highlights:
Charlie Brooker: On Gaddafi - On Berlusconi - On the 'Big Society' - On Sarah Palin -
On the iPad 2 - On the English Defense League & the Daily Star - On Ed Miliband (Leader of the Labour Party, beating out his brother David) - On Prince Andrew
David Mitchell: On political hyperbole - On language in the media - On encouraging rich people to immigrate - On what to do with the Olympic Stadium
Jimmy Carr: As Berlusconi - On Product Placement
Lauren Laverne: Guide for new democracies - Inside the brain of Ed Miliband - British PR companies helping tyrants
Everyone on David Cameron on The One Show (this one's awesome) [more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Mar 24, 2011 -
84 comments
The research, literary, and copy editors of Vanity Fair
go to town on Sarah Palin's resignation speech.
seeing as nearly everyone I talked to at the 10th meetup was an editor of some kind, you'll all get a kick out of this
posted by Jon_Evil
on Jul 20, 2009 -
79 comments
Trolling the Head of the TSA: Bruce Schneier [
previously], consummate voice of sanity on all issues of security, co-authors an
article in The Atlantic [
previously] demonstrating how weak and ultimately pointless most of the new security practices put in place at airports since 9/11 are by, among other things, boarding airplanes with large amounts of liquid, using fake boarding passes he printed off his computer, and wearing an "I <3 Hezbollah" t-shirt. TSA head Kip Hawley then
responds on the TSA's blog. Schneier then
responds to the response on
his blog. Hawley then leaves
a comment to that post. Schneier
fires back again in his monthly newsletter. Quite an interesting and intelligent debate, despite both men humorously falling victim to the idioms of the medium and getting increasingly snarky with each passing post.
[via this month's crypto-gram, a good read all the way around.]
posted by ChasFile
on Nov 17, 2008 -
30 comments
Bradshaw v. Unity Marine Corp., Inc. (147 F.Supp.2d 668) "Both attorneys have obviously entered into a secret pact--complete with hats, handshakes and cryptic words--to draft their pleadings entirely in crayon on the back sides of gravy-stained paper place mats, in the hope that the Court would be so charmed by their child-like efforts that their utter dearth of legal authorities in their briefing would go unnoticed. Whatever actually occurred, the Court is now faced with the daunting task of deciphering their submissions. With Big Chief tablet readied, thick black pencil in hand, and a devil-may-care laugh in the face of death, life on the razor's edge sense of exhilaration, the Court begins."
posted by Kat Allison
on Jul 14, 2006 -
28 comments
In early 1777 Gen Burgoyne assumes command of the northern Redcoat column marching from Canada. On June 20, 1777 he issues his infamous
Proclamation of how & why he's coming down to kick Rebel behind. History records one unknown patriot's snark-filled
reply that July. By October, Burgoyne's flying column is bottled up and defeated at Saratoga. Here ends the history lesson. Have a great 4th, peeps.
posted by Heywood Mogroot
on Jul 4, 2006 -
17 comments
brickwallers and douchebags. It's incredibly cruel but oh so clever. Exposing the band promo photo. You might think you look good but this guy will identify your weak point and skewer you with a bon mot - which is a hell of a lot more painful than anything else you can be skewered with. Even sharp things. A couple of favourites are
this one and
this one, which almost killed me. If you get it you'll know what I mean.
posted by milkwood
on Feb 13, 2005 -
43 comments
''My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today I've just signed legislation which outlaws [the Blue States] forever. The
bombing begins in five minutes.''
posted by monju_bosatsu
on Nov 4, 2004 -
39 comments
Snark. In the newest issue of
Bookforum, critic Sven Birkerts ruminates on what he considers to be the regrettable rise of the snarky book review, taking as his starting example
Dale Peck's hatchet job on Rick Moody, written in 2002. "Psychologically [the literary] landscape [is one that is] subtly demoralized by the slash-and-burn of bottom-line economics; the modernist/humanist assumption of art and social criticism marching forward, leading the way, has not recovered from the wholesale flight of academia into theory; the publishing world remains tyrannized in acquisition, marketing, and sales by the mentality of the blockbuster; the confident authority of print journalism has been challenged by the proliferation of online alternatives. [...] All of this leads, and not all that circuitously, to the question of snark, the spirit of negativity, the personal animus pushing ahead of the intellectual or critical agenda. Snark is, I believe, prompted by the terrible vacuum feeling of not mattering, not connecting, not being heard; it is fueled by rage at the same."
posted by Prospero
on Apr 4, 2004 -
27 comments
Irony is out; sincerity is in. Is it true? Is irony dead? Is sarcasm passé? Have we finally snarked out once and for all? If so, what place will our beloved ironists (and sarcastinators) have in this new Age of Earnestness?
posted by Byun-o-matic
on Nov 17, 2000 -
31 comments
I don't know how many MetaFilter readers are
epinions members (my guess is that a lot are), but if you've surfed around anyone's circle of trust before, I'm sure you've found
conglomerate_mosthated, a popular reviewer with an equally sharp tongue and wit. Some of my favorites of his include the
Xterra review, the
Britney Spears review, and the
Jetta review. He's sometimes offending, oftentimes catty, and always amusing.
posted by mathowie
on Jan 13, 2000 -
0 comments
