For those with a tolerance for zefrank's precious whimsy

February 12, 2022 10:34 PM

Remember zefrank? Metafilter remembers! What's on Your HappyList? [OG post by holmesian] | How to Dance Properly [OG post via Dirjy] | i am interested in a particular memory: the uncomfortable moment when you first see your parent as being weak...being human. could you describe that moment? [OG post by muthecow (comments kinda weird fyi)] | social network for two (and other songs) [OG posts from rageagainsttherobots & Sticherbeast]

Plus...the show! [OG posts by monju_bosatsu & Toekneesan]

posted by youarenothere (22 comments total)

-a walk down zefrank memory lane seemed appropriate for #doublesjubilee

-post title via a comment by felix betachat that made me cackle

-his old webpage is still up! lots of broken content, however, especially flash fun that is now lost to time
posted by youarenothere at 10:37 PM on February 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

flash fun that is now lost to time

Quite a lot of it can be retrieved from beyond the memory hole's event horizon by installing the Ruffle browser extension.
posted by flabdablet at 11:24 PM on February 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Anyone have a link to Red Alert, his video about being a designer for DHS? It’s lost to the web.
posted by migurski at 12:01 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

Man, Ze got me through one of the lowest points of my life, food insecure and depressed as fuck in a hostel in Nashville, Tennessee, mid-20s, not knowing what my life had become. I'll love him forever for that.
posted by lazaruslong at 12:09 AM on February 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

A transcript of Frank's "An Invocation For Beginnings" which I'm always glad to run across.
posted by brainwane at 2:21 AM on February 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

Aw, I remember Ze Frank! Thank you.

His thoughts on procrastination never fail me.
posted by charmedimsure at 2:52 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

During the pandemic and lockdown, Ze Frank's various things have helped me.
This one is the most, though.
Hey. You're ok. You'll be fine. Just breathe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3fkWtWYDYs&t=13s
posted by lilywing13 at 3:04 AM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]

Good morning, Sports Racers.

I still hum little bits from The Show all the time, mostly "how do you work this thing?" or "jokes for nerds, jokes for nerds". It's such an amazing work, going between silly dances and songs and making the Earth a sandwich to musings on baggage you lose, and baggage you can't (and then breaking into awkward self-aware goofiness at the end).

Flipping through the playlist.. oh wow, I had forgotten about Ray whipping somebody's ass. "internetculture" is definitely an appropriate tag for this post.
posted by curious nu at 5:04 AM on February 13, 2022 [7 favorites]

Wow, I've been watching is recent stuff (mostly about random animals) but didn't have a clue about older stuff. I'll have to put him on my "ran out of YouTube, let's look at old stuff" list of procrastination tools.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:31 AM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

Quite a lot of it can be retrieved from beyond the memory hole's event horizon by installing the Ruffle browser extension.

Oh dang, that really changes the game--thank you!
posted by youarenothere at 7:16 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

For some reason, I'd always thought of Ze as just some random early-ish internet personality, but that thread about seeing your parents as human/weak/vulnerable... damn.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:49 AM on February 13, 2022

Yes, he had a number of projects rooted in mediating compassion and connection through the internet*; still, it wasn't until browsing the archives for the post that I realized quite how frikken prolific he's been over the years and that he is still rather active.

[*Which can sometimes veer toward the saccharine, but I'll take anyone trying to put loving things into the world.]
posted by youarenothere at 8:07 AM on February 13, 2022

I sent in an intro for The Show! And he played it!

Ze also got me through a very weird, very lonely period in my life. I still watch his internet shenanigans with gratitude.

Pump, pump, pump that area.
posted by 1adam12 at 9:08 AM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

I mostly know him from the True Facts series of short humorous documentaries about various animals. Which I find hilarious.
posted by adoarns at 9:26 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sad Cat Diary is my favorite.
posted by Horkus at 9:51 AM on February 13, 2022

Koalas in the rain
No fucks given
posted by flabdablet at 10:02 AM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

True Facts: Lurking in the Deep - YouTube. A work of art.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:45 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

In 2001, I was living in Brooklyn and discovered Ze's "How to Dance Properly" just a few weeks after the Hog Pit festivities for which it was an invite. Bummer!
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:51 AM on February 14, 2022

Do I have "a tolerance for" zefrank?
I have a love for zefrank.
posted by foldedfish at 9:22 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

My wife and I still, whenever we see ducks, sing "Who likes the little little duckies in the pond? I do, I do, I do, a-chicka-quack-quack" thanks to Ze Frank.
posted by rouftop at 10:11 AM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Ze helped me keep it together in high school. "How do you work this thing" has never stopped being an appropriate thing to hum. Thank you for this delightful trip down a both sweet and impactful memory lane!
posted by Pwoink at 12:31 PM on February 14, 2022

My favorite song was when he got a hangover and everything made him want to throw up? Bad design. Makes me wanna throw up! This random guy. Makes me wanna throw up! Etc.
posted by BlunderingArtist at 2:33 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]