by Io

Created on: July 02, 2009

The Internet is a very big place - an incomprehensibly massive place - and it has a breadth unlike any other form of media. There are common, good websites like Google and Facebook and Yahoo, but for every couple thousand or so of these websites, there are dark, strange, twisted ones. There are thousands that far surpass the standards of an NC-17 rated movie. Anything you could possibly imagine exists, and if it doesn't exist yet, it will be created soon. Believe it or not, places like these are why you're being Rickrolled.

The world's most popular image-based bulletin board, 4chan, is, without even a glimpse of a doubt, the source of most Internet memes. On 4chan, users are able to anonymously post pictures and text without ever having to create an account. Due to the anonymity, people constantly post eye-crossingly inappropriate material, ranging from racism to pornography. Threads of user posts are perpetually pushed down the pages and rarely last for longer than ten minutes, but every few days, a new fad is created. Sometimes people post content with the full intent of creating a meme, in which case, the meme is considered to be forced and therefore devalued (in most cases). These fads range from posting the same few words over and over to Photoshopping an image into comical situations to comic strip templates to which people add their own text and images. Only a small percentage of these memes, however, ever make it into the spotlight of public eye. Some of these popular jokes that either started on or were discovered by 4chan include Lolcats, Rickrolling, Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain, and over 9000. Remember the Hamster Dance and All Your Base Are Belong to Us? 4chan. Shoop da whoop? 4chan. Just lost the game? Still 4chan. The incredible underground influence that 4chan has on society has rocketed its owner, Christopher moot Poole, to the top of Time's 100 Most Influential People list.

Similar in outlandishness to 4chan, LUElinks is a message board website that has spawned several internet memes, with its most popular being Weegee. Getting into LUElinks is nearly impossible if you don't know someone who is a member of the site, however. Only existing members can make new accounts, and these new accounts must be purchased. Unlike 4chan, LUElinks is not anonymous and has threads organized by titles. Some find this user-friendliness to be more accessible and relaxed than 4chan, but some prefer the rampant ragtag formatting of 4chan.

The least offensive of what could be considered the three pillars of Internet memes is SomethingAwful, a public message board website run by Richard Lowtax Kyanka. SomethingAwful is set up similarly to LUElinks, but is available to everyone and provides many other features such as reviews, news feeds, and other comical updates. SomethingAwful has helped spread many memes, like All Your Base Are Belong to Us, and created others, like NO U. A large amount of their meme-associated content, however, still sources from 4chan.

Learn more about this author, Io.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.