Best of the Old Internet

Part of a series of Lists of Cool Things.

This week, I'm out of any meaningful ideas, so I'm just sharing some of my favortie things from the Internet of 5+ years ago.

Do you remember the Internet before YouTube? Or before Facebook, or Google? There were interesting things out there, but finding them was a much different process than is typically used now. Nearly all my favorite things from the Internet in high school and college were things I discovered through word of mouth and visiting a few key (and now largely forgotten) websites. I wanted to share some of them here.

The GI Joe PSAs
Back before YouTube, someone told me about these old GI Joe cartoon PSAs that had been remixed in bizarre, eccentric, and sometimes slightly off-color ways, with hilarious results. I first learned of these over the summer between high school and college from a friend; we sat up in the late hours of the night, giggling uncontrollably at their humorous weirdness.

Take this classic, in which a child confronts a strange dog, and then meets a man who claims to be a computer:


Or this tale of a boy who loses his friends and meets someone with poor communication skills:


Here's the whole list. (Some inappropriate dialogue.)

Ask a Ninja 
Ask a Ninja was a popular comedy video series in which fans would write in to a ninja and ask him for advice or for understanding on certain topics, which he would answer in roundabout and highly ninja-esque fashion. The best one, in my opinion, was this highly overblown (but also quite accurate, really) takedown of Pirates of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest. "Here's my advice to you regarding this movie: save your money; just dress up like a clown, jump into a giant aquarium, and sing the lyrics to 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' by Pat Benetar backwards."




40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings
One of the funniest blog entries I've ever seen deals with the terribleness of one of comics' most prolific artists, a man named Rob Liefeld. I cannot read this without rolling around and laughing silently from lack of breath. Sample:

"YOUNGBLOOD

DEATHSHOT

DEATHMATE RED

THIS BLOOD'S FOR YOU

S***, who needs to explain why they're jumping together in front of a yellow wall with a spotlight on them, it's DEATH BLOOD MATE SHOT RARRRRHHH

Quick question: Why does Rob Liefeld think guns have two spots at the end of the barrel for bullets to come out?"

Here's the link (warning: curse words aplenty).

Additional links:
Old XKCD webcomics, including this gem.
This laborious musical joke, which is not original to the Internet, but which I first encountered there.