The early days here, it was rare not to get a chuckle from the Portal, now it's like pulling teeth. I knew when I graduated from high school, our American citizens were losing their sense of humor. We're turning into post-war Germany state of mind (or porn is almost as bad), and yet, the insanity continues, forever sanctioned by the events of 9/11 :P
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Comments
Heh, really? I don't remember a whole lot of chuckles from the portal when I first signed up. I remember the save/blam ratio was pretty even, with lots of shitty quality sprite or stick movies and the occasional "my first flash plz don't blam". Not to mention the spam crews we used to have around here. It was pretty awful back then.
I have no clue to what extent the events of 9/11 may have affected the humor of Americans, but I guess it made people more serious and patriotic?
Ah, maybe my past has a sliver lining, and rose tinted spectacles.. it was still new tech, and a lot of primitiveness was forgiven.
More like seriously sheepish and psychotic. The American people still have heart, but no soul... it's been replaced with lies, and we're drugging ourselves to death willingly and unwillingly, to deal with the madness.
It was pretty amazing for its time yeah. I sure as hell never saw anything like it before!
I feel a bit stupid for asking, but how did the events of 9/11 make for an increment in drug use? I have trouble seeing the link there. It is as you say though; fear is an effective tool.
They way I look back on the early days of NG is that for the first time in the history of mankind, anyone was able to produce something and share it with a global audience... And we all just went nuts with all this crazy shit that would never be shown on TV. A lot of that same stuff wouldn't feel funny if it was released now, but back then it was refreshing and even trolling was like this new thing since traditional media didn't troll people.
Now we've got a generation that grew up with the ability to share anything they make, there isn't that same bottled up energy that existed like a powder keg in the 90s. Since the novelty has worn off, it's more like traditional media where the competition is to actually make something better than the other guy, vs being able to just subvert them for lulz.
I think we've seen so much at this point, it's just that much harder to surprise us and make us laugh... Also there's a whole "Youtubeification" of the web, where people are not only trying to make their content appropriate for YouTube, but are trying to emulate what the YouTube public apparently thinks is funny.
Definitely. I bet the early days of Newgrounds showed the internet a world of potential. I might have surfed the web for maybe 2 years or so before I stumbled upon the place, and I hadn't visited many other sites before that, so it's kind of hard to imagine just how big of an impact Newgrounds left on the rest of the web. What I can say though, is that Newgrounds was unlike anything I had ever seen before. More than its interactive prowess though, I was intrigued by how genuine and instigative its user content could be.
I think the novelty of video sharing made people want to try working with Flash back in the day. Now that youtube has exploited that concept, flash only interests a select audience. The same goes for every other portal on here. Plus, the history of Newgrounds made us into an oddball community. So we may be tight-knit, but I'm pretty sure the risqué content might have scared people off. On the other hand though, I think it may be NG's strength. Youtube is phony, and Newgrounds is not. That's got to count for something.
But this youtubeification thing sounds like a problem. If users would rather conform to shitty websites like youtube, then Newgrounds pretty much gets their sloppy seconds. Pokemon and Gamegrumps parodies don't cut it anymore. I think we're in need of exclusive new content, with actual new mascots being introduced.
Tom did a good job of summing up the past and present... although mainstream media has been trolling us, for quite some time. In the 70's and 80's, all the independent radio, newspaper, and
TV stations, were taken over by companies that issue stock, and the news changed; outrage over crappy government policies were 'talked' about, then dropped. That's how long 'we the people' have been out of control.
Americans have always had a drug problem, but it's gotten much worse. Kids aren't paying attention? Give them amphetamines. Kids are moody? Give them pills http://www.ssristories.com/
I'm sure there's a study out there that maps prescription and illegal drug use, but the prescription drugs have really taken off in the past 10 years or so. The events of 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the lies they kept repeating to get us into war.... repeat a lie enough, and people start to believe it, at a cost |:
Wow, pretty fucking insane. All of it.
VicariousE
Eh, the top center and bottom center were kinda cheezy, and incompatible with the marrow in my funny bone. That said, I have no idea why this came to mind... http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/559786
Whirlguy
Haha love that animation. Yeah, not all of the gems I post are generally very good or funny. Sometimes they're both, sometimes they're neither. I just like to post things that are different, and worthy of a following. I'm keeping my eyes open for anything with potential, I guess.
I kind of like how the top center makes fun of naruto here, I used to watch the series but, yeah... Bottom center reminds me of Cyriak from youtube. I would really love it if he posted his creepy music videos on Newgrounds sometime.