My attentiveness to work — my composure on the train — yes, my very usefulness as a person has been ruined by Trogdor the Burninator. Please allow me to explain:
I recently discovered Fark.com‘s Photoshop contests. What Slashdot is for the programmers in the dimly-lit coding cube, Fark is for the creatives down the hall in the dimly-lit room with the Simpsons poster on the door. Much of it is like Plastic or BoingBoing — a message board where a moderator posts a story and the reader community comments, competing to see who can be the most cogent and/or the funniest. Fark adds something wonderful to this formula: Photoshop contests. Several times a day, a Fark-er will upload a picture: sometimes a Gulf War II news photo, sometimes a picture of their puppy, and will invite other users to, you know, mess with it. Or they’ll just issue a challenge. Other members Photoshop, the community votes, hilarity ensues. Some samples:
Like with every tight-knit community of time-wasters, there are inside jokes and cliches: the squirrel with giant testicles, the 9/11 tourist, Admiral Ackbar from Return of the Jedi. Every contest will have at least one “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” picture. And then, of course, there’s Trogdor the Burninator.
Trogdor appears in many Photoshp contests. Trogdor was a man, then he was a half-dragon, and now he’s a dragon. Burninating the countryside, burninating the peasants! Burninating the thatched-roof cottages! THATCHED ROOF COTTAGES!
Marketing director: So if we can get the tracking on the clickthroughs straightened out, I think we can get client buy-off on…
John (mentally): “…and the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!“
Marketing director: John, why are you snickering?
John (with Mexican wrestler accent): Consummate “V”s! …Er, I mean… sorry.
Okay, enough already, just go see it for yourself. Then waste the rest of the day reading the rest of Strong Bad’s email. Or at least just waste the next five minutes watching Strong Bad answer this one.
tikaro.com 