The Tease of Things I Don't Need

ytmnd

When Tony Collett posted a link to a nicely-done bit of Cosby-be-bopping done in an anime-opening style it reminded me that for over a year, since I - perpetually behind the cultural curve - first learned of the You're the man now, dog 'Net phenomenon, known more economically as ytmnd. (Note, the slower your net-connect speed, the narrower your bandwith, the more irritating many of these will be as they'll need more time to fully load and begin to play smoothly.)

This is likely old, old news to nearly anyone who's reading this, but sometime in 2005 was the first time I found out about what had already been a highly-active meme and a site-building theme since 2002.

The original idea (as the Wikipedia entry above elaborates on) was Max Goldberg's, come up with on a whim when he wanted some place-holder on his newly-purchased on a whim web page. The result was a screen shot of Sean Connery and a loop of him saying "You're the man now, dog" - a quote from the film Finding Forester.


Others jumped on the bandwagon, sometimes with an audio clip supplying the meme, leading them to find other images -- generally people and characters from pop culture - to apply it to, as seen here, here, here, here, here, here and, well, you get the idea.

A similarly one-note joke source the final, unintentionally hilarious scene in Star Wars:Episode III, as seen via Darth Vader Sings, Vader on Wheel of Fortune, and then bringing it self-referentially all the way around, to something like this.

Themes evolve and are built on, as with A Night at the Roxbury leading to cross-themed bits like this, then this.

Generally speaking, anything's game. Whatever it is, it's critical that it not dead-end. Creating something that loops is a critical element. The bulk of what's out there is truly lazy, as not everyone had the patience to come up with something intricate, like the classic Blue Ball Machine, though it has inspired one or two people along the way.

Crossing themes is part of the fun, even while eschewing complex graphics and keeping that part simple, such as this one which takes something from Snoop Dog and goes way classic. Or, for a different era-merge we have a slice of a late Star Wars film done as a silent film, which is mostly lacking simply because he reworked only such a short bit. Or, having Ronald McDonald in hot pursuit of Marty McFly.

As is the case with anything that goes fairly mainstream -- the main site became a commercially-sponsored one in 2004 -- many of the more offensive (and sometimes hilarious) ones are no longer on or linked to from the site. Subsequent associations resulted in more revisions, as more commercial interests and greater visibility have led to pieces being rejected as links due to offensive material, and more often out of fear of potential lawsuit as copyrighted images and sometimes music are involved.

I tell you, folks, the rich and their attorneys will kill us all if we don't kill them first.

Anyway, there are still many creative and fun ones to be found, with more being churned out by the day. The central spot to look and explore would be the official center of the ytmnd universe.

Some of note are:

- Using the theme to Cheers as a way of capturing the most popularly cliched characters and images running through ytmnd themes at the time. A similar intent's fulfilled via a Nintendo Gamboy-themed ytmnd, and, via a familiar song or via the Friends theme.

-There are a couple still out there playing off one ytmnd item that's unfortunately been killed apparently because of threats of legal prosecution from authors or book publishers, but lives on in spirit in Some more books your kids shouldn't read and Choose Your Own Adventure Books Your Kids Shouldn't Read, which use the same musical loop as the original.

-A nicely elaborate one to end on is based on a pre-meal exchange between Gollum and Sam.