While I find websites every day that make me laugh, there are a few that always seem to deliver. Some of the are older, some are newer, but I love and cherish every one of them and would hug each of their creators for making my world better through their sarcasm and pointing out other people’s flaws.
People who follow me on Twitter or are friends on Facebook often ask me “where the hell do you find this stuff??” At the risk of giving away all of my secrets, I’m sharing the sources of all of teh funny with you. I recommend avoiding all of these links if you ever want to be productive at work ever again.
Note: This blog post was originally published on January 19, 2009, but I’m republishing it with lots of new additions. Enjoy!
Awesomely Geeky
Doctor Fun – when I first stumbled across this comic strip, I was simply blown away. Dave, the genius behind Doctor Fun, seems to have a bizarre fixation with Cthulhu, squirrels and marshmallow peeps, but let’s not hold that against him. This strip is perfect for anyone with a background in biology, computers, and general geekiness. I’d say he reminds me of Gary Larson, but that seems to be a kiss of death for comic strip artists. Doctor Fun is no longer in production (which breaks my freaking heart) but there are years of awesomeness you can browse through available in the Ibiblio archives.
Bash.Org – Database of funny and embarrassing quotes from IRC. This site has been around for ages, but they’re still adding new ones every few weeks. The RSS isn’t official, but does a web scrape to deliver the newest quotes to your feed reader, available here. Or follow @bashquote on twitter.
Penny Arcade [rss] – Honestly, if you haven’t heard of this comic, you have no right calling yourself a geek – but I have to include it for the sake of completeness. Funny, totally nerdy, sometimes mean – one of my favorites, and its thanks to Penny Arcade that I first started listening to Jonathan Coulton.
xkcd [rss] – Supremely geeky, sometimes sad, sometimes sweet, xkcd has to be one of the smartest comics out there. I own the “sudo make me a sandwich” shirt, and the people who get it, love it. The rest can sod off. This comic resonates with computer geeks, math nerds, physics brains, and code poets alike. Follow @XKCDrss on Twitter.
Diesel Sweeties [rss] – a pixelated paradise of nerdiness, complete with human-hating robots, a talking toaster and self-doubt. Follow creator @rstevens on Twitter.
Userfriendly [rss] – Sysadmin/Programmer/Cthulhu humor. Absolutely outstanding, however since these guys are sysadmins and not web developers, their RSS feed kinda blows, as it doesn’t show any actual content.
The Daily WTF [rss] – Funny error messages, spaghetti code and software development stories from the IT industry. Follow @DailyWTF on Twitter.
Noobz! [rss] – If you play MMORPGs, you won’t want to miss this weekly gem.
IrregularWebComic [rss] – Think Robot Chicken in web comic form, using LEGOs.
Stupid monsters someone was paid to make = the best job ever – from headinjurytheater.com, this is a collection of some of the dumbest and hilariously funny Dungeons & Dragons monsters ever created. The commentary is perfection in print.
For everyone else
I Can Has Cheezeburger [rss] – Not a new site by any means, but I love it.
Amazingly epic fails found in the wild and delivered daily. Follow @FailBlog on Twitter.
The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks [rss]
This is a major pet peeve of mine, so I find this blog hilarious.
Fantastically awful birthday and wedding cakes. (It’s much funnier than it sounds, I promise.) Follow @CakeWrecks on Twitter.
Passive Aggressive Notes [rss]
Fantastically weird and insane passive-aggressive (and sometimes just aggressive) notes left for friends, family, dorm-mates, co-workers or total strangers. Follow @PANotes on Twitter.
Blog of epic kludges and jury-rigs. Do you believe duct-tape fixes everything? Take a picture – your handiwork probably belongs here. Follow @thereifixedit on Twitter.
Blog of, well, awkward family photos. I have a few I could submit myself, but I’d rather save myself the embarassment and pretend I come from a normal, well-adjusted family.
Hilarious blog of bizarre and sometimes creepy job postings. Follow @AvoidThisJob on Twitter. Incidentally, the above posting was highlighted on the Angry Mac Bastard podcast by yours truly in August.
EmailsFromCrazyPeople.Com [rss]
I’m pretty sure my mom is a ghost writer for some of these emails. Fortunately, not the one above. I don’t think. If you’re not sure what a Fleshlight is, click here. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Customer service experiences from hell.
Hand-curated collection of bizarre and often frightening things for sale on Etsy.Com. My favorite is the vagina category. Because there apparently a need for a vagina category.
Blog of utterly inexplicable photographs. I would have to assure there are explanations for all of these, but I’ll be damned if I know what they are. This one came from the comments, and I’m so glad it did. Thanks, Marc Brooks 🙂
Foamy the Squirrel – Although this technically isn’t particularly geeky, and it technically isn’t a web comic, since they are Flash Animations, EVERYONE should know about the wonder that is Foamy. Go there now – you’ll never be the same.
Cyanide & Happiness [rss] – bizarre, often naughty web comic
Fabulous collection of Nigerian email scams and the people who fight them. My all-time favorite from their list is Phil Mycrackin with Semen. It’s long, but totally and completely worth the read.
The Hasselhoff Calendar: Our Gift to You
While a David Hasselhoff calendar is funny enough in its own right, the author of this post goes through month by month with fantastic commentary, turning it into comedy gold. I play a joke on a friend of mine who works in animal welfare. We frequently send each other PDFs of new laws, reports, etc – and every few months, I send him an email with the subject “Urgent! Need your help!” or some such thing. I change the file name and attach a copy of this calendar, tricking him into opening it on the premise of it being some urgent animal welfare matter. The joke has been running for years now and never fails to amuse. Incidentally, the PDF is available at the link.
Videos that always make me laugh or smile
There are some things on YouTube that make me laugh every single time I watch them, no matter how many times I’ve seen them before.
Habanera from Carmen, performed by the Swedish Chef and Beaker – This is one of my favorite things in the whole, wide world. The mp3 is available here, in case you want to use it as a ringtone.
Video for ‘Coder Girl’ by Dale Chase – My adoration of Dale is no secret, but this was a favorite even before I got to know him and what an awesome guy he is. (PS – download his album Absodefilutely from Amazon MP3 – its less than $6 and totally worth it!)
Skill vs Gear – Herring Seeks Your Life – Mutilate Rogue PVP – As a big Warcraft nerd, I love this video. Watch a guy dual-wielding fish, wearing only a tuxedo shirt, kick the crap out of everyone to the tune of the Ratatat remix of Biggie’s “Party and Bullshit”. Epic.
High-Kick Girl – video of a Japanese girl kicking some dude in the head.
Clitter! – Infauxmercial for Clitter, the feminine product that turns your labia into a YAY-bia!
Slow Loris Loves Getting Tickled – So cute, I think I get diabetes every time I watch it.
Those are some of my favorite things on teh intarwebs – what are yours? Let me know in the comments.
