Brunching Shuttlecocks
| File:Brunching Shuttlecocks logo.png | |
Type of site | Humor site |
|---|---|
| Owner | Lore Sjöberg |
| Created by | Lore Sjöberg and Dave Neilsen |
| Website | brunching.com |
| Alexa rank |  1,940,138 (April 2014[update])[1] |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | June 1997 |
| Current status | Defunct |
The Brunching Shuttlecocks is a humor website that ran from June 1997 to March 2003. Its main contributors were Lore Sjöberg and Dave Neilsen, and it ran under the motto "Pure and Simple as a Hammer to the Forebrain."
In interviews, Lore stated that he was tired of hearing his friends discuss their 401K plans when he did not have one, and suggested they create a comedy website instead. As it happened, only Dave Neilsen could commit the necessary time to do so.[2]
Content
Recurring features were:
- The Ratings: Sjöberg would select a random topic, such as "Superfriends" or "breakfast cereals", and assign letter grades to items in that category with explanatory paragraphs. Only one F was ever given during the series' run. The recipient was Scrappy-Doo in the topic, "Scooby-Doo Characters."
- The Self-Made Critic: Movie reviews by the anonymous Self-Made Critic (later revealed as Neilsen). Films were graded on a scale of 0 to 5 Babylons, and each featured a (usually disparaging) comment from the anonymous Editor as a post-script.
- This or That: Tests of the reader's ability to differentiate dissimilar things with similar names, such as "Christian Metal Band or Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode?", "Beanie Baby or G.I. Joe?", and "Porn Star or My Little Pony?". Some of these were used as on-air radio quizzes by morning DJs, usually without citing the source.
- Lore Brand Comics: Three-panel comic strips by Sjöberg, typically consisting of a short monologue by his cartoon avatar.
- Thoughts From: Dave's thoughts conceived during activities such as shopping or commuting, with each accompanied by a cartoon mugshot of Dave drawn by Lore.
- Bandwidth Theater: Flash cartoons by Lore.
- The Complete and Utter Idiot's Guide: Dave provided instructions to an idiot on how to perform the simplest of tasks, such as cooking a TV dinner, in the most literal and painstakingly detailed manner possible. The instructee typically tried to mess up the task.
- Ed's World: Short stories on how Ed, the only smart man in the world, outwitted the foolish citizens of Earth.
- Good or Bad?: A list of dissimilar items presented in a CGI web form that allowed readers to rate them as good or bad. Votes were tabulated, and items appeared above or below the "Line of Truth" based on whether more readers voted "good" or "bad".
- Web toys, such as Tina the Troubled Teen, a cartoon of a goth girl which could be copied to any webpage, showing a new caustic comment each day; or the Oral Sex Donation System; or a page allowing Roshambo challenges via email.
The Geek Hierarchy deserves special note, as it has been widely circulated, and imitations have been created for other fields.[3][4][5][6] It is a chart of various groups in fandom, with arrows indicating which groups look down on others. The topmost group is "Published Science Fiction Authors", and various types of furries are at the bottom.
Brunching in print
In 2002, The Book of Ratings: Opinions, Grades, and Assessments of Everything Worth Thinking About was released by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of Random House (ISBN 0-609-80852-4 Search this book on 
.). The book contains material from the website plus new material, and was illustrated by Steve Notley, creator of Bob the Angry Flower.
Impact
As of May 2011, the site was still the top Google result for the word "brunching" and the fifth result for "shuttlecocks". Although the domain still exists, the website no longer has a home page and instead redirects to Lore Sjöberg's Google+ page. It was among the first sites to feature a "Slashbox" on Slashdot.
Mentions and praise in print media:
- Washington Post
- Newsweek Oct. 27, 1997, p. 12; Dec. 14, 1998, p. 18
- Entertainment Weekly Dec. 1, 2000, p. 107; May 24, 2002, p. 98
- POV Magazine, November 1999, voted one of the 100 best websites
- Jane magazine October 2000, p. 104
- The Guardian
Brunching was named one of the top ten humor sites by Yahoo! Internet Life.[7]
Lore's "The Björk Song" was played on the Dr. Demento show on May 20, 2001.
See also
References
- ↑ "Brunching.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ "Interview with Lore". Archived from the original on 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2006-12-28.
- ↑ "Java Programmers are the Erotic Furries of Programming". Retrieved 2006-12-28.
- ↑ "Japan Hierarchy". Retrieved 2006-12-28.
- ↑ "The Harry Potter Fandom Hierarchy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2006-12-28.
- ↑ "Pagan Hierarchy". Retrieved 2008-08-25.
- ↑ "Purchase Ad Impressions". Retrieved 2006-12-28.
External links
- The Brunching Shuttlecocks (defunct)
- The Unofficial Official Unofficial Brunching Shuttlecocks Ultimate Bulletin Board
- Interview with Lore
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