#the infamous dashcon post

[kikithegirl]

Hello @kirbymongerr , I read the tags on occasion because it’s hilarious. I went to the con and the post has been getting notes consistently since I posted it. It’s very fun, people recognize my username sometimes!

ATTENTION ALL OF TUMBLR!

THIS IS AN URGENT MESSAGE.

IN 2014, IN SCHAUMBURG , ILLINOIS, USA

THERE

WILL

BE

A

TUMBLR CONVENTION!!!

THESE ARE THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT ARE MAKING IT HAPPEN

SIGNAL BOOST THIS GUYS

I WANNA SEE EVERYONE THERE!!

[aflo]

Not me being fandom hatecrimed and passive aggressively dog piled on THE fandumb website tumblr dot com by a dumb bitch with a cowboy url and an even dumber bitchass OP with Gigi Studio Ghibli Icon and even stupider tacky shitass tungle.hel pride badge that this self proclaimed "cunt" OP of a shitty tumblruniversitycore shit post willingly put on her blog to match and you two wanna act like you're the ones who better than me for daring to vague about Hazbin Hotel on tumblr dot com on a post that was already about some dumb fandumb discourse about a tungle.hell demon show and feeling safe enough to just tag what I was talking about because I thought that I could trust an even more basic bitch than anyone, not to try to be a fucked up little snobby bitch acting like they hold some kind of higher fandumb ground than anyone else on a post where that bitch OP with a fuckass anime icon is whining about apparently dragging her musty, crusty, ugly, greasy, McMemeShitPoster skinny Leah Michelle Gleeky (since you fave poor taste enough to actually like Supernatural That Much) Funny Tumblr Girly ass to a musty crusty Supernatural Convention that was probs just dashcon (because you know you be suckin' tumblrs whole blue veiny dick when you willingly put a tumblr badge on your blog cause you're that basic), to get willingly hatecrimed by your favorite Live Action Tumblr Blorbo TM, Mr. Jensen Fucking Under House Arrest Stubbed His Toe on Rusty Nail and Died Trying to Remove His Ankle Bracelets or Whatever...

Gurl I could never have taste that mediocre I'm sorry you ether don't eat, or don't eat anything but McDonald's cause you thought that meme was so funny.

And to think I wasn't gonna put this shit on my blog or try to add anything I just knew I was gonna get some nasty, hypocritical, passive aggressive tag typing, shitty memed up response to my addition because originally my only knee jerk response in my head when I saw this was "... Not the #Supernatural Discourse, though...Be kind to yourself.... Don't even lower yourself Sweetie ... Don't look, don't even look at them ... You know Hazbin already has a much sweeter, saner, queerer, kinder, safer fandom environment than the Death by Rusty Nail CW Show.... Just don't!"

But I did... And now I guess I can say for certain that Supernatural Fans TM are just as Mean Spirited and Crusty as their Infamous Shows ending! But It was probably like your entire personality for a while there so what more could I expect? :D

Like I'm sorry your own fandumb etiquette needs an oil can and you're obvi limegreen jelly because vivziepop fans have the power of Mara Wilson, Jinkxx Monsoon, Kesha Rose, John Waters, and probz soon Lady Gaga on our side and all you have is your anime cat icon from an overrated studio and that tacky ass tumblr badge while you forgot what it was like to have your fandom be everyone else's punching bag for a hot minute and you're feeling insecure and treating me like you must've been treated, just for adding to your post about an obnoxious experience with an actor in a tumblr fandom, sharing my own obnoxious experience with an actor in a tumblr fandom. which ultimately was a harmless thing for me to share on a post on the fandumb website that means nothing ...

But it turns out having a much happier fandom experience than yours is what I get when my shows have an actually queer show runner and a bunch of queer icons doing actual queer representation, and admittedly annoying and well meaning alleys that show actual passion about their projects like I'm sorry that your taste is so poor you actually wanted to fuck Dean Wince Emotionless or were queer baited by him or whatever but I'm different, and apparently, the only Actual Cunt on this post right now is me, being brave enough to have The Nerve.

So OP, the next time you feel so holier than thou to make fun of a person on tumblr dot com talking about their experience with a show about demons, while you're also talking about your experience with a show about demons, please consider closing out the Cringe Fandumb Website we're both using right now, touch your feet to the grass, and while you're on that grass, please touch your feet to the same exact rusty nail your Precious Ankle Fuckboy did and die. :D

And if you're too lazy to do that much, at least get your little cowgirl over yonder in the tags who mumbled at me for demon fandom discoursing on your post about demon fandom discourse, to have her little Striker Helluva Boss Moment and try and track me down and assassinate me for you by feeding me cookies with rusty nails in them. Since you'd apparently like me to disappear so badly. ;)

Because I think that's the only way to get me Shut The Fuck Up Hazbin Hotel Fan TM. Us Hazbin Hotel Fans aren't gonna be shutting fuck the up anytime soon. Not sorry. ;)

Also not sorry to break it to you OP, honey.... But you know being a Supernatural fan making fun of a Hazbin Hotel fan is like you're Toby McGuire Spider-Man and I'm Tom Hardy Venom over here, right?

Same Thing. Same Concept. Almost cut from the same cloth. Only my cloth is a little bit more high quality, a little more flashy, a little more fashionable, certainly more explicitly queer fashion, and again, just a little more comfortable to be in because it's made by people who actually have a heart, soul and passion to put into their work. Too bad the people cutting your cloth didn't have a heart and neither do you or your friends now . ;) ♥ X.O

😨

[greenbeetlestew]

i infodump about homestuck history and you pretend to listen

13th of april 2009 Andrew hussie releases the first few pages of the web comic Homestuck.People both commemorate it and celebrate it every year, commemoration of the day is typically ironic and satirical.

2010, After a whole year of viewers deciding the storyline of Homestuck, Andrew Hussie completely takes over, and the last reader request is taken.

2010,The most important and most recognizable part of the comic (act 5)begins. This is also when the Homestuck fandom begins to be considered “that” annoying fandom. this annoying fandom trope is also where the phrase “LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT HOMESTUCK” originates from, this line was typically used to imitate Homestuck fans in a satirical mocking way, poking fun about their constant need to talk about Homestuck and the cult like following it had.

2011,Often referred to as a fandom legend, a still anonymous girl is mentioned in a Tumblr post to have ‘allegedly’ attempted to dye her skin grey for a Homestuck cosplay at anime expo, this was done in a hotel bathtub. She did this By ‘allegedly’ using a mixture of water, vodka, and sharpies, filling the bathtub with it and climbing in. This becomes a very important defining moment in fandom history, with many celebrating its anniversary every year.

Also taking place at the 2011 anime expo, Homestuck fandom members film the infamous YouTube video of people passing around a bucket and spitting in it (in the middle of a family restaurant). They do this with the intention of referencing a popular headcanon of troll reproduction.

These two anime expo events solidify the horrible reputation Homestuck fans would hold to this day.

2012 the Kickstarter for a Homestuck adventure game is started, making 2.5 million dollars.

In 2013 Andrew Hussie momentarily stops updating Homestuck, this time is known as the gigapause

2014,dashcon takes place it becomes widely known as the worst convention in fandom history, as well as the closest thing to a homestuck convention to ever happen.Theres many pictures of homestuck cosplayers in the famous urine-soaked ball pit at dashcon

Homestuck goes on its final pause in 2015, this pause doesn’t end until 2016 when the final pages of homestuck are released

2016,The worlds greatest literary mistake is almost over, homestuck is coming to a end.

Homestuck 2.0 is announced in 2016 and video games,a tv series books etc are promised None of these projects ever release, infact nothing EVER comes of ‘homestuck 2.0’.

2021,Andrew Hussie essentially abandons homestuck.

2023, homestuck is updated again in october.

non dated=>>>

snoop dog reposts homestuck fanart

Broadway karkat

violent attacks with buckets

grey facepaint, EVERYWHERE

the multiple homestuck websites and messaging platforms

[pastlight]

im not necessarily against the idea of trying dashcon again but it feels very... i don't know how to say this. ego stroking? like just to say "a tumblr con could be done! we did it!" and i don't mean it as an insult, i do plenty of stuff just to prove to myself i can. but also i don't really see the point? what's left of "tumblr culture" after all these years? between the amalgamation and (i apologize for this term) normie-lization of the internet. sure tumblr is still more niche than say, twitter, but aside from some posts i see passed around mutuals from different fandoms, what could be something recent that brings most users together? something that isn't fondly remembering 2012 tumblr culture, best case scenario it's probably gonna feel a celebration of that. what big names can you bring to your panels and as celebrity guess, or even what small celebrities hold enough fan attention on tumblr nowadays to be worth flying in? and who among those is gonna have enough trust in a convention named after an infamous sham. not to even get into the cynicism and irony poisoning that all this conjures among possible attendees. even if you do everything right, i'd be more worried about the amount of people who'd want to crash it just to be "funny". im all for the post-cringe movement but it all feels very empty idk. godspeed i guess.

[the-c4ts-pajamas]

I love tumblr so much because it's infamous posts/controversies are so absurd they're hilarious. Dashcon. Sixpenceee. Hatsune Miku binder Thomas Jefferson. The bone stealing witch. Other social media doesn't have anything even comparable (NO culture), or their infamous posts are absolutely cursed (looking at you reddit/4chan)

[pikarawr2000]

(a few) Infamous moments in Tumblr History

Tumblr has some absolutely heinous things that happened on/in relation with this website, so here are a few highlights of them. 1) The Tumblr sexyman phenomenon, and the Tumblr sexyman(and sexywoman) polls. Basically, Tumblr sexymen are (usually fictional) men that Tumblr as a whole lusts over. A few infamous characters are Sans (from UnderTale, 2015 created by Toby Fox), The Onceler (from The Lorax, 2012 Illumination film) and Bill Cipher (from Gravity Falls, 2012-2016 Disney XD show created by Alex Hirsch) The Tumblr sexyman poll was a poll that occurred on Tumblr in I believe August to September. In it, a selected few Tumblr sexymen were placed in polls to be gradually voted out, until one remained. The winner was Sans from UnderTale Photo of the Tumblr sexyman bracket, source: https://www.fanbyte.com/games/news/sans-undertale-is-officially-the-ultimate-tumblr-sexyman/

2) Homestuck. Homestuck is a webcomic created by Andrew Hussie that started in 2009, and ended in 2016. Homestuck amassed a large fanbase which peaked in the years 2011-2013. A lot of things resulted from it, and the most infamous thing was the Sharpie bath incident. The original post regarding this actually was posted to 4chan, but it's such a ridiculous part of Homestuck fandom history it needs to be included. In Homestuck, there are characters named trolls. They have grey skin and horns which are orange, yellow, and deep orange. One day in 2011, a cosplayer who was going to cosplay a Homestuck troll decided that instead of using grey facepaint, they would run a bath, throw sharpies into it, then proceed to take a bath in said sharpie water. It obviously turned they skin grey, but also wrecked the bathroom, and allegedly the cosplayer ended up in the hospital which is not hard to believe considering alcohol poisoning. Homestuck fans were really active on Tumblr and since a lot of them acted similar to this, they obviously got a reputation. Not a real photo of said sharpie bath, but you get the point. Source: https://drawception.com/game/yAbEP96t5r/homestuck-sharpie-bath/

3) An extra hour in the ballpit. In 2014, there was a convention called DashCon which was a Tumblr convention put together poorly by three main people. A lot of things were planned for it (most of which didn't happen due to being put together so shoddily) but one of the thins that was going to happen was that there would be a ballpit there. It was pretty hyped up so when people found out that it was just a small pool filled with about a thousand plastic balls, they were not excited. Another promised thing was that a band that was popular on Tumblr would be there to preform. Long story short that band did not arrive or preform because they weren't going to get paid. However, instead of the people running the convention refunding or properly compensating those who went to the convention to watch the band preform, they tried to compensate them by saying they could have an extra hour in the ballpit. Photo of the ballpit, you can see it barely fits four people. Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/dashcon

[icharchivist]

Cecil wasn't entirely a joke and uh... Dashcon? Like a running scam? I don't know that either (let me introduce you to someone who lived under a rock in the early 10s

To be fair with you, yeah, those were like, ten years ago, it's obscure knowledge from this website's weird culture ten years ago and it's difficult to really hold you up against that. It was just so. So surprising to me DLKFJDFKL

and oooh boy. Dashcon has been pretty infamous even outside of tumblr so i thought at least this would help situate it but man.

So it was in 2014 or something? a group started to express the idea of making a Tumblr Convention, which would be called Dashcon. This con was supposed to happen in a grand venue, with an hotel nearby, and was supposed to invite a lot of what made tumblr famous at the time. Teenagers from tumblr were encouraged to come to the convention, promised a lot of activities and being able to meet up with a lot of the stars we were talking about a lot.

This... dashcon was a complete catastrophe. Further down the line we learnt that into the organization group, most of them had given up all the management to the youngest of its members who got easily overwhelmed, which eventually led to everything at this con going incredibly wrong.

None of the people invited to the con showed up, wtnv especially after their fees were left unpaid. Only the tumblrian folks that came to it.

There was no activity. The venues were mostly empty. But hey, there was a ballpit!

... yeaaah so, huh, that wasn't so great. (someone peed in the ballpit too, we learnt. The people who went to dashcon liveblogged it and those of us who stayed at home saw the horror unfold for them, and the "guys be careful someone peed in the ballpit" was one of those horrors that is still circulating on this website today)

At some point during the first day of the convention, "the hotel" they were staying at asked them additional fees of 70k $ that had to be paid under an hour or else everyone would be kicked out. As i remind you, a lot of the people who came to Dashcon were teenagers. Not exactly people who had a lot of $$$ in hand.

Mind you, they needed this money raised for the next days of the conventions, where they were still promising a wtnv liveshow to happen, while at this point the wtnv cast were already no longer involved with the project.

But don't worry, it was promptly replaced as the day went on with conference about why Bullying Was Wrong and How To Deal With Cyberbullying, and all that jazz.

This con was a complete disaster and went down in history as "this is what happens when tumblr gets too high with their own importance" or something. I think that's pretty unfair imo, because it was clearly more made from people who tried to exploit all of this and basically destroyed any sense of community that were at the time.

Ofc it's not that simple but it was one of the big moment of this website with like, the Mishapocalypse from 2012 (do you know about it. Or am i just doing a One Thousand Nights thing of teasing you tumblr history each post at this point.)

I think if you want to look deeply into it, Sarah Z made a decent video kinda digging into the details of this mess while also keeping it far less scattered than i did.

This is one of the pillar of the history of this website and i still see people talking about it everytime there's a failed convention somewhere. Like when the Frye Festival happened (some type of music festival on an island mainly targetting rich people that was extremely mismanaged, empty, and had people left to their own device), i've seen a hundred of memes about how it was "Dashcon for instagram and rich people". You will regularly see a ballpit edited into the pictures of such events.

So yeah.... history. I guess.

[vampmansion]

the infamous dashcon ballpit post being made the same day i turned 15 really clinches it in my brain

[dracomysthical]

oh my god the way they described DashCon

but the MESSAGES

Image IDs below the readmore:

[Image IDs: 10 screenshots from the CNN article linked above, all text.

First screenshot text: “(CNN) - When the first generations of social media natives are old and gray, they will bounce their grandchildren on their knee and tell them about the old days when Facebook was just for college kids and Twitter wasn’t a place for world-altering political discourse. As their rheumy gazes search the distant past, they’ll recall another titan of that lawless age.

‘Then there was Tumblr,’ they’ll wheeze. ‘Man, that place was weird.’”

Second screenshot text: “DashCon would not reach such great heights. It was a legendary failure,” and cuts off there.

Third screenshot text: “And then, there was the issue of the ball pit.”

Fourth screenshot text: “One of O’Neil’s original ideas, when hope was high and life worth living, was to have a giant ball pit at the event. Everyone loves a ball pit, and it felt right for DashCon’s vibe. (‘Ball pits are also great enrichment for ferrets,’ she added.) The con’s organizers assured her she would get her wish.”

Fifth screenshot text: “‘I thought, ‘At least I have my ball pit.’ So I went to a Taco Bell, I got some chips and nacho cheese. I came back and I found the ball pit, and it did not feel real,’ O'Neil said.

‘You know how sometimes you feel like you’re in a dream? It was this, but it was horrifying. A nightmare. And I just kind of sat in it and ate my cheese.’”

Sixth screenshot text: “More than the larger issues of mismanagement, more than the disappointed few hundred Tumblr users who showed up to the con, and the thousands more who watched the event break down in real time online, the ball pit of dissociation became the enduring emblem of DashCon: something fun and full of promise, now deflated and alone on the floor of a convention room in Schaumberg, Illinois.”

Seventh screenshot text: “‘I always felt like Tumblr was a place where I could really be myself,’ O’Neil said. ‘There are people that are always posting weird things. But then it makes you feel like maybe you too can be a little weird.’”

Eighth screenshot text: “The better is, well, better. O’Neil is still friends with people she met at the event. She said people still send her cosplays of the infamous ball pit, almost 10 years later. It’s just another sign of how deep the event has etched itself in peoples’ memories; not in a place of derision, but in a place of absurd, almost disbelieving fondness.”

Ninth screenshot text: “‘It was a terrible convention,’ she said. ‘But it wasn’t the first terrible convention, and it won’t be the last. As we move forward in the future, people are always going to have big, creative ideas. They’re going to get excited, and they may not know their own capacity. And when that happens, others are going to say,”

Tenth screenshot text, dramatically big: “‘Don’t you remember DashCon?’”

End IDs.]

I can't believe CNN just ran a story about DashCon in the year 2023

[dashboarddiaries]

It is time. Time to travel back in time. The date? July 11th, 2014. The place? Schaumburg, Illinois. The event? Dashcon. What was this now infamous convention like to experience first hand? We get two former Tumblr employees and Dashcon survivors on to talk about their time at the Renaissance Hotel. 

Thank you Amanda Ferri and @minusmanhattan for joining us! Drop comments, questions, etc., in our ask box or email us at dashboarddiariespod@gmail.com!

Credits and transcript in our reblog. You can find transcripts for this, and every other episode, here.

Find the posts discussed in this episode in this tag!

[fontasticcrablettes]

A Decade of Memes

With the 10 year anniversary of me posting my first Vesperia fic, I decided to look back at the 10 years I've had this blog, with 1 shitpost per year.

2013:

I made a lot of shitposts in 2013, but this one is, I think, the most 2013 of them all. I still love doge. This isn't even my only Vesperia Doge shitpost.

2014:

2014 was an iconic year in Tumblr history, as it brought us the legendary Dashcon and its infamous Extra Hour In the Ballpit.

2015:

I didn't actually have many memes from 2015! That was the year I lived abroad and was pretty busy, so unfortunately real life kept me from making too many shitposts.

2016:

Oh, 2016. That sure was... a year. That was the first year everyone collectively said "Wow! This year was awful! Fuck you, 2016!" and then we kept saying that about every year since. But in that dark time, History of Japan was the most brilliant light.

2017:

Was this the most iconic meme of 2017? No, but this still makes me laugh. I may be the only person who ships Yuri/Alexei, soI will make content that appeals to me and me alone.

2018:

2018, the exciting year when Bamco finally said, "you know what? Yes! Yes, that one!" Years of pleading for a localization of the PS3 edition were at last announced and the fandom rejoiced.

2019:

The Definitive Edition came out in early 2019 and the fandom exploded. Suddenly new people were everywhere and experiencing it for the first time. At the same time, this meme of airpods was all the rage.

2020:

2020 will be remembered as A Year for a while, I bet. I made this edit back in March 2020, back when social distancing was still the most talked about prevention method. Oh.... innocent times. We knew not what was ahead.

2021:

I didn't make any Vesperia memes in 2021! This was the year I started working on original fiction and pulled back a bit from fandom. However, I did play Arise in 2021 and could not resist making at least one shitpost about it.

2022:

Nothing will define my 2022 Tales Fandom experience like the blast I had running the Tales Sexyman Tournament. The day I woke up to find that Peony had won was a wild one and I love everyone who commented or made art throughout the tournament.

No memes yet from 2023! As I finish up my novel and start writing another fanfic, we'll see what comes next!

[artobotsrollout]

OG posts that this was derived from:

Megatron in the dashcon ballpit by @ask-smokescreen

Got called a peepee poopoo head by @kaijugolisopod

(I hope its chill i sorta mashed em together)

uh.... somehow some peeps and I got onto the topic of ball-pits and then of course that led to the infamous dashcon ballpit to which I remembered two posts and sorta smashed them together in my head.. And then it was mentioned that just his head should be peeping out of the ballpit so...wjaeklra; I had to turn into a reality.

[blueskyscribe]

@staff How Tumblr could monetize the site in a way that's better than Post Plus:

Merch.

Now you might be wondering "who would buy Tumblr merchandise?".

But if they made a shirt with the infamous Dashcon ballpit on it . . . I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Or a messenger bag that says"My favorite hellsite" with a flame pattern over the word "TUMBLR."

It would even be possible to obliquely reference Tumblr history like the infamous Onceler fandom without getting into copyright issues. Like a text-only coffee cup that says, "What if we were the same green twink and we dated each other? Ha ha, just kidding. Unless . . . ?"

[livefromtheballpit]

In this post I will be detailing what I know so far. 

In my years, I’ve been familiar with numerous fandoms and consumed quite a lot of the same media as was popular on tumblr during the 2014-2015 era. These pieces of media include but are not limited to:

Steven Universe

Supernatural

The Fault in Our Stars

Harry Potter

Percy Jackson

Divergent

Twilight

Glee

The Hunger Games

Avatar: The Last Airbender

However, I never fully participated in the fandom communities of any of them. Probably my biggest exposure to tumblr-adjacent culture was Steven Universe - mainly due to the fact that I followed the series as new episodes came out, as well as doing extensive research on the subject. Still, I had little cognizance of the majority of the fandoms that were popular during 2014-2015 - which is why I compiled a list of relevant ones during the time period:

Superwholock (Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock)

Harry Potter

Percy Jackson

The Hunger Games

Steven Universe

The Maze Runner 

Divergent

Glee

Star Trek

Star Wars

Lord of the Rings

Naruto

Homestuck

Legend of Korra

Hetalia (oh my god)

The Fault in Our Stars

Adventure Time

The Lorax (Onceler specifically)

Hamilton

Dan and Phil

*There are likely a lot fandoms that I missed - the list will grow and change as this historical inquiry progresses. 

Before I began investigating, I made a preliminary list of miscellaneous references I already knew.

“I like your shoelaces” “Thanks, I stole them from the president”

None pizza left beef

Warm milk in a starbucks post

Superwholock in general

OTP’s, ship culture

Kinning in general

Justgirlythings

Aphobe blocklist

Destiel and the events of November 5th, 2020

FNAF

Shane Dawson (not good)

Calling people “cinnamon roll” or “smol bean”

Undertale

MLP in general

Rage comics

Dashcon (and the ball pit)

Yourfaveisproblematic

Tumblr men in general

Now, a list of references I know at this point in time:

[everything in the list above]

Supernatural fandom has a gif for everything

Do you love the color of the sky?

Pomegranate gore TW

The Mishapocalypse

The disappearance of the Superwholocks

Moon moon

Moreo’s

My immortal

Dragonkin diamond eating stuff

The infamous John Green monologue, hence him leaving tumblr

Oncest

Coletureconcept

The infamous ‘you, come, now” pointing post

The most british picture ever

Feminist Ryan Gosling

Hetalia in its entirety

Joker without makeup

Ankle bracelet shoe pic

The Vlogbrothers in general

Fandom blog vs Hipster blog

Alexandria’s Genesis

Sharks are smooth

Handstand Abs Guy

The down with cis bus

All or Nothing

We popping the biggest bottles

That covers most of the information I’ve gathered so far pertaining to tumblr. I have also been looking into other parts of 2014-15 culture (music, fashion, pop culture, historical events) but I will only be reviewing internet-specific findings on this blog.

Stay tuned as this journey progresses.

[thefloatingstone]

If you’re doing Self Quarintine (and you should be if you can help it) here’s some Youtube recommendations! Some of these I have posted about or recommended before but with almost all of us stuck indoors now’s a good time to remind you of some cool things you can watch for free!

I’m not gonna imbed the videos, I’ll just post the link because otherwise I would only able to post 5 and I want to collect a few so you can make a playlist or something. (I could make a playlist too but then I couldn’t tell you what each video is and you can’t pick and choose which one sounds interesting to you)

In no particular order:

Polybius: The video Game that doesn’t exist

An hour long documentary in which the youtuber did extensive research to find the origin of the “Polybius” Urban Legend, which speaks of an early arcade game reportedly seen around the early 1980s which reportedly gave people migraines, insomnia, nausea, subliminal messages, and in some cases heart attacks.

The Universal S

A shorter video in which LEMMiNO does his very best to try and track down where exactly this S that we all drew in middle school comes from? Why does literally every country on earth seem to HAVE their children draw this S?

I also recommend LEMMiNO’s video on the Dayltov Pass Incident and the perplexing UFO cases

Down the Rabbit Hole: Henry Darger

Fredrick Knudsen has an incredible fascinating series called “Down the Rabbit Hole” which simply focuses on... anything you can discover and go digging into. From weird internet personalities, to bizarre happenings in history. This video is about the artist Henry Darger, a man who lived in the early 1900s and for all intents and purposes had a perfectly average, lonely life, until it was discovered just before his death he had spent literally decades writing and drawing a fantasy world in what is possibly the longest piece of literature ever written.

I also recommend his video on the Hurdy Gurdy

Bedtime Stories Channel

I’m actually just gonna link the whole channel for “Bedtime Stories”. If you like weird and creepy stories, all of which at least claim to be “true” then Bedtime Stories is great. Coupled by illustrations and subtle sound effects, Bedtime Stories is literally listening to someone tell you a story about such things like hikers who mysteriously went missing, Sightings of Bog Men in Florida and giant Birds over Chernobyl, as well as weird and unsettling murders that remain unsolved. Sometimes the facts are a little dubious or have been disproved, but that’s not the point of the channel. It’s here to tell a creepy story, not give you a documentary.

A Journey Through Rule of Rose

Rule of Rose is a Survival Horror gave for the PS2 which has rather bad gameplay... but a FASCINATING story with just as many layers and symbolism as Silent Hill 2 could boast. It tells the story of one young woman traveling back into her own childhood in an orphanage in the 1930s, and all the horrors that contains. From repressed grief, abusive relationships, child neglect, abuse, and bullying... but it ALSO contains symbolism of societal class structure, politics, eating the rich, and how power structures work. Not for the faint of heart, but HIGHLY recommended.

I also super highly recommend his video on the similarities between Silent Hill 2 and Solaris

Clemps Reviews Crisis Core

Mr. Clemps is a great internet gamer who reviews JRPGs and other games he simply enjoys. Sprinkling in a heavy dose of comedy and very fast jokes and observations, Clemps’ videos are always upbeat, fun, and incredibly enjoyable to watch. I’m linking part 1 of his Crisis Core video in which he explains why the PSP game remains a personal favourite of his despite its flaws.

I also recommend his video on Eternal Sonata

Defunct TV: The History of Dragon Tales

Defunctland is a channel that deals with theme parks and theme park rides that are no longer standing, or which are no longer around in their current form. Defunctland also has a sub series though, called “Defunct TV” where they look at the origin of children’s TV which are no longer airing. I recommend the video on Dragon Tales which is incredibly wholesome, and a genuinely uplifting and soft story of good people trying to make good things for children. (I also recommend the videos on Bear in the Big Blue House, Zoboomafoo, and Legends of the Hidden Temple)

Hagan’s Histories of Polar Exploration

A Playlist for Diamanda Hagan’s videos about the doomed Franklin Expedition from the late 1800s, where England tried to find a passage through the Northern Arctic to the Pacific Ocean. This went horribly horribly wrong, with every member of the Expedition dead. Over a 100 years later we are still fuzzy on what EXACTLY happened, but apart from the arctic chill, there is also evidence of faulty canned food, a series of bad decisions, and cannibalism. Caution advised for this series.

I also recommend the rest of Diamanda Hagan’s channel. She is NOT for everyone, but if you enjoy somebody reviewing Z grade indie movies as well as just BIZARRE films, really bad Christian media bordering on Science Fiction (without making fun of religion itself) hot takes of classic (and modern) Dr. Who, an introduction to Red Dwarf, She’s an EXCELLENT channel to check out.

Good Bad or Bad Bad: Pass Thru

A half podcast half review show where two guys watch a terrible film, decide if it’s “Good” Bad or just Bad Bad and tell you if you should watch it too.

That’s it. That’s the whole show.

I recommend diving into the untold madness that is one of the best(?) bad film makers currently still producing batshit insane movies, the immortal Niel Breen.

There is literally nothing I can say that’ll prepare you for Niel Breen.

(I also recommend their more recent video for “Dancin’ It’s on!”)

History Buffs: Apollo 13

Do you like History? Do you like movies ABOUT History? Do you want to know if the movies about history you watch actually resemble what really happened in any way at all? History Buffs is an EXCELLENT channel, which does talk about the merit of a film itself, but is mainly focused on letting you know just how true to life that historical film you watch is. I highly recommend his longest video which covers the space race between the USA and the USSR, leading to what is known as “The most Successful Failure in NASA’s History”. The Infamous Apollo 13 and where the words “Houston, we have a problem” came from.

If you’re not interested in Apollo 13 however, I also recommend his video on the movie Casino, as well as his video on the female philosopher, Agora.

The Internet Historian: The Goodening of No Man’s Sky

With videos with literally MILLIONS of views, you probably already know the Internet Historian. But I still want to recommend him very highly because his videos are just THAT good and entertaining. I recommend his newest video, documenting that time we were all pissed off about No Man’s Sky, the difficulties the game studio was in when the game released, and how they have been working hard to finally create what is now a truly brilliant game which is winning major awards. A really good underdog story of how a video game company actually saw what was wrong with their game, and FIXED it.

I also recommend his video on Fallour 76 as well as the Failure of Dashcon

8 Creepy Video game mysteries

Hey. Did you know that sometimes there’s some REALLY weird shit in video games, hidden easter eggs which took literal decades to find as well as just a lot of ��what the actual fuck?”. Oddheader is a channel with a dedicated discord and Reddit form solely focusing on trying to find or replicate bizarre video game finds, mysteries, and hidden glitches. Even if it means getting in his car and driving to a specific arcade just to check a rumour about Street Fighter II’s arcade version. So if you like getting spooked by weird game shit that’s not just some dumb creepypasta, this is a great place to start.

I also recommend his video on weird discoveries in DVDs and movies.

Red Letter Media: Best of the Worst

Look you already know who Red Letter Media is.

You know... these guys:

Here’s a video of them and Macaulay Culkin watching 3 terrible movies together.

I recommend literally any and all of their videos. Their discussion on Carpenter’s The Thing is amazing.

The Impact of Akira: The film that changed Everything

Ok trying to pick just ONE Super Eyepatch Wolf video is literal torture. Originally I was going to suggest his recent video on Final Fantasy 7 for the PSone but I realised I recommended something FF7 related with Clemps, so instead I will recommend The Impact of Akira, a video talking in depth about Akira both as a film as well as a manga, how it completely and utterly changed the anime industry both in Japan as well as the west, and why it is still a meaningful and one of the most important anime/manga even to this day, still being unsurpassed despite so much competition.

However, ALL of Wolf’s videos are incredible, so I also recommend his videos on wrestling (despite me not caring about wrestling at all), His video on how media scares us, The bizarre reality of modern Simpsons, Why the Dragon Ball Z manga is great, and literally any other video he’s made. He hasn’t made one bad video yet.

Was Oblivion as Good as I remember?

Exactly what it says on the tin. The Salt Factory goes back to playing The Elder Scrolls Oblivion and now with hindsight and modern sensibilities, gives feedback on his experience and whether Oblivion still holds up. This isn’t a super in depth review of the game’s mechanics or how its put together or how it was made. This is simply one guy talking about his experience replaying it with somejokes thrown in and how he felt revisiting it. It’s pretty good.

I also recommend the video he did on Morrowind (because I’m biased).

Weird Japan Only PS1 games

Thor High Heels is SO GOOD and deserves SO MUCH MORE subs than he currently has. THH focuses a lot of obscure and lesser known games as well as big popular titles like the Yakuza series, talking about what he likes about them, what he thinks is cool, and just what kind of atmosphere and mood a certain game has, even if the game itself is kind of ass. He’s done several videos on games that were only released in Japan, as well as videos talking about the fashion in Squaresoft games and how it inspired as well as was inspired by real world street fashion, the aesthetic of PC-98 games and other topics. He also styles his videos and thumbnails after promotional art for video games from the 90s and generally just has an excellent style to his channel over all. Very chill.

Blue Reflection Review

ValkyrieAurora is a channel run by Sophie where she talks about games she personally likes and enjoys. Her videos are really laid back and her voice is really calm and pleasant to listen to. She’s made a bit of a reputation for herself as “The channel that talks about the Atelier Games” and general is just a really enjoyable channel worth checking out if you just want something soothing to listen to.

Ancient Chinese Historians Describe Japan

Voices from the Past is a channel were historical text is read out loud in english. These can be anything like the above video where Chinese historians describe the people of Japan around 297 AD, Accounts of “Dog-Men”, or the worlds oldest letter of complaint from 1750 BC. If you’d like something interesting historically to listen to but don’t want a full blown history lesson, this is a really good way to hear contemporary people talk about their experiences and what they thought about each other in their own words, without opinions or input given by the narrator.

The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

Whang! is a channel that covers weird internet stories, some horrifying, some curious and interesting, and some just plain weird. His video on The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet and its update, are about a song which was recorded off the radio in Germany around the 1980s, and after one person online asked if anyone knew who the artist was as they couldn’t find any information, led to the realization that NOBODY online knows where this song came from or who sang it. It’s a fun mystery to look into that, unlike some others on this list, is not creepy or unsettling, although perhaps a little frustrating.

I also recommend his video on The Most Mysterious Anime theme song, and the haunted Ebay Painting.

5 Lost, Destroyed, and Locked away Broadcasts

Yesterworld is similar to the Defunctland channel in that it talks about obsolete rides, theme parks and other forgotten pieces of entertainment. Although the majority of the channel focuses on movie rides, rollercoasters and Disneyland, I recommend the video on lost and locked away broadcasts which you can no longer see. I also recommend the video about Lost and Rediscovered movie props.

The Nightmare Artist

I talked about this one recently as I just discovered this channel. This video is about the renowned Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski who painted surreal and horrifying paintings during his lifetime. There is no mystery here or anything like that, it merely talks about the impact WWII left on Beksinski and how the trauma his country and people suffered influenced his painting, and how certain images and motifs can be seen to directly reference this terrible part of Poland’s history.

Disabilities in Prehistory

Modern media likes to portray how “savage” the ancient past is, and tell us stories of how any person born with a deformity or disability would be thrown over a cliff or dumped in a well because they would be too big a drain on a community to look after. But here’s the thing... according to archaeological evidence, it turns out our ancient ancestors actually did their best to look after its disabled members to the best of their abilities. This video talks about archaeological finds of people who had genetic disabilities and what we can learn from their remains. TREY the Explainer is a great channel for archaeology and also talking about what answers we could have for sightings of cryptids. (not ALL of which we have answers for)

I also recommend his video on Pre-Contact dogs as well as Homosexuality in Nature and the Genetic History of the Ainu.

Decoding “The Secret: A treasure Hunt”

“The Secret” was an art book released in the 80s full of beautiful paintings, but it is also more than that. The book has a fantasy story talking about 12 fantastical races who left wonderful treasures for humans to find,and the book’s paintings and riddles will tell you where you can find each of these treasures which are yours to keep if you can solve the puzzle... and the treasures are 100% true and can actualy be found and claimed, if you can solve the riddles in the book. The video tells the story of the artbook, who was behind it, what the treasures are, how many have been found and various other facts and details.

I also recommend the videos on this channel “The Game: A scavenger Hunt” and “The investigation of Erratas”.

5 Ancient Inventions That Were WAY Ahead Of Their Time

I would recommend you be careful with this channel as its main focus is existentialism and rather alarming topics such as “how close are we to the apocalypse” and other things whose titles alone are enough to upset me. However this video is nothing like that. This video is exactly what the title suggests it is. 5 ancient inventions that were so incredibly ahead of their time you’d think they were made up. From the computer used by ancient Greeks to steel swords we don’t know how to replicate, this video is a great mix of mystery and history.

Although I caution you with this channel, I recommend Joe’s other videos about mysterious books, as well as his video on the most inbred people in history.

However, I know I keep repeating this, I highly recommend caution with this channel. Perhaps its just me and the topics of life and existent are just triggering for me, but I’d recommend maybe just doing a search for the titles I mentioned and not to go searching through the video library unless you’re not bothered by this kind of thing.

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Anyway I could keep going, but I think that’s a LARGE amount of videos to keep you occupied for the time being as well as some suggestions for further viewing.

Please enjoy, let me know if you found something interesting, and look after yourself!

If you enjoyed this list at all, please consider tipping me for a coffee

☕️ Ko-fi ☕️

[whenrockwasyoung19]

It’s Time to Talk about a Bespectacled Elephant in the Room

I’ve been in the Beatles fandom for 8 and a half years. I have had a Beatles blog for the entirety of those 8 and a half years, and I have watched as discourse about these four men evolve. The discourse inside and outside the fandom has become so toxic that I don’t think I can engage with it in the same way that I could before. Let me explain. 

When I entered this fandom 8 and a half years ago, it was in 2012, quite an infamous year in tumblr history. That was the pique of “”cringey”” fandom culture. The Beatles fandom was as steeped in fandom culture as any other fandom. I know this because I was part of two of the top of fandoms at the time, Doctor Who and Sherlock. Believe me, I have seen cringe. 

The fandom at the time was totally aware of the John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s flaws as individuals, but most fans tended to simply enjoy Beatles fandom as if it were the 60s. Some might call it ignorant bliss. If you asked me at the time, I’d have said it was self-aware ignorant bliss--if that even makes sense. At the time, there wasn’t a person with a Beatles icon who hadn’t heard the line “John Lennon beat his wife.” Everyone knew it, but everyone also knew the real story, and so everyone just made peace with it. As a result, people didn’t think about every bad thing the Beatles ever did on a daily basis. It was more like a once-a-month kind of thing. Otherwise, fandom discourse was quite fun and relaxed. There were no shipping wars, no one fought over who was the best Beatle, everyone gushed over the Beatles wives, and we all just had fun with fics and fan art. 

Of course, in this period, people engaged in conversations about one bespectacled Beatles problematic behavior. These conversations usually came from outside of the fandom. It was usually randos coming into the tags or into someone’s ask box and ranting about John Lennon’s violent behavior. Some of it came from within the fandom. Some people really didn’t like John and gave others shit if they listed John as their favorite Beatle. A lot of the discourse boiled down to: ‘hey, I see you like John Lennon. You should know that he beat his wife. And now that you know that, you should feel bad about ever liking him in the first place.’ And the response was often, ‘Actually, John Lennon didn’t beat his wife. They weren’t even married at the time. And also he didn’t beat her, he slapped her once in the face, and then never did it again.’ No one’s minds were changed. The fans had made their peace, and the antis came off as cynical and pretentious. 

When Dashcon happened, and Tumblr took a hard look at its cringey fandom culture, the Beatles fandom evolved as well. The fandom became, frankly, less fun. It no longer felt like a group of people who found the Beatles decades after the 60s and were fangirling like it was 1965. There was still some of that left, but a lot of it kind of faded. So, most fandom interactions were reblogging pictures of the Beatles from the 60s and various interview clips and quotes. But the barrage of antis never really went away, and the response didn’t evolve. 

Then, the advent of cancel culture came on. I always waited for the Beatles to get, like, officially canceled, but I also felt they were uncancel-able at the same time. Let me explain. I have been a Beatles fan primarily in an online space, rarely engaging with fans in real life. But I have met fans who are life-long Beatles fans, people who are a lot older than us and who’s fandom isn’t tied to the internet. They don’t give a shit about any of our discourse. They may or may not have heard it before, but they seem totally indifferent to all of it. I’m sure most of them have never heard ‘Mclennon’ before. These are the people that flock to see Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in concert (and pay astronomical prices for it). These are the people who go to record shops and buy vinyl. These are the people I run into at flea markets who buy up all the Beatles merch before I can even arrive (true story). So, the Beatles will never be canceled because there will always be people who love the Beatles and don’t engage with online discourse. Rarely said, but thank god for Gen-X. 

As cancel culture took over the internet, fandoms changed. It’s not as noticeable in fandoms without problematic favs. For instance, I’m also steeped in the Tom Holland fandom, and that boy is a little angel who has done no wrong. No one has discourse about the unproblematic boy who plays an equally unproblematic character. But in fandoms with ‘problematic favs’ the mood has shifted. I’m also in the Taron Egerton fandom. Taron Egerton, for those who only follow me for my Beatles stuff, is a genuinely sweet and kind person who has had zero scandals in his six year career. There were some rumblings when he was cast as Elton John, and some people took issue with the fact that he’s a straight man playing a gay man. This discourse seemed to die quickly as a whole lot of straight people played gay people in that same year (Olivia Coleman as queer Queen Anne, Emma Stone as her queer lover, Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury). Why jump on this boy who at the time was still technically on the rise. He’s not exactly the same target as someone like Scarlett Johansson who has her pick of roles. Taron doesn’t have quite that some power in Hollywood, and I think most people made peace with the fact that this was a big role for him, and it’s not really fair to take that away from him. So, all in all, the closest thing to a scandal was something that died pretty much on arrival. 

That was until this summer when everything changed. When George Floyd was murdered, celebrities flocked to social media to mourn his loss. Taron’s social media account was silent. For weeks, Taron said nothing about Black Lives Matter or Floyd’s death. This caused outrage in the fandom. Many raced to defend him, starting a hashtage #IstandwithTaron. Others sought to tear him down and anyone who supported him. The kind of mania this one incident caused tore through an otherwise peaceful fandom. What I saw was two sides in a total panic. The antis were people who once had faith that Taron was a good person and were now questioning that. Andthe defenders were people who desperately wanted him to be a good person and were afraid that he wasn’t. In essence, both sides could feel Taron about to get canceled. The defenders wanted to stop it, the antis wanted to ride that wave. 

What this long drawn out Taron example is meant to convey: is that cancel culture has put fandoms on edge. One’s fav has to be perfect, otherwise it can jeopardize the existence of the entire fandom. I’ll admit, I was afraid that I’d be some kind of pariah for standing by Taron through all of this. My actions were to basically reason with the antis but still defend Taron. I defend him mostly because I felt that his silence was the result of a needed social media absence and that trying to shame him back onto social media was an invasion of privacy. But I was genuinely afraid that he would get canceled, and the fun of the Taron fandom would be lost. 

In the Beatles fandom, it often feels like the Beatles, mainly John, have already been canceled. I see this coming from two different sources: antis from outside of the fandom and antis within the fandom. The outside antis are just the same as the ones from 2012. These are people who like to drop in that John Lennon beat his wife, posting this in the tag (which violates an ancient tumblr real by the way--no hate in the tags). 

The antis outside the fandom speak to a larger anti-John Lennon sentiment online. I see references to John Lennon ‘beating his wife’  on Tiktok and twitter. The tone of anti-John Lennon posts has shifted. Before, it felt like the antis were being smug but also argumentative. They wanted to have a conversation about this bit of info they read on Reddit with no context. Now, “John Lennon beating his wife” is practically a meme. It’s a running joke online that John Lennon was a wife beater. I can’t look on my instagram explore page because every so often a John Lennon beats his wife meme will pop up amongst the other, normal, memes.

This change in discourse suggests that the internet has just accepted this as fact now. I should note that back in 2012, it seemed as if few people knew this fact. The fandom knew it, and these random antis knew it, but few others did. Now, because of how common these memes are, it seems to be widespread knowledge.

Consequently, the Beatles fandom, who used to ward off attacks from antis, seems to have given in. I recently saw a post from a Beatles blog (had the URL and icon and everything) that confessed they felt guilty for listening to the Beatles, and I’ve seen similar sentiments expressed in the fandom. People tend to put disclaimers in posts about John or even all four that John is an ‘awful man.’ It seems like the self-aware ignorant bliss has completely gone away. Occasionally, I still see posts joyously talking about Mclennon or reblogs of old photos from the 60s. But the culture has shifted. 

Online, it no longer feels comfortable to be a Beatles fan. It feels like you have to own up to 8 decades of mistakes by four men you’ve never met. And, I should note, this is kind of how it feels to be a fan of anything right now. Taron is not canceled today, but he could be tomorrow. It’s this pervasive feeling of guilt that the person you’re supporting may or definitely has or is doing something wrong.

I’ll admit this uncomfortable feeling has expanded into other parts of my fandom life. I listen to their music, and I feel elated--the way I always have. Then, I get these intrusive thoughts which sound like all the worst parts of Twitter combined. It wasn’t always like this. Back in 2012, when I knew almost nothing about them, I saw them as four young men who were full of happiness, love for another, and talent. Back then, listening to their music was exciting and joyous. Sometimes, I fear that I can never feel that way again. Next year, when I finally go to Liverpool, will I be filled with excitement or guilt? 

I say all this for a few reasons. One, I love John Lennon. I appreciate all the good he did for the world not just as a musician and an artist but also his advocacy and charity work. I love him, and a part of me will always love him, but observing the change in discourse has enlightened me as a historian. Part of my job is to observe people’s legacies, and John’s is perhaps the most interesting legacy I’ve ever observed. When he died, he was hailed as a saint. But tall poppy syndrome set in, and the antis started. This culture grew and grew to the point where it seems to, at least among the younger generation, taken over the sainthood. 

But as a historian and a fan, I have never seen the saint or the devil. I’ve only seen the man, the incredibly flawed man. The thing that these antis never understand is that John Lennon was painfully aware of his own flaws to the point where it made him all the more self-destructive. In essence, his past mistakes caused him to make additional mistakes. But John, aware of his own flaws, always tried to change and was often successful. I’ve talked about this before, but John demonstrated that he was capable of being a good person, like properly so, again and again. After he struck Cynthia, he never hit her again. His shortcomings as a father to Julian weren’t repeated with Sean. He worked on his drinking, his drug addiction, and his anger, trying to overcome those demons till the day he died. By all accounts, the John Lennon that died in 1980 is not the John Lennon who struck Cynthia Powell at school. That John Lennon was living a cleaner, healthier life. He was a better father to both his sons by that point, and was trying to repair his relationship with Julian. He was a good husband to Yoko and saw himself living a long and happy life. 

John Lennon cannot and should not be boiled down to just his flaws. It’s one thing as a fan to acknowledge that John is a flawed human being (news flash: they all are), but he is also much bigger than that. 

So once again, why am I writing this long, rambling post, once again talking about John Lennon’s virtues? Because if I can’t engage with healthy discourse about the Beatles and John Lennon, then I can’t engage with discourse on the topic at all. So, I probably will post less Beatles stuff because I find it hard to go through the tags or even my dash (well, I can’t really go through my dash anymore for other reasons I’m not going to get into right now). If any of my followers have noticed a lot of Taron posts lately, it’s not just because I love Taron, it’s because Taron’s  tag is pretty much the only location on tumblr I feel 100% comfortable in. Any foray into John or the Beatles tags becomes uncomfortable and guilt-ridden quickly. 

So, I probably will post less about the Beatles until I can find a blog or a tag that doesn’t give me bad vibes. My fandom will likely outgrow tumblr and the internet. I have a ton of Beatles books; maybe I’ll rely on those. I am doing official scholarly research on them now. Maybe that will be my outlet. I’m sorry if I post less about them now, but it’s really for my own well-being.