the best thing i have ever read on the internets

Jonathan Coulton:

Really? This is a good use of your time, to make someone you’ve never
met feel bad just because they made an amateur fan video about
something they really like? Where’s your thing that you made and put
online for everyone to see, you chicken-shit cockhole?

He writes this in response to the idiots who have left hurtful, cruel, hateful comments on a fan-made cover of Still Alive that’s on YouTube.

Not that my opinion matters at all, speaking as someone who’s endured something similar for two decades, I deeply respect the courage this girl has to create something like this, and put it out on the Internets where chicken-shit cockholes can take cheap shots at her from the safe anonymity of their own miserable little lives.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t point to xkcd and Penny Arcade, which are both relevant to this post.

UPDATE: Yes, I am wilwheaton on YouTube, and I’m touched in the bad place that anyone thinks I’m worth impersonating.

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34 thoughts on “the best thing i have ever read on the internets”

  1. Too true, Wil. There is definitely no shortage of people who can’t resist the opportunity that that kind of situation/anonymity affords. The aforementioned cockhole/fuckwads are not always easy to ignore, unfortunately.

  2. As someone who has posted a handful of videos out there for the world to see on YouTube, I sure as hell appreciate Coulton expressing what I feel very often.
    When one of my films really took off, I started getting incredibly vile comments, and I deleted the ones that either questioned the filmmakers’ sexuality, disparaged my mother, or were just strings of expletives. If someone legitimately writes “this is the worst thing I’ve ever watched,” then I tend to leave it up there. Those people are entitled to their opinions too – as misguided and ignorant as they may be – the pricks.

  3. On a somewhat related note, the other day my GF and I were at a restaurant that puts Trivial Pursuit cards at the table. One had a question about alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die. I have it around here somewhere buried underneath all the crap on my desk.

  5. This touches on the #1 reason why I stopped hanging out on any board, pulled the forums off my site and for awhile, stopped reading comments or commenting on anything on the internet. Too many fucktards!!! *waves cane*
    I have since calmed down and now frequent a handful of insightful and/or entertaining blogs where 99.9% of the posters have more to say than “u suk! lol”
    Even though I don’t post here a lot, thanks to everyone who comments here for making me remember that there are sane people here on the internets!! Wil, you are lucky for having a great fan base (or you quickly edit out useless comments before I ever see them!).

  6. It’s the real Wil.
    Also, it makes me angry when people think they know other people. It makes me angry when people think they have the right to post hurtful comments based on one tiny element of a person. It makes me angry when people don’t realize that they’re the *insert appropriate insult here* for being so judgmental.
    And that’s why I’m not targeting this specific event, but just the general practice.

  9. In the same vein, my least favorite words in the whole world have got to be ‘too much time on his hands’. Whenever you see one of those great labour of love type sites, where someone has obsessively catalogued something, or built something, or restored something, invariably, someone comes along and declares that it’s nice work but the guy clearly has too much time on his hands.
    Because, really, it would be so much better if that person watched more Everyone Loves Raymond reruns or devoted more hours to serving whoever his corporate masters happen to be, instead of creating something new and giving it to the world.

  10. Hear hear! I’ve never understood the urge to intentionally make someone else feel bad, especially why they’re putting their personality and creativity out on the line.
    I will guess and hope that your name on YouTube is actually you, and just find it hilarious that you were flagged as spam. (Or someone really did steal your name for posting purposes =\)

  11. People who make the “too much time on their hands” comments I suspect are simply bitter that they can’t/won’t/don’t spend their free time on something even half as cool.

  12. Reminds me of way back when I first heard about teh ‘Wesley Backlash’. I was OUTRAGED! I said, “How dare anyone criticize this agreeable young man who is so obviously talented? Wish I’d had someone on Star Trek close to my age back in the 60s! Closest we had was Chekov, who was 35 if he was a day.” My initial faith in you, young man, has proven time and again not to be misplaced.

  13. Here’s the latest thing I put online for everyone to see. Judge away!
    Paragraph Six (6)
    This fits in with my theory that there really does not exist a “bad” piece of art. You made something, created something from scratch… terrific, you just did more than most.
    Those that can, do. Those that don’t do, become nothing but critics.

  14. The haters behatin

    Sothe best game I played last year has a couple of fans.  The game is called Portal, and is pretty cool.
    At the end it has a song called Still Alive written by Jonathan Coulton.  Its a darkly humorous song and has gathered…

  15. Another reason to “heart” Jonathan!
    As someone who likes to make Star Wars fav vids on YouTube (just to be creative and have a little fun), I feel bad for the girl.I just hope she remembers that there are alot of idiots out there but alot of good people too. It takes very little effort to post a vulgar comment, some effort to post something constructive, and a great amount of effort to make something creative.

  16. I deeply respect the courage this girl has to create something like this, and put it out on the Internets where chicken-shit cockholes can take cheap shots at her from the safe anonymity of their own miserable little lives.
    Not only am I a firm believer of Mr. John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, but I believe it’s also a by-product of being part of a generation (and a half?) where people have been able to get the bulk of their entertainment for free from the internet.
    It creates a feeling of entitlement in peoples’ minds, because to the bored kid surfing YouTube / browsing Flickr / (insert other participatory medium), you’d better be good to make it worth their time and attention!
    The investment of time, energy, and emotion is solely on the part of the “content producer”.

  17. The haters behatin

    Sothe best game I played last year has a couple of fans. The game is called Portal, and is pretty cool.
    At the end it has a song called Still Alive written by Jonathan Coulton. Its a darkly humorous song and has gathered l…

  18. The internet is that one magical place where anyone can make themself feel superior to another by posting disparaging shit about another’s work and expect no real challenge or consequences. The funny thing is, I am always intently concerned with what other morans on the internet are going to say about the things I post publicly. Go figure.

  19. Hey Wil, I was looking at your YouTube favorites and I just had to say that Stage 9 Interlopers is one of the funniest videos I’ve ever seen on YouTube. The fact that they have no idea how anything works but are trying to do a behind the scenes videos, and the fact that guy can’t see without his glasses, just makes it the most unintentionally funny thing EVER. And at the end when someone is yelling at him, “Come here!” and the video ends abruptly, it’s just hilarious. Did you know those guys or hear about the incident when it happened, or simply stumbled across it on YouTube?

  22. Makes me sad that a person who genuinely enjoys something and expresses themselves freely, without harming anyone or anything else in the whole entire world, is “picked on” in such a nasty manner. Reminiscent of school-yard bullying… gee, how cool is that?
    Good for you and Jonathan (and all of the rest of you out there!!) for standing up for CupcakeAndTea!

  23. I clicked around and found that she’d also done a video where she covered Nightwish’s “Eva” (from their newest album), or the first verse, anyway. Now, anyone with the gumption to cover Nightwish is OK in my book, and her rendition was good enough to bring tears to my eyes. I’d LOVE to hear her make another try at it after having practiced it some more, and do the entire song…

  25. I gotta say, watching her youtube rendition of “Still Alive” was for me a bit…awkward. I felt like she was going to burst into tears at any moment. Do I think it justified the slew of negative comments? no it didn’t. But on the other hand the righteous indignation at her criticism seems just as out of proportion. By her own admission she’s almost 20 years old – she’s not a kid,she’s an adult. If you put stuff like this out on the internet for anyone to see there’s a good chance that some of those viewers could be jerks. Unfortunately for her it seems getting selected for the list on the videogame website sent a deluge of such jerks to view her video.

  26. There’s no accountability in a world where anonimity has become an ethical shield… People don’t think about the consequences of their behavior if they are a fictional persona sort of thing.
    On another note, am I the only one who watched Retarded Cop and thought, “Wow, Wil makes a hot suspect?” (Besides Anne, I mean!)

  27. MikeN: Bullshit and baloney. Just because someone puts their work out on the net is not justification for haters to latch onto it. Your statement is an argument that nobody should put their work out if they don’t want that kind of reaction, and we’d all be poorer for it.
    In the end, all that is is blaming the victim. We need to put the blame where it belongs: on the jerks and bullies.

  30. It would appear that the poor girl has had some assist from the reasonable geeks out in the net.
    Some of the things people are posting in the comments are not critiques, they’re just plain mean and obscene.
    Greater internet fuckwad theory indeed.

  32. I just viewed the video on YouTube and it is not, in my opinion, particularly bad. I agree that the young lady showed courage (more than I think I would have had in my early 20’s) by posting her work for public viewing and comment.
    Admittedly, some of the comments, both good and bad, were unclear to me because of texting abbreviations I didn’t understand or simply because of atrocious grammar. But what came across quite clearly was the vicious nature of some of the comment writers. It is, of course, one thing to write negatively about the video’s content or its technical flaws. It is another thing entirely to direct malicious and venomous comments at the young lady.
    “chicken-shit cockholes”. Colorful, descriptive and, in this particular instance, quite appropriate I think.

  33. Looking for the appropriate place to put this, Wil. I considered emailing it to you directly, but figured the most recent JoCo-related thread might be a good place.
    While doing something completely elsewise, I stumbled across across some thoroughly enjoyable music that made me think both of you and of Jonathan Coulton. This fellow goes by the names “I. Spike” and Steve Hale. He’s sharing tracks going back a couple of years.
    http://www.macjams.com/artist/I.+Spike
    You know you’ve found good stuff when title tracks include “Robot Milk” and “Pig Heart.”
    My hands-down favorites by quirkiness coefficient are “Mommy, I Want To Be Swedish” and “Xmas in Hell.” Neither is to be missed!
    Then he turns around and delivers an incredibly touching and beautifully crafted “Today” and several others.
    All freely-downloadable MP3s, Creative Commons licensing, etc. Absolutely worth the clicks to collect them.

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