With so many places to surf on the Internet (blogs, porn, shopping, porn), sometimes the key to a popular Web site is simplicity. Repeat an image and loop a sound file – as 24-year-old computer programmer Max Goldberg did with You're the Man Now, Dog – and pretty soon you’ll have 4 million visitors a month and 120,000 contributors uploading their own clips. Goldberg gave us the download on some of his favorite YTMND time-wasters.
You’re the Man Now, Dog
Sean Connery in Finding Forrester saying, “You’re the man now, dog.” Over and over and over.
Max says: I stumbled onto it by accident, went through a few drafts, and the site was born.
Vader Coaster
Darth Vader screaming “Nooooo!” from the end of Revenge of the Sith – while riding a roller coaster.
Max says: It’s one of the most creative efforts, and it does neat things with sound.
Lohan Facial
Slide show of Lindsay Lohan’s never-changing expression. Competing site eBaum’s World allegedly stole the clip in January.
Max says: There’s a Paris Hilton version that was more popular, but I like this one because it started a controversy.
LOL Internet
Ronald McDonald driving along and smiling, accompanied by techno music and a text bubble reading, “lol, internet.” That’s it.
Max says: This spawned hundreds of imitators.
Blue Ball Machine
A Rube Goldberg machine made of animated tiles, with hundreds of blue balls moving in time to music from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
Max says: This is our most viewed title ever. It was created by the Web site Something Awful – they had 100 people make 1-inch tiles, and the only rule was that a ball had to enter at a certain place and exit at another. It came out awesome.
– James Lee
Max Goldberg, YTMND.com
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