~ Early Web Links ~

Trygve Lode's comedic column 'The Philosophy of Kissing' answers a fake advice letter by defining kisses through the lens of famous philosophers, from Aristotle's purely theoretical smooches to Zeno's lips that approach but never touch. Part of the Unnatural Enquirer humor archive, it's a clever blend of philosophical parody and absurdist wit that rewards anyone who knows their Hegel from their Heisenberg.

A sardonic tribute to Ron Paul meme culture, built around the classic 'It's Happening' and 'Doompaul' internet jokes about Ron Paul's dire warnings going unheeded. The site leans hard into the absurdist humor of the Doompaul meme, featuring the iconic imagery and apocalyptic rhetoric that made the meme famous on early 2010s internet boards.

YTMND (You're The Man Now Dog) is a legendary web platform where users create looping pages combining an image, sound clip, and text to form absurdist humor and internet memes. Active since 2004, it hosts over half a million user-generated gag pages and remains a cornerstone of early internet culture and meme history.

A playful archive cataloging the history of internet cat memes, tracing characters like Happycat, Ceiling Cat, Limecat, and Longcat through their many pop-culture permutations and parodies. Created by Helene Dams at Merz Akademie, the site presents 164 images organized as a taxonomy of classic lolcat and early internet feline phenomena.

Claus.com is a long-running, award-winning Santa Claus destination packed with interactive features for families, including a Naughty or Nice checker, Elf School games, an Honorary Elf Diploma, original Christmas songs, holiday recipes, and a live Santa tracker on Christmas Eve. One of the most well-known Santa sites on the web since 1995, it offers a richly illustrated North Pole Village experience designed to delight both kids and parents during the holiday season.

James Lileks presents a sprawling, irreverent gallery mocking the ghastly food photography and bizarre recipes found in mid-century American cookbooks and promotional pamphlets. Featuring dozens of themed collections with names like 'Meat Fisting At Home' and 'Jell-O Art of the 20s and 30s,' it's a hilarious archaeological dig through the culinary horrors of the 1940s through 1960s.

Bungle Online is a quirky personal site packed with fandom content and intentionally chaotic web design, complete with vine boom sound effects, moving gifs, and weird fonts. The creator describes it as a place where they do whatever they think is cool or funny, making it a fun oddball corner of the old-web revival scene.

RinkWorks is a long-running online entertainment hub by Samuel Stoddard, packed with humor, games, movie reviews, fiction, and oddities like the Fantasy Name Generator and tech support stupidities. With recurring features like Monster Arena tournaments and the Site Market Game, it has the feel of a beloved old-web playground that has kept visitors coming back since 1996.

A gloriously absurd parody corporate website for the 'Extreme Schemes Team,' featuring a full FizzBuzz output, fake employee bios including a dog CEO and Petey Piranha, and mock customer testimonials. The site leans hard into surreal internet humor with a deadpan delivery that makes it a charming piece of old-web comedic chaos.

Happy Dancing Toast is a cheerful, image-heavy Neocities micro-site centered on a vibing toast character, complete with an ecard-sending feature and a shareable button for spreading the toast aesthetic. It connects to webrings like Hotline Webring and offers a playful slice of old-web charm with its minimal text and maximal visual energy.