The internet has given us a lot over the decades, good and bad, but for me personally it has become the vessel through which I have consumed some of the biggest and dumbest things made by human hands.
This list is about celebrating those things.
For your entertainment, I’ve put together a very personal short list of the best things I’ve ever seen on the Internet. These are the tweets, YouTube videos, Instagram posts, and TikToks that I come back to endlessly, often in my darkest hours.
Let’s go!
Dunkey’s Mario Kart video
No one agrees with me, but I believe Dunkey is one of the funniest people on YouTube.
Dunkey’s channel generally focuses on video games and he has a handful of absolute bangers. His video is about that Skyrim mods† To be Metal Gear Solid interpreters are also classic.
But his video about Mario Kart 8 is the one I return to the most.
The whole thing is hilarious — essentially a series of clips of him getting hit by red grenades and generally losing his shit about how unfair the game is — but the ending. Dear Sir, the end.
I don’t want to spoil it too much, but it’s a work of art. Just one of the most perfectly executed edits I’ve ever seen. Hang it in the Louvre.
Ice T is ‘real nut’
A REAL note… It feels like every bone in your body is coming out of the head of your dick… Say no more. I’m ready. Fall asleep in 2 minutes.
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) January 19, 2011
Every once in a while I see a thread on Twitter about the best tweets of all time. This is number 1 for me. Forever.
I can not explain. The rhythm, the visceral character of the description: “Say no more. I’m done.”
Fall asleep in 2 minutes.
The Ping Pong anime intro
I have long been a connoisseur of anime openings and have heaps of favorites. But at the top is without a doubt the intro to Ping Pong.
I am obsessed with sports manga and read Ping Pong years ago. I fell in love with the blunt, hand-drawn style, complete with distorted dimensions and curved lines. When an anime was announced, I couldn’t imagine how it could do the manga justice. I was just not sure what the characters would be like Action.
It literally took this intro 2 seconds to make me a believer. Ping Pong doesn’t just do the manga justice, it takes it to another stratosphere. At first glance, it’s completely bland and ugly, but the animation style and rotoscoped animations combine to create something hyper-realistic. It also comes complete with a blast in Bakudan Johnny’s Tadahitori.
Every time I watch this video (which is a lot) I fall in love all over again.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Instagram account
Cristiano Ronaldo is not only a generational talent and one of the greatest footballers who ever lived, he is also an incredibly hard worker. His Instagram account is a masterful work of art – and a devoted testament to his prodigious ego.
I can not get enough of it.
Whether he’s posting “candid” photos of himself flexing his ridiculous washboard abs or pulling off his latest hat-trick, you’ll get the overpowering vibe of a man desperately trying to mask his own smoothing self-obsession. I personally love it.
unbelievable.
Instagram
It’s all crystallized out perfectly in this one post.
Ronaldo is desperately trying to use this “year-end” tweet as a moment to reflect on what has been a difficult year for many, with COVID-19 and lockdowns and all. But he absolutely can’t for a single second stopped himself talking about how many goals he scored in a season when his own teams (Juventus, Portugal and eventually Manchester United) were largely unsuccessful. Just fantastic. It’s everything. If I were a famous footballer I would post 100% like Ronaldo.
Limmy: Gotta take some time
Limmy is a Scottish comedian turned Twitch streamer and probably best known for his Sketch of Steel vs. Springs† That video is a masterpiece, but my own personal favorite is his “Gotta Take a Little Time” video, which initially aired on Limmy’s Show, which was on BBC Scotland at the time.
I don’t think I’ve seen anything that captures the fear of social interactions so well. A failed joke, the walk back home, repeating the blunder over and over. Then later, redemption as Limmy tells a perfectly timed joke that lands. Just incredible. The subtleties, the facial expressions. I do believe that Limmy is a genius.
Going abroad in a Hollywood movie
@finlaycomedy I had to dub this because my hair dryer was too loud #viral#fyp#foryourpage#xyzbca♬ original sound – Finlay Christie
This is a TikTok series from the very talented comedian Finlay Christie, but the first video is 100% the best of them all. If you’ve seen Indiana Jones or The Mummy or any other adventure movie in that fringe, you’ll love this. Check out all his stuff though – he’s awesome.
Who do you think you are I am!
After winning the 2012 US Open Bowling Championship, professional bowler Pete Weber unleashed one of the most bizarre post-match celebrations in internet history, coining the phrase “who do you think you are that I am.”
I’m not even sure it’s worth explaining why this is funny. Everything just goes together perfectly: the professional bowling sunglasses, the beetroot face, the jerky, uncontrolled movements of a possessed man. The commentary also plays a role: “A strike to claim it… a strike to claim it…” That phrase lives rent-free in my head.
Something I learned afterwards: It turned out that Pete Weber was yelling at a guy in the crowd who had harassed him the entire match. The fact that this outburst was aimed at a cheeky kid in the audience makes it 100% better.
Drill’s tweet about solving racism
everyone wants to be the guy who writes the tweet that solves racism once and for all coz it would look good on a resume
— wins (@drill) July 26, 2016
Much has been written about Dril’s Twitter account, but I think games journalist Gita Jackson best expressed when they described its gimmick as a “joke account that also unintentionally catalogs… all the ways to be crazy online.”
And if we start with the common understanding that Twitter is the worst social media platform that has ever existed — and the only reason online discourse is boiled to the core — then Dril’s tweet about solving racism via tweet sums it all up. together what is wrong with the way people talk online.
It perfectly expresses the real-time gold rush for the grand, retweetable take on whatever current affairs people are super mad about. Everybody is doing wants to write the tweet that changes the world but the result is just a sliver of complete crap as people constantly line each other up looking for the galaxy brain tweet to end all the galaxy brain tweets.
Ironically, this tweet has brought Dril closer than anyone to crafting that perfect tweet. It is never irrelevant.