failblog, or
FAIL Blog as the
orthographic convention sometimes goes, is an
internet site located at failblog.org . It is in a format very similar to the
famous icanhascheezburger, with a main page showing pictures with captions on them, underneath which people
comment. The pictures are based on the idea of
fail, a pre-existing
internet term that has probably gained most of its fame through the site. The term "fail" is pretty much what it sounds like, a shortened form of "failure", although many of the pictures on the site are more examples of what would be considered general humor (or even incongruity or unusual situations) than anything detailing what would generally be called "failure". The site also features movie clips, which I for the most part don't watch.
When I first came across the site, I found the pictures to be quite amusing, and several times actually laughed out loud. Many of the pictures seemed to cover perfectly timed moments of ineptness, and some of them had the additional impact of requiring a double take before understanding the humor of the situation. At some point, failblog seemed to gain more popularity, and the pictures that came in seemed to change. Either that, or things that are funny once cease to be funny after the umpteenth repetition. Many failblog pictures cover a few basic themes: people doing irresponsible things with their vehicles, buildings designed with doors, windows and other features leading nowhere, a clash of categorization inside of retail stores (Baby Needs/Beer and Wine was indeed funny the first time) and of course, the ever present drag that is phallic humor. And it is in that last category that I have truly reached my impatience with failblog. Amongst the millions and billions of cheetos produced, the fact that one looks like a phallus is not truly a matter of failure, or even of humor. It is a stale joke, the stuff of e-Mail forwards that are quickly deleted. So once again, part of the internet that at first promised to show some of the hidden incongruity of life collapsed into the staleness of the least common denominator.