The crap produced by a culture (think pet rock, tamagotchi, bass-fishing simulators and Jerry Bruckheimer movies) is bound to be the true test of that culture's worth. Once we begin to interact with alien cultures in outer space I've no doubt that this will hold true. Among the gifts retrieved in our first mission of goodwill to the aliens' home planet will be their culture's version of Chia Pets and the like.
And there's one place that's teeming with crap. Just as we do when we feel the urge to search out cliff's notes, pornography, or embarassing information about people we hate, when we're looking for crap we can turn to the internet.
Among other things, the internet is a cultral library. I'm not talking about its educational value. I'm talking, simply, about the crap. The internet is full of it, and I know you've wasted at least as much time sitting in front of your computer viewing total crap as I have.
And the conglomeration of crap here is amazing. With a click of the button, you too can view such phenomena and works of genius as Star Wars Kid, Wheelbarrow Freestyle, Mario Twins, Hatt-baby...and the list goes on.
And I say something needs to be done to immortalize this crap for posterity. I imagine that those of us in generation-y will, several years from now, be describing Emotion Eric to their (immensly bored) children with the same excitement and enthusiasm as my dad exhibits when he tells me about radio dramas like Gunsmoke.
But in order to engage in this form of torture with our children, we need to immortalize the crap available to us through the internet. I propose a box set of DVDs, complete with every last ounce of crap we can squeeze out of the world wide web. Also included on the DVDs should be behind-the-scenes footage such as 'interviews with the creators', who would answer such questions as "How dismal was your life such that making this was your only escape?"
Who's with me? I think this project would be a great investment, since there are a lot of morons out there who would actually pay for this (I'm one of them).