I-Mockery

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I-Mockery
Type Private
Founded 1999
Headquarters California, USA
Key people Roger Barr: Founder & CEO
Dr. Boogie, Jason Grunert & Max Burbank: Writers
Louis Fernet-Leclair: Artist
Industry Humor
Website www.i-mockery.com

I-Mockery is a pop culture humor site owned and operated by Roger Barr (aka: -RoG-) that has existed online in various forms since 1996. Before then, it was a printed periodical called Visionary Darkness. Free copies of Visionary Darkness were distributed in local high schools and record shops. It later became a web site on Geocities which housed a variety of humorous articles and rants. Barr also registered other sites on Geocities under several aliases and made them all a part of the Visionary Darkness web site. After a few years of building up the popularity of these sites, Barr registered the I-Mockery.com domain name in August of 1999 to house all of his humor sites under the same roof (and to avoid Geocities' increasingly slow performance). The I-Mockery name was created at the time as a spoof of all the corporate web sites that started with "I" or "E" at the time. The name loosely translates to Internet-Mockery. [1]

Over the years the site has expanded greatly, but still continues to live up to its original slogan: "Dedicated to making a mockery out of all things adored by the general public. Dedicated to exposing people who take themselves far too seriously. Dedicated to shattering empty causes and empty words. Dedicated to giving due credit to works of genius that have never enjoyed the spotlight."

Contents

[edit] Sections

While I-Mockery is a large site, it can easily be broken down into a handful of main sections:

  • Minimocks (Features) - This section is perhaps what I-Mockery is best known for. It contains a variety of in-depth reviews of cheesy movies, photographed adventures featuring Roger and other staff members such as Jason Grunert (aka: Protoclown) getting into all kinds of mischief, articles about bizarre toys & food products, nostalgia and more. One of the staples of this section is the often amusing variety of animated gifs that can be found within many of the minimocks[1].
  • Visionary Darkness (Editorials) - This section is a large collection of rants and raves, with topics of mockery ranging from the Gorton's Fisherman [2] to Celine Dion [3] to Feminine Shaving Razors [4]; nothing is sacred here. Also, the original guestbook from back in the site's Geocities days still remains active in this section.
  • Shorts - This section was created in response to the Minimocks section of the site. The Minimocks had eventually become anything but "mini" with some of the pieces being in excess of 3-5 pages long. This naturally caused delays in how often the site was updated as many of the Minimocks would take well over a week for the writer to complete. Thus, the "Shorts" section was created as an area where similar content could be featured, but created at a much faster pace. This section also gave the writers more room to cover a wider variety of topics including parodies of the infamous McDonald's web advertisements [5], Mexican Monografias [6], stupid toys [7] and more.
  • Games - This section contains quick links to I-Mockery's flash games and videos including "Domo-Kun's Angry Smash Fest"[8], "Castlevania: Priest Battle"[9], "Kill The Old Man From Zelda"[10] and "I Will Beat Pacman!"[11]. It also includes links to some of their more popular gaming-oriented articles including "Sexual Moments In Video Game History"[12], "Nintendo: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly"[13] and "Cooking With Popinski"[14]. Last but not least, easy access to I-Mockery's infamous "Rom Hack Reviews"[15] can be found here.
  • Comics - Over the years I-Mockery has produced a variety of web-based comics. First, there was "The Guy Who Can't Draw Comics" [16] which claimed to be the world's first and only completely artless comic strip. Then came "Pixel Pals" [17] which quickly drew in a fairly large fanbase from the gamers with its Nintendo Entertainment System character humor. In recent years, Roger teamed up with Louis Fernet-Leclair (aka: -PoX-) to create the "PickleMan" [18] online comic book series. These are full-sized comic books, complete with UPC codes and clickable hidden secrets throughout each story. The PickleMan comics are written by Roger and drawn by Louis. Recently the two unveiled a special, non-profit printed version of the comic as a keepsake for the fans of the series. The comics section of the site also features columns by Jason ("Tales From the Longbox") and Max Burbank ("Hey Dork! Let's Talk Comics!") which cover both classic and modern comic book series.
  • Mockeries - Though not updated often, this section contains I-Mockery's full-blown "mock sites". These sites have often targeted music scenesters including ravers, punks, metalheads and goths... with over the top gags and proudly immature commentaries. These sites often generated hatemail (including death threats) from people involved in these scenes, lifestyles and religions who took themselves far too seriously. But scenes aren't the only things I-Mockery has created these large "mock sites" for. GeneralZod.net is their popular satire of what General Zod, the villain from Superman II, has been up to in more recent years. ElSerpento.com is their spoof of a self-proclaimed Mexican Wrestling legend who can physically beat up anyone and anything (including Fark) while also holding his breath for 45 seconds and bragging about it. Other mockery sites include "Albums That Sucked", "Cynical Greeting Cards", "Martin Yan: Homicidal Chef"[2], "Internet Perverts: Exposed" and more
  • Forums - The forums, which reside on I-Mockery.net, have always been a hotspot for a wide variety of people, many of which who come simply to argue with others for the sake of some good laughs. For years, it was well-known that any newcomers would receive "the newbie beatdown" in which all the self-proclaimed "veteran" mockers would verbally tear these people apart. These days, newbies come in by the truckload and don't seem to have to endure the same initiation mockeries that their predecessors did; however, many of the older members are somewhat bitter and understand certain concepts, such as "humor" and "sarcasm," that seem to escape newer users. The forums have gone through a variety of changes: First they were hosted in a very basic forum format with InsideTheWeb's free forum program. During this time period, the forums existed solely for readers from the Winky section of I-Mockery to argue about vegetarianism vs. meatatarianism and straight-edgers. The forums then opened up to all of I-Mockery's viewers when it moved to the ezboard[19] software, which was free at first, but soon began charging to remove ads. With the large number of people visiting the forums, the fees eventually became too outrageous. So, I-Mockery finally moved to the phpBB forum format, which remains free and supported by the users who choose to donate to it.
  • Blog - Fairly self-explanatory, this is where RoG updates his readers with I-Mockery happenings and other tidbits. The blog was recently completely redone, however, after the original custom blog was getting hit by spambots. The new Wordpress blog has been spam free since its launch.

[edit] Memorable Material

  • The Pickle Hat - For whatever reason, the Pickle Hat became a staple of I-Mockery almost overnight. After the article entitled "Achieve Godliness With a Pickle Hat"[20] was released, readers started sending in letters to the Gedney company requesting the pickle hats. Some people tried collecting UPC codes from Gedney pickle jars, which was the original way you could get a free hat. Gedney also allowed people to simply send in $1 in exchange for one of the paper pickle hats. Combined with his goggles, Roger started wearing them with the pickle hat in most of I-Mockery's future photo pieces. This also lead to the creation of the PickleMan comic book character who also wears a pickle hat and "Wacky Space Goggles" that Roger is almost always seen wearing on-site. Currently, there are plans for a PickleMan flash game in the works and a teaser trailer has already been released.
  • M.U.S.C.L.E. Revisited - This was one of I-Mockery's largest projects at the time. The goal of "M.U.S.C.L.E. Revisited"[21] was to take all 233 of the original popular pink M.U.S.C.L.E. (Kinnikuman) toys from the 80s and give each of them names and biographies.
  • Rom Hack Reviews - I-Mockery's rom hack reviews[22] quickly became one of the most popular features on the site. It focuses on ROM hacking of classic NES games, but generally the hacks that are done poorly and/or in poor taste. The first reviewed hack was called "Knife Boy"[23] - a hack of Paperboy in which the main character delivers bloody knives to his customers instead of newspapers. The rom hacks featured here are often known for involving sexual innuendo, drugs, nazis, profanity and violence. Sometimes I-Mockery host a "Week of the Rom Hack" in which a new rom hack would be reviewed for every day of a particular week and this was often featured on the popular web site Fark.com
  • Domo-Kun's Angry Smashfest - "Domo-Kun's Angry Smashfest"[24] was a collaboration between Roger Barr and Tom Fulp of Newgrounds. The game features Domo-Kun in a quest to defeat the Power Puff Girls for getting him in trouble. There are many nods to classic video games in this title including Street Fighter, Golden Axe, Duck Hunt and more. There are also many easter eggs hidden within the game, including an alternate ending for those who beat the game twice.
  • Marshmallow Peeps - For whatever reason, Marshmallow Peeps have become a regular topic of discussion on I-Mockery. It started out with "The Quest For Peeps"[25] in which the writers actually drove out of their way to find the Peeps tour bus. Then came the "Marshmallow Peeps in Outer Space"[26] flash game, which was a 2-in-1 tribute to the classic Space Invaders and Asteroids arcade games with a Peep theme. Most recently, they reviewed the "Marshmallow Peeps Marshmallow Maker"[27] machine which didn't seem to churn out the same kind of quality Peeps that one could purchase at stores. In late 2005, Barr was interviewed for a documentary on Marshmallow Peeps entitled "Power of the Peep".
  • Sexual Moments in Video Game History - I-Mockery's staff collaborated to create this large list of "Sexual Moments in Video Game History"[28]. Most of the games featured in this list have unintentional sexual innuendo, but some titles such as Cho Aniki are quite blatant about it.
  • Extreme Beverage Testers - When Jones Soda sent I-Mockery their latest holiday sodas to review, the staff decided to review these beverages in a different style. Thus, the "Extreme Beverage Testers"[29] were born and reviewed each of the soda flavors in extreme fashion with over-the-top GIF animations. They have reviewed Jones' Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day sodas and the first non-Jones brand beverage so far, a Steven Seagal energy drink called Lightning Bolt.
  • Ivan Drago: Justice Enforcer[30] - I-Mockery's largest Flash game to date (story by Roger, art by Louis and programming by Mormon coder BoMToons[31]), ID:JF is a side-scrolling beat-em-up starring Ivan Drago of Rocky IV fame fighting crime in an American city populated with knife wielding robbers, Segway riding executives and killer dinosaurs, eventually leading to showdowns with Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa. The game features special moves, unlockable characters and a mini-game.
  • Trick-or-Treat Adventure Quest[32] - A point-and-click adventure game, it is the story of a boy named Little Johnny and his quest to make a Halloween costume and get as much candy as he can.

[edit] Halloween

Halloween has become one of the things I-Mockery is best known for, primarily due to their feverish celebration of the holiday each year. The entire site is redecorated for Halloween and every new article that appears on the site during this time is related to the holiday. Each year, their Halloween celebration has gotten longer. In 2005, I-Mockery's Halloween season began on September 1st, giving them a full two months to create nothing but Halloween-oriented pieces.

I-Mockery's Halloween Collection contains many in-depth reviews of horror movies, product features, the adventures of "Count Pop" and other spooky things, but it also has the staff's annual collaborative "Select Your Destiny" stories. These stories haven grown in size over the years (some well over 100 pages) and feature bizarre plots, loosely based on Halloween themes and the "Choose Your Own Adventure" children's books. Only one of the choices on each page will allow the protagonist to progress, the other choices lead to certain doom of some kind. The stories also often feature small flash games which must be completed in order to continue in the story. In addition to all of the aforementioned, I-Mockery's Halloween Collection also contains two other sub-sections: "The Halloween Grab Bag" and "The Greatest Moments in Horror Movie History".

  • The Halloween Grab Bag tends to contain smaller articles covering the latest Halloween costumes, masks, novelties, candies and happenings at the time. FrightCatalog has often contributed materials to I-Mockery to poke fun at in this section.

As further proof of his Halloween fanaticism, Barr also founded ZombieWalk.com as a place where zombie walks / flash mobs could be organized. He also organized Richmond, Virginia's first annual Zombie Walk in 2005. He also plans on eventually filming an independent zombie movie, but when that will be is anybody's guess.

[edit] Boo Berry

I-Mockery is also home of the web's first Unofficial Boo Berry cereal fan page.[3] This page documents Barr's obsession with the sugary blue monster cereal from the 70's which became increasingly harder to find in the 90's. Out of frustration for being unable to find his favorite cereal, Barr made all of General Mills' company contact information available to the public and encouraged people to write them and complain about the lack of Boo Berry in stores. To his surprise, thousands of people contacted General Mills and while the cereal is still hard to find, many fans consider the Unofficial Boo Berry site one of the reasons that the cereal still exists at all.

Furthering his Boo Berry cause, Roger has appeared on a variety of radio and TV shows to talk about his love for the blue monster cereal. He has appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show"[4], the Food Network's "Unwrapped", and VH1's "Totally Obsessed"[5] - all for Boo Berry.[6]

[edit] Petitions

I-Mockery held large petitions on the web to get Comedy Central to release The Upright Citizens Brigade and Strangers with Candy on DVD. While both shows were canceled after only 3 seasons, they developed a large cult following, and I-Mockery was able to get thousands of signatures which were all forwarded to Comedy Central. The Upright Citizens Brigade personally thanked I-Mockery for its help in getting the DVD set released. In a similar manner, I-Mockery got many of its fans to vote in Amazon's DVD Decision 2006, to get the movie Gymkata released on DVD.

[edit] I-Mockery's Staff

All the members of I-Mockery's staff contribute their time to write for the site on a volunteer basis. The following is a list of those who have written for the site more frequently over the years:

I-Mockery's message forums are also moderated by a small group of people including:

  • Achimp
  • Chojin
  • Kevintheomnivore
  • MLE
  • Esuohlim

[edit] References

  1. ^ West & Wylder 95.5 WTVY FM. (Radio interview: http://www.i-mockery.com/rog-radio.mp3)
  2. ^ Alexander, Scott. "The Weird and the Wacky on the Internet." Yahoo! Internet Life. March 2001: 150. (Scan from issue: http://www.i-mockery.net/media/yahoo-internet-life-2001.jpg)
  3. ^ "Ask Anything." Maxim. February 2001. (Scan from issue: http://www.i-mockery.net/media/maxim-feb-2001.jpg)
  4. ^ "The Daily Show." Comedy Central. (Video file of appearance. 35.9 MB: http://www.popnko.com/imock/booberry/booberrybig.zip)
  5. ^ "Totally Obsessed."VH1. (Link to episode information: http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/totally_obsessed/82028/episode_about.jhtml)
  6. ^ "Mocking Bard." Richmond.com. May 2005. (Article on Richmond.com website: http://www.richmond.com/news/output.aspx?Article_ID=3684718&Vertical_ID=155&tier=20&position=2)

[edit] External links