A shock site is a website that is intended to be offensive, disgusting and/or disturbing to its viewers, containing materials of high shock value which is also considered distasteful and crude, and is generally of a pornographic, scatological, extremely violent, insulting, painful, profane, or otherwise provocative nature.[1] Some shock sites display a single picture, animation, video clip or a small gallery, and are often passed around via e-mail or disguised in posts to discussion sites as a hoax in an attempt to trick users into following the link to the website (a bait and switch). Most shock sites are merely websites that openly display shocking material such as disturbing pornography, repulsive fetishes, etc.
Some shock sites have also gained their own subcultures and have become internet memes on their own. Goatse.cx featured a page devoted to fan-submitted artwork and tributes to the site's hello.jpg,[2] and a parody of the image was unwittingly shown by a BBC newscast as an alternative for the then recently unveiled logo for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[3] A shock video known as 2 Girls 1 Cup also quickly became an Internet phenomenon, with videos of reactions, homages, and parodies widely posted on video sharing sites such as YouTube.[4]
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Goatse.cx[2][5] was one of the best-known shock sites, featuring an image of a man stretching his anus with his hands.[2][6] The site featured a page devoted to fan-submitted artwork and tributes to the site,[2][5] and a parody of the image was also shown by a BBC newscast as an alternative for the then recently unveiled logo for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[3][7]
The site was shut down in 2004; however, various mirror sites featuring the image still exist.
2 Girls 1 Cup is a notorious shock site/viral video portraying coprophilia and emetophilia with two women defecating into a cup, consuming the excrement, and vomiting it into each other's mouths. The site has garnered a great deal of attention on Internet forums and video sites, spawning various reaction videos and parodies such as songs and animated versions.[4] Among these is a video showing reactions from pop group New Kids on the Block, and comedian Joe Rogan's reaction to the clip[8] and a parody video featuring John Mayer.[9] The video was also brought up in episodes of VH1's Best Week Ever,[4] Family Guy, Tosh.0, and The Inbetweeners. Violet Blue, an author, described this website as becoming "the new 'tubgirl' and goatse all in one disgusting moment of choco-poo-love" in a San Francisco Chronicle article.[10]
Stile Project, which won a Webby Award in 2000 for Weird site and was a People's Voice winner,[11] evolved into a website with a lot of pornographic and extreme material; Wired referred to the website as a "shock site" in a 2001 article.[1]
Lemonparty.org contains an image of three elderly naked men in a bed kissing and having oral sex. The song If You Wanna Be Happy by Jimmy Soul plays in the background. The image has been mentioned on some television shows such as a sketch on Talkshow with Spike Feresten,[12] and dialogue on Archer, The Simpsons,[13] The Cleveland Show and 30 Rock.[14] The website has also been described by Jimmy Fallon on the Opie and Anthony radio show,[15] on Chelsea Handler's TV show Chelsea Lately [16] and by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.