"Thank You Shadow-Self--I'll Do Battle With You Later"

In today's fastmoving pop culture world, I have traditionally stayed out of the fast lane. Usually one of the last to know of a new fad, I barely considereds showing it to all of my friends before finding out that it was already passe. Take Rickrolling for instance. I don't know how long it's been around, but I heard about it the first time when xkcd mentioned it, and I had no clue what it was until a friend explained it to me in December. Two weeks later, MSN declared it a technology trend that needed to be "laid to rest." *sigh* I never even got the chance to Rickroll anybody. Although, it might not be dead yet: this website has just declared an official Rickrolling contest with prizes from amazon.

I completely missed music trends like nsync or Brittney Spears. I went through my life, singing songs from the 1940s and knowing more jokes from Jack Benny than Saturday Night Live. That's why I was surprised when a quirky site my brother-in-law showed me my sophomore year in high school gradually grew in popularity until it was plastered all over young adulthood with t-shirts, stickers, window clings, plushies, and dvd releases of the site's videos. Status could be obtained by mentioning how much paraphenelia one owned. I am talking, of course, about Strong Bad and the rest of the Homestarrunner crew.

Suddenly, I was one of those high-popculture snobs scoffing at those who liked it only because it was popular. "I've liked it since way back," I'd say with a condescending smile. "I was introducing other people to it and talking like Strong Bad with my friends long before you knew it existed. It's cute that you're trying to get in on it now." Although I couldn't afford the accessories that would proclaim my superiority, some part of me felt it. And it was true. When the makers of Homestarrunner were just barely starting to go full-time, over a hundred emails ago, Di and I had already lost consciousness of how often we talked like Strong Bad.

Now, the site has long since faded in popularity. I have met one person in over a year who still follows the site regularly. The t-shirts and window clings have disappeared, and those still sporting them are quietly pitied as the oblivious souls who probably don't realize when their romantic relationships are "over" either. Except for the occasional, "Sewiously guys," or a cheerful "Deleted!" no one is talking about it, or making it their default page anymore.

But......

If the secret truth is told, which it is, since I'm blogging it, I still keep up with my old friends at Homestarrunner. That's right, it's still there. And there's still new material every week. I never really stopped, and keeping up takes less than five minutes a week. I still think it's funny. Homestarrunner.com has been around for nine years, and has never once sold advertising space and the site. No text adds, no popups, nothing. It's no longer the only thing like it on the internet, so it's lost the fresh hilarity of a new idea, but it still makes me laugh. So there. I liked it before it was popular, I liked it while it was popular, and I like it after. And, if someday it goes through one of those periods of retro popularity that suddenly and breifly vaunts an obscure subgroup of long-time nerds into the position of popculture leaders who have "liked it all along," I may be one of those nerds. But even if that happens, I won't triumph because my vehicle for popculture superiority has returned, I can live without that, but because watching the world fall in love with it again would be watching an old friend who deserves the attention and praise as "one of the originals" finally get it after being harshly discarded by fickle friends.

"Turn off your computer and go outsite or something--nerd!"