Here’s the only good news anybody has heard in weeks, if not months: YTMND lives again. The ancient meme site that sprung fully-formed from the head of Finding Forrester collapsed in May 2019 after years of decline, with a “catastrophic” database failure wiping out much of its history. Considering it had already been on life support for years, due in part to the long phase out of Flash, many assumed the site was totally done for. Even though it was known that its archives had been preserved, so much seemed to be stacked against the site—finances, the archaic technology, the fact that infinitely looping seconds-long memes were probably never intended to be permanent anyway, and more. For all intents and purposes You’re the Man Now Dog seemed to be dead last year, even though it still existed in a greatly reduced version of itself.
Thankfully Max Goldberg, the genius who gave the world this stupidity, never gave up. With the backing of the YTMND Patreon, he’s put in the work necessary to fully restore YTMND’s archives and make them compatible with HTML5, and relaunched it all for a desperate world earlier this week. As Goldberg writes in the blog post announcing the site’s return: “I thought now might be a good time to reopen the site. YTMND’s anniversary is coming up this week. Also, the world is being plunged into chaos, millions of people are stuck inside with nothing to do other than dick around on the internet, and the last few weeks have provided me with ample time to narrow my focus. So welcome back.”
YTMND didn’t invent dicking around on the internet, but it was a crucial step in the eternally on-going development and refinement of that sacrosanct pastime. Frankly, dicking around on the internet would be vastly different today than if Goldberg had never had the brilliant idea of looping the most ridiculous line of dialogue Sean Connery had to utter in 2001. The type of distant, pop culture-addled absurdity that has defined internet humor was birthed in part by YTMND, and it’s only proper that we once again embrace one another during this extended time of deep, shameless internet usage. We’re getting back to the basics of the internet, with YTMND helping us find our way.