The Best Page in the Universe

Last updated

The Best Page in the Universe
Type of site
Satire
Fratire
Owner Maddox
Created byMaddox (George Ouzounian)
URL maddox.xmission.com
CommercialNo
Launched1997
Current statusActive

The Best Page in the Universe is a personal satirical humor website created by George Ouzounian, better known as Maddox, of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Contents

Launched in 1997 without any high expectations, the website was primarily a personal homepage for Maddox to host his writings while working as a telemarketer for a small software company. Over time, the website became popular enough to allow Maddox to leave his day job as a telemarketer and commit to writing full-time. [1]

History and status

The Best Page in the Universe originated from a text document that Maddox wrote in 1996 [2] named "fifty things that piss me off!". He gave the list to several people on EFnet's Internet Relay Chat channel #coders, and the positive response led him to create the website. [1]

Maddox decided to name his site The Best Page in the Universe despite his knowledge that at the time Yahoo! blocked sites with the phrase "the best" in the title from inclusion in its search engine. [3]

On July 15, 2009, Xmission.com, an ISP which hosts The Best Page in the Universe among other Utah clients, had an Alexa rank of about 16,000, declining to 77,000 by June 2017 and almost 300,000 by November 2021. [4] TheBestPageInTheUniverse.net, an alternate domain for Maddox's website, had an Alexa rank of about 33,000 in 2009, 180,000 in 2017 and almost 2.4 million in 2021. [5] Maddox attributes this change in traffic to his focus on launching the Madcast Media Network, a now defunct platform for internet personalities to launch bite-sized entertainment projects. Currently, Maddox entertains his dedicated fanbase with livestreams featuring original characters such as Bananadox and Oxmad.

Format and content

The Best Page in the Universe's layout was made sparse primarily to reduce bandwidth costs. Maddox also stated that the sparsity protested the many websites that contained "fancy HTML" but lacked substantial content. [6] The page is headed with an image of Maddox's face superimposed over a bust of Che Guevara. In the image, Maddox is wearing a beret emblazoned with the Jolly Roger, and an eye patch. Maddox uses this image as a parody of the revolutionary icon. Maddox says that Che Guevara is remembered as "Che the revolutionary", not "Che the pinko", [1] and claims to be neither socialist nor communist. Instead, he often proclaims himself to be a pirate, and typically portrays himself as such in his articles and artwork. [7]

Maddox has compared reading black text on a white background to "staring at a light bulb". [1] The site uses large, light-colored text on a black background to, in the stated opinion of Maddox, reduce strain on the eyes. [1]

The site contains advertisements only for itself: it sells merchandise, such as stickers and apparel, that bear phrases from its articles. [1] [8] Maddox chose not to use advertisements because he thought they could end up censoring him by dropping ads. [9]

Many of Maddox's articles include Microsoft Paint illustrations, with touch-up done in Adobe Photoshop. [1] Images include elderly people being fired into the Sun, hippies being killed, and Maddox's testicles drawn larger than basketballs. Maddox maintains a section in which he criticizes hate mail his website has generated. When posting his replies he breaks the e-mail down and ridicules points which use fallacious logic and also corrects grammatical or orthographical errors. The site contains several "hidden pages", many of which are unfinished works or first drafts of articles that were moved around. [10]

Related Research Articles

Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google. They can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta-tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering. In Q1 2014, Google earned US$3.4 billion, or 22% of total revenue, through Google AdSense. In 2021, more than 38 million websites used AdSense. It is a participant in the AdChoices program, so AdSense ads typically include the triangle-shaped AdChoices icon. This program also operates on HTTP cookies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberto Korda</span> Cuban photographer

Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda or simply Korda, was a Cuban photographer, remembered for his famous image Guerrillero Heroico of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

<i>The Motorcycle Diaries</i> (film) 2004 film by Walter Salles

The Motorcycle Diaries is a 2004 biographical film about the journey and written memoir of 23-year-old Che Guevara, who would some years later become internationally known as a Marxist guerrilla leader and revolutionary. The film recounts the 1952 expedition, initially by motorcycle, across South America by Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado. As well as being a road movie, the film is a coming-of-age film; as the adventure, initially centered on youthful hedonism, unfolds, Guevara discovers himself transformed by his observations on the life of the impoverished indigenous peasantry. Through the characters they encounter on their continental trek, Guevara and Granado witness first hand the injustices that the destitute face and are exposed to people and social classes they would have never encountered otherwise. To their surprise, the road presents to them both a genuine and captivating picture of Latin American identity. As a result, the trip also plants the initial seed of radicalization within Guevara, who would later challenge the continent's endemic economic inequalities and political repression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberto Granado</span> Companion of Che Guevara during his 1952 motorcycle tour in Latin America

Alberto Granado Jiménez was an Argentine–Cuban biochemist, doctor, writer, and scientist. He was also the youthful friend and traveling companion of Che Guevara during their 1952 motorcycle tour in Latin America. Granado later founded the University of Santiago de Cuba School of Medicine. He authored the memoir Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, which served as a reference for the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries, in which he was played by Rodrigo de la Serna. An elderly Alberto Granado makes a short appearance at the end of the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Fitzpatrick (artist)</span> Irish artist

James Fitzpatrick is an Irish artist. He is best known for elaborately detailed work inspired by the Irish Celtic artistic tradition. However, his most famous single piece is a two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968, based on a photo by Alberto Korda.

<i>The Motorcycle Diaries</i> (book) Memoir by Che Guevara

The Motorcycle Diaries is a posthumously published memoir of the Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It traces his early travels, as a 23-year-old medical student, with his friend Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old biochemist. Leaving Buenos Aires, Argentina, in January 1952 on the back of a sputtering single cylinder 1939 Norton 500cc dubbed La Poderosa, they desired to explore the South America they only knew from books. During the formative odyssey Guevara is transformed by witnessing the social injustices of exploited mine workers, persecuted communists, ostracized lepers, and the tattered descendants of a once-great Inca civilization. By journey's end, they had travelled for a "symbolic nine months" by motorcycle, steamship, raft, horse, bus, and hitchhiking, covering more than 8,000 kilometres across places such as the Andes, the Atacama Desert, and the Amazon River Basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maddox (writer)</span> American blogger

George Ouzounian, known as Maddox, is an American blogger, YouTuber, and author. He gained fame on the internet in the early 2000s for his opinion-oriented website, The Best Page in the Universe, which he still maintains. His first book, The Alphabet of Manliness (2006), became a New York Times bestseller.

<i>Che</i> (2008 film) 2008 film by Steven Soderbergh

Che is a two-part 2008 epic biographical film about the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, directed by Steven Soderbergh. Rather than follow a standard chronological order, the films offer an oblique series of interspersed moments along the overall timeline. Part One is titled The Argentine and focuses on the Cuban Revolution from the landing of Fidel Castro, Guevara, and other revolutionaries in Cuba to their successful toppling of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship two years later. Part Two is titled Guerrilla and focuses on Guevara's attempt to bring revolution to Bolivia and his demise. Both parts are shot in a cinéma vérité style, but each has different approaches to linear narrative, camerawork and the visual look. It stars Benicio del Toro as Guevara, with an ensemble cast that includes Demián Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Santiago Cabrera, Franka Potente, Julia Ormond, Vladimir Cruz, Marc-André Grondin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Joaquim de Almeida, Édgar Ramírez, Yul Vazquez, Unax Ugalde, Alfredo De Quesada, Jordi Mollá, Matt Damon, and Oscar Isaac.

<i>The Alphabet of Manliness</i>

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<i>Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War</i>

Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, also titled Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, is an autobiographical book by Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara about his experiences during the Cuban Revolution (1956–1958) to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Che Guevara in popular culture</span>

Appearances of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (1928–1967) in popular culture are common throughout the world. Although during his lifetime he was a highly politicized and controversial figure, in death his stylized image has been transformed into a worldwide emblem for an array of causes, representing a complex mesh of sometimes conflicting narratives. Che Guevara's image is viewed as everything from an inspirational icon of revolution, to a retro and vintage logo. Most commonly he is represented by a facial caricature originally by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick and based on Alberto Korda's famous 1960 photograph titled Guerrillero Heroico. The evocative simulacra abbreviation of the photographic portrait allowed for easy reproduction and instant recognizability across various uses. For many around the world, Che has become a generic symbol of the underdog, the idealist, the iconoclast, or the martyr. He has become, as author Michael Casey notes in Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image, "the quintessential postmodern icon signifying anything to anyone and everything to everyone."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foco</span> Theory of revolution by way of guerrilla warfare

A guerilla foco is a small cadre of revolutionaries operating in a nation's countryside. This guerilla organization was popularized by Che Guevara in his book Guerilla Warfare, which was based on his experiences in the Cuban Revolution. Guevara would go on to argue that a foco was politically necessary for the success of a socialist revolution. Originally Guevara theorized that a foco was only useful in overthrowing personalistic military dictatorships and not liberal democratic capitalism where a peaceful overthrow was believed possible. Years later Guevara would revise his thesis and argue all nations in Latin America, including liberal democracies, could be overthrown by a guerilla foco. Eventually the foco thesis would be that political conditions would not even need to be ripe for revolutions to be successful, since the sheer existence of a guerilla foco would create ripe conditions by itself. Guevara's theory of foco, known as foquismo, was self-described as the application of Marxism-Leninism to Latin American conditions, and would later be further popularized by author Régis Debray. The proposed necessity of a guerilla foco proved influential in Latin America, but was also heavily criticized by other socialists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikivoyage</span> Free travel guide that anyone can edit

Wikivoyage is a free web-based travel guide for travel destinations and travel topics written by volunteer authors. It is a sister project of Wikipedia and supported and hosted by the same non-profit Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). Wikivoyage has been called the "Wikipedia of travel guides".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Che Guevara</span> Argentine revolutionary (1928–1967)

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XMission</span>

XMission is the first and is one of the few remaining independent Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Utah, United States, founded in late 1993 by Pete Ashdown. Starting in 2003, the company began providing free wireless internet in public libraries and some local businesses. By the Summer of 2005, XMission worked out an agreement with Salt Lake City government to expand free wireless to many parts of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. XMission also provides streaming support for radio stations, including NPR affiliate KCPW-FM and independent radio station KRCL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legacy of Che Guevara</span>

The legacy of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is constantly evolving in the collective imagination. As a symbol of counterculture worldwide, Guevara is one of the most recognizable and influential revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. However, during his life, and even more since his death, Che has elicited controversy and wildly divergent opinions on his personal character and actions. He has been both revered and reviled, being characterized as everything from a heroic defender of the poor, to a cold-hearted executioner.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, intellectual, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. His life, legacy, and ideas have attracted a great deal of interest from historians, artists, film makers, musicians, and biographers. In reference to the abundance of material, Nobel Prize–winning author Gabriel García Márquez has declared that "it would take a thousand years and a million pages to write Che's biography."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Che Jesus</span>

Che Jesus is an image depicting Jesus Christ in the style of Jim Fitzpatrick's iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara, which is itself based upon Alberto Korda's iconic Guerrillero Heroico photo.

<i>Guerrillero Heroico</i> Photograph of Che Guevara

Guerrillero Heroico is an iconic photograph of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda. It was captured on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion. By the end of the 1960s, the image, in conjunction with Guevara's subsequent actions and eventual execution, helped solidify the leader as a cultural icon. Korda has said that at the moment he shot the picture, he was drawn to Guevara's facial expression, which showed "absolute implacability" as well as anger and pain. Years later, Korda would say that the photograph showed Che's firm and stoical character. Guevara was 31 years old at the time the photograph was taken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Che Guevara in fashion</span>

The Che Guevara trend, or "Che chic", is a fashion trend featuring the Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The phenomenon has attracted attention from the media, political commentators, songwriters, and Cuban American activists due to the popularity of the T-shirt design, Che's political beliefs, and the "irony" of buying a T-shirt depicting a Marxist icon. As op-ed commentator Chris Berg noted in The Age, "Ironically, Che Guevara's longevity as a cultural symbol has been thanks to the very economic system he sought to destroy".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Maddox. "The Best Page in the Universe: FAQ"
  2. "It's a man's world." Salon
  3. Maddox. "100 million faces rocked" Archived 2005-07-29 at the Wayback Machine . The Best Page in the Universe. March 18, 2005
  4. XMission.com ranking on Alexa.com
  5. Thebestpageintheuniverse.net's rating on Alexa.com
  6. "The Best Page In The Universe: FAQ". www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  7. "The Best Page In The Universe: FAQ". www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  8. Maddox. "The Best Store in the Universe".
  9. Maddox. "Banners Blow!" The Best Page in the Universe. July 9, 2000.
  10. "Maddox Addicts :: Secrets". Maddox Addicts