Brunching Shuttlecocks
Encyclopedia
The Brunching Shuttlecocks is a humor web site that ran from June 1997 to March 2003. Its main contributors were Lore Sjöberg
Lore Sjöberg
Lore Christian Fitzgerald Sjöberg is an internet humorist, co-founder of the Brunching Shuttlecocks humor website and author of The Book of Ratings...
and Dave Neilsen and it ran under the motto "Pure and Simple as a Hammer to the Forebrain."
In interviews, Lore has stated that he was tired of hearing his friends talk about their 401K plans when he didn't have one, and suggested they talk about creating a comedy website instead. As it happened, only Dave Neilsen could make the time commitment to do so.
Content
Recurring features were:- The Ratings: Sjöberg would choose a random topic, such as "Superfriends" or "breakfast cerealBreakfast cerealA breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
s", and would then apply letter grades to items from that category with an explanatory paragraph. Only one F was ever given during the run of the series. The recipient was Scrappy-DooScrappy-DooScrappy Cornelius Doo is a fictional Great Dane puppy created by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1979 as the nephew of Hanna-Barbera cartoon star Scooby-Doo. Scrappy has appeared in a number of the various incarnations of the Scooby-Doo cartoon series. Lennie Weinrib provided his voice for one season...
in the topic, "Scooby-DooScooby-DooScooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
Characters." - The Self-Made Critic: Movie reviews by the anonymous Self-Made Critic (later revealed as Neilsen). Films were graded on a scale of 0 to 5 BabylonsBabylon 5Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
, and each featured a (usually belittling) comment from the anonymous Editor as a post-script. - This or That: Tests of the reader's ability to differentiate dissimilar things with similar names, such as "Christian MetalChristian rockChristian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...
Band or Star Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
Episode?", "Beanie Baby or G.I. JoeG.I. JoeG.I. Joe is a line of action figures produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier , Action Sailor , Action Pilot , Action Marine and later on, the Action Nurse...
?", and "PornPornographyPornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
Star or My Little PonyMy Little PonyMy Little Pony is a brand of toy ponies marketed primarily to girls produced by the toy manufacturer Hasbro. These ponies can be identified by their colorful bodies and manes and a unique symbol on one or both sides of their flanks...
?" Some of these were used as on-air radio quizzes by morning DJs, usually without citing the source. - Lore Brand ComicsLore Brand ComicsLore Brand Comics is a webcomic by Lore Sjöberg. It traditionally features three panels of an exaggerated cartoon version of Lore pontificating about some facet of modern culture, with an acerbic punchline in the third panel...
: Three-panel comic strips by Sjöberg, usually consisting of a short monologue by his cartoon avatar. - Thoughts From: Dave's thoughts conceived during activities such as shopping or driving to work, with each accompanied by a cartoon mugshot of Dave drawn by Lore.
- Bandwidth Theater: Flash cartoons by Lore.
- The Complete and Utter Idiot's Guide: Dave provided instructions to an idiot on how to perform the simplest of tasks, such as cooking a TV Dinner, in the most literal and painstakingly detailed manner possible.
- Ed's World: Short stories on how Ed, the only smart man in the world, outwitted the imbecile citizens of Earth.
- Good or Bad?: A list of dissimilar items in a cgi web form that allowed readers to rate them as good or bad. Votes were tabulated, and items appeared above or below the "Line of Truth" based on whether more readers voted "good" or "bad".
- Web toys, such as Tina the Troubled Teen, a cartoon of a gothGoth subcultureThe goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
girl which could be copied to any webpage, showing a new caustic comment every day; or the Oral SexOral sexOral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
Donation System; or a page allowing RoshamboRock-paper-scissorsRock-paper-scissors is a hand game played by two people. The game is also known as roshambo, or another ordering of the three items ....
challenges through e-mail.
The Geek Hierarchy deserves special note, as it has been widely passed around, and imitations created for other fields.
It is a chart of various groups in fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
, with arrows between groups indicating who looks down on whom. The topmost group is "Published Science Fiction Authors" and various flavors of furries
Furry fandom
Furry fandom is a fandom for fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, the ability to speak, walk on two legs, and wear clothes...
are at the bottom.
Brunching in print
In 2002, The Book of Ratings : Opinions, Grades, and Assessments of Everything Worth Thinking About was released by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of Random HouseRandom House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
(ISBN 0-609-80852-4). The book consists of material from the website plus new material, and was illustrated by Steve Notley, creator of Bob the Angry Flower
Bob the Angry Flower
Bob the Angry Flower is a black-and-white comic strip that tells the exploits of an easily angered anthropomorphic flower named Bob and his interactions with the world, often in search of either global domination or love...
.
Impact
During its heyday, it was one of the most popular humor sites on the web. As of May 2011 the site was still the top GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
hit for the word "brunching" and was the fifth hit for "shuttlecocks", though while the domain still exists, the website no longer has a home page and instead redirects to Lore Sjöberg's Google+
Google+
Google+ is a social networking and identity service, operated by Google Inc.The service was launched on June 28, 2011, in an invite-only "field testing" phase. The following day, existing users were allowed to invite friends who were over 18 years of age to the service to create their own accounts....
page. It was among the first sites to be given a "Slashbox" on Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
.
Mentions and praise in print media:
- Washington Post
- NewsweekNewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
Oct. 27, 1997, p. 12; Dec. 14, 1998, p. 18 - Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
Dec. 1, 2000, p. 107; May 24, 2002, p. 98 - POV Magazine, November 1999, voted one of the 100 best websites
- Jane (magazine)Jane (magazine)Jane was an American magazine created to appeal to the women who grew up reading Sassy Magazine, both of which had Jane Pratt as founding editor. Its original target audience was aged 18–34, and was designed to appeal to women who are irreverent...
October 2000, p. 104 - The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Brunching was named as one of the top ten humor sites by Yahoo! Internet Life
Yahoo! Internet Life
Yahoo! Internet Life was a monthly magazine published by Ziff-Davis, which licensed the name from Yahoo!, the well-known web portal and search engine website. It was created and launched by G. Barry Golson, the former executive editor of Playboy and TV Guide.It dealt with the emerging Internet and...
.
Lore's The Bjork Song was played on the Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen , better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present....
show on May 20, 2001.