The Best Page in the Universe
Encyclopedia
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
.
Launched in 1997 without any high expectations, the website became known by word of mouth
.
's #coders, and the positive response led him to create the website.
Maddox decided to name his site "The Best Page in the Universe" despite his knowledge that Yahoo!
blocked sites with the phrase "the best" in the title from inclusion in its search engine.
On July 15, 2009, Xmission.com, which hosts The Best Page in the Universe, had an Alexa
rank of about 16,000, and TheBestPageInTheUniverse.net, which works as an alternative domain for Maddox's website, had an Alexa rank of about 33,000. Maddox himself wrote an article in 2002 illustrating that despite all traffic being generated by word-of-mouth alone, his site was still ranked ahead of major corporations such as McDonalds and Pepsi
, who spend millions of dollars on advertising every year.
He launched a competition for people to send him cartoons about himself or his website, most of which are attacks about emails for "more updates."
Later, he parodied this himself by stating that now that he's finished with the comic book, he'd be able to "Not update the site more regularly."
Entries included a depiction of Maddox leaping out of a computer monitor and smashing two fans' faces together, and a comic strip of a boy checking the website for new content only to find a cartoon of himself that he had posted ten seconds earlier.
Maddox also stated the sparsity protested the many websites containing "fancy HTML
" but lacking substantial content.
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", 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.
Maddox has compared reading black text on a white background to "staring at a light bulb."
The site uses large, light-colored text against a black background to, in the stated opinion of Maddox, reduce strain on the eyes.
The site contains advertisements only for itself: it sells merchandise, such as stickers and apparel, that bear phrases from its articles. Maddox chose to not use advertisements because he thought they could end up censoring him by dropping ads.
Many of Maddox's articles include MS Paint illustrations, with touch up done in Photoshop. 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.
Personal web page
Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than on behalf of an employer or institution. Personal web pages are often used solely for informative or entertainment purposes....
satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
humor website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
created by George Ouzounian
Maddox (writer)
Maddox is the pen name of George Ouzounian, an American humorist, satirist, Internet personality, 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 ,...
, better known as Maddox, of Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
Launched in 1997 without any high expectations, the website became known by word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
.
History and status
"The Best Page in the Universe" originated from a text document that Maddox wrote in 1996 aptly named "fifty things that piss me off!" He gave the list to several people on EFnetEFnet
EFnet or Eris Free network is a major IRC network, with more than 35,000 users. It is the modern-day descendant of the original IRC network.- History :...
's #coders, and the positive response led him to create the website.
Maddox decided to name his site "The Best Page in the Universe" despite his knowledge that Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
blocked sites with the phrase "the best" in the title from inclusion in its search engine.
On July 15, 2009, Xmission.com, which hosts The Best Page in the Universe, had an Alexa
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
rank of about 16,000, and TheBestPageInTheUniverse.net, which works as an alternative domain for Maddox's website, had an Alexa rank of about 33,000. Maddox himself wrote an article in 2002 illustrating that despite all traffic being generated by word-of-mouth alone, his site was still ranked ahead of major corporations such as McDonalds and Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
, who spend millions of dollars on advertising every year.
He launched a competition for people to send him cartoons about himself or his website, most of which are attacks about emails for "more updates."
Later, he parodied this himself by stating that now that he's finished with the comic book, he'd be able to "Not update the site more regularly."
Entries included a depiction of Maddox leaping out of a computer monitor and smashing two fans' faces together, and a comic strip of a boy checking the website for new content only to find a cartoon of himself that he had posted ten seconds earlier.
Format and content
Website's layout was sparse primarily to reduce bandwidth costs.Maddox also stated the sparsity protested the many websites containing "fancy HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
" but lacking substantial content.
The page is headed with an image of Maddox's face superimposed over a bust of Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
.
In the image, Maddox is wearing a beret
Beret
A beret is a soft, round, flat-crowned hat, designated a "cap", usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, or wool felt, or acrylic fiber....
emblazoned with the Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger
The Jolly Roger is any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today is the skull and crossbones, a flag consisting of a human skull above two long bones set in an x-mark arrangement on a black field. This design was used by...
, 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", and claims to be neither socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
nor communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
.
Instead, he often proclaims himself to be a pirate, and typically portrays himself as such in his articles and artwork.
Maddox has compared reading black text on a white background to "staring at a light bulb."
The site uses large, light-colored text against a black background to, in the stated opinion of Maddox, reduce strain on the eyes.
The site contains advertisements only for itself: it sells merchandise, such as stickers and apparel, that bear phrases from its articles. Maddox chose to not use advertisements because he thought they could end up censoring him by dropping ads.
Many of Maddox's articles include MS Paint illustrations, with touch up done in Photoshop. Images include elderly people being fired into the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
, 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
Fallacy
In logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is usually an incorrect argumentation in reasoning resulting in a misconception or presumption. By accident or design, fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor , or take advantage of social relationships between people...
logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
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.