A plan was hatched months before April Fool’s Day. Originally, during our Red Show podcasts, we would jokingly refer to a HUGE article that a former writer, Matt “Volkov” Schmidt, was preparing to unleash on the world. We hyped this supposed article for months, when one day, Matt asked me, “What’s the deal with this ‘Big Article’ you guys keep talkin about?”A master plan was born.
What? You thought turning the site’s articles into Jive was our April Fool’s Joke? Nope. Read on.
Turning all the articles into Jive was just the diversion. You see, everybody and their mother’s blog’s were doing stuff on April Fool’s Day. Most of it, was kinda lame. So, our lame April Fool’s Day “joke” was the smokescreen for the big Article, which hilariously debuted on April 2, 2008.
Read it, and weep, right here.
The “article” was a hilarious and ridiculous stream of consciousness rambling that had no meaning. It was ten pages of crazy. It was ten pages of genius. The hype got to the point, where it made the front page of Digg.com. No small feat, especially for a joke.
While Matt “Volkov” Schmidt is still missed, his legendary April 2, 2008 joke of epic proportions lives on. That’s why Sarcastic Gamer’s Master Plan and Volkov’s epic article lands at number 65 on our list of the Top 100 Gaming Moments of 2008.
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8 months on I still look back at that post with bemusement…
Was it the cliche “Something big is coming” bluff followed by the “hillarious” anti-climax? Nah, far too obvious.
Was it an ironic parody of the over hyping of video games so topical in the wake of Haze (RIP Free Radical)? Nope, parody implies it would have to have been funny.
Was it a genuine attempt at humour? Might have been a genuine attempt but the humour was MIA.
Was it the moment Sarcastic Gamer jumped the shark? Perhaps
Glad we could Bemuse you!
Looks like someone has a bit of sour grapes for falling for it… Ah well, we forgive you.
Best article I ever did read…
No, never fell for it, though not entirely sure to this day I know what “it” was.
When it was first mentioned on the podcast I was expecting the old bluff of saying something huge is coming for the punchline of it actually being something small.
But as it continued to be mentioned week after week I thought it that was so obvious that it had to be a double bluff and the article either would be something hugely significant or it would be something small, subtle but extremely funny.
Turned out to be neither and the more I read it the more it just seems to be someone trying far too hard to be funny and/or post-modern and failing as a result.
I guess the fact we’re discussing it 8 months on is the point, or maybe the point should have been to lavish it with praise on day one and then forget about it on day two, or perhaps allow it to transcend to the status of a meme that people will debate the origins of for a year before forgetting about it alongside Hamster Dance and Mr T Ate My Balls.
Suppose it depends on your interpretation. Though I long gave up on trying to wrestle with it… Where are Derrida and Lyotard when you need them.
@Kitman67: Riiiiight…
I have a hard time reading through your bs to figure out whether you’re so full of it, or that you just don’t have a funny bone in your body.
Seriously dude, you’re over-thinking it.
@Kiltman67: The fact is, it was never meant to make sense, and you’re trying to make sense of something that was never meant to make sense.
Doesn’t take much common sense to see that the sense of this article was non existent.
Sensey sense sense sense.
@Yamster: Thanks for helping me see sense
It made the front page of Digg? I don’t remember that.
This is my first time reading the famous article.
My head a splode
Well, it was the front page of the video game section on Digg…