Goodbye dear Rage guy
One thing all avid users of social networking websites will be very well aware of, are seeing posts with crudely drawn images that, in spite of being borderline-ugly, perfectly resemble the facial expression of a perfect awkward or absolutely delightful situation.
Known as memes, they have become a ubiquitous part of Web culture. Among the memes however, a particular type has seen more popularity than the rest — the rage guy, which started way back in 2008. The memes typically consist of four panes portraying situations which can bring rage and exasperation, with the main character screaming with anger as a result. Rage guy evolved into a comic series known as Rage Comics.
The comics saw a surge of popularity especially in the early years. All possible situations that could possibly annoy a person were made into rage memes, but after a point it all got a tad bit over-used and consequently, annoying. And the inevitable is happening now – one of Internet’s most popular cult icon is dying a slow death, albeit to the joy of many.
Rage comics are essentially a set of emoticons — faces that represent common emotions and reactions. Their popularity was solely because there's something undeniably and universally appealing about the creative democratisation that rage comics represent, and there were some really funny examples of the form during its heyday.
So how and why exactly did the rage comics became an overdose? It all started in 2009, when the comics started having their own home on Reddit. For three years, Reddit's army of a half-million amateur cartoonists has worked nonstop, 24 hours a day, creating new comics at breakneck speed. First there was the enthusiasm of something new, then creativity peaked to an all-new level, and finally, began the steady decline.
But as Kevin Morris, of Daily Dot, discovered, new data shows the page is in the midst of a decline. From February to December last year, visits to the page dropped by more than half, from 2.2 million to 1 million. Page views have fallen even more, from an almost unbelievable 37 million in February to a mere 8 million in December.
While it might be tough to pinpoint a particular reason for its decline, Web experts claim it could be due a combination of factors such as overuse of comics and moving on to other forms of such simple, yet appealing forms of online entertainment.
The online world is a very fickle one. Rage comics had a good run, but as they slowly fade into oblivion now, maybe it is time to bid a hearty farewell to a meme that truly deserves it.
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