September 1997
s m u g
net worth
by Leslie Harpold

*

Super Duper Bad

Like everyone, I have a list of sites I riff through every day. It seems, the longer I'm on the web the less I care about some sensitive kid in the middle of nowhere and his "musings" on life, or the shameless self promotion of vanity sites of the Digerati (Note to self: get one of those.) My list gets shorter every day as I get more jaded. How many times can I be wowed by some little shockwave game or touched by the tragic tale of a girl with good intentions in a world gone wrong? For the last several months though, there's been one site that has never let me down. Is it put together by a team of overpaid underaged kids? No, it's the labor of love of just one man.

Superbad is candy of the sweetest kind. When I look at it, I just keep thinking "this guy gets it" and although I'm not sure I can describe accurately what constitutes it, exactly I know that you'll be there with me when I suggest you think of the last thing you saw and thought "No, this person doesn't get it". Like PJ (yes) vs. Alanis (no), that sort of thing.

Ben Benjamen is the mind behind the site, although you'd be hard pressed to find his name anywhere among the pages. What you will find are apologetic notes to the family about the turkey neck incident, Hello Kitty! style Chairman Mao, Uncle Hubris, and lots of mysterious technological drawings. I wasn't surprised the Ben works on the web, because he so accurately deconstructs it, using javascript tricks, in-jokes and distorted gifs in what could be described as a tacit mocking of web design rules and technical visions, but is really just a hell of a lot of fun.

Then there are the bees. And the meat. "I wanted to provide a hands on art experience" Benjamen said in email, "but also teach people important things like beekeeping and posture. Frankly, I don't think people eat enough meat anymore, meat has been maligned in the media in the last ten years, and I'm on a one man crusade to fight that".

Updated almost daily, there always seems to be some new corner of weirdness to fall into. There are countless trap doors, hidden links, strange commentaries and of course, the proverbial monkey house. I love the monkey house the best, it's complete with four pages devoted solely to monkey mating habits and pictures of monkeys in cinema throughout history. Benjamen states that this is a loving tribute to his childhood passion for the old TV show BJ and the Bear, although he is unsure which one was BJ and who the was the bear.

Nothing is sacred. Everything from houseguests to Michael J. Fox and the Mac OS are fair game. The influences range from pop 80s to early 70s notebook covers to Ranger Rick magazine. You get disoriented easily. Just when you think you've seen everything, you end up somewhere new.

Superbad doesn't sell anything, and he can't use the sites to show off his skills to potential clients. The one time he pointed a prospective employer at the URL not only did he never hear from him again, but repeated calls to his secretary resulted in her saying "look, we just think you're dangerous, if a serial killer had a web site, we're sure it would be Superbad".

And you ask why I love it so much.

Some things have to be seen to be fully understood. I can explain for hours why I love Superbad, but I'd rather you just looked for yourself. It shouldn't take you long to find your own reason.

*

leslie@smug.com

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