Bert Is Evil! (1998)

About:

Dino Ignacio started his “Bert is Evil” website, originally at http://www.fractalcow.com/bert/bert.htm in 1998. Sesame Street’s Bert character was depicted with Hitler, edited into JFK’s assasination photographs, the Oklahoma City bombing, and more.

The “Bert is Evil” imagery was much like Disaster Girl in imagery, but the site also provided humorous back-stories for each image. In no time, the site became wildly popular.

Dino Ignacio, Wout J Reinders and Jasper Hulshoff Pol accepted the Webby Award and the People’s Voice Award for Best Weird Website at the Palace of Fine Arts auditorium in San Francisco.

The demise of the original, the birth of the mirrors

By the summer of 1998, due to the website’s immense cult popularity, it became too expensive for Ignacio to continue running. Instead of killing the website , he offered to allow anyone who was willing to mirror his original website the opportunity to host it. As a result, dozens of mirrors appeared, increasing the website’s popularity and visibility.

Here’s are some “Bert is Evil” mirrors:

• http://www.bertisevil.tv/
• http://www.spacecat.com/bert/bert.htm
• http://www.angelfire.com/de/cheatsbert/p3bert.html

Because of Ignacio’s declaration, that everyone was free to mirror the content, new variations and updates began appearing on the various Bert mirrors. The entire website had become a meme; deviating just slightly with each iteraton.

9/11, 2001

Immediately following 9/11, images of Bert with Osama bin Laden began appearing on the internet.

According to Snopes in an odd twist of events, pro bin Laden protestors carried posters of Osama image-collages made in Bangladesh by someone who had taken images from the web, including a “Bert is Evil” image. Bert himself may never have been seen with Bin Laden IRL, but “Bert is Evil” posters were actually present at a number of anti-US/Pro bin Laden ralleys.