Goatse

Introdocution

Long before you got rick-rolled, two girls daintily shared one cup between them, or Rule 34 was a twinkle in its daddies’ eyes, there existed the shock-horror image of Goatse.cx

For those who still remember the day when they first saw the impressive image -- it needs no explanation. For those who’ve seen its interpretation through other memes -- it is no doubt familiar. For those poor few yet to see it -- your first viewing will be a date which you will remember forever.

About

Goatse is a well-known shock site image depicting a naked man stretching his anus with fingers of both hands.

History

Notable websites provide historical information better than we:

Wikipedia

The image, originally named gap3.jpg, originates from a set of forty images called gap.zip. In those images, the man uses dildos and butt plugs to stretch his anus. The images were located by Stile Project and are also available from the “Contrib” section of the goatse.cx website.

enclyclopediadramatica

One very persistent internets user spent months and months trawling all the gay erotica and anal stretching newsgroups and eventually located the star of this picture, by matching the pattern of moles on his ass. It is with many lulz that ED advises the world that the Goatse guy’s real name is Kirk Johnson, and he posts pictures and videos of himself regularly on the newsgroup alt.binaries.erotica.male.anal.

Urban Dictionary

Although it originated from a picture of a man streaching his anus amazingly wide, GOATSE is now a verb.

GOATSE: verb.
To cause someone to navigate to a website, which usually contains only one image; by giving a faulty web adress. Said image must be disgusting and scaring. The beauty of GOATSE is that a person only realizes what it is once they have seen it. HAHAHA! PWNED!

(Note: The original GOATSE picture is sometimes referred to as THE GOATSE)
(Note 2: The goatse is one of a huge amount of suh websites)

Therapist: When did all your problems start?
Patient: This one time. When I got GOATSE-d.

Conan O’Brien

Comedian and host of The Tonight Show Conan O’brien, has often commented that his favorite audience reaction is one where horror turns to humor, and it is this reaction that Goastse inspires -- at first a sense of horror, but once time has passed and we gain the ability to cope (or rather if we gain the ability) we begin to find the humor in it.