Single-Serving Sites

About

Single-serving sites are web sites comprised of a single page with a dedicated domain name and do only one thing. While such sites have existed since the dawn of the internet, the meme was detailed & named by popular linkblogger Jason Kottke in 2008

In fact, one of the earliest intenet memes was a single serving site: the Hampster Dance

List of Notable Single-Serving Sites

• Purple.com
• Sometimes Red, Sometimes Blue.com
• Is Lost A Repeat?
• Am I Awesome?
• KHAAAAAAAAN
• Barack Obama is Your Bicycle (and numerous spinoffs)

Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle in particular has enjoyed a great deal of success and has been transformed into a book.

You’re The Man Now Dog was a single-serving site created by Max Goldberg and inspired by an irreverent audio snippet from the film Finding Forrester. The format — one piece of looping audio, one piece of repeated image, quasi-3D text effects — was so widely replicated that Goldberg established ytmnd.com as a community hub for this particular style of SSS. YTMND has gone on to launch many notable memes, including Captain Jean-Luc Picard, lol, internet, and Ueleleleleu (Batman)

The single-serving concept has more recently spread to platforms like Twitter & Tumblr, where people create “themed” blogs/microblogs, such as the Puddle Blog (which features daily photos of the same puddle) and Twitter accounts like the Tower Bridge, which documents the opening & closing of said and lets you know which ship was passing through.

There are also Single Serving Sites based around instant reactions.

Instant Rimshot: the earliest and best-known reaction site. Follows a successful joke or one-liner. Equivalent to “BADUM-TISH!” in spoken conversation.

Sad Trombone: follows an ironic or tragicomic observation. Equivalent to the vocalized “sad trombone sound” in spoken conversation.

Buuurn (that’s three ’U’s): follows a stinging insult, comeback or retort. Equivalent to “Burn!”, “Zing!” or “Oh snap!” in spoken conversation.

Instant Crickets: follows a failed joke or non sequitur. Equivalent to an awkward silence in spoken conversation.

Is Kanye West a Douchebag? There’s a little more to this one than first meets the eye.