There are generally two experiences 90s kids remember vividly: their first sexual encounter and their first encounter with the internet. For anyone who discovered Newgrounds.com as a kid, they often occurred simultaneously.
In its heyday during the internet boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, Newgrounds hosted thousands of active users and served as a platform for user-submitted, original creative content. A year before YouTube launched in 2004, Gary Brolsma uploaded the now-famous "Numa Numa" to Newgrounds, signifying the first shift towards internet-generated, shareable content that has become a part of our everyday lives.
Shortly before Y2K, Netscape 5.0 was installed in my home. My internet exposure had previously been limited to the classroom or a neighbor's computer. Knowledge of the website known as "Newgrounds" had swept through my school yard, and I wasted no time accessing it.
Due to games like "Dad n' Me," a poorly animated game that involves massacring characters with a chainsaw, and "Britney Spears dress up doll," where users undressed a Photoshopped figure with Britney Spears' head attached (there were many games dedicated to degrading the reigning pop princess), we were swiftly prohibited by parents and teachers from visiting the forbidden the site.
Naturally this made the site all the more exciting. We were confused and hormonal—a volatile mix—drawn to its controversial allure. There we found violence, nudity, and community. It served as a welcome to the wonderful world of the web. We found a place to experience new and innovative content that was as warped as our prepubescent minds. It was this uncensored, unadulterated content that would make Newgrounds so successful. For us kids, it represented an escape from the ordinary reality of our daily lives. As we grew into adolescence, it reaffirmed a shared view that was, predictably, in opposition to our parent's standards of decency.
"A lot of the motivation behind Newgrounds came from growing up in a pre-web world, in particular, a world where no one saw what you made if you grew up in a small town and weren't part of 'the industry,'" he told VICE.
He recounts an experience in grade school school creating a book report video, only to have the teacher deem it obscene. "The video was laced with skits containing violence and drug humor. My teacher regretted showing it and gave me a C."
" jokes. so i wouldn't pay too much attention to those who get offended. who cares if he did it anyway? drugs should be legal."
But Newgrounds was more than provocative content. It mirrored cultural shifts and was a window into the future. Like the meme culture of today, the games often parodied what was popular or culturally significant. After September 11, the site was flooded with games like "OSAMAGOTCHI" that took aim at Osama Bin Laden. Alternatively, "CELEB TERROR ALERT" allowed players to play as Bin Laden whose mission is to kill various political figures also proved popular. In hindsight, I can see that Newgrounds served an unusual function. Through its emphasis on satire, it shaped my critical thinking skills and willingness to question conventional logic. At a time when "terror"—and the propaganda that surrounded it—seemed an omniscient force and resulted in shared, suffocating anxiety and fear, Newgrounds took aim and made it funny.
Games like these highlight the creative liberties creators were allowed to take and the humorous spin they placed on disturbing subjects. The different takes on the same issue spoke to a larger paradigm underlying the content: irreverence towards everything conventional. Creators used clever and innovative methods to address larger global issues and trends, and while it often seemed juvenile, it was bold and refreshing.
Newgrounds marked the end for parental oversight and the beginning of a rogue internet culture that continues to embody many of the values originally envisioned by Fulp. The refusal to be censored remains strong, while threats to net neutrality continuously loom. More than ever, sites like Newgrounds are necessary to counter the conventions of the day. Breaking down narratives is an essential function of the internet where so much information is readily available. Being able to think critically about what is happening is both a skill and art, and Newgrounds had the capacity to foster both.
The argument that millennials are desensitized may be misattributed to their ability to question or completely dismiss what's in front of them. It's hard to bullshit a generation of people raised by sites like Newgrounds, a place devoted to recognizing bullshit and turning it into content.
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