 | |
Type of site | Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington |
| Owner | Literally Media |
| URL | failblog |
| Launched | 3 January 2008 |
| Current status | Online |
Fail Blog (stylized asFAIL Blog) is a comedicblog website created in January 2008.[1]
FAIL Blog features disastrous mishaps and general stupidity in photos and video which have captions such as "fail", "epic fail", "X Fail", or "X; You're doin' it wrong" (X being the activity at which the subject has failed). There are also multiple sites under the FAIL Blog brand, including Failbook (which features FAILs onFacebook), Ugliest Tattoos, and There, I Fixed It.[2][3][4]
In January 2008, FAIL Blog was launched. The site grew steadily in popularity; in May 2008, FAIL Blog was sold to Pet Holdings, Inc. (nowCheezburger, Inc.), becoming part of theCheezburger Network.[5] Ben Huh notes that FAIL Blog "really started to take off when the financial industry decided to — ahem — fail."[1] As an example, at a United States Senate hearing in September 2008, a demonstrator held up a sign reading "FAIL" behindHenry Paulson, the former Treasury secretary, andBen Bernanke, chairman of theFederal Reserve.[1] By January 2010, FAIL Blog was receiving 1.1 million unique visitors per month.[6]
FAIL Blog won twoWebby Awards in 2009, for People's Voice in Humor and Weird.[7][8] The site has been profiled in multiple publications:The Times named FAIL blog their #3 comedy website, theLos Angeles Times called FAIL Blog, a "fan favorite,"Time magazine noted that FAIL Blog has "helped popularize fail as both a noun and an exclamation, not to mention an easier-to-spell synonym forschadenfreude", andThe New York Times called it a "runaway hit."[1][9][10] The site is also commonly referenced in popular culture;The Huffington Post calledNetflix a "walking failblog" in reference to their July 2011 pricing change andThe Atlantic called aChris Coghlan baseball blunder "a debacle worthy of FAIL Blog."[11][12]
In July 2009, FAIL Blog posted a screenshot of theGuinness record webpage for "Most Individuals Killed in a Terrorist Attack" which was accompanied with a "Break this record" link. Guinness threatened legal action, and the story was picked up byTechCrunch andCNET.[13][14]
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Most Subscribed Channel Ranked 15th as of 2010 | Succeeded by |
| First | Most Viewed Channel Ranked 1st as of 2010 | Succeeded by |
