brave [little] meme

4chan creator ‘moot’ leading TIME’s Top 100

As of 16.07 GMT, this is what TIME Magazine’s top 100 list of the world’s most influential people looks like. If you look closely at the first spot, you’ll see an unlikely name: ‘moot.’

This is what you can achieve when you inadvertently start one of the most bizarre, outlandish yet interesting communities on the Internet. What began as an attempt to create an english language version of the classic Japanese image board ended up becoming a melting pot of anonymous creativity.

A sometimes hilarious, often shocking, and always offensive meme generating machine, 4chan’s community has cast upon the breadth of the internet anything from Rickrolls to LOLcats, occasionally pausing to spawn real-world movements like Anonymous vs. Scientology.

Today, 4chan’s cat-loving armies are voting en masse, and they’re making an impact. A final win for their community’s unwitting founder would mark a real testament to the power of internet culture, but making a statement is not what this is all about. If you’d ask anyone on 4chan what it all means, you’d probably be disappointed: they’d probably tell you they’re just doing it for the lulz.