In 1994, someone started blogging for the first time. It was probably either Justin Hall or David Winer, depending on whom you ask. Regardless, in the time since, the weblog medium has changed the news cycle — for better or for worse (we think better) — forever.
For this list, we combed the internets for the fifty buzziest blog posts since that time. Some of our selections will no doubt ring a bell — they're posts that achieved instant worldwide notoriety and bested the media at its own game. They brought down politicians, exposed celebrity shenanigans and caused widespread consternation and controversy. And then there are other posts that never became famous, but nonetheless sparked their own wildfires of feedback, both of the go-to-hell and amen! variety. We've included some of those here too, because you probably haven't seen them, and we think you should. What else are you going to do on your lunch break? Eat?
What did we miss that we should have included? What did we include that we should have ignored? As always, we expect you to get out the knives and carve us up in the feedback section, as any good blog reader would. — The Nerve Staff
There's no more sure-fire way to kill something's intrinsic comedic value than to try to examine what makes it funny. The minute you start thinking, you stop laughing. So why, then, have Nerve and IFC.com devoted an enormous amount of time, manpower, monetary resources, server space and posh catered lunches to the pursuit of ranking the boob tube's finest sketch comedy offerings?
In part, we're here because magical new technology (*coughYouTubecough*) allows us to do more than just pontificate for paragraphs on end — now we can pontificate for paragraphs on end and provide audiovisual evidence to back up those pontifications. We provide the context, share our thoughts and feelings, and let you commence with the guffawing and, naturally, the disagreeing. After all, the comedy sketch — short, sweet, completely silly or shot through with social commentary — worms its way into the public mind like nothing else, and has easily made the leap to the web when other forms have faltered.
Any list is bound by the limitations set on it — consciously and unconsciously — by its creators: we kept our 50 selections to stuff that's appeared on television by choice, and to what's appeared in English out of necessity. One must also bear in mind the availability of material; who knows what comedic treasures are lost to us because they simply don't exist anymore?
But of the sketch comedy that remains viewable, this is some of the best. Is the list definitive? That's for you, the audience to tell us. And we're sure you will, loudly and angrily. Before you do you, though, remember: it's comedy. Best not to overthink it.
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 50. "Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ramona Sarsgaard out Friday evening, nurse in public" 5/5/07
The wonderful thing about blogs is that even such an outlet as celebrity-babies.com, in all its pink-and-white glory, can provide a forum for intelligent, impassioned debate. Should Maggie Gyllenhaal have been breastfeeding in public with the paparazzi swarming about? If so, should she have covered up more than she did? And most importantly, as one feedbacker asked (with hope springing eternal), "I wonder whether Maggie has read any of our comments?"
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 49. "At JFK Airport, Denying Basic Rights is Just Another Day at the Office" 8/18/08
The debate over civil liberties has become so political that it's possible to forget it concerns real people in real situations. In this blog post, Emily Feder, a U.S. citizen, recounts what happened when she tried to return to New York after a short trip to Syria. It's an experience that will make you question whether visiting the Middle East is a good idea, not out of concern for your safety there, but for your safe passage home.
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48. "Rape Can Be Boring" 7/2/08
But can it be . . . funny? Ask question, add water: instant controversy.
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 47. "Photo Story Monday — Running Into Problems" 1/21/08
There are blog posts that remain virtually undiscovered, even though they deserve a hundred times as many views as the post about Maggie Gyllenhaal breastfeeding. This is one of those posts. An incredibly close-up, frightening glimpse into the day in the life of an American soldier sent direct from Iraq, it offers the kind of intimacy and realism big media will never achieve.
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 46. "authentic media, exhibit b" 8/15/06
Blogger's cell phone is stolen. Blogger starts automatically receiving photos of the thief's family via his cell-phone account. Blogger blogs the photos. It didn't lead to an apprehension as far as we can tell, but the absurdity of the scenario earns it a place on this list. The dog is looking at us like, "The fuck you starin' at?"
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 45. "How The Gawker Stalker Map Works" 4/9/07
This is just fun. Jimmy Kimmel dresses up as Larry King and goes bonkers on Gawker editor Emily Gould over being included on the Gawker Stalker map. Who came out on top? We report, you decide.
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 44. "Norfolk & Western Not Loving Northwest D.C." 12/4/06
Following a disastrous show in DC, Portland band Norfolk & Western blogged about how disappointed they were in the city, especially with the U Street neighborhood, which they called "dangerous." Sommer Mathis responded in kind. "The band inadvertently touched on some of D.C.'s hot button issues — crime, gentrification and the like — and I defensively took them to task for stereotyping an entire neighborhood. Many of our readers agreed with me, many of them did not, and the band members themselves ended up piping up in the comments."
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 43. "Fuck Grapefruit"
If you remain unconvinced that the internet is a forum for crazy people to vent, check out the 500+ comments generated by this innocuous little undated cartoon.
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 42. "Is Racism Still an Issue? Are We Color Blind or Just Blinder?" 6/19/08
"Let's stop looking at the outside, and start hating people for what they are inside…" is one representative comment on this airy "political" post on the Sugar blogs. A feedback feeding frenzy ensued when the very first commenter's post asserted that racism is a non-issue in America today because blacks have BET.
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 41. "I abhor racism, and apologize — for speaking to NME" 12/4/07
| Morrissey wrote some of the best lines of the '80s and '90s ("There's more to life than books, you know. But not much more.") His best line of the new century may be the title of this Guardian blog post that the ghostly singer-songwriter published in response to an attack on him by the British music magazine New Musical Express: "I abhor racism, and apologize — for speaking to NME." Zing!
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