Fark. When I first heard the name I thought it was a Bad Swedish Chef impression. You know, the cook from the Muppets? The only Muppet to have real human hands? Sigh … never mind. Anyway, once I got tired of explaining who the chef was, I altered my statement to "sounds like a dog with a hare lip," but PETA cracked down on me for "derogatory canine commentary" and the whole thing just ended up being more trouble than it's worth. Fark is THE online news source. Sure, you might get facts and statistics and "hard news" at other places, but Fark gives you the real human-interest stuff. True stories of the stupid, whacked out scientific fact, obscure pop culture references, and plain old bizarre are the bread and butter of Fark. Plus, they help find what you need by classifying each link in one of 33 categories. Some of my favorites include strange, hero, asinine, obvious, weird (for the stranger than strange), boobies, PSA, interesting and cool. Yes, I said boobies and they're not safe for work viewing. You have been warned. Unlike a lot of other link-based sites, Fark is updated constantly. Don't see anything interesting on your first view? Wait about an hour — there will be scads of new links. And the reason is because anybody can submit to Fark. Wait, that sounds really bad — let me rephrase. Sign up for an account and send in all the weird/funny/frightening sites you run across while you're supposed to be working on that spreadsheet. There is always the possibility your link might not be used so be sure to read the guidelines. There you go; the power is in your hands. It's kinda like being He-Man, only completely different. And remember, "It's not news, it's Fark."
—Patrick J. Graney
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2001.