Comments on: The Greatest Phone Message in the World http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/ Loitering with Inte(r)n(e)t. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:50:14 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Cheng-Jih Chen http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-40 Cheng-Jih Chen Fri, 29 Apr 2005 14:11:56 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-40 Note that these were innocent times: we were oohing-and-aahing at being able to pass around voice mail from one phone to the other: almost no one had email addresses outside the CS/Engineering folks and a few of us still had typewriters in our dorm rooms, and the Great Worm of 1988 shut down the Internet by knocking out only a few thousand machines. Now-ordinary concepts like memes had yet to enter our consciousness. Thinking about it a bit more, I suppose we're lucky that no one had invented voice spam by the time I left, though an acquaintance of mine did try to send the same student club announcement to a long list of people. This involved punching in five-digit extensions by the dozens. I don't recall what came of that. Note that these were innocent times: we were oohing-and-aahing at being able to pass around voice mail from one phone to the other: almost no one had email addresses outside the CS/Engineering folks and a few of us still had typewriters in our dorm rooms, and the Great Worm of 1988 shut down the Internet by knocking out only a few thousand machines. Now-ordinary concepts like memes had yet to enter our consciousness.

Thinking about it a bit more, I suppose we’re lucky that no one had invented voice spam by the time I left, though an acquaintance of mine did try to send the same student club announcement to a long list of people. This involved punching in five-digit extensions by the dozens. I don’t recall what came of that.

]]> By: scotty http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-39 scotty Fri, 29 Apr 2005 08:40:43 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-39 I can't believe so much hostility in people.... chill out folks.. like Chen says, you had to be there... I can’t believe so much hostility in people…. chill out folks.. like Chen says, you had to be there…

]]> By: Benjamin http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-38 Benjamin Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:44:17 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-38 There's so much love in here... There’s so much love in here…

]]> By: Donkaroo http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Donkaroo Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:37:06 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-37 This is silly, why is this considered the greatest phone message of all times. Pathetic. This is silly, why is this considered the greatest phone message of all times. Pathetic.

]]> By: kevin http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-36 kevin Thu, 28 Apr 2005 13:22:45 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-36 define meme for me Cheng-Jih. "It’s just one of those bizarre popular fads that spreads like wildfire for no apparent reason." define meme for me Cheng-Jih.

“It’s just one of those bizarre popular fads that spreads like wildfire for no apparent reason.”

]]> By: Cheng-Jih Chen http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-35 Cheng-Jih Chen Thu, 28 Apr 2005 12:09:39 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-35 The University is Columbia, around 1990. We had just gotten this fancy new phone system: voice messages that could be forwarded! And you could put a little annotation in front of the message you were forwarding! (What would they think of next?) Thus was the chain voice mail being introduced to Morningside Heights, with all the characteristics we see in email with top-posting, forwards and so on. I recall there being a few messages that were passed, around, but the Little Mermaid one was the biggest up to that time. People typically received it with many minutes of friends-of-friends "You have to hear this!" annotation before actually getting to the original message. Who knows why these things get passed around? It's just one of those bizarre popular fads that spreads like wildfire for no apparent reason. Mention "Little Mermaid voice mail" to anyone at Columbia in 1990 or so and you'll get a reaction: it's in our year's collective subconscious. To some degree, you had to be there. The University is Columbia, around 1990. We had just gotten this fancy new phone system: voice messages that could be forwarded! And you could put a little annotation in front of the message you were forwarding! (What would they think of next?) Thus was the chain voice mail being introduced to Morningside Heights, with all the characteristics we see in email with top-posting, forwards and so on.

I recall there being a few messages that were passed, around, but the Little Mermaid one was the biggest up to that time. People typically received it with many minutes of friends-of-friends “You have to hear this!” annotation before actually getting to the original message.

Who knows why these things get passed around? It’s just one of those bizarre popular fads that spreads like wildfire for no apparent reason. Mention “Little Mermaid voice mail” to anyone at Columbia in 1990 or so and you’ll get a reaction: it’s in our year’s collective subconscious. To some degree, you had to be there.

]]> By: Graham http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Graham Thu, 28 Apr 2005 09:43:02 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-34 What University was this again? I guess students will always find 'fuck' hilarious. What University was this again? I guess students will always find ‘fuck’ hilarious.

]]> By: Jacob http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-33 Jacob Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:54:36 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-33 Just listening to the message on its own would be a major disappointment; the pleasure is the whole shaggy dog aspect of the broadcast as a whole. Great find! Just listening to the message on its own would be a major disappointment; the pleasure is the whole shaggy dog aspect of the broadcast as a whole. Great find!

]]> By: angus from australia http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-32 angus from australia Thu, 28 Apr 2005 04:11:08 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-32 my mum left me much the same message 3 days ago. its funny, but nowhere nowhere near the Top 40 let alone Greatest Phone Message Ever... I mean, don't you people party? sorry if you don't but thats just run of the mill, not greatest material my mum left me much the same message 3 days ago. its funny, but nowhere nowhere near the Top 40 let alone Greatest Phone Message Ever… I mean, don’t you people party?

sorry if you don’t but thats just run of the mill, not greatest material

]]> By: jp http://www.badcharacter.com/the-greatest-phone-message-in-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-31 jp Thu, 28 Apr 2005 03:39:06 +0000 http://www.badcharacter.com/?p=24#comment-31 i agree with robot skirts you need to hear the whole 'this american life' episode to understand why this is the greatest phone message ever. http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/02/203.html ciao, jp i agree with robot skirts you need to hear the whole ‘this american life’ episode to understand why this is the greatest phone message ever.

http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/02/203.html

ciao,

jp

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