Author Randy Cassingham is best known as the creator of This is True, the oldest entertainment feature on the Internet: it has been running weekly by email subscription since early 1994. It is social commentary using weird news as its vehicle so it’s fun to read. Click here for a subscribe form — basic subscriptions are free.
Randy’s Random originally started as a mailing list in the year 2000, morphed into a joke site which was later sold, and is now back as a collection of memes — online, a meme is a brief mental object usually expressed graphically to explore an idea, usually in a fun or thought-provoking way*.
Randy’s Random is religiously and politically neutral (we’re happy to praise or slam either side as long as the meme is entertaining and/or thought-provoking). If you can’t handle laughing at others, and then getting laughed at yourself sometimes, then you shouldn’t read Randy’s Random …or be on the Internet.
Who is Randy? Randy Cassingham is one of the first online publishers, putting his feature This is True online in early 1994; it has been running weekly since. It’s his brand of “Thought-Provoking Entertainment” that’s also reflected here. True is social commentary using weird-but-true news as its vehicle. If you’re not already a reader, you can get unlimited free weekly samples by subscribing to This is True here.
Who is “We”? Randy, obviously, who has ultimate say over what appears on the site. But his assistant does some of the graphics for him, sometimes putting her own spin on the idea expressed. Randy likes to share credit when due. Also, if we share someone else’s meme and know who created it, we’ll acknowledge them, and link to them when possible.
Comments: Yes, we’re using the Facebook Comments function, in large part so that people “have to” use their real names to comment. That keeps the garbage way, way down. Does that mean that those who don’t choose to use Facebook cannot comment? Yes — yes it does. Sorry, but that’s the way we keep admin time to a minimum, since this site runs on a razor-thin margin: ads just don’t pay off like they used to in the old days. Facebook Comments is one of the ways to keep costs down, so it’s not likely to change because a some portion of the audience people has chosen not to be on Facebook.
To Get Notification of new memes as they are posted, you can subscribe by email. Again, the email is a notification: we consciously chose not to use the bandwidth to email graphics to subscribers! You can also get notifications using RSS for use with a news reader. (If you don’t know what RSS is, use the email subscription option.)
Please do not submit memes for inclusion on this site: we’d quickly get overwhelmed with suggestions, and really — we have plenty of ideas! Thanks.
*Wikipedia’s Definition: “An Internet meme (/miːm/ MEEM) is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry or for humorous purposes, from person to person via the Internet. An Internet meme may also take the form of an image (typically an image macro), hyperlink, video, website, or hashtag. It may be just a word or phrase, sometimes including an intentional misspelling. These small movements tend to spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, or news sources. They may relate to various existing Internet cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on various websites, or by Usenet boards and other such early-internet communications facilities. Fads and sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word-of-mouth transmission.” (Source)
