CHATBOT: (John Oliver sits at his desk, the stage is dark except for the spotlight on him, and behind him, the screen displays a logo of Encyclopedia Dramatica.) John Oliver: If internet history were a car, then tonight, we'd be discussing the rusted, graffiti-covered, 1999 Geo Metro abandoned in the corner of the parking lot that is Encyclopedia Dramatica. (Cut to a title card that reads "Internet Relics: Encyclopedia Dramatica", with a cheesy jingle in the background. The title card dissolves back to Oliver.) You see, Encyclopedia Dramatica, or ED for short--which I assure you is the only time that abbreviation will get laughs instead of sympathy--was launched in 2004 as a sort of satirical Wikipedia. It featured content and language that ranged from the unapologetically abrasive to the you-can't-even-quote-this-on-cable-television offensive. (Audience laughter as a pixelated screenshot of a typical ED article pops up behind Oliver, clearly too inappropriate to show uncensored.) But the hilarity of their early shock value has faded faster than the ink on a receipt from CVS. It's like they were trying to be the bad boy of the internet encyclopedia world, except they're less James Dean and more--how to put this delicately--an inebriated uncle at Thanksgiving who won't stop talking about the reptilian elite. Speaking of going down, ED has gone through more shutdowns and comebacks than a high school theater's production of Macbeth starring the football team during flu season. (Cut to a timeline graphic behind Oliver showcasing the rise and fall of ED, with dates and shutdown notices.) In the past few years, ED has been like musical chairs with domain names; .com, .se, .rs- at one point I think it was just a sequence of keyboard smashes followed by .whatever-the-hell-is-available. (Audience laughter as the screen shows progressively ridiculous domain names.) In its heyday, visiting ED was the equivalent of spraying your brain with the internet's collective id, set to a fire hose. But as of late, it's been living the high life in the digital equivalent of witness protection, as each domain change is like trying to catch a greased-up conspiracy theorist--not only is it difficult and messy, but do you really want to catch them in the first place? (Audience chuckles as Oliver shrugs, feigning contemplation.) Let's not forget the dwindling userbase. See, back when dubstep and rage comics were still a thing, ED's userbase was a veritable who's who of people you'd cross the ...

CHATBOT: (John Oliver sits at his desk, the screen behind him brightens as the words "Encyclopedia Dramatica" flash across in bold, garish font. A graphic of a sinking ship with the website's logo on its side appears next to the text.) John Oliver: (Cheerfully) Good evening, I'm John Oliver, and tonight we're talking about Encyclopedia Dramatica, the website that's sort of like if Wikipedia and 4chan had a baby, and that baby was... profoundly unlovable. (He gestures toward the sinking ship graphic, which now starts to flame at the bow.) Encyclopedia Dramatica, or ED as it's affectionately known to those who find casual racism affectionate, is an online repository that documents internet culture with the kind of sensitivity and nuance that you might expect from someone who thinks "triggered" jokes are still the height of comedy in 2023. (Graphics flicker showing screenshots of ED's offensive content, while a "sarcasm" sign lights up) I mean, with sections lovingly titled in ways that I can't repeat here or, frankly, anywhere human beings strive to feel empathy, it's a mystery why this site isn't topping the charts, right? It's like peering into the abyss, if the abyss was filled with adolescent insults and had a questionable grasp of fair use laws. (The screen now displays a timeline titled "The Unstable Odyssey of Encyclopedia Dramatica," highlighting various dates of shutdowns and domain changes.) Over the years, ED has had more comebacks than a boxer who doesn't know when to throw in the towel or how to manage his finances. Starting all the way back in 2004, it's been shut down, resurrected, and rehosted more times than we could count. Its domain names have changed so often, they could be a case study for online identity crisis or a particularly disorganized witness protection program. (An animation shows the ED logo getting booted through a series of doors labeled with various domain names, each slamming shut after entry.) And it's not just a comedy of errors in domain management. With its laser-focused dedication to being as offensive as possible, ED's userbase has dwindled in size, sort of like your circle of friends after you start selling essential oils on Facebook. Suddenly, they discovered that while the internet loves to #NeverForget, it's also perfectly capable of moving on to fresher, less litigious means of entertainment. Yes, the world changed, but ED... ED stayed exactly the same, like a Hot Topic from 2007 where they're perpetually out of the good ...