Coronavirus is not the man now dog: YTMND is back, and just in time

The pandemic profoundly alters our sense of time. Quarantine grinds lives to a halt, injecting them with untold levels of stress and acute danger. Monday bleeds into Tuesday, into Friday, into Monday again — the days losing distinction, but still representing tectonic shifts as we squint to better see the coronavirus's devastating effects looming on the horizon.

And then, like a unicorn-shaped floatie drifting into view as we struggle against the waves, You're The Man Now Dog (YTMND) decides to pop back into our lives. Surely, this will not be the thing that saves us, but damn if it isn't a welcome sight.

"I thought now might be a good time to reopen the site," wrote YTMND founder Max Goldberg on March 29. "YTMND's anniversary is coming up this week. Also, the world is being plunged into chaos, millions of people are stuck inside with nothing to do other than dick around on the internet, and the last few weeks have provided me with ample time to narrow my focus."

The looping sound and image site, which inspired an early internet meme-generating phenomenon after it first launched in 2004 (Goldberg created an earlier version of the site in 2001), shuttered in May of 2019.

However, Goldberg was over the site long before its death.

"Besides being a time capsule I don't really see a reason for it to continue to exist," Goldberg told Gizmodo in 2016. "It seems like the internet has moved on."

The internet, it would seem, has not moved on — a fact made clear by the reaction to YTMND's resurrection.

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You can help make sure YTMND stays around at least through the end of the pandemic (however long that may be) by contributing to Goldberg's Patreon.

Because, hey, even though YTMND won't let you go outside, it just might serve you up some pillowy mounds of mashed potatoes.