The Cult of Maddox
Posted on August 5, 2008
In 1997, "The Best Page In The Universe" made it's first ever appearance on the World Wide Web. It was a strange website to say the very least; with a very simple visual appearance, just yellow block Arial text on a black background, and very little (if any) over-complicated technical formatting; a deliberate tactic later revealed to be a form of protest against the trend of making websites look as slick as possible.
The site's content was a number of random articles, which essentially took the form of rants, with titles such as "Why whales suck", "Did I mention I hate Helen Hunt?" and "Here's what wrong with the world today" (a list of eight items that included Celine Dion, dancing and pancakes).
The man behind the website and author of said articles was University of Utah student George Ouzounian, posting under his screen-name, Maddox, a name Ouzounian derived from a 1980s anime film he was a fan of entitled "Madox 01". Through a combination of word of mouth and local, then national, and later international press coverage, Maddox's website soon achieved cult status, with the number of hits per day rising from five or six in 1997 to an average of 1.5 million in 1998.
It was Maddox's blunt, sarcastic and often side-splittingly hilarious commentary on a wide and random variety of topics that was the key to the site's success, and fans of the site couldn't wait to read the comments their new hero had to make on the latest Hollywood blockbuster or news item. Two of Maddox's best known and most popular articles are "Crappy Children's Artwork" in which he posted pictures of random drawings done by very young children he found online and 'reviewed' them in the style of a high-brow art critic, and "Vegetarian Moral Crusade", a piece informing readers that, if they go out to a restaurant with a friend who refuses to eat meat, then the reader should "sponsor" the vegetarian friend and eat three times the amount of meat he or she normally would - not only to make up for the meat their vegetarian friend abstains from, but also to inflict damage on the animal population in retribution for the vegetarian's "moral elitism".
Maddox still resides in Salt Lake City today, and posts his full address on his website, actively encouraging fans to visit him and show their appreciation. However, he has posted a set of guidelines on his website that any visitors must adhere to, such as no eye contact, wearing formal dress and standing at least twelve inches away at all times. If you're brave enough to reveal yourself to the self proclaimed King of the Internet, there are a number of hotels in Salt Lake City available to suit all accommodation needs.
Elisha Burberry is an online, freelance journalist and keen traveller and watersports enthusiast. Originally from Scotland, she now resides in London.
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