LC website parody trolls students

By Jonah Svihus /// Senior Staff Writer

A mysterious parody website of Lewis & Clark College has become popular after spreading through social media. After being shared on Facebook, the website gained widespread popularity among students.

The website, www.lclarkpdx.com, is similar to the the LC website, www.lclark.edu. The subtle difference is enough to misguide a prospective student or their family to an interesting pastiche of internet culture references. The website uses a slightly different font, open sans, for creating the similar layout to LC’s official website.

“I found [the website] through a few different students re-posting it on facebook, plus I heard people talking about it around campus,” Mariah Ash ’18 said.

The normal slideshow that plays for the official website is replaced by a gag slideshow with pictures of students juxtaposed with parody captions such as, “Nerds: Proof we do science,” “Is This a Burger? Professor mistakes bean burger for vegan patty,” and “Barry Glassner Announces Free Tuition Students rejoice, retention rates soar.”

Upon scrolling further down, the website is immediately bombarded by repeating GIFS.

“They’re riffing on classic net troll techniques,” Dakota Schneider ’18 said. “The patterned flashing GIFs have been updated to contemporary references (John Cena) and the site’s content has been substituted to reflect the creator’s opinion of the target [of the parody].”

When clicking on any part of the webpage, the site begins playing “Kill your Mother / Rape your Dog” by Dying Fetus, which was featured on their 1989 album Killing on Adrenaline. At the same time, there is a bouncing image of LC President Barry Glassner moving around the screen while the music is playing.

The only non-parody trace the creator has left on the website can be seen at the bottom left hand side of the page: “thanks Neocities for the free hosting.”

Some students find the website entertaining.

“It’s a bit overwhelming when you first get on, but once I had a moment to really absorb everything that was going on, I started laughing pretty hard,” Ash said. “A very interesting mesh of chaos, to say the least.”

“It’s hilarious,” Walter Cardillo ’18 said. “It’s one of those ‘What the [expletive removed]’ websites that doesn’t really make any sense unless you go here and know LC.”

Other students find the context of the content not as funny.

“The flashing rainbow background and animated content are part of a style established around 4chan’s /b/ board, modeled originally after epilepsy seizure trolling,” said Schneider. “It’s pretty offensive.”