“the general public on the internet fucking sucks shit and I want those braindead idiots as far away from this site as possible”
– Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka¹⁾

Something Awful (SA) started out as a cynical comedy website, founded by Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka on November 16, 1999, though most of its contributions to early 2000s internet culture were attributed to its forums which had a $10 paywall to filter out low-quality posters²⁾ and ban evaders.³⁾ It would eventually fade into relative obscurity by the late 2000s, partially since it was anti-mainstream by design.

Following domestic abuse allegations and subsequent community backlash, Kyanka would be pressured to transfer ownership to a long-time moderator named “Jeffery of YOSPOS” on October 9, 2020.⁴⁾ One year later, it was reported that Kyanka had committed suicide on November 11, 2021,⁵⁾ reportedly via gunshot as he had just lost a divorce ruling the previous day.⁶⁾

Most forums and subforums abide by a vaguely descriptive acronym, which occasionally changes whenever some administrator or moderator in the community wants to mess with it. I won't be going over every single instance, since it remains a general discussion forum at its core, but I will list the more notable acronyms with storied histories, regardless of whether it exists or not in the forum's current iteration:

• GBS (General Bullshit)
• FYAD (Fuck You And Die)
• BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer)
• LP (Let's Play)
• LF (Laissez's Fair)⁷⁾
• ADTRW (Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse)

• The forum users call themselves “goon(s)” which is just a self-derogatory term they've adopted.
• The basic features of the forum are hidden behind a “premium” fee, separate from their “registration” fee, so you'll occasionally come across users with the default “TRUMP LOVER” avatar.
• For politics, they used to be rather conservative in the 2000s but changed in the 2010s, evident by how much a right-wing infested board like 4chan's /pol/ actively hates Something Awful.

• 4chan - Introduced to Something Awful in 2003.⁸⁾ A lot of early 4chan culture shows heavy influence from Something Awful,⁹⁾ then after Lowtax finally had enough of the website around 2005.
• Danganronpa - The first two games were fan-translated here before companies started localizing it.
• GameCenter CX - Many episodes were fan-translated by the SA-GCCX fansubbing group.
• Raspberry Heaven - An ancient Direct Connect hub for anime, with ties to their ADTRW subforum.

• Something Awful - The front page of Something Awful. May redirect to the forums, flip a coin!
• The Something Awful Forums - The forums of Something Awful.