A MEME Triggered an International Incident | Nostalgia Nerd

[@Nostalgianerd]

Annnnnddddd we're back. Thanks for your patience and support. If you could thumb-up/thumb-down (if you prefer) and share this one far and wide, it would be incredibly appreciated.

[@targz__]

what happened to the original?

[@Nostalgianerd]

@@targz__ KZbin's algorithm thought it contained "nude" content, and so demonetised and buried it.

[@rutgerb]

Those are eyebrows

[@MrDDawson]

Beat the morons and got it up. Nice! YT can be such a pain as a creator at times,

[@antdude]

@@Nostalgianerd Nude? LOL.

[@retorique]

I miss those times where people had their own handmade websites, showing their interests and crazy conspiracies. Sometimes you started looking for a videogame walkthrough and would end up in some guy's UFO expose webshrine, adorned with gifs and midi music. On the same page, you could find his special baking recipes, videogame reviews and a downloads section filled with random crap and viruses. Everything seemed avant-garde. Great times.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

Even though a lot of websites back in the day were designed like runny dogshit, there was a lot of personally in charm to them, I still remember back when I was a kid looking up fan sites for Populous 3, StarCraft 1 and Sonic, learning the concept of "downloads" and using the links to find even more fan sites.. good times.

[@avah4455]

I wasn’t on the internet during these days. I don’t think I existed long enough to be allowed to use computers by then. Let alone the internet. This is fascinating to imagine and I bet it felt like reading someone’s journal. (A diary and a journal are very different, for all the manly men who don’t know any better)

[@JohnZombi88]

I first discovered the wonderful world of adult sites at the ripe old age of 11 when I looked up GameShark codes for Pokemon Gold. Early internet truly was a wild part of history.

[@prairie_court]

They now have neocities to replace geocities if you want to do some exploration :)

[@favoritemustard3542]

@@prairie_court was gonna say - they still exist! Cheesy gifs & monotonous midis included lol

[@PsRohrbaugh]

"I am currently a senior design manager at Roblox" - So it's Dino who is evil.

[@dabigbadwolf5081]

Still destroying childhoods

[@billsmafiahitman7537]

I wouldn't be telling people I worked for a pedo hang out site

[@favoritemustard3542]

Bertblox... OhNooo

[@abandoninplace2751]

@@favoritemustard3542 Also, Bert is evil NFTs.

[@simonagoodmem6701]

Yeah gon dine no.. Yee knows 🤕😅

[@Drbeckerproductions]

As a kid I didn't like Bert, I thought he was a grump. Then rewatching as an adult, I sympathize with the poor guy. Ernie is a fucking psycho some times if you really pay attention. He's the one who should have gotten an evil website.

[@OmarAlikaj]

To be fair, Ernie did become a psychotic villain in AVGN's review of "Last Ninja."

[@HaveYouTriedGuillotines]

This is actually true to life, though. It's never the psychopaths that get punished. It's the people who understandably react angrily to them.

[@scottbreon9448]

Bert was just surly and a bit of a misanthrope. Ernie was a sociopath

[@kanedaku]

Same with Tom and Jerry. Cant believe as a child I thought Tom was a grump. He was being brutalised mentally and physically by that little $**t Jerry. edit: grammar

[@mightyfilm]

Ernie is an epic troll, and if anything, Bert is a freaking saint to put up with him.

[@timefoambathray9339]

The internet of the 90's truly was a place of magic, wonder, and whimsy. The wild west of our modern era. Trying to go back is like trying to return to living in Plato's cave. You can visit, but it's just not the same. Thank you for the video. Bert's crimes have finally been exposed to the next generation. May God have mercy on his soul.

[@fetus2280]

Wasnt it though ?! I miss it . Then again i made it to the End of the internet i think in 99' and said "Now What?" to myself and well .. Went outside and Did things . Was a great few years of File Serving for the most F'd up stuff you could imagine .. It was one of those "Shock me if you Can" servers ... And it Shocked me, when the RCMP showed up and questioned myself and my room mate at the time . Ah the good ol' days where you could Hack everything and Obtain "information" for Nothing but your time ... I miss those days of the Bruteforce password cracking and file surfing places like the Space administration and other Gov organizations . Now its cats and morons that flood the net . We need a New Internet thats free of Gov and just let us be ... If only eh . Cheers .

[@HaveYouTriedGuillotines]

Stop voting for corporate sellouts and start voting for people who will institute or enforce strong speech and expression rights and standards, instead of letting corporations walk all over people, and I think you'll find it never left. People still have weird, cracked senses of humor. It's just considered "offensive" now and censored.

[@HaveYouTriedGuillotines]

@@fetus2280 A society will always be governed. ...And I'm afraid to break it to you, but your "government" isn't what's actually governing now. That's entirely the problem. Or maybe you prefer Twitter and Google's terms of service to the US constitution, in regards to your rights?

[@kanedaku]

What did you do to provoke the window lickers?

[@HaveYouTriedGuillotines]

@@kanedaku Nice projection you've got there.

[@stapuft]

"the good, the bert, and the ernie" made me laugh far harder than it should have, LOL.

[@AClownsWorld]

a dark gritty semi-serious thriller depicting the exploits of bert would be amazing

[@hullinstruments]

That ending really got me. The creator of the original site went on to be a SENIOR MANAGER at a company which has similar controversy with young children at its core. He/his relationship & influence on culture is endlessly interesting. would be fascinating to sit down and interview someone like that.

[@marcel1372]

you seriously could not come up with a more "young filipino man" name than Dino Ignacio...unless hes Dino Ignacio III which he probably is

[@crinzx]

Rewatching for support because F KZbin's bad and non-functional censorship model.

[@Nostalgianerd]

It's seriously appreciated. Thank you

[@davel4030]

Does that really work? I'll let it run again also XD

[@crinzx]

@@davel4030 New video New view. I may go to sleep to it tonight and give it another. YT is BS right now.

[@Robert-nz2qw]

Explain this??

[@crinzx]

@@Robert-nz2qw He posted the Vid and YT yoinked the Ads because Burt was poised on a Maxium pic of Pam Anderson-Lee-Rock. Now I'm watching it again because he earned it.

[@ColinHoad]

These early internet history vignettes are superb, and they make me yearn for that mid-90s web that felt so much smaller and exciting back then. Anything felt possible with a bit of HTML, some animated GIFs and a marquee tag. Ah, glory days indeed. Brilliant video, more like this, please 🙏

[@ColinHoad]

@Zephram I'm not a downer on modern IT (I mean, I work in IT haha) but there was something special about what you could do with not a lot of skill back in those days... no need for Full Stack Development and an army of developers! 😂😂

[@RoseWaltz]

its kinda weird watching the history of it after watching it in real life, you know? and having to explain to my parents "It's just an internet joke. I don't know why they have him on the poster."

[@Allen.Christian]

I think the wildest thing I learned from this video is where the plot for Iron Man 3 came from.

[@laz7354]

This!!!

[@mr1000Cent]

Man, Bert is Evil is probably the reason I need to create Bert as a heel manager in every pro wrestling video game I play, LOL.

[@joffff]

Bert is Evil was a cornerstone of our Internet content back in the day, when you'd buy an Internet magazine in John Menzies just for the pages of Compuserve, Geocities and Angel Fire URLs

[@GamesNTech]

Now Dino works for an actual Evil company. Good Times.

[@sobari745]

"Senior Design Manager at Roblox." Truly a fate worse than death. Poor guy.

[@RobsonRoverRepair]

Rewatched because cyber bullying by companies is bad. Mkay

[@Choralone422]

It seems that YT is flagging all sorts of videos as being 18+ lately for no reason lately. GamersNexus has their recent Intel video card video flagged that way and other creators have had it happen too. It's probably related to an animation channel that had adult only videos on it were added to YTkids by the system and there was an uproar about it. Now they're going the opposite way!

[@frykasj]

KZbin's SOP: Ignore it until it becomes a catastrophe, then overreact.

[@i.m.evilhomer5084]

You'd be surprised at the amount of stuff that gets listed as "for kids". I seen everything from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to Drawn Together get listed "for kids", even stuff like Family Guy isn't safe. It pretty much confirms that YT considers everything animated as "for kids".

[@thesteelrodent1796]

never trust a bot to do ratings

[@lainiwakura1776]

@@i.m.evilhomer5084 Well duh, only kids watch cartoons! Adult Swim maybe called that, but really, it's for kids who are awake at 3 am for some reason.

[@NeroLeMorte]

@@frykasj same reason why they took out the dislikes

[@stoney5137]

Starting college in 1995 I remember all of this very well. I remember the 1st iteration of Bert is Evil and then I remember when it showed up in protests. I actually think it was the same buddy of mine that first said "Dude have you seen the Bert is Evil Hompage?!?!?" who then later said "Did you see the US protest posters grabbed the wrong image from the internet?? They grabbed one with Bert!!!!" I don't know which time made me laugh harder.

[@amwofford]

Hope the algorithm keeps this one up for you guys.

[@jaysoncronly7041]

interesting that ignacio went from making a children's character seem predatory and evil to working for an evil company preying on children.

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Leaving a comment to punish the algorithm. It is evident Bert remains evil and doesn't want to get exposed.

[@HaveYouTriedGuillotines]

Bert, like KZbin, decided to be evil.

[@lenaeospeixinhos]

What a wild ride. My memory sucks so much, I barely remember how the internet was in its beginnings. Thank you for keeping the History alive 😘

[@devikwolf]

Watched the original but I'm going to put this on in the backgroud later so you can the watch time for the re-upload too. Sorry about youtube's sucky policies. Much love and support for your work from across the pond :)

[@Ndlanding]

I was following Bert way back in the 90s, and laughed my head off when I saw the Bin Laden posters. Good, solid documentary.

[@haydenmaines5905]

I remember this! It must have been years ago, in the late noughties, I had entirely forgotten it, but once you started showing the pictures it all came back to me! I love how small the early internet was, felt like everybody knew the same pages

[@absmustang]

What’s next? Squidward is evil? Hmm… that’s not a bad idea

[@scottbreon9448]

Nah, Squidward's just a nihilist. LOL

[@lmfsilva3000]

I remember seeing the site back when printed media (usually newspapers and tech mags) had a section with the weird, cool and useful parts of the internet because it was still internet by the minute and you more or less had a plan on what you wanted to visit that day. I probably still have around a guide of the internet from the early 2000s with random sites. I had a photo of the protest around, but didn't imagine it caused such an uproar.

[@OlliGarch]

The internet started out great. I had a website for my music studio and had bands from different states coMe record demos. This day and time I don’t think that would be possible. Only the big dogs that pay for traffic get the hits on searches. My studio was a small home studio and we recorded punk bands and metal bands and what else ever. This was the 90s. We used Adats to record if anyone remembers those. Lol

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

This takes me back! The internet was much better in the old days, when you needed to make an effort to get online. These days it's too easy for any old bozo to spill their guts and write any old crap that pops into their head. And don't get me started on the cancer that is chatbots...

[@lainiwakura1776]

Steve Jobs ruined the Internet. The iPhone made it so any normie could be on it.

[@ct92404]

@@lainiwakura1776 air-headed, skinny jeans wearing Millennials.

[@TheSimoc]

Exactly. No need to have gigahertzes and gigabytes to just view text information and fill submission form, like most of today's bloated and overdesigned crappy websites.

[@vylbird8014]

In the old days, you found entertainment. Today, algorithmic curation selects the entertainment for you. Calculated with superhuman precision to elicit the maximum emotional response and keep you coming back for more.

[@TheSimoc]

@@vylbird8014 Just wish Google's algorithms had that precision... They are constantly suggesting pure crap, making me less appealed to come back. Making me miss the 90's, when just a random pick was more likely to do.

[@BottIsNotABot]

Funny the things you forget about! Bert is Evil was genius, and all over the place back in the day. Great to see you releasing content again.

[@WannabeMarysue]

It turned out Dino was the evil one after all lol. I hate how Roblox exploits children so much its unreal.

[@jelle_smid]

OMG we used to watch all these Evil Bert photos in school.... epic days

[@growingup15]

This makes me miss the Early Internet so much :) I miss the Wild Wild West of the Internet of the 90s and 2000s

[@DrumWild]

I'm old enough to remember when Bin Laden was celebrated as a true American Hero. Look it up. And I remember seeing Bert for the first time in 1970, when my family went on a summer vacation to a lake. While people were on a boat doing who knows what, I was in the cottage watching television. Bert would eventually teach me why it's a bad idea having friends. 1997 also found a man who was dubbed by LA Weekly as "Drummer of the Year." This man would go on to join The Eric Andre Show as a character known as Blannibal.

[@SmilerORocker]

Bert scared me, so did a character on ... I think it was Hartley Hare and worst of all was Zebbidi on Magic Roundabout. Basically I could sniff out an angry character at ten paces

[@HisVirusness]

When I first saw a flyer for Avenue Q, Bert Is Evil came to my mind immediately. I was a kid when I first saw Bert Was Evil; my father was the only one in my family who could use the internet at the time, and he showed me the site. As someone who grew up with Sesame Street and had Bert and Ernie dolls as a toddler, I thought it was hilarious. And very impressive. Which... lead me down the various paths I've been going down for the last 20+ years.

[@frankendreads]

From one of your other content I found this classic memorabilia from the early internet web days Thank you for reviving this early content I remember myself and friends howling with laughter at this at the time But it was like that back then, wild and carefree

[@CricketEngland]

Bert and Ernie were named after Bert the ‘Cop’ and Ernie the ‘Taxi Driver’ from the Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life”

[@FiXato]

I'm curious why Tromaville was blurred out at 28:17 (though still mentioned in the captions).

[@Nostalgianerd]

After their tantrum, I basically removed anything that **might** violate KZbin's terms.

[@hiltwo]

I'm from the Netherlands and remember this vividly and fondly :D I learned a lot more about it now, thanks for the great video!

[@bjornm.3897]

Didn't remembered it was that famous. But from time to time I stumble upon bert memes when digitalizing all backups CDs from the 90s.

[@Yezpahr]

There was also an audio file of a bong being hit by either Bert or Ernie and they laugh their ass off after a bit of 200 IQ contemplation of life. It was the Dutch version I heard, not sure if it circulated in other languages.

[@HaveYouTriedGuillotines]

Bert, like KZbin, decided to be evil.

[@distractedFreek]

It's definitely grown, there's a whole subgenre with both Bert and Ernie as the subjects and the situations are much, much darker in context.

[@swiftfated]

"Brought to you by the CIA and the letter H" the old internet was so creative, lol

[@tsuikagura]

The end of the video helped me put his personality in context. I shouldn’t have heard that.

[@ryanb8302]

This meme never really went away, it came back as bertstrips around 2015

[@GrampaSheevie]

I miss lunatic websites. You can read at your own pace, unlike social media where lunatics force themselves on you.

[@blitzwing1985]

This unlocked a core memory for me. I must of been around 13 when I found this site and I remember sharing it with my friends at school.

[@JBBrickman]

Serious question, I actually went on the Wayback machine, and had a lot of fun looking at the original site. You show a bunch of distinctly different content style mirror sites in the video, how did you find them, is there a list somewhere? I would love to go down this rabbit hole as it was before my time!

[@unstence]

Can’t believe they didn’t call him Bertladen

[@donnerblitzen1388]

That site was a mainstay of my high school graduating class! Bert is evil, rotten, meatspin and all the other sites now called “the Wild West”. One of my friends tried to do a site similar to Bert but with the Wendy’s mascot - he didn’t know she was a real person, things got awkward quick. Loved that site…almost all who visited at least twice saw that Bert is evil was a joke and a masterclass of photoshop abilities.

[@superneonbuck]

I remember coming across a "Bert is Evil"- inspired site as a young child on the early 00s web- a web site called "Beanie Babies Are Evil!" or something along those lines. Because I had never before encountered the concept of "parody", I remember feeling pretty angry about the site's existence. I still see one of the gifs used on the site, a dancing beanie flamingo the page referred to as "possessed", being shared around to this day !

[@hypercomms2001]

I remember the original "Bert is Evil" website in the 1990s.... when I saw it I found it extremely funny...

[@hueyiroquois3839]

After watching for the second time, I realized that Bert is probably responsible for the disappearance of Andy Taylor's ex-girlfriends.

[@wieseldesign]

The whole thing reminds me of "Bernie & Ert" from the German comedy programme "Freitag Nacht News" on RTL, in which two drug-addicted, S&M-affine and violence-prone parodies of Ernie and Bert appeared. The first broadcast, however, was after the whole "Bernie is evil" story (the programme was first broadcast in 1999), so I can well imagine that the authors of the programme were inspired by "Bernie is evil". It was often politically "somewhat" incorrect, if you can put it that way ;) Thanks for the video!

[@binkman853]

Loved this historical look at this. I remember when I first found it years ago. Thanks

[@225Perfect]

Just started the video. Suggesting Bert is Evil feels like minor sacrilege, but I can get the joke. I always kind of sympathized with him. I know they were playing off of the whole Odd Couple thing and the frustration was the joke, but that kind of humor makes me more anxious than amused.

[@josephkelly4893]

Brought back some old internet memories, Cheers

[@johnknight9150]

This one totally passed me by. It might be worth a revival as a way to reply to conspiracy theorists who email or text you: just send them a link to Bert is Evil as a sarcastic response.

[@baroncalamityplus]

I so remember those conspiracy sites. A lot of UFO, Bigfoot, and serial killer sites all used similar designs

[@BradGryphonn]

The first 50 seconds and I was back behind my computer at the local uni, enjoying Evil Bert stories between sys admin work.

[@jjhh4096]

Good thing you blurred and bleeped the tromaville website in Dino’s apology

[@jjhh4096]

It’s still in the closed captions 😆

[@MrConstant23.]

This is the greatest thing to exist on this channel

[@RobertoVernina]

I don't understand the controversy about this video (yes, the "falling money" one). It would have been a shame if we had lost it... Fortunately is here, and I've finally managed to watch it. Thanks for pushing it through!

[@BarnokRetro]

Great video! I forgot about the whole Bert is Evil movement. Love the look back at the changing internet as we all started moving from dial-up to broadband and Alta Vista was giving way to Google.

[@milesipka]

So a beloved children's character turned into an infamous internet supervillain and global infamy through the power of internet shitposting and a rookie mistake by a proofer. I was in high school at the time and I never heard of this meme but I have seen others - does anybody remember the email depicting an Al Qaeda dating site, filled with pictures of burka-clad women and a testimonial from Bin Laden? I used to print copies of a printout and pass them around my school - the teachers were pissed about it. I still have a copy of that picture somewhere in my files...

[@derekchristenson5711]

Haha, I remember this! I was one of those people who didn't know about the "Bert is Evil" websites until after the news broke with the confusing anti-American posters featuring an angry Bert. I seem to recall that one or more late night talk show hosts had a few jokes to make about this, especially about how darned baffling it was. I also remembered more-or-less why / how it happened (someone didn't proof their internet-grabbed photos before mass production). Thank you for this much more detailed -- and hilariously over-dramatic! -- history of this incident!

[@Nostalgianerd]

You're welcome..thanks for watching!

[@sayomshakib6433]

I'm from Bangladesh. And boy! Never expected this turn of events! 😆😆😆😆

[@dainbramage102]

look for Bert(not by that name) as a human, rather than a sesame street character, on the original Andy Griffith Show tv series. He is a character who visits the barber shop on occasion. You'll know him when you see him :)

[@Guzuma]

i remember my dad going on this site when i was a kid, along with rotten and similar more obscure sites. i remember one version of bert is evil my dad went on was in conjunction with barbie is bad, and when little 8 year old me watched the barbie is bad video i think i remember it upset me for some reason, prolly cause i didn’t fully understand that stuff at the time.

[@James02876]

Adding a comment here because you mentioned the algorithm messed with the previous upload, so I came here to watch, like, comment, and share. The algorithm can eat a bag of sticks.

[@seamusoblainn]

Shout out to the Paint Shop Pro massive 😎

[@gl1tchygreml1n]

I wonder if the Bertstrips pictures took inspiration from this. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically taking screencaps of Sesame Street and giving them captions that give the picture a new, dark context

[@SoFarSoGoodSoWhat14]

Remember when the internet was more than just links to social media?

[@islandboy4445]

Commenting for the algorithm. Great video, too. Deserves more views.

[@Orgruk]

That was a trip down memory lane, thank you.

[@ChamplainValleyRailSnapshots]

I'm here because I watched your latest video about KZbin and realized that this had come out and I missed it.

[@Jrasta111]

'This is not at all humourous' I'm afraid I must disagree. 'The people responsible for this should be ashamed of themselves' Please, for the love of God, stop.

[@richardromanyshyn608]

Bert was just working inside and put the fatal round in Bin Ladin. It was on Sesame Street

[@CocoHutzpah]

Now I don't feel so old. I don't know most of the internet jokes before YTMND blew up, but I feel like I should have known about this one.

[@robertlinke2666]

as a person from the netherlands, hearing a dutch newcaster say that out loud is pretty funny. context makes it pretty problematic, no questions there, but c'mon it's funny

[@davidhatred7275]

i'm so old i remember looking at evil bert on printed out pages someone had bought into school!

[@MizutamariVT]

"The rebellious side of me has to be responsible and kow tow to a major corporation." It's not rebellion when you only do what you're allowed.

[@ravioli6394]

Boy this made me nostalgic for the mid to late nineties web. Great job.

[@BG_NC]

This explains so many images I saw in the 2000's

[@SheldonElectricals]

I have given it a thumbs up as I am a fan of the channel, but I am not sure why you went to so much effort to make a video about a subject that I suspect hardly anyone remembers or cares about. Each to their own I suppose.... I look forward to your next vid!

[@thesteelrodent1796]

his entire channel is about times gone by. Making videos about memes does however feel a bit like Peter fell down an internet hole while looking for content ideas. But hey, it's still a good video in its own right

[@leesmithsworkshop]

watching again, have to checkout those chunky pixels

[@luccadeo69]

Oh man watching this makes me miss the old internet

[@siimplysiibliings3723]

It’s like Frankenstein in real life. A kid creates a meme as a hobby and it goes out of control.

[@finalbossoftheinternet6360]

*Bert and Ernie are named after a couple characters in "It's A Wonderful Life".*

[@AngelsandDragonfliesAIVideos]

I loved FractalCow. When I took a break between classes, this was one of the sites I would go on. I loved the Bert is Evil troll/meme. The guy sells an ebook on this subject on Amazon. I miss the old internet, it was just plain good fun. Social media (for one) ruined it. An observation. The way the internet was in the late 90s is also how Tor sites kind of look like now. Also, the darknet is really sloooow.

[@TheBatNaz]

Watching again because KZbin is run by Evil Bert

[@Rampart.X]

Oscar Wilde based his story 'The Picture of Dorian Grey' on the life of Bert.

[@ctrlaltrees]

12:54 I thought the "Mr. T Ate My Balls" meme was hilarious when I was a teenager - I even made an uploaded some of my own to my GeoCities site. I think I originally read about it in some magazine or other. Anyway, I think this may well be the only reference I've seen since those days so thanks for the reminder! 😁

[@xBruceLee88x]

Well done, memes have come a long way. Though like with many other things, it's hard to top the original sometimes

[@ronniebarter3857]

It's ironic because the first time I saw Bert Was Evil was as a shirt on Roblox

[@tecpaocelotl]

I'm having internet flashbacks. Lol.