Best.poll.ever.

[Tyjenks]

O.K. That's enough. It was clever 20 or 30 times, but.....

[Tom Chick]

I would just like to say that I have hated this idiom since I first read it in a Daily Radar review of Shenmue. I'm pretty sure the reviewer wrote the whole 'best. game. ever.' thing in earnest. Ever since then, it's been featured in every third wumpus post. Ugh.

Anyone know where this idiotic phrase started?

-Tom

[GregB]

Wasn't it from the Simpson's Comic Book Guy. He'd often say "Worst. Episode. Ever." I think the writers were making fun of internet fanboys who would critique every single show to death.

[Anders Hallin]

First time I saw it was in a Simpsons Halloween episode. Comic Book Guy said "Must die in classic Lorne Greene pose from Battlestar Galactica. Best. Death. Ever!" (dies)
It could very well have shown up before that. If it was the first time, then he said it in that way because the lucite which covered his body was hardening.

[Tyjenks]

It is classic as delivered by The Comic Book Guy, but on message boards, Ehhhh...

[Bub, Andrew]

I wonder which came first? The Comic Book Guy talking like Internet/Trek/Comic fanboys or the fanboys? Nobody saw this expression before the Simpsons? It's like the chicken and the egg. I wonder if the writer saw someone use that. stupid. annoying. expression. and then created CBG from it.

My favorite:
"Arm numb. Head spinning. Too weak to go on describing... symptoms"

(Btw Tom, that reviewer may have been writing it in earnest, plenty of people adored Shenmue - though none are named Tom Chick - but I'm certain he was also referencing The Simpsons. Those guys used Simpson's characters as their clever screen names.)

[Anders Hallin]

It might have been. Inspired by. That God of. Acting! Known to us all. As. William Shatner!

[Aszurom]

Actually, no. The origin of it, and much else both funny and irritating in internet pop culture, lies over at a little website called somethingawful.com

It costs $10 to lurk the forums over there, and a delightful excercise in distasteful humor and ourtight internet stupidity brightened by the occasional glaring light of intellectual brilliance.

[DennyA]

Nope, it definitely originated on The Simpsons. The Comic Book Guy has been using variations on it for years.

Something Awful may have been responsible for popularizing it online, but it's a Simpsons reference.

Stop using it? Next you'll ask me to stop saying "D'oh!"

[Tyjenks]

Stop using it? Next you'll ask me to stop saying "D'oh!"

If D'oh! was used as often as this, I probably would.

[wumpus]

I seem to remember it from Next-Generation's review of Mario 64. I think those words were prominently featured on the cover.

Yes, this is correct. That would be early/mid 1996?

http://www.kuro5hin.org/comments/2002/3/6/91523/64219?pid=7


As for the now defunct Next Generation magazine, with its notorious "Best Game Ever" rating for Super Mario 64 (making it sound like no game could ever beat it), well, now we know why writing like this goes bottoms up. :)

The simpsons thing, as near as I can tell, comes from season 12 in 2001.

http://www.episodelist.com/shows/view_episode.php?episode_id=2619

Unless you (as in y'all) can link a Simpsons reference earlier than 1996, it's a Next-Gen joke.

[Jason McCullough]

http://dir.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2000/01/24/simpsons/index.html

NextGen may have used it in a mario review, but the constant refrain and variants thereof among dorks online is clearly said in the Comic Book Guy voice.

[Tom Chick]

It's not just the hyperbole, but the cadence. "Best game ever" is annoying enough. "Best. Game. Ever." trumps it because it's using punctuation to try to sound definitive.

-Tom

[balut]

Best. Use. Of. Punctuation. . .Ever.

- Balut

[wumpus]

NextGen may have used it in a mario review, but the constant refrain and variants thereof among dorks online is clearly said in the Comic Book Guy voice.
Since this is a gaming forum, and not a Simpsons forum, I'm going with the original, earlier 1996 Next-Gen reference from the Mario 64 cover.

It's the Best. Phrase. Ever. !

[DennyA]

Oh, please.

Worst. Episode. Ever. came from a reference in a Simpsons episode aired in February 1997. (There may have been earlier occurences, that' the first I could find in a quick web search.) Variations have been a steady refrain in the show since then.

To think it came from Next Gen (which is, I'm certain, not the first publication to use the words "best game ever") is just ridiculous. I laugh at your gullibility!

Ha ha! <in Nelson voice>

See? I just laughed at your gullibility.

Next Gen reached, what, about 38,000 readers at its peak? Versus how many geeks who watch The Simpsons regularly?

Walk into any game magazine and listen to the speech patterns. "D'oh!" "Worst. Lurker. Ever." "Mmmm..... 64 slices of American cheese."

The periods alone indicate its true origin.

Lamest. Thread. Yet!

[wumpus]

To think it came from Next Gen (which is, I'm certain, not the first publication to use the words "best game ever") is just ridiculous. I laugh at your gullibility!
I'm fairly sure Next-Gen was the first (and probably only) game publication to put that exact phrase on its cover. As I recall, it was a picture of Mario and those THREE words, and the next-gen logo. That is all. Nothing else. Just so you can visualize how pretentious and ridiculous it all was.

I want to put those comments from Tom "I first read it in this review of Shenmue" Chick in context-- this was September 1996. If we are talking about the phrase in the context of gaming, this is the salient reference.

I think Next-gen themselves realized how ridiculous it was in retrospect. They used the phrase quite a bit after that in their online content, pre-Daily Radar. Like Zelda 64 got the same cover and phrase, etc.

[Tom Chick]

wumpus doesn't see the difference between "this is the best game ever!" and "best. game. ever.". On the scale of idiotic things to write, the former only rates a 6.3. The latter rates an 8.7. To put all this in context, a thread on micropayments rates a 6.8 and someone dismissing Sacrifice as a glorified version of Quake rates an 8.8 (with a reviewers tilt of 10 for me personally).

At any rate, I've never seen The Simpsons, so I don't really have anything to add to whatever Mr. Comic Book Guy, or whatever his name is, says. But I wouldn't be the least bit suprised if the whole dopey "best. game. ever." idiom is another Simpsons thing. I'm usually the last one to know these things.

FYI, I used to think "Yeah, baby!" was from the Howard Stern Show because I heard them playing the sound bite after I'd heard random people I knew saying it. 'Ah, well, yes, I suppose an English guy saying 'Yeah, baby!' is rather funny,' I thought. Imagine my suprise when I finally saw Austin Powers.

-Tom, out of touch

[Mark Asher]

Did Next Gen punctuate it with periods after each word? Because if they didn't, it's not the right phrase. It's a Simpsons thing. In fact, Sunday night's episode featured the Comic Book Guy. He had a mild heart attack and the doctor called it a "heart episode" and yes, the Comic Book Guy then said it was the "Worst. Episode. Ever."

[chet]

At any rate, I've never seen The Simpsons


At any rate, I've never seen The Simpsons


At any rate, I've never seen The Simpsons


I can handle not seeing the godfather, but never watching the Simpsons?

Chet

[Murph]

I'm not a big fan of the Simpsons, myself. I pretty much don't like that show. (I've seen it a few times, and it's just not my cup of tea.)

I've never seen the Godfather, either. Can I still hang out with you guys? :)

[Jason McCullough]

How do you not see the Simpsons? I guess if no one you know ones a television, and you never stay in hotels, and you never go to bars.....

[Tom Chick]

I saw one episode once. Phil Hartman did the voice for some guy who was a Big Brother for Bart. Yeah, it was cute. Whatever. I'm sure it's great, but, well, you know, it's a cartoon and all.

-Tom, ducking

[Reeko]

:shock:

[Dave Long]

I'm sure it's great, but, well, you know, it's a cartoon and all.

This from the guy who just got a Gameboy Advance and Yu-Gi-Oh!

--Dave

[Tyjenks]

I do not know which is harder to take:

-Tom never watching the Simpsons

-Murph not liking the Simpsons

-Everyone else loving the Simpsons, but not being tired of that damn phrase being overused in these forums

[DennyA]

I'm really starting to suspect Tom is an alien agent sent to spy on Earth.

I mean, come on...

He's an ACTOR who'd never seen The Godfather?

He's a GAMER who doesn't watch The Simpsons?

He hated Deus Ex and loved Flying Heroes?

This is all VERY suspicious....

[balut]

I'm really starting to suspect Tom is an alien agent sent to spy on Earth.

I mean, come on...

He's an ACTOR who'd never seen The Godfather?

He's a GAMER who doesn't watch The Simpsons?

He hated Deus Ex and loved Flying Heroes?

This is all VERY suspicious....

And when asked about his conehead, he always replies that he's simply from France.

- Balut

[Tom Chick]

He's a GAMER who doesn't watch The Simpsons?


Whoa, whoa, whoa, gamers are supposed to watch The Simpsons? Rats, I didn't get that memo.

I do understand that The Simpsons is chock full of popular culture references and some of them are very clever, but otherwise, I guess I don't really get it. Someone at Shoot Club last week was recounting an episode to me in detail. "And so then Bart goes to the county fair and Homer's looking for him, and then they kill this other kid's mom and cook her in a chili cookoff and everyone's eating the chili..."

I had no idea what was going on or why it was supposed to be funny, but I listened patiently.

Oh, wait, now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that was an episode of South Park (a.k.a. the other cartoon I haven't seen) that was being related to me. Whatever. I'm off to play Dragon Ball Z and watch some anime.

-Tom

[Tyjenks]

I'm really starting to suspect Tom is an alien agent sent to spy on Earth.

I mean, come on...

He's an ACTOR who'd never seen The Godfather?

He's a GAMER who doesn't watch The Simpsons?

He hated Deus Ex and loved Flying Heroes?

This is all VERY suspicious....

I am now starting to get unnerved.

A. I have acted in a couple of local things and done some paid gigs and have never seen the original Godfather from start to finish.

B. Deus Ex made me nauseated due to the whole 1st Person perspective and I liked the pictures of Flying Heroes.

C. I do watch the Simpsons religiously though. Whew! Clear on that one.

D. But, I do love Warlords Battlecry II and am on the verge of buying my own GBA.

I suspect, in one of his visits to the Southeast U.S. for his alien abduction quota, I may have been injected with Eau 'd Chick. Eeek! :?

[Jason McCullough]

Whatever. I'm off to play Dragon Ball Z
-Tom

The problem reveals itself.

[wumpus]

wumpus doesn't see the difference between "this is the best game ever!" and "best. game. ever.".
The cover of Next-Generation didn't say "This is the best game ever!", it simply said:

BEST
GAME
EVER

Granted, there probably weren't periods between the words. There might even have been an exclamation point in there. Maybe that's a deal breaker for you. This intentionally, ridiculously provocative cover was totally not a surprise for anyone familiar with the ways of Next-Gen.

If you're a gamer, and you don't remember the controversy (and subsequent parody which devolved further into self-parody in the Daily Radar era) this cover caused, then.. well, I can't help you. It was a big deal at the time.

I guess console gaming wasn't as "hip" in 1996 as it is now, or something? I'm honestly surprised more of you aren't remembering this. Next-gen practically invented the crazy, ironic concept of any game being called "best. ever." in 72 point Times. On the cover.

Anyway, here's some stuff I dug up on Google.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22daily+radar%22+%22next-generation%22+%22mario+64%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=nickzman-8D09C5.23560204122001%40netnews.attbi.com&rnum=1


They were one of those pro-Sony, anti-Sega,
call-every-new-Miyamoto-game-"best-game-ever" magazines, IIRC. It didn't help that their Web site, which would later become "Daily Radar" instead of "Next Generation Online," was also horribly biased. They'd routinely trash Sega and 2D games every time, they came up with no less than three "greatest games of all time" (first Super Mario 64, then Gran Turismo, and finally Zelda: OoT), they gave every new Square game super high marks (with the exceptions of Chocobo Racing and SaGa Frontier, the only two games I recall them panning), and so on..

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22mario+64%22+%22next-generation%22+cover&start=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=321ff956.20631411%40nntp.ix.netcom.com&rnum=26


Well, not to further split this inane post, but NG said that Mario 64
redefined the 5 star system and would have given it 6 stars except
that they didn't want to lavish this sort of attention on it (instead
they put him on the cover and declared it the "best videogame ever".
Weird, huh?). I read NG for the articles, not the reviews (at least
that's what I tell my mom. We all know why we read NG :-).

Then this one

http://www.kuro5hin.org/comments/2002/3/6/91523/64219?pid=7


As for the now defunct Next Generation magazine, with its notorious "Best Game Ever" rating for Super Mario 64 (making it sound like no game could ever beat it), well, now we know why writing like this goes bottoms up. :)

[Tom Chick]

I may have been injected with Eau 'd Chick

That's just really kinda gross.

-Tom