Associated Content's Exclusive Interview with Drew Curtis, Founder of Fark.com

Once upon a time, Fark.com was just a picture of a squirrel with massive nuts.

Now, it's one of the most popular websites on the Internet, with a strong community of users behind it--and yeah, they've still got the squirrel.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of Fark, it's pretty simple; users link to news stories that are weird, notable, or just plain stupid with funny headlines. It's addictive, hilarious, and extremely popular--the website has gotten massive attention from the Opie and Anthony Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and even Newsweek.

As a result, founder Drew Curtis has become something of an Internet celebrity, a typical beer-swilling dude who came up with a fantastic concept and executed it well. I got a chance to interview Drew Curtis (and kiss his ass a little) about his website, his new book, the newly-launched Fark TV, and his plans for the future.

When did you realize that Fark was getting to be so friggin' huge?

Drew Curtis: It was so gradual, we hardly noticed. Although, when we hit 1000 page views a day, we had one hell of a party.

What's up with the picture of the squirrel with the huge nuts that's become a cliche on the site?

DC: The day I registered the Fark.com domain, a friend of mine emailed the picture to me. I figured I'd put that up til I had a better idea for a website. For 18 months if you went to Fark.com, all you got was that picture..

Normally, I'd assume people love the attention of getting a link on Fark. Anyone ever been really pissed off?

DC: Rarely, usually it's folks who run message boards that we link to where the server bursts into flames. MSM submits articles to Fark all the time, they love the traffic because traffic equals revenue, and unlike other sites we don't summarize the article in an attempt to keep people from leaving our site. We're a pure pass-through.

You've got a new pet project, Fark TV. Tell us why we should watch it.

DC: It's pretty damn funny. The group involved is great as well, it's folks that haven't ever been involved in production of a TV show doing shorts that are better than 99% of the crap out there, broadcast included. The best part is that it's on-demand at farktv.com, so there's no rush to check out the episodes. They'll be there awhile.

Any future plans for Fark.com that you'd want to share?

DC: We've got a bunch of tweaks on the way, though hopefully people won't notice them. I believe in rolling changes out over time, not all at once. From a business perspective, we're going to sit this dotcom bubble 2.0 out. There's a lot of BS back in play at the moment. Apparently everyone forgot that Geocities was the Myspace of the 90s. That sure didn't turn out well.

What about Fark TV?

DC: No idea what the future of Fark TV is, but given that it's one of the most popular shows on the net, I would think it will be around awhile.

And the Fark book?

DC: We're gearing up for the Fark book launch this summer, and that should be fun. Everyone should check it out, I guarantee you'll laugh loud enough to bother passers by at least once, if not several times. The first chapter is already up on Amazon.

Any Fark headlines pop into your mind as your favorites?

DC: "Swelling Dongting presses against groaning dike". It was an article about floods in China. The article itself wasn't interesting but the tagline was great. We've had funnier taglines, but it's good for illustrating the point that we're more interested in taglines than articles.

Your website's stopping America from getting anything done at work. What stops you from getting stuff done at work?

DC: My boys. I work at home. Storm is 3.5 yrs old, Chance is 6 months. Chance just does baby stuff but Storm wants to play all the time. I can't resist, I'm a pushover. Plus, I like wooden trains and matchbox cars as much as the next guy.

What city throws the best Fark parties?

DC: That I've been to, I'd say Chicago. I hear there's one in Texas every June that rocks, I'm going to go find out myself this year. DC, Toronto, and Atlanta have good folks as well.

Any huge updates to Fark coming up in the near future?

DC: We're going to move a couple things on the main page to different locations but nothing significant. The ain't broke, don't fix it rule is in
play here.

Finally, you're a beer man. Why not incorporate the Fark name into a beer? You'd sell hundreds, I say.

DC: I'd love to, but stupid shipping laws say that you can't just ship beer. As I understand it, it has something to do with Jesus hating alcohol, which is weird considering the guy refused to drink water when it was offered to him. I can't make sense of it.

Thanks for taking the time. You've got a great site.

DC: No problem.