Last summer when word of the Kinjapocalypse came down, on a whim I took video footage using my phone of one of the greatest comment threads ever produced by the Disqus-era A.V. Club.
On December 23, 2008 The A.V. Club posted a short article titled This Holiday Message Is Brought to You. Among other things, writer Amelie Gillette used the space as an opportunity to hatepost about a Charmin Bears commercial. Now this in itself is unremarkable, but what followed in the subsequent comment section was one of the greatest things to happen in the history of The A.V. Club. A comment from a user posting under the name Butts Away spawned an entire thread of stories where commenters posted stories about themselves or people they knew having to make a run for the nearest bathroom, if you catch my drift.
The stories themselves are entertaining, but the magical part is that commenters kept revisiting this thread for YEARS after the original article had been published, adding their own personal anecdotes to the thread along the way. The thread came to be known as the “Shitmas” thread, and over the years gained legendary status among longtime commenters. However, when the A.V. Club switched from Disqus to Kinja in 2017, in spite of the promises that were made the comments from that particular article were not ported over to the new system nor have I been able to find the thread in Disqus. As far as I know, these videos are all that is left (though if anyone is able to locate the thread in Disqus, PLEASE post a link).
The quality isn’t great – I know there are different ways I could have done this which would have resulted in something easier to read, but again I did it on a whim and clearly no one else thought to do it, so any complaints of this nature will be ignored, met with derision or given the downvoting of a lifetime. I also had to make two videos as my phone overheated and shut off at one point. Basically I scroll down about every ten seconds, though I lingered longer on text-heavy sections and sped through some sections where there was little to read.
Anyway, if you were lucky enough to read this thread or contribute to it back in the day, I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane. And if you’re reading these stories for the first time, feel free to start a new holiday tradition by posting your excrement-related stories in the comment section below!
MERRY SHITMAS, AVOCADO!!!!!
UPDATE: In what can only be described as a “Shitmas miracle”, Disqus user Astro Beacon E was nice enough to emerge from a lake with the long-lost Disqus thread, so there’s no longer any need to play and pause my shaky videos. For a more comfortable and leisurely read, please go here:
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/avclub/this_holiday_message_is_brought_to_you/oldest/
EDIT: In the opening paragraph I referred to the thread as “Disqus-era” but apparently it was ported over from the A.V. Club’s old in-house comment system.