One of the most valuable players on the Internet over the last year, Tumblr has amazed us in how quickly it’s evolved from a small-staffed, ballsy experiment to a respected, widely used, interactive network of some of the funniest and highest-quality content out there. We’ve found that when we’re looking for some procrastination, inspiration, or just a good laugh, we often wind up on a Tumblr blog. Below the jump, browse through our 15 favorites of 2011, and tell us which others you think we should check out before the year is up.
A blog that’s become immensely topical in recent days, Kim Jong-il Looking At Things was at the top of our list even before it lost its eponymous dedicatee. But with that loss came the gain of its wonderful Tumblr counterpart: Kim Jong-il No Longer Looks At Things. Both — one with halos, one without — document the surprisingly many snapshots of North Korea’s late leader looking at things with a fixed gaze most of us can only hope to one day receive from another. The man loves looking at things. Hey, he could be looking down on, or up at, things right now.
What’s the one thing women across America love even more than regular Ryan Gosling? It’s a grueling question, but Feminist Ryan Gosling delivers an answer, helping the ladykiller get in touch with his feminine side and thereby engineering the Internet’s ultimate panty dropper.
Babies may have a reputation for being universally cute, but they were not always that way; in fact, according to many of the surviving paintings from the 14th through 17th centuries, a majority of Renaissance babies were butt ugly and inappropriately naked all the time.
Awesome People Hanging Out Together
As most Tumblrs are, Awesome People Hanging Out Together is exactly what it sounds like — shots of very, very cool people kicking back with each other. Every picture on this blog represents a gathering we wish we could have been at. (The awesome people above, by the way, are Akira Kurosawa, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas.)
With a decidedly wider scope than the one-topic Tumblrs we adore, BuzzFeed’s social media annex collects the best from around the Internet and serves them up in one place. BuzzFeed always knows what’s up, enabling procrastinators with myriad links to new stories, graphics, comics, and other funny Tumblrs.
Rick Perry’s Unpopular Opinions
Whatever your political leanings, you can’t help but appreciate the simple genius behind this recent Tumblr that pokes fun at Rick Perry’s probably homophobic commercial. Each post features a .gif taken from the ad superimposed with white block letters endorsing another universally contended opinion.
Perhaps the best magazine Tumblrs around, BlackBook covers pretty much everything from fashion news to cultural events to funny comics. With offerings for your nerdy, geeky, and chic sides, it’s a true cultural omnivore’s procrastination holy grail — and it’s also required reading for all David Lynch fans.
Awkward Stock Photos gives a moment in the limelight to the photos filed away after some photographer said, “Oh,I’ll take a stock picture of suited men with their heads in a pipe because people always need pictures of suited men with their heads in a pipe,” that was never used because no one ever needs a picture of suited men with their heads in a pipe. Awkward Stock Photos are always funny, never make sense, and rarely fail to provoke big questions and cocked, inquisitive heads.
You’ve all seen it before — the trite stock shot of a white, middle-class, college-educated do-gooder being philanthropic in a developing nation, posing between a huddle of kids of another race and class. This Tumblr is a tongue-in-cheek version of the photo album you have to sit through, narrated, when your friend returns home to her 4,000-square-foot luxury apartment in New York.
Same Picture of Dave Coulier Every Day
It’s the Same Picture of Dave Coulier Every Day. The same one. Over and over again. And yet we refresh at least a couple times a week. What can we say? It’s quite a photo.
Also a Tumblr whose feature image never changes, this site pokes fun at — while seriously considering — the things we name our dogs. Each post includes the same photo of the same beagle we’ve by now grown to know and love — but with a new name. Why is a picture of a beagle named Susan funny? We don’t know. But we’re pretty confident that it is.
We live in a culture that loves white dudes. White dudes have the jobs; white dudes have the power; white dudes have pretty much all the odds working in their favor. Overrated White Dudes breaks down some of the most celebrated white dudes, calling them out on really just being white dudes who shit shit, not gold.
Browsing the Daily What is like popping open a Pandora’s box of the Internet’s most bizarre memes, videos, pictures, and comics. Whatever we find, we know we’ll either react with a perplexed “what?” or forward it on to our friends.
When you’re longing for Macaulay Culkin as a kid and Power Rangers figurines, go visit I’m Remembering. A celebration of retro, childhood, and all the objects, designs, toys, and mistakes that defined a recently bygone era, it’s born out of and created for our generation’s acute nostalgia.
Who knew there were so many hipsters in China? And these are the most hardcore kind — the ones who won’t admit to their affiliation and will probably pretend not to know what you’re talking about. This Tumblr documents the apparently many Chinese citizens of all ages who, in prioritizing comfort, or in simply not having seen a magazine since some time in the early ’80s, end up accidental hipsters. In the same vein, according to a Huffington Post columnist, there’s a similar outpost of accidental hipster growing in Senegal.