11.17.09 - 11:00AM
- by
Urlesque Staff

The Worst of '09 -- 2009 Urlies

topic:
2009 Urlies

And the nominees for the Worst of 2009 are ...

Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN

Celeb and News Network Battle on Twitter

Earlier this year Ashton Kutcher challenged the CNN Breaking News Feed to a popularity contest on Twitter. The first to a million followers wins. Obviously CNN didn't stand a chance, but that didn't stop the 24-hour news channel from engaging in a frivolous publicity stunt with the creator of "Punk'd." That said, if all popularity contests ended with the winner donating 10,000 mosquito nets to fight malaria in Africa, we'd be totally fine with it. Way to go, Ashton.

Balloon Boy Hoax

World Duped by a PR Stunt

The Balloon Boy and Heene family did it for the show, and if we were Wolf Blitzer's career as an investigative journalist, this would definitely be our number one event of 2009. Unfortunately we're not, and so we were appalled to learn that Richard Heene orchestrated a massive hoax that exploited his young sons and cost the FAA and Colorado police millions. The Balloon Boy also took over the Internet, inspiring many jokes, none of which were that funny.

Blog Book Deals

Blogs Crop Up in Pursuit of Quick Deal

2009 was the year of the blog book, many of which were based on blogs that weren't all that wordy and were filled with mostly user-generated content. Now don't get us wrong, we love single-topic blogs (and also the books pictured, left) as much as the next guy, but with such a booming trend came an influx of terrible blogs that were an obvious cheap attempt at a quick deal.

Moms on Facebook

Your Mom Has Sent You a Friend Request

You love your Mom, but A) you don't want her to see all your party pics, and B) she doesn't understand how the Internet works. It's like she thinks Facebook was made for her to spy on you and broadcast messages she thought she was just sending to one person. Why did so many moms log on to Facebook this year? Why won't they just go back to Classmates.com?

TV Shows About the Internet

Web Clips Lose Their Luster on a Bigger Screen

Computers are fine and all, but this year the Internet decided to shoot for bigger and better. This year the Internet decided to be on TV. From "Web Soup," to "Tosh.0," to the quickly canceled "Beyond Twisted," these shows were filled with funny moments, awful moments and, like most TV shows, many moments that fell somewhere in between. Regardless, we prefer our memes and viral videos without the commercials.

All 2009 Urlies Winners