Strindberg and Helium

2001

Date: November 2001 · Place: strindbergandhelium.com, San Francisco · Figures: James and Jim, animators (real names withheld) · August Strindberg, deceased Swedish playwright · Tags: Flash, Absurdist 01. A Suicidal Playwright and a Pink Balloon Two San Francisco animators put a glowering caricature of August Strindberg next to a floating pink helium balloon with eyes. Strindberg monologues nihilist despair pulled from his actual letters. Helium responds in a Mickey-Mouse squeak: I love you Strindberg! Let's go for a walk in the park! Five short Flash episodes between 2001 and 2002. That is the entire output. They are perfect. 02. The Forum Quotable Strindberg lines spread through Something Awful, MetaFilter, LiveJournal. Helium is the proto-emoji: a single-frame avatar of unwanted enthusiasm. The pairing predicts every later sad-anime-girl meme, every Office reaction GIF, every juxtaposition humour built on emotional asymmetry. Strindberg and Helium proves that high-literary source material and broadband-era stupidity belong on the same screen. They run in parallel for the rest of the era. Sources • strindbergandhelium.com archive captures (Wayback Machine, 2001-2003) • MetaFilter thread 12451, 'strindberg and helium' (December 2001) • KnowYourMeme, Strindberg and Helium