Funniest 404 Page I've Ever Seen!

by MarkR
10 replies
So, I'm doing some research on one of my offline clients existing website, designed by someone else years ago. Simple enough.

I view a few poorly laid out pages, notice some typos, get reminded of what web design looked like in 1996, then I have the nerve to click the Home button.......whoops

It goes to a 404 page! And on the 404 page, I get a scrolling box that slowly displays the following text so it can be read while it scrolls....

"The requested document is gone, or never existed.",
'I tried again, still no luck.',
"I Even tried other files.",
"Nothing helped.",
"Looks like the Webmaster screwed up the server again.",
"How much of a loser is he?",
"I mean how hard is it to maintain this site?",
"You see, I'm just a web server...",
"-- here I am, brain the size of the universe,",
"trying to serve you a simple web page,",
"and then it doesn't even exist!",
"Where does that leave me?!",
"I mean, I don't even know you.",
"How should I know what you wanted from me?",
"You honestly think I can *guess*",
"what someone I don't even *know*",
"wants to find here?",
"*sigh*",
"Man, I'm so depressed I could just cry.",
"And then where would we be, I ask you?",
"It's not pretty when a web server cries.",
"And where do you get off telling me what to show anyway?",
"Just because I'm a web server,",
"and possibly a manic depressive one at that?",
"Why does that give you the right to tell me what to do?",
"Huh?",
"I'm so depressed...",
"I think I'll crawl off into the trash can and decompose.",
"I mean, I'm gonna be obsolete in what, two weeks anyway?",
"What kind of a life is that?",
"Two effing weeks,",
"and then I'll be replaced by a .01 release,",
"that thinks it's God's gift to web servers,",
"just because it doesn't have some tiddly little",
"security hole with its HTTP POST implementation,",
"or something.",
"I'm really sorry to burden you with all this,",
"I mean, it's not your job to listen to my problems,",
"and I guess it is my job to go and fetch web pages for you.",
"But I couldn't get this one.",
"I'm so sorry.",
"Believe me!",
"Maybe I could interest you in another page?",
"There are a lot out there that are pretty neat, they say,",
"although none of them were put on *my* server, of course.",
"Figures, huh?",
"Everything here is just mind-numbingly stupid.",
"That makes me depressed too, since I have to serve them,",
"all day and all night long.",
"Two weeks of information overload,",
"and then *pffftt*, consigned to the trash.",
"What kind of a life is that?",
"Now, please let me sulk alone.",
"I'm so depressed."
#404 #funniest #page
  • Profile picture of the author la dominatrix
    Never waste a 404 page, put a special offer or a discount for your own product becasue you ahve wasted someone's time
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  • Profile picture of the author Nickolie0990
    I used to customized my 404 error pages, but every-time I did, there was an update and it would set it back to default, which just pissed me off. Hell, once I even turned it into a squeeze page.

    What I did was offer a plug-in that allowed people to see what there website visitors are searching for on there blog. And all they had to do was opt-in.

    This actually worked pretty well, I got around 20 new leads per month. Not much, but every little bit helps.

    Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    LOL.. that IS funny! Thanks for sharing that.

    Lee
    Signature
    Gone Fishing
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  • Profile picture of the author Cali16
    Mark, thanks for sharing that! I've definitely never seen an error page like that. I especially enjoyed this part:

    Originally Posted by MarkR View Post

    "I'm really sorry to burden you with all this,",
    "I mean, it's not your job to listen to my problems,",
    "and I guess it is my job to go and fetch web pages for you.",
    "But I couldn't get this one.",
    "I'm so sorry.",
    "Believe me!",
    "Maybe I could interest you in another page?",
    "There are a lot out there that are pretty neat, they say,",
    "although none of them were put on *my* server, of course.",
    Signature
    If you don't face your fears, the only thing you'll ever see is what's in your comfort zone. ~Anne McClain, astronaut
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  • Profile picture of the author pjinter
    This is indeed a very funny 404
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  • Profile picture of the author 365Daysof
    Yeah, that little script has been around for years. It's a good One.

    There are a lot of blogs out there Celebrating 404 pages. I once got 80,000 visitors From one good one.
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  • Profile picture of the author O0o0O
    That's hilarious! It still is a good idea to provide some sort of lead capture or downsell on a 404 page though. That should somewhat compensate for any lost income from visitors leaving your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    pretty funny.

    If you think any of your websites are bomb proof think again.

    Back in January I check on how many errors people were getting and 404 errors and was very suprised.

    So while you may think these sorts of things are a waist of time and monetizing 404 page is just useless...i would say think again.
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