Bmezine Pain Olympics

It served as a digital "rite of passage." Much like 2 Girls 1 Cup or Goatse , being able to say you had seen the "Pain Olympics" (or, conversely, being "tricked" into seeing it) was a hallmark of navigating the lawless frontiers of the early web.

The "Pain Olympics" helped birth the genre. Before YouTube had strict content guidelines, users would film their friends watching the video for the first time. The horror, disgust, and disbelief of the viewers became the actual "content," shielding the audience from the graphic nature of the video itself while amplifying its legendary status.