About

At the turn of the century Paul Farnsworth discovered the internet - and found that some people had been there before him. But what really startled him was that some of them had the audacity to use it for more than just peddling ringtones and distributing pornography. A few of these chaps were creating and distributing new, original content - writers, artists, animators, musicians. And they weren't having to pester publishers who were only interested in spawning celebrity diet books, or put up with editors who changed their work purely to demonstrate that they'd had some input. This internet thing was a direct link between the writer and the reader, and our Mr Farnsworth thought that he'd quite like a go at that.

And so, as the thin end of the year 2000 tapered to a close, The University of the Bleeding Obvious announced its arrival to the world. Initially updated every two weeks, it soon adopted a more comfortable monthly turnover. In an internet comedy culture dominated by topical satire and joke sites, The UBO's bizarre strand of absurdism soon built itself a considerable following. Along the way we learned how to teach carrots to fly, visited the Fourth International Child Slapping Championships, gained a deeper understanding of chaos theory, discovered the truth behind NASA's attempts to shave the moon and were enthralled by Rod and Enya's rock and roll mysteries. Meanwhile, visitors contributed to the spirit of the site with their regular postings to the messageboard and caption competition, and were more than willing to help in a naming of an orphaned potato that the University adopted as its mascot.

But this sort of behaviour can't be tolerated indefinitely, and in February 2006 The University of the Bleeding Obvious went out in a blaze of glory, delivering that last of its regular monthly updates. Since that time, it has maintained an archive of some of the more popular material. Three books have also been published, available from our online shop. The eponymously titled University of the Bleeding Obvious is the first collection of articles drawn from the website. A second compilation is due shortly. In addition, two novels, Goldilocks and the Free Bears and Death, Doom and Disaster are also now available.

In the meantime, Paul Farnsworth still keenly supports the idea of the internet as a means of delivering fresh, original content, and is always interested in hearing of new projects. Neither is he averse to reviving old ones, and as far as The UBO is concerned, 2007 might be ripe for a rematch.