Goatse.cx

Goatse.cx is one of the most widely known Internet shock sites. Its front page contains an explicit picture, hello.jpg, featuring a man wearing a gold ring on his left hand (and nothing else) manually stretching his anus and rectum to a diameter roughly equal to the width of his hand. Below the anus, the man's dangling penis and testicles are visible. The site is commonly linked to by Internet trolls in order to shock unsuspecting users with the image. Hello.jpg has the caption "stinger".

As of January 16, 2004 the domain Goatse.cx is no longer online, however many mirrors of the site are still available (see the alternative locations section) and the image itself has been posted at many other web sites.

Etymology

The intended meaning of the site's name is not known for certain. It is commonly interpreted as a word play on the phrase "goat sex", although no goats are involved anywhere on the site. An entry on Urbandictionary.com proposes the acronym "Guy Opens Ass To Show Everyone"; this may be a backronym.

It has been claimed that prior to hello.jpg, Goatse.cx contained a picture of a woman being anally penetrated by a goat. Archive.org only lists versions as far back as March 1999, at which point hello.jpg was being used, so there is no information on whether this claim is true.

Identity of the "Goatse Man"

Despite widespread speculation, the identity of the man featured in hello.jpg is not definitively known. All that is known for certain is that the picture belongs to a series featuring the man demonstrating his anal stretching ability, probably created for pornographic purposes. Some have claimed that "he" is actually a hermaphrodite, and he is actually pulling open his vagina. The developer of this theory later admitted that the theory was never intended to be serious, though some continue to believe the theory is correct.

While his real name is unknown, he has been given many nicknames by various Internet communities. These include "Bob Goatse", "The Goatse Man/Boy/Guy", "The Goatman", "The Receiver", "Stinger", "Gatasa", and "Gman".

According to some sources, the man is from the United States, and he has been practicing anal stretching for years as a hobby. Others contend he is one Yam Sthruss, based on an email in the Feedback section from a person with this name claiming that hello.jpg is of him and asking for its removal. This is most likely a hoax, as YamsYamsYams was for some time a synonym of Goatse on the Something Awful Forums.

It has also been claimed that the Goatse man is a man named Kirk Johnson, another well known practitioner of anal stretching. This assumption is based on similarities in the body, particularly the position of a large mole directly above the Goatse man's anus; the mole is visible in the same location in some of Kirk Johnson's photographs (see link below). One of his photographs commonly used as a shock site is Lensman.jpg, in which he is posing in a similar manner to the Goatse.cx photo. It was found by Ferreous of the forums at Penny Arcade.

Alternative locations

WARNING! All of these addresses lead directly to the pornographic image described above.

The website is available from at least six other locations, all of which are still up:

• http://hick.org/goat/ also http://198.247.175.96/goat/
• http://retropay.com/goatse/goatse.cx/
• http://web.archive.org/web/20030623201150/http://goatse.cx/
• http://synflood.at/mirrors/goatse.cx/
• http://www.goatse.org/mirror/

These sites have the same contents as Goatse.cx before it went down.

• Another mirror, apparently from an older version of the site, is available at http://goat.cx/ The GNAA states that it operates that site [1].
• http://goatse.cc/ and http://notyet.goatse.cc are the same except for the two links in the "Receiver" section. (Johnnyversace.com)http://johnnyversace.com) and Boards.ie are linked to instead of Urinal Poop and Dolphin Sex.)
• http://www.rokbom.com, which is a "front page" for a personal website (http://rokbom.com/index.php, linked by an additional "Rokbom" link). The receiver page lacks the "merchandise" string that the current version has, suggesting that the front is a mirror of an older version of goatse. The modified contrib section has the text "A small request: SUP XXX JASON IS THE RECEIVER" in addition to other content, and the text "Our first Christmas present: A collage from the people at holyzoo.com! Thank you!" is present, unlike in the current version of Goatse; the image is on both sites, however.
• http://www.goatse.ca, which only has the "Receiver" section. Instead of Dolphinsex and Urinal Poop, the text "Fight Censorship!" is below hello.jpg.
• http://www.lagnet.co.za, which only has hello.jpg and the text "I SUBSCRIBED TO TELKOM'S ADSL AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!!!"

External links

• http://goatse.cx/ - Leads to the notice of the domain suspension.
• http://goat.cx/ - Alternative location. WARNING - This leads to the picture described above.
• http://www.supa-gangstaz.tk - Redirect to goat.cx that also spawns numerous popups with hello.jpg.
• http://hick.org/goat/index-orig.html - The Goatse page at a new location. WARNING - This leads to the picture described above.
  • http://www.hick.org/goat/mail.html - "Feedback" subsection with reader email selections. This page does not contain pornographic images.
  • http://www.hick.org/goat/contrib/gap.zip and http://www.exet.nu/html/bildarkiv/goatse.shtml - Links to gap.zip
  • http://www.hick.org/goat/loopback.jpg - The loopback.jpg picture. WARNING - This leads to pornographic material
  • http://www.hick.org/goat/contrib/hello.mpg - The hello.mpg movie. WARNING - This leads to pornographic material
• http://www.roflmao.com/hatejob - A redirect to Goat.cx
• http://www.stileproject.com/ - located the complete image set. WARNING! This site contains pornographic and potentially offensive materials.
• http://www.fc-uk.org.uk/goatse/index.html - A satirical fictional interview with Bob Goatse.
• http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A20210/plp56/ - Another interview, this one with a French man who some have claimed to be the Goatse Man. WARNING! This page contains pornographic material similar to that at Goatse.cx.
• http://mjt.nysv.org/ - has a goatse tribute section.
• http://sam.zoy.org/fun/goatse/ - has a comprehensive goatse tribute section with many well-known (and many lesser-known) photoshoppings of the images from the site
• http://adult.pornparks.com/rosebutt/kirk/001/index.htm - Photographs of a man named Kirk Johnson, who some claim to be the Goatse man. WARNING! This page contains pornographic material similar to that at Goatse.cx.
• http://www.detroithardcore.com/lensman.jpg - Kirk Johnson's "Lensman" photograph. The image is also on the detroithardcore.com main page.
• See the official complaint (PDF) by an individual named Rhonda Clarke [2], the official note (PDF) to the domain's registrant and the current state of the goatse.cx whois entry.
• Petition launched to bring goatse.cx back.
• The suspension of goatse.cx was discussed in detail on Kuro5hin.
• http://static.stileproject.com/rnd/fp/ripgoatse.gif - "RIP Goatse" cartoon
• http://linux.is.analdeluxe.de/ - The pumpkin picture
• http://www.b0g.org contains many goatse references within its archives
• http://www.stilemedia.com/?v=shmap1.wmv&akey=99d5cdb42c95c70f54713174542d4d30 - A video of a man doing two different acts of stretching his anus.
• http://www.siliconsamurai.net/stuff/?chicks - Another copy of gap.zip.

Organization

Goatse.cx has four sections, three of which have images of questionable taste:

• The "Receiver" section, showing the aforementioned hello.jpg. Before the picture is the text in black, "The goatse.cx lawyer has informed us that we need a warning! So.. if you are under the age of 18 or find this photograph offensive, please don't look at it. Thank you!" It also has links to http://www.dolphinsex.org/ and http://www.urinalpoop.org/. It once had a link to http://www.biganal.com/. The text below hello.jpg reads, "IMPORTANT NOTE: There are many merchandising attempts for goatse.cx around the web-- none of them are real, none of them are official. Do not buy this gimmick merchandise. The official goatse.cx merchandise is coming soon!" The title of this page is "Eh".
• The "Giver" section, showing a picture (giver.jpg) of a man on a boat, which has been artificially altered (with Xv according to the XCREATOR tag within the JPEG itself) to appear that he has an oversized penis. The title of this page is "Whoa". The whole website contains an anal sex joke - that the Giver will be able to stick his oversized penis into the Receiver, and therefore, bring on highly pleasurable sexual intercourse for the two men.
• The "Feedback" section, where e-mails are exhibited.
• The "Contrib" section showcasing visitor contributions to the site. Contrib has additional variations of hello.jpg and giver.jpg, as well as other images and files. The title of this page is "Contributed Work". Warning: The page begins with an ASCII version of hello.jpg.
  • bush.jpg is a picture of United States President George W. Bush, calling someone on a telephone in his office, with hello.jpg displayed on a laptop computer on his desk.
  • collage-holyzoo.jpg is a collage of faces of different people affiliated with holyzoo.com and thinkattack.com, and a closeup on the gaping anus of the man in hello.jpg. The image contains the text "Special Thanks for being there for a laugh. From your friends at http://holyzoo.com and... http://THINKATTACK.com"
  • goatse-wwii.jpg is a picture of a large snowball, with "goatse.cx" written on the side, chasing Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo.
  • giver2.jpg is a picture of the Goatse giver holding his oversized penis.
  • magiceye.jpg is a Magic Eye picture. After about 16 seconds, the image changes to that of a 256 color version of hello.jpg. It attempts to fool viewers by exploiting the fact that, although the server sends a MIME type stating the filename is a JPEG image, the image is in fact an animated GIF.
  • warning.jpg is a warning sign picture telling people not to go to goatse.cx
  • goatsex.swf is a Flash Movie, set to the hook from "MMMBop" by Hanson. The movie shows a large dildo being stuck into the anus of the man posing in hello.jpg. The background is from another gap.zip picture, gap8.jpg.
  • Goatman.mp3 is an mp3 Music file. It takes up 518 KB.
  • Foxy_goatse.mp3 is another mp3 music file, a parody of the Jimi Hendrix song Foxy Lady. It takes up 1061 KB.
  • goatsecx-winamp.zip is a ZIP file containing a Winamp skin, depicting hello.jpg. It takes up 313 KB.
  • hello.mpg is a movie, first showing the text "HI" on a black background, followed by shots of gap.zip pictures. At the end of the movie, the following text appears next to a picture of a teenage boy:
    "http://www.goatse.cx
    The goatse.cx lawyer has informed us that we need a warning! So.. if you are under the age of 18 or find this photograph offensive, please don't look at it. Thank you!"

People sometimes link to goatse.cx images not shown on the actual webpages, such as loopback.jpg, a picture of a man looping his penis into his anus. There are also numerous other files in the directory http://www.goatse.cx/contrib/.

The image hello.jpg originates from a set of 40 images depicting the man performing various anal sexual acts. In those images, the man used dildos and butt plugs to stretch his anus. The images were located by Stile Project and are also available from the "Contrib" section of the goatse.cx website under the filename gap.zip. hello.jpg is the third file in the archive, gap3.jpg.

Geographic location

The site uses the .cx country code, which is the top-level domain of Christmas Island, whose operators will not disclose registrants' personal information. The actual server of Goatse.cx is not located on Christmas Island, but in the United States and is owned by Hick.org, which is a website about computer programming. The Hick.org domain was registered by Matt Miller in Overland Park, Kansas. Both Goatse.cx and Hick.org originate from the same IP address; the server is located in the Kansas City, Missouri metro-region. Goat.cx, a mirror of Goatse.cx, is located in the Houston, Texas metro-region.

Parodies and tributes

Because nearly every frequent Internet user has been tricked into viewing the site at one time or another, it has become something of an Internet-wide in joke. As such, hello.jpg and the other images on the site are common subjects of parodies and tributes.

• The 8 Phases of Goatse
• The following three parodies are hosted on Yahoo! Geocities.
  • http://www.geocities.com/bobmaloogakathy/frogsecx/receiver.html - The "Receiver" hello.jpg here is a Kermit the Frog doll with an anus stuck on it. The "giver" giver.jpg shows a man taking off his pants and exposing his pubic hair. "Feedback" leads to http://hanniballecter.blogspot.com/ and "Contrib" leads to http://darko.blogspot.com/.
  • http://www.geocities.com/electabuzz2002/lite.htm - Was originally like the Goatse.cx receiver section, but with hello.jpg replaced by the ASCII version found in the "Contrib" section of Goatse.cx. It has since been changed so that the "Receiver" and "Giver" are replaced by crude line drawings.
  • http://www.geocities.com/internetgoat/ - This website has the Goatse warning, and fake links, as well as a link to this webpage, with the words "Thanks for the hits!"
• The following parodies all originate from the same IP address, hosted in the Houston, Texas metro-region:
  • Oralse.cx - The "Pussy" hello.jpg is that of a kitten, and the "Wiener" giver.jpg is that of a dachshund. Oralse.cx also has a "Contrib" section of more shots of the cat and the dog, as well as modified versions of the aforementioned pictures. It also had a "Feedback" section with its own letters.
  • http://analse.cx/ - This site has bunny.gif, which is a picture of bunch of cartoon rabbits, each with a pancake on its head, who open their anuses in imitation of hello.jpg. The title of the page is "GoatsePancakeBunnyDance". A song called "bunny.mid" plays on the site, a version of Girl from Ipanema. The string "Now this is something I just don't get. - Matthew 11:42" is seen in the source code. This site is also a spoof of The Hamster Dance and Oolong the rabbit.
• In the tradition of oralse.cx and throatse.cx, "anti-shock" (sites that imitate shock/curiosity websites but do not feature objectionable content), has become an Internet trolling phenomenon where people advertise non-shock sites as containing pornographic or shocking matter. Commonly, the actual website linked-to is an image of a family pet, a recipe for sugar cookies, the Olsen twins' website.
• Trollse.cx - a parody of the front page of goatse.cx, replacing the original picture with a picture of open source figure Eric S. Raymond. The giver section has a cartoon of two men, a still frame from Jeff K's animation satiring Linux users and game designer Cliffy B. One of them is clothed and sitting down in a chair. His oversized penis is bulging through the crotch of his red pants. In the background are pictures of Something Awful characters Cliff Yablonski and JeffK. The "contrib" only has an ascii picture of Raymond. This website is hosted in the Washington, DC metro-region. The site links to Slashdot and Slashnet. The site also links to cowse.cx, which is advertised as "coming soon."
• Xbo.cx, which had the Goatse.cx image altered so that it looks as if the man is covering his anus with a Microsoft Xbox, and with a Xbox controller covering his penis and testicles. The page is titled "The Butcher". Others were "The Baker", which was "The Butcher" but with an Atari 2600 in place of the Xbox, and "The Candlestick Maker", which had the Goatse.cx giver with a joystick in place of the oversized penis. The "feedback" button leads to a mailto to gimps@r33t.org. "Hate" leads to a "What would Santa do?" thread on the r33t.org internet forums. And the r33t.org link links to the said website, which has a "Communist" theme. The website has been taken down due to the lease expiring, and was hosted in the Auckland, New Zealand metro-region. The Xbox picture (though not the Atari 2600 or the joystick) can be viewed at http://web.archive.org/web/20020526122729/http://www.xbo.cx/ . Currently, http://www.xbo.cx has become a commercial Xbox modding site.
• http://www.goatse.org/ - an illustration of Mario from the video game Super Mario 64 bending over, with the hello.jpg anus doctored onto the already doctored picture to show an anus to the viewer (The filename of the picture is mariotse.jpg).
• http://members.lycos.co.uk/ferreousx/goats.gif - A modified Penny_Arcade comic strip that contains a extremely pixilated version of goatse.
• http://sam.zoy.org/fun/goatse/ - A gallery of Goatse parody pictures. Warning: The first page is not pornographic, but it contains links to pornographic and disturbing variations on hello.jpg
• http://conese.ath.cx/ - A re-enactment of hello.jpg using an ordinary traffic cone. Non-pornographic.
• http://forge.evula.net/fc/fc_goatse.jpg - An altered Family Circus comic
• http://www.redcoat.net/pics/couldsecx.jpg - A picture of the sky pulling a hello.jpg
• http://www.digitaldfw.com/uberzine/hax.asp?clip=32 - A video showing 2 young men in the background of a newscast with a sign that says "Goatse."
• http://www.thinkattack.com/userFiles/replies/16899.jpg - A picture of Saddam Hussein stuck inside the Goatse man in an altered hello.jpg. The person who altered the picture commented about the picture on the Thinkattack.com message board "They found Saddam in a dark hole..."
• http://www.thinkattack.com/userFiles/replies/16900.jpg - A modified picture of Saddam Hussein having his mouth checked, replacing his mouth with the hello.jpg anus and two hands stretching it.
• http://www.cadaverine.net/misc/hello.jpg - An altered hello.jpg, showing the face of cartoon dragon blocking the man's anus
• http://www.cellosoft.com/nash/garbage/photos/simonb-goatse.jpg - A picture of a teenage boy doing a Goatse pose. The photo has the goatse anus doctored onto the seat of the boy's pants.
• http://www.tworetards.com/issues/030123_13/images/iraqse-or.jpeg - A doctored photograph of George Bush at the podium, modified to show him holding a piece of paper, with hello.jpg on it and the words "Iraq" below the hello.jpg picture
• http://web.archive.org/web/20010305142500/http://www.conhugeco.org/goatse.cx - Neo Goatse.cx, which has two sections - The Effect, which shows a picture of a man with a prolapsed rectum, and The Cause, which shows a pair of gap.zip pictures, the first depicting the Goatse man sitting on a large butt plug, the second with a pair of dildos inserted into his anus.
• http://goat.se/cx - features a photograph (oogabooga.jpg) of a cat with its tail raised, showing its anus. There are no further pictures or links. The URL of this site is one of two possible URLs containing only the text of the original goatse.cx, the other URL being the unavailable http://go.at/secx.
• http://analcock.tk/ - The front page features a picture (ninja.gif) of a crudely drawn man with a wand in his hand, and a penis sticking out of his buttocks, ejaculating. The text "ANAL COCK" written on him. Instead of "the giver", there is "The Gordon" page, which shows a picture (Gordon.jpg, with the caption "stoko") of a teenager. The feedback section leads to the text "CLOCK". The contrib section contains the text "Nothing yet :(".
• http://www.xcesta.org - features a reversed version of hello.jpg (looking out from the man's anus instead of into it) for the "Receiver" section. The "Giver" section features an upside-down, color inverted version of the Goatse.cx Giver picture. The "Feedback" section has some of the e-mail to Goatse.cx reversed, while the "Contrib" section has the ASCII version of Goatse.cx, but with "Goatsex" reversed. On the same page there is also a Javascript text reverser. The site's name comes from a reversal of the Goatse.cx domain - reversed, Goatse.cx would be Xcesta.og, though the site uses ".org" because there is no such TLD as ".og". Note: The picture on the main page is non-pornographic, although pictures on some of the subpages are mildly pornographic.
• http://goatse.biz/ - A "PG-rated" goatse tribute lacking any pictures, only displaying the text, "<Insert picture of rectum here>".
• blog.jackola.net and http://www.timese.cx feature parody versions of The 20th September 2004 cover of Time Magazine, which look similar to goatse even before the parodies were made.
• Goatse is used extensively at General [M]ayhem: [3], where the face of Goatse was uncovered
• http://www.evilscheme.org/defcon/ - A gallery of censored goatse images being shown to people.

See also: Internet phenomenon