Texts gone awry have taken center stage in the viral humor arena as sites such as Damn You Auto Correct and When Parents Text take off.
This time, we're taking a look at SmartphOWNED, a humor blog launched in January 2011 that was intended to feature auto-correct fails. The site, however, has evolved into more than that. Many of the most-shared texts on the site are witty exchanges between friends, parents saying awkward things (without an additional auto-correct blunder) and text art (such as the "iPhone Whales" slide above).
One of our favorites is this creative use of emoji to illustrate Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz's "Get Low." The 13 text conversations in the gallery above are the SmartphOWNED creator's picks for funniest on the site.
"You often overhear conversations between other people but you rarely have opportunities to read their text conversations. It feels more private - like you're reading someone's diary," Emerson Spartz, CEO of Spartz Media told Mashable. "It's easy to imagine yourself as one of the characters because you can't see or hear the authors. Because you can place yourself in the story, it's easier to immerse yourself in the moment."
Spartz is quite the veteran when it comes to viral web culture. He created MuggleNet, the world's number one Harry Potter site, when he was just 12 years old. Today, SmartphOWNED is Spartz Media's top blog with 50 million monthly page views.
To submit texts to SmartphOWNED, you use the custom SmartphOWNED iPhone Builder tool to replicate your conversation, rather than grabbing a screen shot.
"The funniest conversations use many of the same jokes and observations that are expressed using other formats, like stand-up comedy," Spartz says. This trend of showing screenshots of funny text conversations exists because funny conversations are happening via text."
Take a look through the gallery above -- we bet at least one will make you chuckle.