Volume Memes

Jean-Baptiste Kempf created VLC media player, rejected millions in funding to keep it open-source and ad-free, and gave humanity a media player that literally plays everything. A true legend. But then he went and blessed us with the ability to crank the volume to 200%. You know, because sometimes 100% just isn't enough when you're trying to hear dialogue in a Christopher Nolan film or compensate for your laptop's pathetic speakers. The beauty is that VLC doesn't judge you. It doesn't pop up a warning like "Hey buddy, maybe turn it down?" Nope. It just says "You want 200%? Here's 200%. Your eardrums, your problem." That's the kind of trust-based relationship we need more of in software development. Also, respect to the title's MPC-HC shoutout—because let's be real, the media player wars are the most wholesome tech debate where everyone's just happy their codec works.

VLC is the Chuck Norris of media players. While other applications have the audacity to say "unsupported file format," VLC just shrugs and says "hold my codec." The meme perfectly captures that feeling when you're trying to play some obscure file you downloaded from a sketchy Russian forum in 2007, and VLC somehow manages to play it at 200% volume despite having no logical reason to succeed. It's like asking a calculator to make you coffee - shouldn't work, but VLC finds a way.