Short lived #knightmare chat craze during mid 2004, stemming from a Red Dwarf episode of the same name.

The episode in question, first broadcast on the 7th March 1991, featured Red Dwarf heading towards a...well, guess. A famous and well known scene of this episode features Kryten explaining what a white hole is: "a black hole sucks time and matter out of the universe, a white hole returns it...that's why we're experiencing these curious time phenomena on board." This phenomena then shows itself when time loops the conversation back to the beginning, before jumping to the middle, then to the bit before the middle, then the end, and then back to the start again. It's a lot less complicated than it sounds; to see the full thing, go to this page, featuring the script, and scroll down. (Link expired since original posting.)

Anyway, flash forward to #knightmare chat on the 24th April 2004. A debate about toys based on KM Chat participants leads to a bit of repetition, leading Ringmasterrob to ask if we're "stuck in a loop already?" 'Drooka' (Drassil and Pooka) then jokingly repeats this three times, leading Billy Hicks to be reminded of the aforementioned episode, and say...

[21:09] <Billy1987-1994> A WHITE hole?

...as said by Rimmer in the episode, after Kryten reveals what he thinks is causing the problems. Everyone in the room gets the joke, and begin quoting other lines from the scene, most notably "So what is it?" (The Cat, asking Kryten what he thinks it is).

"A white hole?" was brought up several times over the next few months, almost always by Ringmasterrob, to varying degrees of success. Perhaps the moment where the craze reached it's peak was on the 6th June 2004, where, after being brought up yet again, the assorted KM chatters managed to quote virtually the entire scene, helped by newcomer Mindez who knew it by heart. See the log here.

Seeing as the fad was based on repeativity, it was unlikely to last much longer. Even by then members were starting to find it annoying, and it pretty much died out as we moved into the Summer. Any mentions of "A white hole?" since then have inevitably been met with loud groans, and pleadings not to continue. Still, it just goes to show you how a simple one line quote from a 13 year old episode of a TV programme can cause a chatwide institution. For a bit.

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