17776

Submission 38,273

Part of a series on Webcomics. [View Related Entries]

About

17776, also known as "What football will look like in the future", is a multimedia webcomic created by online writer and editor Jon Bois and published on the sports blog SBNation.^[1] Soon after its creation, it garnered attention for its unique style and generated a strong fandom, particularly on Tumblr, where it is often compared to the webcomic Homestuck for its multimedia presentation.^[8]

History

17776 was launched on July 5th, 2017.^[2] The story takes place roughly 15,000 years in the future and is primarily told through dialogue between three satellites that have gained sentience: "Nine," a satellite that went dormant until the year 17743 before being alerted in 17776, and whose dialogue is colored red; "Ten," the character who revives them and acts as their guide to the new future whose dialogue is colored green; and "Juice," a comic character who tends to interject in Nine and Ten's conversations with jokes and whose dialogue is colored yellow (example text shown below). Some chapters feature conversations between different characters.

The characters observe humanity in the year 17776. In the early 2000s, for an unknown reason, humans stopped bearing children, dying, and aging, creating a utopian future in which humans have achieved immortality and occupy their time, at least in America, by playing "Cross Country Football," a version of American Football in which games can take place over the course of years and across states (for example, the first game mentioned takes place in Nebraska and a team scores by crossing the border into either Iowa or Wyoming). Later, it is revealed that humans at one point invented nano-particles that exist in the atmosphere and prevent accidental or purposeful death or harm to humans (video chapter on "nanos" shown below. Spoiler Alert). Via a combination of text, images, and videos, the story portrays life ten thousand years in the future in which humans occupy their times with various extravagant games. It is set to finish on July 15th, 2017.

Reception

It quickly gained attention for its unique premise and style. Quartz^[3] wrote a glowing review for the story on July 8th. io9^[4] did the same on the 9th.

Fandom

Online, the story has quickly generated a large fandom. It has its own page on TV Tropes^[5] and two subreddits^[6]^[7] with 105 and 59 readers, respectively. It appears to have its strongest following on Tumblr,^[9] where users discuss the series and create fan art and memes related to the series (examples shown below). 20 pieces of fanfiction have been added to Archiveofourown.^[10]