TikTok was my favorite form of the old weird internet. I saw that guy who modeled all the boroughs of New York City when he only had a few hundred likes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45261877

where would we even start looking?

Use https://marginalia-search.com/ to search for things. Check the "blogs" tab.

Lemmy has a real, old school reddit feel for now. At least until the bots and trolls take an interest.