Chat Roulette: The Internet's worst and best idea ever (and a guy humping a raccoon) [photo NSFW]

The idea is "so internet" I wonder how no one thought of it before!

Chat Roulette is the brainchild of a 17 year old Russian, and the website has been around for just 3 months.

It's extremely simple. You click "Play" and you are connected by video-chat to a random user. You can either start chatting, or hit "Next" to go to the next random user (or 'random stranger', to use their terminology.)

There are no user names, nor profiles; it's completely anonymous. And once either you or your counterpart hit "Next" you cannot go back or reestablish a connection.

The result? At the click of a button you are teleported into someone's bedroom - with the average attention span it's typically for a few seconds - and, well, anonymity brings out people's oddest instincts. Freud would be proud.

I've spent a couple of hours on the website over the past two weeks - and it was really amusing! - and this is my experience:

• An exchange lasts on average 3 seconds
• I suspect it might've lasted longer if I were a woman, or if I was naked
• Definitely much longer if I were a naked woman
• All people were at home, save for a couple at a bar somehow, none at work
• I did get to chat with 2 guys in China, 1 Switzerland, 1 in Chile, a couple of people in the US
• On that matter, the majority of users are in the US
  
• There are more exhibitionists out there than is conceivable
• The website crashes. A lot.
  

I was:

• Serenaded, in Norwegian, by two sisters (and it was very nice!)
  
• Given the finger thirty maybe, for no good reason
• Asked to take my shirt off once
• And called a "fatboy", as well as a "cutie". Both times by men.

I have also seen:

• About 150 penises
• 3 pairs of boobs
• 3 guys playing the guitar
  
• A dozen Clinton masks
• And 1 guy humping a toy raccoon.
  

Yes, I took a screenshot of the guy humping the raccoon. Obviously. Below.

So, yeah. It was fun. Check it out. Now. If you're at work, turn your speakers off, you never know what people could be screaming.

Someone made a half-assed study on Chat Roulette - essentially they wrote the same stuff I did but it took them about 17 pages - and it's here if you're really bored at work.