Watching it all was a young lad called Eric. He saw, smiled and, years later, in a moment of absolute boredom, set up a site along the same lines. And that's how 'Eric Conveys An Emotion' was born.

Here's the deal. All you have to do as a visitor is request an emotion. Eric reads what you have to say, tries and acts it out, and posts a photograph of the emotion. The result: one pretty funny Web site.

A frame on the left lists emotions already performed, while one on the right displays requests awaiting portrayal. Eric has complied with everything from 'bemused resignation' and 'senile dementia', to 'being turned down for a loan', 'caught picking your nose', 'being born', 'realising your hair just caught fire', 'what's that smell?', and even 'realising you are really stupid and have a stupid web site! How's that for being sporting?

Pending requests include 'zestfully clean', 'stoned', 'sitting in a dentist chair as he pulls out your teeth, accidentally forgetting the novicane', 'finding dead body in trunk' and 'broken into a million piece jigsaw puzzle'.

In the centre of the screen, he does it all dutifully, photograph following funny photograph. "Sure, some of these may not be emotions per se", he says, but "we're just having fun here".

From the requests that pour in, it also makes sense when he adds, "I could never have come up with some of the stuff that gets requested, especially now that the 'real' emotions have kind of run dry". It's difficult enough to imagine expressions for these situations, let alone enact them.

Eric seems to have no problems, though. His expressions more or less fit the bill. When Michael from Florida wrote in saying he would love to see Eric ("Not these false representations of Eric's moods, but the REEEAL Eric"), that's just what he got. Even when the guy tries a 'sad' face, you can't help smiling.

The site also has a list of awards, lots of feedback, a request submission page, and more about his life.

"It's a simple concept," say the people at Internet Tonight, "and Eric has the acting chops to pull it off and make it funny."

Even though there have been no updates for a while now, regulars still love him. Calista from New York writes: "Eric, I think you have a terribly comic face and ought to continue taking full advantage of it. Kudos on a wonderful page that makes me laugh when I am down." Mike from Chicago thinks there aren't any awards worthy of such a site, while Greg from Albuquerque thinks it's brilliant, adding that the Web needs ideas like these as an alternative to the usual boring sites.

The big question: does the site really have a purpose at all? "I will be the very first to say how pointless this site is," admits Eric. "I originally did this because I thought it would be fun. And it is, because people email me and tell me it made them laugh, brightened their day, good stuff like that….Maybe one day I'll sell out and move out to Beverly Hills."

Experts among us maintain that without the preferences reflected by positive and negative effect, our experiences would be a neutral grey: "We would care no more what happens to us or what we do with our time than does a computer".

Keeping that in mind, Eric's Web site doesn't seem to be entirely without purpose, does it?