Sentences. Like. This. Are. Stupid.

Can someone explain to me the popularity of putting a period after every word in a sentence for emphasis? Isaac's post below reminded me of this pet peeve, because I could see many titling it "Greatest. Website. Ever."

This convention isn't just seen on the internet. I have seen it in published magazines (I can't remember whether I saw it in Entertainment Weekly or US Weekly, but I think it was one of those). So what's the appeal? I guess when people first started using it they thought it seemed funny. But now it is just totally overdone.

Let's hope it goes away quickly. (And yes, I resisted the cheesy urge to separate each word in that sentence with periods.)