Stolen Pixels #13: HypoCRITICAL

This installment of Stolen Pixels is a sing-a-long, so clear your throat and get ready to follow the bouncing meme.

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While I dislike meme's in general I agree that motiovational posters manage to be funnier then whatever they depict. Perhaps because many of them manage the art of being subtle due to their nature.

Ha! Oh man, that was great. I agreed with everything in the comic, especially how much I hate lolcats and how funny motivational posters are sometimes.

And just when the comic was awesome enough, then there's a little song to sing. Great!

Oh, and the link to the original tune... classy.

Yes, motivators are the best tihing the internet has produced.

Motivational Posters are not all funny but some are hilarious, that's right. On the other hand while the other memes are often crap there are a few images in between which have charm. That said though I'm not too fond of them neither.

Anyone who enjoyed this comic should definitely check out the "Director's cut" (as in, he cut things deliberately, and they stayed cut for good reason) over at Shamus' site: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1830

There's a whole "deleted scene"!

You actually got me at the end with the roll : (

De-motivational posters have long since lost their original area of use ^^ A tiny, tiny part of them are funny, but that's just like anything else on the internet. Memes can be funny BECAUSE they are memes, if used in a way you didn't expect (like this Rick Roll for example : P)

As far as meme's go, the only ones that have lasting power, for me, are the motivational posters. Lolcats with bad spelling got really old really fast, decent rickrolls are as rare as shitting diamonds, Chuck Norris was fun, untill everyone started doing it everywhere all the time.

I guess meme's aren't my thing. Repetition does not equal funny in my book.

Almost got me, good thing I knew the tune before hand. Some motivationals are really good and threw me into stiches, a good portion of them are crap though.

Nice to get rickrolled again. Good times.

Lol cats are awful. I don't know why people continue to like them.

No hate here, I liked just about every single one of those silly internet *gags*. Sorry, I'm feeling a bit ill, I can't stop gagging. ;D

But seriously, I really don't mind these silly joke fads in comparison to other memes that have existed, such as various propaganda, so I don't know why anyone would hate on it other than lack of finding a new experience in gag research & development. =D

Hey that's cheating Shamus! If you're going to put all that editorial comment over on your site and then close the comments there, I'm just going to have to come over here and confuse people who havent read it...

I really like the Gabe and Tycho gag, and think it sets up the last panel better - I for one wouldn't have taken it as a dig at anyone but yourself. But you are right; it looks too much like the real thing if you were trying for the guest artist look - I assumed you'd just pinched images directly from Penny Arcade.

I like how you Rick Roll'd the audience. I was expecting the last link to be a link to "Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. You know, in case "you can't remember the original tune"...
I still like Strong Bad. I like Ninjas, pirates. I think Portal is a good game. I like the occasional flash video. I think the problem with MEMEs, is you get people who derive meaning, self esteem, a sense of community, out of association or appreciation of these things. That's how you get people who like Trogdor way more than a little cartoon warrants. The internet is terrible about taking things in moderation. Well, them's my thoughts.

That's the only Rick-Roll at which I've actually exclaimed profanity.

It was a good roll, but...

Dammit.

Great job Shamus. I look forward to every Tuesday and Friday!

Do I detect a double hypocrisy as the Escapist puts you on probation for posting memes?

i still love lolercats just because i love cats in general. i never thought they were brilliantly smart, i just loved the cats.

that being said, i get annoyed by inernet memes. i hate them in the same way that i hate people who say nothing but Simpson quotes. i hate people that can't offer their own insight or funny opinion but instead have to reference every aspect of their speech to something they've seen.

i also hate cliches, and obvious puns (so yes, i hate Sex & the City).

Ohh, owned. I got rickrolled. You, sir, are evil.

Another great strip.

Just awesome, and I completely agree.

After several gigantic motivational poster threads on RPGnet, I've definitely had my fill, too.

It's much more challenging to make a lolcat about your favorite geek thing than a motivational poster (for starters, you have to find some combination of cat + your favorite geek thing).

-- Alex

I like the motivational poster format for a gag, but you have to have something witheringly cynical, preferably about the corporate world, which spawned those stupid posters in the first place.

But most of the time it's like:

And maybe the image was funny on it's own, but the text never helps at all, and sometimes even distracts from something that could have been good on it's own. It's like they don't even understand why the original demotivators were funny in the first place. And that's ultimately what this comes down to. Telling stupid people not to recycle jokes they don't even understand isn't going to stop them from being stupid. They're going to find some way to be totally inane whether you like it or not.

wow i quite liked the song your wrote. nice job on that. also i liked the comic and i agree, memes suck, for the most part. most of them are born in the unholy hellfires of 4chan and the rest are ripoffs of truly funny jokes. thank you shamus for putting a comic to my thoughts

Such an awesome song but I'm a little hesitant on clicking those links though...

Very clever! I look forward to these every week.

The_root_of_all_evil:
Do I detect a double hypocrisy as the Escapist puts you on probation for posting memes?

Don't worry, he's on double secret probation.

shMerker:
I like the motivational poster format for a gag, but you have to have something witheringly cynical, preferably about the corporate world, which spawned those stupid posters in the first place.