More Pirates vs Ninjas

And here's a Facebook app.

Ninjas are everywhere.

Next up... Ninjas vs. Pirates - the age-old debate.

Three memes, one picture

A series of tubes

The Internet is a bunch of tubes…

Well, that’s according to US Senator Ted Stevens anyway. He gave a speech criticizing a proposed amendment to a US bill concerning Network Neutrality, and basically showed his complete lack of understanding of how the Internet works.

Boing Boing had this to say about the senator: “This man is so far away from having a coherent picture of the Internet's functionality, it's like hearing a caveman expound on the future of silver-birds-from-sky and why we need to keep them from flying so high they anger the gods.”

Here’s a taste of what he had to say:

“I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially...

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.”

Here’s the speech on YouTube.

In true Internet in-joke fashion, many Internet-users make oblique references to the 'series of tubes' (and the truck) – crossing into many memes including LOLcats and demotivational posters.


MySpace user Andrew Raff sang the senator's words over a folksy ditty and anonymously posted it to MySpace.com.

Comedian Jon Stewart aired part of Steven's speech on The Daily Show, complete with a helpful diagram illustrating how a tube-based internet might work.


My opinion - great fun, some clever humor

Demotivational posters

I'm sure you've seen those terrible motivational posters that were a big craze for a while.

You know the ones: they feature an athlete silhouetted against a sunset, crossing a finish line and celebrating, or a gazelle leaping across an African plain... Below the picture a strong line focuses on a motivational topic like 'Leadership' or 'Success'. And below that, advice on how to 'be better'.



It's not really surprising that many people found these posters the perfect material to rip off. Demotivational posters (often called Demotivators or MotiFakes) are just that - an image, together with funny copy mocking real motivational posters. The sarcastic messages cover everything from work issues to getting a girlfriend and gaming references.


Check out Macrofolio and the burning biscuit for some great posters.


This meme continues to spread and evolve. Posters cover just about every conceivable topic - and some are just plain strange. Here's a site where you can make your own.