REVISED Revised opinion of 9/11 after 10 years of crap (demotivational poster)

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Your message is more than a little garbled. What the fuck is the point you are trying to make? Because you are utterly failing at making one.

This. Make your point whether you look like an assbag or not.

Because you already do look like one, and may as well clarify what you're on about.

[Cramulus]

The message is still a bit muddled. There are actually a couple of points that I'm trying to make, but I can't think of how to express them all at once that doesn't instead simply come off as pointlessly offensive rather than the kind of pointedly shocking that I was going for.

my suggestion ---

Humor is a powerful tool! But you have to use it properly.


If your goal is to show that something is absurd and needs to change, help us see why it's absurd and why we should laugh at it.

Your audience sees this "schadenfreude" caption beneath a familliar image of destruction. Does the caption mean that their reaction to this image should be schadenfreude? Or are they supposed to feel disgusted at the caption? That is, are you trying to incite the audience by drawing their attention to people that rejoice in this destruction?


Above all, the demotivational-poster is a form of humor, so if you want the image to have punch, it needs to be a joke. When the audience laughs, you want them to be laughing with you, seeing your point from your perspective. The poster draws attention to what they should (in your opinion) be laughing at.

I sense that you're making a point here, but I'm having trouble distilling exactly what it is. Am I laughing at the destruction? the people who laugh at the destruction? Are you trying to increase or decrease schadenfreude? It's unclear to me.

[Placid Dingo]

What Cram said about the demotivational poster.

Were meme literate enough to know that style of image gives a one punch joke. If it's something more complex well, make something more complex. Write a poem, story, paint something. But don't rely on something too simple to express something too complex.

The issue is the same: fir my money it's less jarring now but it's still no more funny. Or coherent.

[Cain]

I don't know what you guys are on about.  My mind = blown.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

For those of you asking, The point that I was trying to make, is that :

the government and the DHS and the media are basically all saying "We need the Patriot Act, and increased oversight, and perpetual baleful mourning, unless of course you like seeing out country attacked"
And the poster is meant to respond "if those are the only two options you're going to give me then apparently I must like seeing our country be attacked. Here's a poster to that effect."

But I don't know how to artfully express that in a demotivational poster...

[Pæs]

That's a stupid message. Why are you trying to say it at all?

[Cramulus]

you've got an if:then in there, which is a bit complicated for the demotivational form.

Sounds like ... you're juxtaposing two images:

-terrorists destroying america
-and {whatever busted thing it is you're shining a flashlight on}

You're essentially saying "YOU MUST CHOOSE"

The next step is to think of a way to present that choice in an absurd and/or humorous way.

I think using explicit 9/11 imagery is a bit much - those images have a lot of connotations (and emotional associations) that you ALSO evoke when you use those images, and that can have the opposite effect than what you intend.

Memetic protip: Any time you use a symbol, you've also evoked the symbol's other associations and contexts. So be careful what you reference!


The last "beat" of the image should punch. If you have a caption under the image, that's where the joke will play out. Humor relies on surprise. So here's what you do: Use an American flag as a bitchin cape. Grab a baseball bat. Yell GET ER DONE. blast the fuck out of a security camera.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

FREEDOM=TERRORISM.

[Phox]

But I don't know how to artfully express that in a demotivational poster...

Then don't try.

[Placid Dingo]

That's a stupid message. Why are you trying to say it at all?

Disagree. That governments and media try to manipulate people into perpetual rage and depression en mass, in order to bypass reason with emotion to manipulate people into complacency with their own agenda is worth expressing artistically.

Problem here is the medium sucks for anything other than a quick punchy joke.

[Pæs]

That's a stupid message. Why are you trying to say it at all?

Disagree. That governments and media try to manipulate people into perpetual rage and depression en mass, in order to bypass reason with emotion to manipulate people into complacency with their own agenda is worth expressing artistically.

Problem here is the medium sucks for anything other than a quick punchy joke.

That's a different message to the one PDS gave.

[Cainad (dec.)]

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's a stupid message. Why are you trying to say it at all?

Disagree. That governments and media try to manipulate people into perpetual rage and depression en mass, in order to bypass reason with emotion to manipulate people into complacency with their own agenda is worth expressing artistically.

Problem here is the medium sucks for anything other than a quick punchy joke.

Problem here is that OP is unclever. And lazy. Doing actual work to elucidate is beyond his wilingness.