Sunday, February 10, 2013

Whoever put a "b" in subtle was a mastermind.

Hey peeps! I haven't posted since the first of the year and that is terrible. For me anyway, I don't even think anyone really reads this anymore. If they do, Hey! what's up. So why did I decide after months of silence, to blow the dust of the old bloggeroo and write something up? Because something annoys me on the internet and gosh dang it, something needs to be said! Ok, maybe not, but it's getting said anyway.

I was doing my homework, so naturally I was browsing my Facebook, and these pictures kept coming up. You know the ones. The ones with the black frames and white captions. These used to be called Motivational Posters, then Demotivational posters. Now there is no term for them because there is nothing remotely motivational or demotivational about them . Most of the time it's a weird picture with a funny caption, but recently I noticed a trend in these image macros. A trend that infuriates me. Wait, why did everyone already stop reading?

Let me illustrate with a couple examples:



What are these? Do the "creators" of these images really think we are to stupid to get the concept of the picture? Obviously that teddy bear is defending the child. That is what is happening in the picture. I can see that, you can see that, and everyone else on this planet can see that. It is a pretty cool picture. The funny thing is it exists out of the "black frame and caption" context.


Who looked at this and thought, "What in the heck is happening here? I'm totally lost. I wish someone would explain this to me." I'll tell you who. NOBODY. But then somebody actually took the time to take this artist's drawing, slap a black frame on it and proceed to dumb down the meaning of the picture into one sentence, and "explain" it to us. Also monsters-under-the-bed? Why is that even hyphenated?

Lets look at the other one. Obviously the original image is intended to be a joke. 

Looking at this picture, one might think something similar to, "Well, of course he found Waldo. He's Batman. Nobody can hide from Batman." Because HEY LOOK THAT IS THE ONLY THING THIS PICTURE IS ABOUT. Someone took some precious time out of their day to put the black frame around this picture and once again "explain" to us what no one with a cursory knowledge of pop culture could ever miss! 

Subtlety is dead on the internet. I mourn its passing.