Just In Time For The Equinox

March 21, 2013 3:47 PM

About a week ago a series of tweets began to appear promoting a new TEDx conference taking place with all the normal social media bluster and back-patting - but was it? The event's isolated location should've set off warning bells (previously) when the tweets from "TedxSummerisle" because increasingly worrisome as the conference tumblr began posting videos with titles like "Our Friends the Bees, and Nanotech" and "The Secret Science of the Ancients". (via)
posted by The Whelk (28 comments total)

Not a single talk on vortex maths? Humbug.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:58 PM on March 21 [3 favorites]

How'd it get blogged? How'd it get blogged? HOW'DITGETBLOGGEDHOW'DITGETBLOGGED?
posted by Jofus at 4:09 PM on March 21 [25 favorites]

Lord Summerisle: We require a very specific sort of TED speaker.
Willow: A man who would come here of his own free will.
Librarian: A man who has come here with the power of a king. By representing the law...
Willow: A man who would come here as a virgin...
Librarian: A man who has come here as a fool!
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 4:10 PM on March 21 [20 favorites]

Semi-related: the forthcoming RED Talks.
posted by latkes at 4:15 PM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Man they'll give a TEDx to any weirdo with an agenda.
posted by 2bucksplus at 4:18 PM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Also, what's this bees bullshit? Summerisle is famous for its apples AND THERE WAS NEVER ANY OTHER MOVIE.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 4:21 PM on March 21 [34 favorites]

2bucksplus: "Man they'll give a TEDx to any weirdo with an agenda."

They hand them out like hotcakes to any self-aggrandizing twit, I'll say that. This lady from my town got one, and I caught her red-handed writing her own Wikipedia article and then lying about it.
posted by dunkadunc at 4:38 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Somewhere, Neil Labute's ears are burning.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:39 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

When something I really love is featured in some way in an FPP, I often have a hard time participating in the thread because I'm too busy happy-thrashing to form a coherent or useful thought.

Suffice to say, The Wicker Man (the ONLY Wicker Man) is my very very favorite movie and I would favorite Bunny Ultramod's comments several times over if I could.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 4:40 PM on March 21 [4 favorites]

Genius. Chilling, bizzare, satirical genius.
posted by Faintdreams at 4:53 PM on March 21

I like The Onion versions of TED talks....

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/10/the-onion-tees-up-ted-talks.html
posted by C.A.S. at 4:54 PM on March 21 [4 favorites]

"They are jumping over the PowerPoint naked!"
"We wouldn't let them jump over the PowerPoint with their clothes on; that would be terribly dangerous!"
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:08 PM on March 21 [4 favorites]

I DO NOT BELIEVE IN YOUR GREENTECH SCHEME!! CHRIST!!! OH CHRIST!!!
posted by benzenedream at 5:50 PM on March 21 [6 favorites]

Man I am fan of dry humor, but this is some of the driest humor I have ever read. I'm literally like 20 pages into the storify and they're finally getting to the punchline. You have to admire the dedication.
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:54 PM on March 21 [3 favorites]

The great thing about the Neil Labute Wicker Man is that future viewers of the original film will be all the more surprised. Never before has such a unique, wonderful film been remade as such a unique, wonderfully terrible film.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:13 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

When I first saw the tweets about this, I thought the TEDxToronto bike golem had reappeared.
posted by limeonaire at 7:32 PM on March 21

This is beautiful. A brilliant prank, fantastically orchestrated.

Also, this sentence:

“So I thought: what if humans were making honey--not from monosaccharides, but from social connections?”

neatly sums up everything about TED talks.
posted by moss at 8:55 PM on March 21 [11 favorites]

I couldn't tell which of the fake tweets was using the term "gamification" sincerely and which of the fake tweets was using the term "gamification" ironically. Very well done.
posted by maryr at 9:27 PM on March 21

This is the bee's knees.
posted by mwhybark at 10:44 PM on March 21

Twenty All-Time Worst TED Talks
Ten TED Talks They Should Have Censored
posted by jeffburdges at 3:11 AM on March 22

I don't know of any of the people involved in this conversation but it paints a fairly odd light of the thing.
posted by gronkpan at 4:43 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

Eddie Huang is a chef and journalist. In most cases, TED quietly disowns anyone that says anything they dislike. Nick Hanauer's wealth inequality speech being the most notable.

See also The Tyranny of TED by Adrian Segar, who Pecha Kucha and Ignite. And Reggie Watts trolls TED conference is good. Someone should make a TED sucks posts from these and other links.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:14 AM on March 22 [2 favorites]

I approve of this and all TED-related piss-taking.
posted by jquinby at 6:49 AM on March 22

Can I at least still drive my BMW and wear my $5000 watch?
posted by srboisvert at 8:46 AM on March 22

I'm still waiting for TEDxArkham, that city has so much to share.
posted by xqwzts at 9:55 AM on March 22

Thanks jeffburdges, that Nick Hanauer TED talk and its backstory are very interesting.
posted by sneebler at 10:21 AM on March 22

How is James Randi on that list of worst TED Talks, but this isn't?

Also, is there a way to read that Foreign Policy article without signing up?
posted by lkc at 12:01 PM on March 22

(Ah, just search for it on google).
Also, the Bill Gates one shouldn't have been censored. I think releasing a swarm of mosquitoes on a TED audience is completely appropriate.
posted by lkc at 12:18 PM on March 22