ready.gov satire

March 6, 2003 1:37 PM

ready.gov satire thread on a message board that i frequent which takes images from the government website and re-captions them. there are some real gems.
posted by Dom (30 comments total)

the server that hosts the thread has been under a lot of stress due to this thread being linked elsewhere, my apologies if it doesnt work.
posted by Dom at 1:39 PM on March 6, 2003

Reminds me of Airtoons...Dom, very funny site!
posted by Bag Man at 1:47 PM on March 6, 2003

Try these as well:
Idlewords
Kieran Healy
Insubordinate.net
Track7
Unready.net
posted by Karmakaze at 1:53 PM on March 6, 2003

Holy sugar snax, what happened there, half the thread was, ruined.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:02 PM on March 6, 2003

I did a strip [self-link] making fun of the site and the drug war at the same time. There's also Ruben Bolling's take, where he was more like this thread and used the actual graphics.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 2:03 PM on March 6, 2003

Excellent! Very very funny! Inspired by airtoons, of course. The "How Soon is Now" parody by blacksatan is truly brilliant.
posted by 111 at 2:09 PM on March 6, 2003

Television Without Pity's pixel challenge is spoofing the site as well. I particularly like the Buffy and 24 parodies ("Don't be afraid...Be Keifer.")
posted by amarynth at 2:11 PM on March 6, 2003

Winner:


deny the satanic mutterings of the window
posted by badstone at 2:19 PM on March 6, 2003

I'm leaning towards "NO FARTING IN THE ICE FORT" as my personal favorite, but there are many good ones from which to choose.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:27 PM on March 6, 2003

Okay, I have one now too.
(No disrespect meant/slightly bad taste):

"I have a huuuuge round ass."
(Alternately, "J-Lo in da house.")
posted by Shane at 2:36 PM on March 6, 2003

I don't see what breakdancing or doing the running-man has to do with homeland security!?!
posted by Pollomacho at 2:40 PM on March 6, 2003

My favorite: If you spot an act of terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, just yell really loudly.
posted by Bag Man at 2:47 PM on March 6, 2003

breakdancing or doing the running-man
heh! -or-
"Get out of the house before you grow too tall to fit through the door."
posted by Shane at 2:49 PM on March 6, 2003

In the event of an emergency your filing cabinets will become intimidating. Do not file or organize for they are tall and angry.
posted by Espoo2 at 2:59 PM on March 6, 2003

That's kind of an interesting lesson in how to take something funny and make it totally and completely unfunny by overkill.

I guess MeFi's not alone.
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:30 PM on March 6, 2003

I like: "Beware of the dreaded Tetris Attack!"
posted by Stauf at 3:31 PM on March 6, 2003

Thanks Dom, this thread made my afternoon. Sidesplitting.
posted by rotifer at 3:40 PM on March 6, 2003

Great White show has already begun. Pull off the road, and find something else to do.

other than that, what Kaf said.
posted by quonsar at 3:41 PM on March 6, 2003

Car performs better when erect.
posted by Ron at 4:03 PM on March 6, 2003

And ... someone snagged the captions for profit. Ouch.
posted by rotifer at 4:17 PM on March 6, 2003

Unfortunately a triple post. Most recent deletion here.
posted by DBAPaul at 4:27 PM on March 6, 2003

Double Post

The Ready.gov site begs to be satirized, so look for this to happen multiple times.

E.g., this caption from BCO, which is new and satirific:


Dear Terrorists,
This is where Great American Satan lives.
Please leave the rest of us the fuck out of it.
posted by Dunvegan at 4:40 PM on March 6, 2003

from the new thread at this site: so this is why we have the private button PLEASE PRIVATIZE THE BOARD NOW!! The plot thickens.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:56 PM on March 6, 2003

it's funny because it's true!
posted by ronv at 5:05 PM on March 6, 2003

CafePress does have an intellectual property rights page.

The folks at BCO should consider contacting the CafePress IP people regarding the copied forum items now for sale at the ripoff store

...just sayin'....
posted by Dunvegan at 5:12 PM on March 6, 2003

More random forum caption posts.

My favorite:

In event of terrorist attack, tell terrorists to "talk to the hand because the face isn't listening".
posted by zsazsa at 5:21 PM on March 6, 2003

And ... someone snagged the captions for profit. Ouch.

I guessed that would happen a few weeks ago [self link again, sorry]... captions or not, did anyone really find it hard to believe somebody wasn't going to take these things and put them on T-shirts?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:29 PM on March 6, 2003

About a week ago, Fark did a photoshop contest with these same images. There's some pretty tasteless stuff in there, but most of it is pretty damn hilarious.
posted by dicaxpuella at 7:33 PM on March 6, 2003

This thing's getting worse than All your base. It was funny (and original) on the first day this meme started; not a week later. Besides, most of the one's in the linked forum aren't very original in the first place.
posted by mkn at 9:36 PM on March 6, 2003

All your captions are belong to us.
posted by namespan at 11:39 PM on March 6, 2003