Saturday Morning Equality Movement
February 3, 2011 7:27 PM   Subscribe

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is an opinionated and sometimes very strange webcomic. (several times previously) The National Organization for Marriage is an organization that lobbies to protect heterosexual-only marriage rights. Today's SMBC is about the future! The NOM does not like this future. The NOM blog hotlinks this comic. Wait, that's not the same picture, is it...

The full story is here.
posted by gracedissolved (61 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Cue my total terror at my first FPP.

Zach Weiner is totally my hero today.
posted by gracedissolved at 7:30 PM on February 3, 2011


Looks like NOM already corrected the image.
posted by meandthebean at 7:32 PM on February 3, 2011


How have I lived this long and not heard of the term "wanging" before. I'm a little surprised that's still up there. Nice post.
posted by jessamyn at 7:33 PM on February 3, 2011


That figures! Literally must have just happened. There are screencaps on the blog post.
posted by gracedissolved at 7:34 PM on February 3, 2011


I'm seeing the opposite of meandthebean: for me, both the NOM and SMBC links show the rainbow flag image. There might be some back-and-forth in progress. Can we see a link to the original comic NOM was trying to hotlink?
posted by churl at 7:36 PM on February 3, 2011


watch your browser's cache settings; the rainbow flag seems to stick around.
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:38 PM on February 3, 2011


You have no idea how many times I read the comic panel on each website, looking them over as if it was a "find the 12 differences" feature in a childrens magazine, feeling like an idiot. I support LGBTQ rights, why can't I notice the glaring and offensive editing that NOM did to this comic???
posted by Corduroy at 7:38 PM on February 3, 2011 [17 favorites]


I am incorporating the term "wanging" into at least five sentences in the next hour. I hope I don't wang my brain by trying to figure out new ways to fit the word wang into a sentence. ok that's two
posted by not_on_display at 7:38 PM on February 3, 2011


It's cause your browser sees the same path for both and pulls out from its cache whichever one it loaded first. Which can delay the discovery of the switch in some cases, though probably not in this one.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:38 PM on February 3, 2011


Looks like they're down. Glad the blog post has screenshots. I chuckled at the comic this morning, but that makes it a whole lot funnier.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:39 PM on February 3, 2011


Jessamyn - I'm not sure if they originated it (I think they did), but the term "wanging" for hammering a site got popularized by Penny Arcade.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:39 PM on February 3, 2011


Is it legal for NOM to hotlink his comic like that (and host it themselves after he pulled the switcheroo, which I assume they did but can't check since the site's currently down)? Zach doesn't seem like someone inclined to be a dick about copyright issues, but if any group deserves a righteous slapdown, it's these guys.

(Also, this live comment loading is awesome.)
posted by Rhaomi at 7:40 PM on February 3, 2011 [3 favorites]


watch your browser's cache settings; the rainbow flag seems to stick around.

Oh, right, thanks. It was a referrer hack and not (like I assumed) just a separate image path at the SMBC server. A hard-refresh on the SMBC page did the trick. Cheers
posted by churl at 7:42 PM on February 3, 2011


Huh. NOM seems to be wanged again. Poor dears, everyone is always picking on them and wanging their blog.
posted by rtha at 7:42 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yeah, Penny Arcade used to have "wang" as a catchphrase (for example) and was one of the early sites capable of causing the Slashdot Effect. Hence, "wanging".
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:43 PM on February 3, 2011


This live comment loading is totally wanging my iPhone by in a good way. NO GRANDPA IM NOT MASTURBATING. well I am but thats besides the point.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:43 PM on February 3, 2011 [3 favorites]


watch your browser's cache settings; the rainbow flag seems to stick around.

All that wanging makes it sticky.
posted by bonehead at 7:46 PM on February 3, 2011 [5 favorites]


this live comment loading is awesome

Agreed!
posted by grubi at 7:46 PM on February 3, 2011


Huh, according to the Google cache, the comic is still a direct link to the SMBC comic. Did he stop using the rainbow image?

Also: "NOM STAFF"? LOL.
posted by Rhaomi at 7:46 PM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]


NO GRANDPA...

Wang, bang, thank you gran
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:49 PM on February 3, 2011


SMBC has just only edged out mefi as my favorite place on the internet for at least 3 years now. Thanks for putting on the front page!
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 8:05 PM on February 3, 2011


Also, sheffield muscle bodybuilding club? fuck those guys, just let the domain die...please.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 8:06 PM on February 3, 2011


I hope I don't wang my brain by trying to figure out new ways to fit the word wang into a sentence. ok that's two

Mentioning doesn't count.
posted by fatbird at 8:11 PM on February 3, 2011


I hope I don't brain my wang trying to fit it into a sentence.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:13 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wow, that really is numberwang.
posted by Bromius at 8:15 PM on February 3, 2011 [14 favorites]


Huh, according to the Google cache, the comic is still a direct link to the SMBC comic. Did he stop using the rainbow image?

It's a referrer hack. It only loads the rainbow image if the 'referer' [sic, goddamned HTTP standard can't spell] is the NOM blog.
posted by kmz at 8:17 PM on February 3, 2011


Wanging wangs wang wanged wang.
posted by kmz at 8:18 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wanging wangs wang wanged wang.

I believe the canonical form is "wangless wang wangs wang wangily", but we'd have to check with Chomsky to be sure.
posted by cortex at 8:23 PM on February 3, 2011 [6 favorites]


So happy that SMBC kept this classy instead of, for example, invoking goatse.

And then kind of sad that they didn't.
posted by zylocomotion at 8:23 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


I know this guy, Tom Wang, who once wanged the karaoke queue by putting Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight (Everybody Wang Chung Tonight)" on repeat the whole night. That guy is such a dick.

...I mean, wang. Guy's a total wang.
posted by phunniemee at 8:26 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]




I approve.

Of the wanging in particular.
posted by That's Numberwang! at 8:36 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


If you look at a cartoon about an SFnal future in which babies don't come from inseminating human females and the first thing you think of has anything to do with gay marriage (or any kind of marriage at all), I have to wonder about your frame of reference a little.
posted by immlass at 8:41 PM on February 3, 2011 [5 favorites]


You wanged my ship, you walnut-paneled idiot!
posted by Existential Dread at 8:58 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


By the way, there's a screenshot here in case you wanted to see what it looked like.
posted by spiderskull at 9:01 PM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]


Is it legal for NOM to hotlink his comic like that (and host it themselves after he pulled the switcheroo, which I assume they did but can't check since the site's currently down)?

Zack actively encourages hotlinking his comics by giving out the code to link it for your blog/myspace/forum, so I expect legally they would be fine. If they copied it and hosted it themselves, then there could be trouble, but anyone sensible would just delete the post instead.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 9:04 PM on February 3, 2011


Yeah, "wanging" was penny arcade's term for their slashdot effect. Sort of ironic, given the current furor, but only sort of.

Does anyone have a cache of the NOM link? I'm only getting their "server down" page.
posted by Errant at 9:04 PM on February 3, 2011


Wangers gonna wang.
posted by vidur at 9:44 PM on February 3, 2011


Hey! Since most of this stuff is now borked could someone please provide a text-only version of what the hell is going on? This post wins the cryptic post of the year award. From Balrog awards. Discount.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:49 PM on February 3, 2011


What would have been fun would be to serve the rainbow flag to NOM blog readers, but serve the original comic to any NOM hosts. Just to keep it up a bit longer.

Anyway, this was awesome. Kudos to Zach for fighting back in such a smart, classy way.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:52 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


Al Gore: Well, it's obvious what should have happened. That wang to the head should have killed you.
posted by EmGeeJay at 9:56 PM on February 3, 2011


I'm proud to say today that I'm a Weiner man.

Good on ya, Zach! :D
posted by zoogleplex at 9:56 PM on February 3, 2011


Baby Balrog, it's all explained in the "Full Story" link below the fold.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 10:06 PM on February 3, 2011


Huzzah!
posted by Mister_A at 10:12 PM on February 3, 2011


He did go the classy route. If this happened to me, with their blog entry titled "Grandpa" and everything, I'd probably be reaching for lemonparty.jpg in the blink of an eye.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:28 PM on February 3, 2011 [3 favorites]


Joakim Ziegler: He did go the classy route. If this happened to me, with their blog entry titled "Grandpa" and everything, I'd probably be reaching for lemonparty.jpg in the blink of an eye.

This is better. It's just as much of a troll to them without being instantly recognizable and dismissible as an anti-hotlinking image.
posted by Mitrovarr at 11:06 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


Mad style indeed.

Afraid to say I would go with something like meatspin myself.

I have little to no grace when adequately angered.
posted by Samizdata at 11:07 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I would've assumed "wanging" was the practice where you read Harry Potter aloud while replacing the word "wand" with "wang".

I also thought he showed great restraint by not going old-school and using goatse.
posted by NoraReed at 11:20 PM on February 3, 2011


Now the TVTropes kids are trying to make a trope for this. D'aww.
posted by NoraReed at 11:49 PM on February 3, 2011


Chunged. This evening. All of us.
posted by sourwookie at 12:46 AM on February 4, 2011


As someone who considers NOM the enemy*, I am pleased not just by the occurrence itself but by how it exposes that being an idiot in your morality sometimes corresponds with being an idiot with your technology. That their organization's blog person would hotlink an image in such an ignorant way brings me joy on so many levels.


* with full realization that I'm poisoning the well of discourse by doing using this language and about 20 years and too frustrated being told I'm equal enough because I can get a civil union and domestic partnership (our pre-tax insurance benefits shows me every month just how equal I am by charging me $200 that my heterosexually married co-workers don't have to pay to cover their own families

posted by MCMikeNamara at 5:03 AM on February 4, 2011 [5 favorites]


Well, now they have copied it and stored it locally. You know, just for reference's sake.
posted by Xoder at 6:04 AM on February 4, 2011


The commentary on the blog had me confused for awhile. Despite the description of an anti-rights/protest/whatever site, the majority of the posters seem to be all in favour of the LGBT business, or at least were kind of confused at what all point was being made. And, Corduroy, you weren't the only one trying to pixel hunt for differences in the panels. Regardless- Hilarious! (Or at least mildly satisfying)
posted by LD Feral at 6:12 AM on February 4, 2011


protect heterosexual-only marriage rights

The word "rights" shouldn't be in that statement.
posted by inigo2 at 6:21 AM on February 4, 2011 [1 favorite]


If they copied it and hosted it themselves, then there could be trouble, but anyone sensible would just delete the post instead.

In case you needed any further proof that NOM does not fit in the category of "anyone sensible" (and who does?), they have now copied it and are hosting it themselves. RELEASE THE KRAKEN LAWYERS! (IANAK.)
posted by The Bellman at 6:25 AM on February 4, 2011


You got your WANG in my NOM!

You NOMed my wang!
posted by papercake at 6:54 AM on February 4, 2011


protect heterosexual-only marriage rights

The word "rights" shouldn't be in that statement.


Care to explain yourself there?
posted by spitefulcrow at 7:46 AM on February 4, 2011


Care to explain yourself there?

Heterosexual-only marriage isn't a right. It's a reduction of rights.

Heterosexual marriage = a right
Homosexual marriage = a right
Limiting what other people can do = not a right
posted by inigo2 at 9:13 AM on February 4, 2011 [3 favorites]


Or, according to Arthur Schopenhauer: marriage is to halve one's rights and double one's duties.

Everyone should have the right to be miserable in any way that anyone else is being miserable in!

im sure marriage can be nice, i was just reminded of this quote
posted by edguardo at 12:48 PM on February 4, 2011


The phrasing is a bit awkward, but what I was saying is that getting married is a right that people have or don't have, and NOM wishes it to be heterosexual-only. Which seemed slightly less like editorializing than to explain how I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns because I am (a) Christian, (b) queer, and (c) increasingly surrounded by wedding talk.

(I should never have let the girlfriend near the Sunday Sweets on Cake Wrecks.)
posted by gracedissolved at 1:13 PM on February 4, 2011 [1 favorite]


Mitrovarr: "Joakim Ziegler: He did go the classy route. If this happened to me, with their blog entry titled "Grandpa" and everything, I'd probably be reaching for lemonparty.jpg in the blink of an eye.

This is better. It's just as much of a troll to them without being instantly recognizable and dismissible as an anti-hotlinking image
"

Yeah, I agree, I'm just saying I don't think I would be capable of such classy behaviour in that situation, since I'd be too pissed off. So, again, hats off.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:10 PM on February 4, 2011


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