Demotivational Posters

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivational_poster http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Demotivator http://macrochan.org/search.py?tag=Themes%3AMotivational%20Poster

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2009-07-07T19:58:56Z

Despair, Inc.

1998

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= active classics, image macro, 4chan, catchphrase, corporate satire

906

Demotivational Posters <h2>About</h2> <p>Demotivational Posters (a.k.a Demotivators)—where do we begin? As its name suggests, Demotivational Posters are typically designed to discourage one’s moral strength and diminish one’s self-esteem. It usually consists of a picture, centered and bordered in black, with all-cap title written in white, and in some cases, a tagline written in smaller font. Among the most prevalent cases of image macros in existence today, Demotivators can be likened to baseball cards of internet memes, only if everyone made them and nobody really bought them.</p> <h2>Origins</h2> <p><a href="http://despair.com">Despair Inc.</a> is widely credited as the origin of Demotivational Posters and they began making spoofs of motivational posters (often found in corporate offices) since 1998. You can click <a href="http://despair.com/viewall.html">here</a> to check out the original collection of Demotivators made by Despair Inc. Over the years, they spread consistently across online discussion boards like 4chan as well as the blogosphere. Today, they’re notable for the insanely large volume in circulation and their off-track varieties/derivatives.</p> <h2>Evolution of Demotivational Posters</h2> <p>In its infancy, Demotivators mirrored popular themes often addressed within motivational posters, by juxtaposing:</p> <p>1. banal optimism (ex: <span class="caps">PERSISTENCE</span>)<br /> 2. atmospheric picture (ex: man & woman jogging in a single row)<br /> 3. comical pessimism (ex: It’s Over Man. Let Her Go)</p> <p>But as they became increasingly popular across the web, the joke was no longer bound within corporate/educational themes and became a signature meme involving “crude but funny” comments. Today, the white-on-black format of demotivators is a staple in Internet memescape and it’s fairly common to find demotivational posters <i>sans</i> cynicism.</p> <p align="center">The originals were typical Motivational Posters with sarcastic comments:<br /> <img src="http://www.silkester.de/blog/wp-content/data/demotivators_motivation.jpg?width=400" alt="" /></p> <p align="center">Although a whole genre of Demotivational Posters has been created by showing an instance of fail:<br /> <img src="http://www.demotivatorblog.com/wp-content/uploads/yapb_cache/1192301160086.2a21wvt41tlw0w8s4sko4skgc.ap2qhjyqp08cgc0c80ss4cco4.th.jpeg?width=400" alt="" /></p> <p>i<br /> <p align="center">They are also frequently used in other memes:<br /> <img src="http://www.snurk.com/files/images/pic_unrelated.preview.jpg?width=400" alt="" /></p></p> <p align="center"><img src="http://assets.knowyourmeme.com/i/2492/original/they-see-me-rollin-demotivational-poster.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p align="center"><img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y78/novariusandrion/meme.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p align="center"><img src="http://knowyourmeme.com/i/5105/original/mark198.jpg" alt="" /></p> <h2>How to Make Your Own Demotivator</h2> <p>There are many sites with programs to make Demotivational Posters, including:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://diy.despair.com/motivator.php">Despair’s Parody Motivator Generator</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href="http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php">Motivator: Create your own motivational posters!</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.motifake.com/create.php">Create a MotiFake</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>There is even a program called <a href="http://www.ronyasoft.com/products/poster-forge/">Poster Forge</a> that you can download to help.</li> </ul> <h2>Demotivators in Use</h2> <p>A large number of sites feature Demotivational Posters. Some of them are:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://demotivateyou.com/">http://demotivateyou.com/</a></li> <li><a href="http://despair.com/viewall.html">http://despair.com/</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.motifake.com/">http://www.motifake.com/</a></li> <li><a href="http://demotivationalz.com/">http://demotivationalz.com/</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.roflposters.com/">http://www.roflposters.com/</a></li> </ul> <p>Many blog sites contain specific types of Demotivational Posters, such as:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/03-30-2009/Peter-Griffin-Motivational-Posters-139">Peter Griffin Motivational Posters</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/01-24-2009/Kurt-Vonnegut-Motivational-Posters-107">Kurt Vonnegut Motivational Posters</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.demotivatorblog.com/tag/demotivational-posters/">Demotivator Blog</a></li> </ul> <h2>Demotivators in Media</h2> <ul> <li>NYTimes Magazine (4/27/2008): <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/magazine/27wwln-consumed-t.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin">Empowering by Disempowerment</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li><span class="caps">CNN</span> (1/17/2004): <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/01/17/offbeat.life.despair.reut/">Despair Inc. the brand for cynics</a></li> </ul>

2009-11-17T12:03:41Z

460

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