About
“Safety Not Guaranteed” is a YTMND created by axlbonbach on October 27th, 2005. The YTMND today has over 1.6 million views.
The YTMND incorporates three seperate elements. The first is an image of a young man sporting a mullet haircut and a facial expression that could be interpreted as serious and determined.
The second element is a scan from a newspaper want-ad, seeking a time-traveling companion.
WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 322 Oakview, CA 93022. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
The third element is Paul Engemann’s song “Push It To The Limit” from the 1983 movie Scarface_. (Soundtrack>Volume 8 of the YTMND Soundtrack.)
By combining the seriously absurd want-ad with the serious/determined image and 80’s montage music, the over-all message that “this is not a joke” becomes even more humorous.
The photo and newspaper advertisement originally appeared on the Jay Leno Show before being used in the YTMND.
Today, there are over 580 different instances of the Safety Not Guaranteed YTMND meme.
According to the YTMND Wiki, this meme comes in three main varieties:
- Some sites will show the traveler in different time periods starting with the civil war. Most recently this has evolved into a variant of the Wikipedia Vandalism Fad, in which users would try to edit wikipedia material such as the “safety” entry, with such footnotes as “when you push it to the limit, safety is not guaranteed”.
- Some sites will parody the original ad for other people.
- Other sites will show the Time Traveler in action either traveling back in time or assisting other people.
Some of the highest rated derivatives:
- Don Lafontaine: Safety Not Guaranteed
- Connery’s Important Appointment
- Temple of Time: Safety Not Guaranteed
For more detail on the full impact of the Safety Not Guaranteed meme and its impact on the culture of YTMND, see the full YTMND Wiki article.
Showing 1-8 of 8 photos
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by kikinak
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by Kirk Elliott
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by Kirk Elliott
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by Kirk Elliott
12 Comments
Meme Details
Origin
Copenhagen Newspaper Advertisement
Year
2005









