The Origins of the Demotivator Meme
Today I found out the origins of the demotivator meme. The meme, as we know it today, has its origins in a company called Despair, Inc. Before them though was a company called Successories. This company was started by Mac Anderson in 1985. Among their products were motivational posters with the now classic black background and text underneath a picture.
Around 1998 along came Despair Inc, who started making spoofs of these motivational posters. In the beginning, these tended to be near exactly the same as the motivational counterparts which tended to feature some artsy photograph and be “office friendly”. The original demotivators then used similar artsy photos, but would just change the text to be something depressing instead of uplifting.
The demotivators from Despair Inc were eventually popularized by none other than the meme generating machine that is 4chan. From here, people started making their own demotivators, now including often racy content and twisted humor. And the rest is history.
Just for fun, here’s a bunch of funny demotivators:
Sources:
Shhh!!! Don’t you know the first two rules of the internet>!>!>!???!?
1. You do not talk about /b
2. You DO NOT talk about /b
People must find 4chan on their own. It’s like the Holy Grail. Only the worthy can find it and only after questing can they prove themselves worthy of the ….knowledge??…. that is 4chan.
/b/ is not 4chan
About the Luge one.
The guy died.
That’s kinda retarded to put it as funny.
that makes it more funny.
and rule 1&2 are for raids you faggot.
Yo dawgs I used to work out at that 24 hr fitness. It is in San Diego, CA and I rode the escalators every time!
People who frequent 4chan are not worthy of aught but a revelation of their inadequacies.
Ya because finding 4chan is hard…
*googles 4chan*
Oh hey… first search result…
About the Luge one.
Welcome to the internetz.
You’re kind of retarded.
Have a nice day.
as if you tried to make a joke about the luge accident, you are a sick fucking loser eat shit
People die all the time. He just happened to do it spectacularly, in an international sporting competition, on international TV, because he was terrible at an exceedingly dangerous sport.
I think it’s damn funny, fuck your attempted buzzkill.
@ Nona: Death is ALWAYS funny.
The first Anon that posted is retarded.
As for you, Nona, you must be new to the internet.
Disregard that, i suck cocks.
Very tasteless about the Georgian Luger that died. I’d suggest removing it!!!
Everyone in these pictures will die, therefore none of these are funny and you should stop.
So did the Jews.
Hahaha you’ve obviously never been to 4chan Nona
Hi there Nona! you must be new here.
Yeah, it’s too bad about the luger.
Kind of the point of a “de-motivator”. It’s in the name.
I found the luge one tasteless as well.
I loved the Lumberjack warrior one
I know a few guys in Pioneer regiments in Canada!
“People must find 4chan on their own. It’s like the Holy Grail.” Someone does not understand the difference between holy grail and a bunch of angry 14 year olds.
That girl at teh bottom is sofa king hot, i’ve seen that pic for years but damn someone is lucky that she’s into fantasy role playing (bow chicka!)
The luge one gets me every time.
Isn’t it crazy how all these people claiming that the luge one was in ‘bad taste’ failed to comment on the one about Hitler and how he murdered millions of people, or is that just not a hot enough topic anymore? Come on, people. It’s just a joke. Grow up and find an actual meaningful cause to be ‘all about’.
Har har, y’all are fucktards. You wouldn’t have known about the luge guy’s death if you weren’t so fucking nit picky. It’s a joke. You’re a joke. I’m a joke. And the rest of you are anal cacti fuckers.
Hey Bill. Maybe it’s because the conservatives (like Glenn “schizophrenic” Beck) try to connect everything that anyone does to Hitler and communism. They have diluted the meaning of it. There’s your answer.
hahaha
About the Luger, (did I say that right?)
Does anybody know if he qualified for a Darwin Award? I mean, doing something like that certainly ought to qualify a person, wouldn’t you say?
Yeah, to some people, it’s in bad taste. To others, not so much. For example, I’ve got an uncle, (or should I say had an uncle,)who died in an avalanch.
Uuh, that’s an avalanch in a bean factory. Seems a mountain of beans slid down on him. They say he might have lived if not for his breathing gear. It may have filtered out just too much under all those beans.
I wouldn’t mind if my death was pretty memorable, although, hopefully not too painful and long.
Sorry to use such /b/ vocabulary while ranting against it, but all you sad pathetic fuckers talking about TEH RULEZ 1 & 2!!!
Get a fucking life
Nona is Anon backwards.
You all fail.
You all fail. Learn to laugh at a joke and move on.