{"id":1080,"date":"2010-03-10T12:03:05","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T20:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=1080"},"modified":"2013-06-14T21:04:02","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T04:04:02","slug":"the-origins-of-the-demotivator-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2010\/03\/the-origins-of-the-demotivator-meme\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origins of the Demotivator Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I found out<\/a> the origins of the demotivator meme. \u00a0The meme, as we know it today, has its origins in a company called Despair, Inc<\/a>. \u00a0Before them though was a company called Successories. \u00a0This company was started by Mac Anderson in 1985. \u00a0Among their products were motivational posters with the now classic black\u00a0background and text underneath a picture.<\/p>\n

Around 1998 along came Despair Inc, who started making spoofs of these motivational posters. \u00a0In 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”. \u00a0The original demotivators then used similar artsy photos, but would just change the text to be something depressing instead of\u00a0uplifting.<\/p>\n

The demotivators from Despair Inc were eventually popularized by none other than the meme generating machine that is 4chan<\/a>. \u00a0From here, people started making their own demotivators, now including often racy content and twisted humor. \u00a0And the rest is history.<\/p>\n

Just for fun, here’s a bunch of funny demotivators:<\/p>\n

\"Angry<\/a><\/p>\n

\"why<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Girl<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Luging<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rollin<\/a><\/p>\n

\"yoda<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Conspiracy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Accomplishment<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fashion<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Human<\/a><\/p>\n

\"4chan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Simpsons<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"exercise<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LUMBERJACK<\/a><\/p>\n

\"madness<\/a><\/p>\n

\"mcdonalds<\/a><\/p>\n

\"logical<\/a><\/p>\n

\"duty<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Hope<\/a><\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n