Gawker: valleywag, other people being witty

Web 2.0 exit-strategy badges

Nick Douglas — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:19:55 EDT

Blogger Marco Rosella helps dot-coms prep for the next O'Reilly Web 2.0 Conference with a set of badges — a "buy me" set, some "me-too" badges ("Better than YouTube"), and some more desperate messages ("Tag please, I have three children"). Honest poll: Would you buy these if they were real buttons?

The "Web 2.0 exit strategy" Badges [Central Scrutinizer]

Live from New York, it's MySpace pedos!

Nick Douglas — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:00:00 EDT

Watch it quick before NBC gets it canned — a new Saturday Night Live sketch about MySpace teens and the creepy old men who love them.

MySpace seminar [YouTube]

Jokes for nerds! Jokes for nerds!

Nick Douglas — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 18:48:11 EDT

When Hewlett-Packard upgraded the processors in its Integrity server line, the Inquirer tech tabloid beat everyone to the obvious gag:

Heh heh.

HP improves Integrity [Inquirer]
Earlier: The HP Way: Chairwoman snooped board member's personal calls [Valleywag]

Best MySpace Magazine cover ever

Nick Douglas — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:02:36 EDT

The Dude known as The Smith pointed out this rockin' MySpace Magazine cover he designed, in case the company goes through with its plans to print a mag. He even let us show it here. Of course, you should check out his full-size original.

A magazine for friends. [StupidIs.com]

Two vids: Ricky Gervais at Microsoft

Nick Douglas — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:13:00 EDT

David Brent, the "Office" boss played by Ricky Gervais, needs no intro. So here he is, in a special training video for Microsoft. (Thank God they didn't pick Steve Carell.)

Wasn't that fun? Let's watch another!

So how many David Brents are there in Microsoft? Answer below or at tips@valleywag.com.

Hilarious Video: The Other Microsoft Office [Dvorak Uncensored]

Alltel runs clumsiest (but funniest) ad campaign ever

Nick Douglas — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:48:56 EDT

The average blog addict must ignore over a thousand ads a day, especially ads in the canned style of the Blogads network. So on the one hand, it's impressive that the Alltel phone company earned the Wall Street Journal's attention with an easily missable string of ads.

On the other, this is the most oblique ad campaign to ever hit the blogosphere. Alltel is running spoof ads urging people to sue it. The ads link to a fake legal site filled with background that has nothing to do with Alltel.

The spoof anti-site is a tired reverse-psychology viral marketing trick, but in Alltel's case, it's carried out to ridiculous lengths, with a roster of fake web pages long enough to impress the Lost marketers or Da Vinci Code alternate-reality gamers.

The spoof pages are funny — the references to the "ever-encroaching Acronym Industry," "Melaninally-Challenged Americans v. TAN-acious Sunless Creme, Inc." and "increased national standards for elasticity in gentlemen's dress socks" make the site read like an early draft for a Douglas Adams novel.

But what good is this to Alltel? After all the jokes, readers haven't actually been pitched anything — and that's fine by me.

Alltel Spoofs Itself in Online Ads, But Not Everyone Gets the Joke [WSJ]

Funny? Not funny.

Nick Douglas — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:37:44 EDT

The average overworked Silicon Valley citizen doesn't have time to develop a sense of humor. Valleywag will develop one for you in two minutes.

	Not funny	Funny
Apple satire	The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs	Crazy Apple Rumors
Blogs mocking AOL exec Jason Calacanis	Calacanus.com	Digg.com
Cartoons	Gaping Void	bLaugh
Cartoons, take two	The Joy of Tech	c9park
Bloggers	John C. Dvorak	Anil Dash

Yes, there are ecstasy jokes

Nick Douglas — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:08:54 EDT

Sales service company Cerado, creators of the Web 2.0 or Star Wars and Acquired or Expired quizzes, just published an interview with the letter e.

In the late 90's you were everywhere: e-commerce, e-business, e-tailing, e-payments, e-procurement, e-government...the list was almost endless. Then you disappeared. What happened?
Well, as you know, the dot-com era was very, very good to me. After the licensing gold rush, I had to take a step back. I realized that I was horribly overextended and needed to re-evaluate a lot of things about my life. So, I bought a boat and decided to get off the grid for a while. It was definitely the right decision. After that craziness, I needed to recharge.

Web 2.0 and The Letter "e": The Interview [Cerado]
Photo by Nancy Ward [Flickr]

Daily Show clinches it: "Series of Tubes" is the new "Internets"

Nick Douglas — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:05:03 EDT

Hey old geek, are you still making jokes about "the Internets" — or, ugh, "the Intarweb"? Get with it — the new ironic phrase for the Net is "a series of tubes."

First one to name their startup SeriesofTubes.com, wins.

Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality [YouTube]