Comments on: ROFL ROFL - t-shirt help?

Question: ROFL ROFL - t-shirt help?

jessamyn — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:23:42 -0800

I would like a good t-shirt to wear at ROFLcon. However, it must be DIY. Suggestions?

I am going to ROFLcon to go see mathowie on a panel and just say hi to some folks. I'd like an amusing/jokey/lol shirt to wear. All my techie t-shirts are old-school interesting but, I have decided, lame. I look decent in t-shirts and have some blank ones I could stencil, write on, spray paint or something about that level of craftiness. Probably no iron-ons. I do not want to buy a t-shirt, no matter how clever it is, but I'd be happy to reverse-engineer a really good design or slogan.

Notable facts: I am a short, friendly, late-30's, decent-looking female with a fairly good tech understanding and sense of humor. I have a respectable rack. I do not wear glasses. I have pretty normal hair. Subtle or unix-y jokes are fine. Aggressive or sweary jokes probably less so. Cutting edge meme jokes okay. I don't know what the M/F ratio of this conference will be, but I'm guessing there will be fewer women than men. I have a few ideas, wanted some more. I'll be there two days. Thanks!

By: youcancallmeal

youcancallmeal — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:26:13 -0800

OMGBOOBZ right across your chest

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:29:57 -0800

Yes, I should mention right off the bat, boob jokes are potentially ok.

By: deCadmus

deCadmus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:33:36 -0800

Given recent con-ish events, simply scribe OPEN SOURCE across the rack-space, as it were.

By: LoriFLA

LoriFLA — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:33:45 -0800

Don't You Wish Your Librarian Was Hot Like Me?

By: waraw

waraw — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:33:52 -0800

MAYBE YOU CAN, MAYBE YOU CAN'T, YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO TAKE THE CHANCE

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:38:15 -0800

I've wanted to make this shirt for a while:

CHRIST WHAT AN ASSHOLE

By: rokusan

rokusan — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:38:36 -0800

I think OMGJESSAMYN would do well enough.

At least with the best crowd.

By: mullacc

mullacc — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:39:06 -0800

"Please stop the asshattery."

Asshat isn't too sweary, asshats.

By: danb

danb — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:40:26 -0800

Hah. I like OMGJESSAMYN.

By: gcat

gcat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:41:48 -0800

im sorry, do you mean cutting edge jokes about memetics or jokes about cutting edge memes?

By: explosion

explosion — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:42:07 -0800

For a couple weeks now, I've been thinking that ROFLCon would be best served as a front for a Rick Astley concert. Honestly, who could get that upset if an Internet Meme Convention was a giant RickRoll?

So that said, why not DIY a Rick Astley tour T-shirt with "Cambridge, MA - ROFLCon - April 25th" as the first stop? I don't exactly know how to clever it up, but I think it might work!

By: theiconoclast31

theiconoclast31 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:42:25 -0800

I'm surprised I've never seen a shirt with a picture of Rick Astley. Then again, maybe not so surprising.

By: Clyde Mnestra

Clyde Mnestra — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:46:59 -0800

How about:

RICKROLLED
[No, really.]

Deliciously ambiguous.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:48:12 -0800

Lame ubuntu joke: "U-what-to?" Speak up! I'm hardy heron!

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:48:15 -0800

HURF DURF
ROFL CONNER

By: gcat

gcat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:50:48 -0800

i couldnt make a cool unix-y joke. :o(

all my rack are belong to me.
(sorry if that is way too fucking lame)

sweet dreams are made of these

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:52:01 -0800

The ROFL
has not
been here.

(Watch very closely for removal of this shirt)

By: youcancallmeal

youcancallmeal — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:53:11 -0800

Ooooh! Or I CAN HAZ B00BZ! (The meme-y boob jokes are endless)

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:54:15 -0800

Boob jokes:
NOT A POINT AND CLICK INTERFACE (across the boobs)

YOU CAN NOT HAS BOOBIES

Proprietary software

These will not be your network. Ever.

403 Forbidden
You do not have access to this server.

Digg These.

Non boob jokes:

My blog will make you twitter

(Picture of dog head in ceiling)
Ceiling dog ate your cat

By: gcat

gcat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:55:41 -0800

evolutionary sustainable system [right on the rack area, of course]

By: mumkin

mumkin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:56:35 -0800

I haven't been paying close attention to the question of hittability in comments of late ... would it be too soon for a "Hello, My Name is: Cooter" shirt?

By: gcat

gcat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:57:20 -0800

oops - evolutionARILY sustainable system

By: gcat

gcat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:00:12 -0800

These are my paid admission into the gene pool.

By: heeeraldo

heeeraldo — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:00:22 -0800

this is a fairly simple one I've been planning for a while (and, in fact, will probably do on the weekend):
figure out the RGB hex code of your shirt, or CMYK or LAB or HSL color, then simply stencil it on. If you're an enormous nerd and have a Pantone swatch book handy, see if you can match it.

By: Leon-arto

Leon-arto — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:05:01 -0800

NO, you may not.

(Or, if you're feeling lucky, "YES, You may")

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:07:40 -0800

this rack is for my servers only

By: peacecorn

peacecorn — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:11:00 -0800

AskMefi: Please Help Me Name My Tits.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:21:47 -0800

"Insert library card here."

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:24:29 -0800

I'm actually quite happy to entertain brainer less-boobier shirt ideas as well. I'm just not against a good boob joke.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:27:49 -0800

How 'bout:

Keep your comments to yourself. I want to change my name to Cooter.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:29:19 -0800

More non-boob:

Huh, it's brighter outside than I remember.

Would rather be in mom's basement.

Pic of you looking out of the ceiling hole ala ceiling cat, with this text below or to the side of it:
Wayward Word-Wench is Watching Your Web

Outside 2.0 has glitches, wait for service pack

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:31:19 -0800

If it's a high male ratio:

This might be the closest you ever get to a real live girl.

By: youcancallmeal

youcancallmeal — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:34:24 -0800

LET'S ROFL

By: Rumple

Rumple — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:39:29 -0800

just a single semi-colon (large)

;

keep them guessing.

By: danb

danb — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:41:08 -0800

How about "I do it on the green," as a nod to those oh-so-clever school sports team t-shirts?

By: Leon-arto

Leon-arto — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:41:42 -0800

Just make it the blue. Post a headline, a few random spastic comments, and put a white box at the bottom with a "Posting as: " lead. For bonus points, bring a permanent marker.

By: rmd1023

rmd1023 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:46:57 -0800

asshabadashery jokes or, to be gender normative, assmillinery jokes are always good.

By: spatula

spatula — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:53:43 -0800

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't.

By: amro

amro — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:54:58 -0800

Wayward Word Wench

By: blacklite

blacklite — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:56:22 -0800

I (respectfully) think that basically all of the previous suggestions are horrible.

Based on second-hand knowledge of the previous roflcon, this is going to be somewhat painful already, so I don't know if "lol boobs" is really going to be what you want on your clothes, after the first couple of minutes of being there.

For that matter, all of your meme references are probably going to be Behind The Times, because by the time you get there, it will be old meme. And you don't want to be old meme. So I suggest something classic and timeless and mildly weird. e.g. take some old classic shirt idea -- silhouettes of dictators or revolutionaries, for example -- and combine it with a modern reference for the lols.

So you could, for example, find a good shot of Kim Jong-Il, make it a silhouette, and underneath it write Y0UNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES in a pleasing sans-serif. (previously) Actually you could probably do that one without the KJI at all.

I think what I'd generally go for, if I were you, is something that isn't too explicitly boobs-related or cutting-edge meme, but more of a quiet statement that yes, you are Hip To The Lols, you've seen this or that horrible gif before, etc, and despite the fact that you understand what goes on (more or less, as well as anyone can) in the seedy back alleys of the internet, it hasn't corrupted you and in fact you do an awesome job helping shepherd our collective tendencies toward merely writing "dongs" on every mefi thread into something actually usable and intelligent. ... Though I guess that's hard to put on a t-shirt.

"your lols: i have heard of them."

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:01:24 -0800

Buffering...

p$ man life

Downloading updates in background

Survived Windows ME

Vista Rain:
Some stay dry while others feel the pain.

I move away from you to breathe in.

Coffee is my boot loader.

By: danb

danb — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:01:29 -0800

Based on second-hand knowledge of the previous roflcon

Huh?

By: enfa

enfa — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:05:19 -0800

Front:
This is my favorites shirt.
Back:
http://www.metafilter.com/favorites/292
http://del.icio.us/jessamyn
http://www.last.fm/user/jessamyn/charts/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamthebestartist/favorites/
etc...

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:05:45 -0800

A yellow button that says "Maybe."

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:06:30 -0800

Just wondering: are you planning to properly attribute your witty t-shirt? ~ because there's a slight chance that somebody might find out you didn't come up with the joke yourself...

By: whoaali

whoaali — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:08:04 -0800

I'm just stealing this from your profile I realize but:

Wayward Word-wench

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:13:00 -0800

On the left-hand side:

a stencilled picture of mathowie's face.

On the right-hand side, the stencilled words:

"I think metafilter is a pretty cool guy. eh posts websites and doesn't afraid of anything."

By: youcancallmeal

youcancallmeal — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:16:55 -0800

TEH MOD (simple, classic, accurate)

By: Lynsey

Lynsey — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:17:04 -0800

Why don't you wear your The Harvey Girls shirt one of the days? Just sayin'....

By: Leon-arto

Leon-arto — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:26:39 -0800

the hive mind

(or "I am the hive mind")

By: ODiV

ODiV — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:29:18 -0800

Two of my favourite DIY shirts have been:

The word SHIRT stenciled on with spraypaint.

Four black and white photos/paintings in a square of:
Beethoven, Einstein, Marx and Myself (bottom right)

Though that last one doesn't sound doable if you're not willing to iron.

Would "Ceçi n'est pas un t-shirt." be too lame?

By: waraw

waraw — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:44:19 -0800

A WOMAN ON THE INTERNET
Control yourselves, dweebs

By: bru

bru — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:44:50 -0800

This one works on so many levels.
By doing it yourself you'll have the benefit of not having the New Museum logo in the back which kinda destroys the simple impact of the front.

By: Joseph Gurl

Joseph Gurl — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:58:44 -0800

Step 1 -> Get a Sharpie

Step 2 -> Write "LIONEL RITCHIE" on a shirt

Step 3 -> Hold your head up high.

By: Verdandi

Verdandi — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:07:23 -0800

How about:

[written under boobs]
posted by Jessamyn at 11:22pm on [first day of con] [243 favorites +] [!]

:P

Either that, or:
[front of shirt] THERE IS PORN ON MY BACK!

[back of shirt] -picture of Rick Astley-

By: bettafish

bettafish — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:07:37 -0800

Whatever you stick on there, I suggest stencilling with bleach!. 'Cause it's purty.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:17:33 -0800

[!] 5 users marked this as a favorite.
(arrow optional)

By: ulotrichous

ulotrichous — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:17:46 -0800

This is probably too much of a mefi-specific joke, but I would laugh my keester off if I saw Jessamyn wearing a shirt that just said:

YOU'RE
NOT
HELPING

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:34:24 -0800

*it's NOT ok to contact this poster with boob-touching requests

[! flag as awesome]

Metafilter mods do it till it's flagged

By: blacklite

blacklite — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:35:52 -0800

Oops, I just realized I thought this was lulzcon. Well at least I don't have to worry so much about how horrible it will turn out. It will only be moderately lame instead of stupendously bad. As you were!

By: markovich

markovich — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:09:01 -0800

How about "double you double you double you colon slash slash aks mefi kom"

By: divabat

divabat — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:09:16 -0800

Here's some inspiration.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:07:39 -0800

Not lulzy at all but if you like your wayward word wench slogan, you could make a stencil of a wrench silhouette filled by the word WAYWARD (fitted into the space all typographico stylee).

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:12:13 -0800

Jessamyn has added you as a contact. (with "jessamyn" and "you" in yellow)

By: whir

whir — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:17:53 -0800

If you want to rely on your semi-obscure MetaFilter fame (and I would, personally) I don't think you could do much better than a stencil of the wolf from Be Safe and Smart on Metafilter. Seems like it would be easy enough to either photoshop out the wolf face to print on an iron-on, or to get one of your many fans here to do it (I don't have the skills myself).

Besides that I'm still fond of "hurf durf meme repeater." And I kind of think that "tl;dr" has potential, but it just doesn't seem super funny.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:18:26 -0800

less cryptic more sensemaking please

By: iconomy

iconomy — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:24:00 -0800

USE YOUR WORDS

By: Upton O'Good

Upton O'Good — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:39:54 -0800

One of the neater homemade shirts I've seen was a black t-shirt with "DEEP" silk-screened on it, also in black.

By: afflatus

afflatus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:46:11 -0800

Sharpie drawing of Soviet Hammer (sickle optional) with BANHAMMER! underneath.

As was pointed out earlier, current meme's and lol's move through the roflcon crowd quickly. If you want to do something timely and vaugely interactive, carry around a roll of really wide masking tape and a couple colored sharpies and let people choose the witty meme you wear each hour or two.

By: clearly

clearly — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:24:41 -0800

I always wanted a shirt from the SNL Final Celebrity Jeopardy sketch with French Stewart.
It would be blue and say...

"THreEve
$Texas"

"Sex, Drugs, and RickRoll"
"The Librarianist"
"I heart mouth breathers"

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:16:15 -0800

Please don't ban me if you are offended by the first one, which I think was an earlier joke you made, but:

"Information Scientist - Penis"

"Queen Bee of the Hive Mind"

More obscurely, but possibly misinterpretable:
"I has a royal jelly"

Funny ideas I've had kicking around that have nothing to do with MeFi:

Map of medieval Flanders with route marched by invading forces, above the text "Stupid Flanders!"

Uh, actually my other funny ideas are not funny or horrifically offensive.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:24:41 -0800

You could also do a superheroine shirt with a comic version of yourself as a valkyrie with sledgehammer and the text: "Wielder of the Banhammer" or "Chooser of the Banned" and on the back "In my dreams, I am a viking."

By: zengargoyle

zengargoyle — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:34:57 -0800

"Do not adjust the dials"
"Horizontal hold --- Vertical hold"
"I'm analog and digital"
"Are you looking for a book?"

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:30:26 -0800

"Use your words" is brilliant.

But probably only because MeFi has lately driven me to crave a t-shirt that says "I can haz post-neanderthal conversation?" over my rack.

By: grouse

grouse — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:41:49 -0800

Personally, I think you should go with something kinda MetaFilter-specific. Ideally something you came up with or popularized to some extent. Like:

[NOT OMGIST]

By: There's No I In Meme

There's No I In Meme — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:30:06 -0800

"$20....same as in town"

By: jammy

jammy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:36:22 -0800

i think you should go with the timeless classic: "askme"

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:48:02 -0800

Thanks everyone, this has given me a lot of great ideas to move forward with. I may be able to access a printer and/or bleach (neat idea and gets rid of some lame old dark t-shirts) so I'll try a few things out and report back.

By: kalessin

kalessin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:51:27 -0800

I'm a bit late, but apropos of the OSBP kerfuffle I was talking with my sweetie about a T-shirt one of our friends was wearing a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it quite clever. It was a yellow shirt with graphic illustration (I mean a posterized sort of former photo-quality graphic, not an iconized one) of two blue footed boobies standing right next to each other. Their blue feet were placed at nipple level on the shirt.

I did a couple of cursory lookings and there are some options from cafepress with a galapagos theme. I couldn't find the exact T I saw, but I'm sure there are good options on the webs.

Anyhow, imagine a gentleman of a geeky sort (like me) seeing a T-shirt like that, wanting to remark on the graphic and saying, "Oh look! Boobies!" and then going all red. Good times.

By: MsMolly

MsMolly — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:18:55 -0800

kalessin, it's a Threadless t-shirt.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:42:27 -0800

I made a pretty good bleach TEH MOD t-shirt I'll put a photo up in a bit.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:04:17 -0800

Jessamyn's stylesheet

By: Jorus

Jorus — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:17:54 -0800

Just in case you're still taking suggestions:

Front:
A box containing a collage of images or words in different fonts for:
monty python skit quoting?
- alien something or other?
- moleskine?
- fixie?
- t-shirts with code on them?
- giant belt buckles?
- hemp anything?
- TEE-vee?
- snakes on a plane nonsense?
- stuff to put in your clean hair to make it look unwashed?
- jewlery made out of perfectly functional items that were taken apart to make jewelry out of?
- leatherman?
Surrounding the box is WHAT THE FUCK NERDS?

Back:
In script:
...you are jealous of his big fedora.

By: Rafaelloello

Rafaelloello — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:35:17 -0800

Deleted thread: 70896

By: fantabulous timewaster

fantabulous timewaster — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:49:29 -0800

[a few comments removed - please don't derail my t-shirt]

By: jamjam

jamjam — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:17:35 -0800

Boob-related:

'Mine too' over your left breast on two lines, then put your name tag over the right (Hi, my name is Jessamyn).

Less obviously boob-related:

'AskMe' across the front, 'No.' on the back.

By: lleachie

lleachie — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:35:00 -0800

"Open Source Nutsack Project"

By: RikiTikiTavi

RikiTikiTavi — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:01:28 -0800

#006699
#426746
#666666

By: danOstuporStar

danOstuporStar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:26:19 -0800

USE YOUR WORDS

...works on so many levels.

How about a face reading a book and something like "Old School Social App" below?

Or: TAKE IT TO MEMAIL!

Of course, I'd pay good money to see "LONGBOAT" on a mod's t-shirt.

By: danOstuporStar

danOstuporStar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:29:43 -0800

e.g.

By: Plutor

Plutor — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:46:04 -0800

iconomy: "Jessamyn's stylesheet"

color: #fff? That's quite an assumption.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:54:39 -0800

The t-shirt is white.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:03:44 -0800

I am also pretty white, though maybe more of an off-pinky color. I'd love to see a good longboat/viking graphic that was more than 100 pixels wide. Anyone?

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:35:37 -0800

Here's a photograph of a real live viking. But that would probably require iron-on.

High res version here.

By: danOstuporStar

danOstuporStar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:13:20 -0800

935px

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:54:12 -0800

WHAT.
THE.
FUCK.
NERDS.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:39:46 -0800

WHAT.
THE.
NERDS.
FUCK.

...would probably not be appropriate or advisable.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:40:49 -0800

I'm going to be banned now aren't I?

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:56:12 -0800

Perhaps you can turn your time-out into a profitable opportunity by making I'm going to be banned now aren't I? t-shirts in your soon-to-be-copious free hours?

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:00:29 -0800

What good are all the profits in the world gleaned from producing hilarious t-shirts if I don't have a special Metafilter to share them with?

By: proj08

proj08 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:20:52 -0800

Watch out! I'll totally sidebar you.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:39:46 -0800

PLEASE HELP ME

NAME MY CAT

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 11:56:22 -0800

Here are the t-shirts I wore at various points in the weekend.

1. Mat Honan t-shirt - he's a pal of mine and posted that photo to Flickr Friday morning so I thought it would be funny when he saw me [it was]
2. 4chan/mathowie shirt. Someone picked me out of the crowd yesterday and said "that shirt is awesome"
3. I'M THE TARGET DEMO - easily my fave shirt [and silkscreened, not ironed-on] but it was an XL and I'm ... not.

I did not manage to wear my TEH MOD bleach shirt even though I am quite fond of it. Thanks very much everyone for your suggestions.