YouTube honours shuttle dead with 'Workplace Safety' ad Today marks the 25th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, which in 1986 claimed the lives of seven NASA astronauts. The agency has this week been honouring its dead – the Challenger crew as well as those who died aboard Columbia and Apollo 1. It's business as usual down at YouTube, though, and while we were …
Coping humour is not unique to the UK.
I'm a 'merkin, and as a child I heard many jokes regarding the Challenger disaster. My favorite was something like this:
The Astronaut-Teacher's kid was being interviewed on TV prior to the Space Shuttle launch. A reporter then asked, "so, where's your mum right now?" to which the child replied "over there!" while pointing to the Shuttle's cockpit. A few minutes after lift-off, another reporter asked the same thing--just as the ship exploded in mid-air--and the child responded, "over there! ...and there... and there... and there... and..."
Lame? Sure, but it was hilarious by the standards of a 12 year-old.
dZ.
I remembered the 7up and need another 7 astronaughts jokes, not so sure about the 'over there and over there' joke, although I did hear that the crew of Challenger went on their holidays, destination: all over Florida.
Oh, and the last thing said on the challenger?...
What does this button do?
I seem to recall a lot of bleak jokes going around here in the States after the Challenger disaster ("No, NO! I asked for a BUD LIGHT!").
I'm no psychologist, but it could have something to do with coping, with trying to deal with something as traumatic as this without having a nervous breakdown.
I've never understood all the fuss about poor ad placements. Yes, you can take a screenshot and get it onto the Fail blog... but so what? It's not human error; computers can't recognize the difference between a joke and a sob story, and will put ads where it is deemed to match the subject; people dying at work? Put in an ad about workplace safety. End of story.
Sure it's funny, but it's not like anything is going to be done about it, or even CAN be done about it, until we can teach computers about emotional impact... which is a few years away yet.
I think it serves to highlight the fact that targeted advertising is not benign and often offends.
You might not care but lots of others do.
For example i received an email about my Aunties funeral some time ago on gmail and the ad's were all about death and coping and such.
Really pissed me off that i was being harrassed by ads while dealing with a death in the family.
Installed 'customise google' so now i see no ads on gmail (or any part of google)
If you've ever read the Fail blog (or any of countless other similar websites), you'll see that newspapers, magazines, websites, even billboards do this all the time. Yes, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's annoying, and sometimes it's flat-out disgusting, but it happens regardless.
I say I don't care because it's not worth it. It's not like the computer is trying to make me feel bad, nor were the people who wrote the programs, or the people who wrote the ads. If my own emotions amplify a generic ad into something offensive, then that is my problem.
"I've never understood all the fuss about poor ad placements."
It's not just ads. How often do we see a TV programme or film cancelled because it may be considered offensive in the light of recent events? Fairly recently I heard the announcer say that there had been "a change to the advertised programme in light of recent events". No matter how hard I thought I couldn't figure what recent events he was talking about that could connect to the advertised programme. TV networks are terrified of being seen to offend anybody these days. I think this is mainly because other media, particularly the tabloid press, are so keen to take offence on other people's behalf.
What’s an Astronauts’ favorite drink?
7Up with a dash of Teachers.
That was going around my school at the time.
Sick/Gallows Humor. Britain still does something’s better than others. We need something to keep us going. Along with Drink. And Drugs....
Anyway. Sorry to anyone that maybe offended
Yup ... reminds my of Diana's death when the nation was convulsed with sorrow ... except as far as I can recall at work main reaction was in jokes along the lines of
"The french police had to call Rover - they needed to know how to get a dashboard out of a princess" etc etc
Also I remember after the 7/7bombings (day after London beat Paris to get the Olympics) one of the first reactions was "never knew the French were such bad losers"
I was evacuated from Kings Cross when they decided that it wasn't a transformer that exploded, but a bomb, and was chatting to a US tourist.
He told me that one, literally minutes after the incident. We laughed.
We're going to hell for that, but it was worth it.
Gallows humour is fantastic.
Steven R
It's not your normal, pain-in-the-ass banner ads or such, but those extra pain-in-the-ass little pop-ups that jump up and cover the lower sixth of the image in YouTube videos, which are pretty much impossible to suppress.
If somebody out there manages to come up with an add-on that crushes those little bastards, they'll be the biggest goddamn' hero on the Internet.
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