Keep Calm And .....

fuck off!

http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trademark-fight

In which a bookshop in Alnwick and the dude that founded Viz collide with that stupid guy that pied Rupert Murdoch..

and make him look even less sympathetic than before!

I think he should be forcefed pies until he explodes.

pied?

Pied.

Hold on, where in the article does it talk about that guy?

ah.

OK, MODS!!

(my contact lenses are to blame)

Someone bought me a mug with that slogan on it once, and it still makes me angry when I see it at the back of the cupboard.

Not having its desired effect, then.

Being patronised by crockery just pushes the wrong buttons I guess.

really dont get the fascination with this nonsense

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15014748

― Once Were Moderators (DG), Thursday, September 22, 2011 2:02 PM (2 weeks ago)

with video!

Has anyone written a song yet called "Keep Calm and Carry On, Wayward Son?" If not, can we get that moving?

I fucking hate seeing KCACO shit EVERYWHERE

'keep calm and carry on' is the new 'i am not a plastic bag'

x-post - Never ever look at Etsy then. There is so much of this crap there it's unreal.

Is the joke supposed to be that in one sense "carrying on" is the opposite of "keeping calm"? I don't understand the popularity.

I don't really think there's supposed to be a joke.

It's just like stay cool and get through it. It's ~motivational~, you see.

It being whatever shit might ordinarily make you lose your cool? Whatever it is, I sure am tired of seeing it.

First heard this phrase when Kevin Shields was going to sack the drummer, but the rest of the band counselled against it and encouraged him to keep going.

"carrying on" is the opposite of "keeping calm"

Oh! I just got this and that had never occurred to me before but I see what you mean. Hmmm. Yeah. Beats me.

I am not fond of it either. It's even more aggravating to me that it was never actually even used as propaganda in actual WWII.

i think the joke is 'lol ww2' basically

Oh wait, is that what it's from? Obv didn't read the article. Oops.

"Keep Calm and Carry On Cowboy"

"carry on" being synonymous with "get rowdy" or something...

Keep calm and carry on (60 million people are about to die)

I just skimmed the article. I never knew that's what it which makes it at least a teensy bit interesting, yeah, no. NO MORE.

knew that's what it which makes

^^ (missing a "was from") in there

Keep calm, enbb.

Keep Calm and Carrion.

Keep Calm And NSFW

x-post - I CAN'T! It enrages me in the same way those Coexist bumper stickers do. It's an irrational thing.

I had a friend in college who would randomly interrupt someone who was speaking with "Calm down, _____". It was a successful tactic for really pissing people off.

aw, the coexist bumperstickers at least have their heart in the right place.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4154a2S4BTL.jpg

I know, I know and so do the majority of ppl who buy this stuff wanting people to be chill. I said it was irrational goddammit!! ;)

Is that why they buy KCACO? My sense of it (in a non-ironic, original sense) is something like "resign yourself to death".

I don't desire to ever own a product with this slogan on it, but trying to buy and copyright it makes me irrationally angry, damnit.

I mean, just for the sake if it's history, leave it alone ffs

of

Oh god that Stereophonics album, now I'm really pissed off.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ruNyVjkCL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

ngggh

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/homefront/spies/graphics/p_s4.jpg

http://u1.ipernity.com/15/88/66/7918866.f9040984.240.jpg

GIS for "Keep Calm and Curry On" pretty disappointing.

There are Keep Tidy And Carry On or Keep Calm And Tidy Up signs on all the meeting room doors on one floor of my office. Makes me want to strew the artfully-arranged books everywhere.

http://www.thecityreview.com/lonwar3.gif

ws nazi spy

never even been able to figure out that pun

http://www.maam.org/wwii/ww2_images/poster_2.jpg

h anley

you never not even HER

Wait, reading between the lines of ENBB's posts, this stuff is ubiquitous in the US too?

I am very, very tired of seeing this stuff, but the first time I saw one of the posters it did raise about 0.001% of a "lol ironic hell-in-a-handbasket/stiff-upper-lip WWII kitsch" smile, and I thought that association was the only reason anyone might find any redeeming features in it. The idea that people might be buying it without that is weird to me.

Eh, maybe there are buying it because of that and it just sort of passed me buy? All I know is that there is tons of this (and various variations on the theme - Keep Calm and Carry Yarn, Keep Calm and Love Hedgehogs*) on Etsy. Here, have a look:

http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?search_submit=&ref=auto&q=keep+calm+and+carry+on&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US

* OMG WTF IS THIS? I like a nice little hhog as much as the next person but good Lord.

don't worry be happy

In thinking about it, I guess I did know but had just forgotten the origin. Anyway, hedgehogs people, hedgehogs.

Hm, most of those sellers are in the US. I guess this is a worldwide thing. I suppose there's nothing specifically British about the joke, especially since the original poster never ran, but I'm still a bit surprised.

Also, many of those are pretty ugly and/or wtf, as you'd expect from Etsy, and yet none of them are as ugly as the stuff sold by the guy trying to copyright it.

look it's not a *joke* okay? and part of the joke is that it *is* a peculiarly british sentiment i.e. stiff upper lip and getting on with things while the bombs rain down

So it's not a joke, and the joke has parts?

i'm not quite old enough to remember the war (that war) but my mum and dad were schoolskids, and afaict the "keep calm and carry on" posters were MUCH less part of shared memory than the "careless talk costs lives" cartoons, maybe partly bcz the cartoons have a sense of fun in the CTCL which appealed to them (also they were a series)

my mum also talked about radio malt as a favorite memory (she was 4 in 1939 and basically always said "The war was great!")

I find that there is nothing calm about my hedgehog love.

ew

KCACO posters were never put up unlike the CTCL ones

I have long had a jokey affectation for saying 'Steady on' in a kind of early carreer Hugh Laurie voice to friends who are excited, drunk, or about to drop something or trip. KCACO is related to this but I don't think it's as much of a joke in a country that has not only lots of anglophiles but a certain idolatry for Churchill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l_3-23zAWM

the design is no joke but its use now is a joke what's so difficult to understand

Also, fwiw, in addition to all the bond posters and recruiting posters and victory garden and scrap collection posters, the US was full of loose lips sink ships style posters during WWII, too.

obvs at some point i shd actually RTFA -- KCACO turned up on the back of "the little book of calm" boom, no? so the part of the "joke" was a sort of anachronistic affirmation of a minor current fashion, from a stylistically and/or culturally unexpected quarter and indeed historical time

xp yes, half the pix i posted i discovered by GIS-ing "loose lips sink ships"

CALM DOWN DEARS

the first time i saw the "keep mum, she's not so dumb" i honestly was baffled, like first of all, my mum's not dumb and no i wasn't planning on getting rid of her either

and third she's hott amirite

is "keep mum" brit-only slang?

haha yeah that was the other thing, "why is mum so hot?"

no i think americans say "keep mum" too, i'm just slow on the uptake.

x-post - I don't think so, no. It's not particularly common though.

Keep schtum. Well that might not be either but I have never heard it outside of England.

Oh I meant that keep schtum is brit-only, btw.

haha schtum FROM THE GERMAN

http://stephengreensted.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/careless-talk-costs-lives.jpg

I've never even heard it in German weirdly enough. I think it's Yiddish originally.

Mum's the word

Comes from mummer, btw.

got caught up in a BNP rally once and a few of them were wearing t-shirts with this on. For some time i assumed anyone I saw wearing t-shirts with this on was far right, until the profile became so vague and generally applicable that it was clear it had gone beyond that. Still has the whiff of association though and I'm not sure that the source of its revival can't be located there.

look it's not a *joke* okay? and part of the joke is that it *is* a peculiarly british sentiment i.e. stiff upper lip and getting on with things while the bombs rain down

― conrad, Tuesday, October 11, 2011 12:27 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

I realize that the original poster was not a joke, but it's just astounding to me that this thing would be memeing about for 10-odd years and it would not have - for at least some segment of the population - taken on the jokey connotation I've been reading into it.

Also, regarding the US vs. UK prevalence of this, I've only seen it before on ilxor.

So, thee jigsaw finally comes together. Excellent work, Corporal Ravensburger.

― Lars and the Lulu Girl (NickB), Tuesday, October 11, 2011 11:35 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a+

i like the keep calm and carry on poster, its gorgeously designed, i appreciate the sentiment too, i feel like maybe some people in this thread should "keep calm" about the posters ubiquity

So, thee jigsaw finally comes together

Is this a reference to the clothing store?

http://www.newtsgames.com/images/feature_variant/5/manufacturer_feature_image_26.jpg

My gf shops at Jigsaw occasionally and I've seen the KCACO poster there.

honestly surprised there isn't a

KEEP ON

TRUCKIN'

refit yet.

"DO, please, continue trucking. Pip, pip. Cheerio!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FrHkKXFRbCI

errrrr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI

I hate this fucking thing, and I am glad that I can count on ILX to have already pulverized it.

I saw a dude in a KEEP CALM AND CHIVE ON shirt on the weekend and I wanted very much to punch him

Is it wrong that I'm wearing this right now?

...shill for Warner Bros TV

Keep Calm and Cancel Your Cable Subscription

Keep Calm and Go Fuck Yourself

Keep Calm and Take Speed

Keep Calm and No One Watches Your Show

Keep Calm and Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?

Keep Calm And Remember When Martha Plimpton Was Awesome

Oh ffs, enough already.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mjnwhvFbL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://www.music-news.com/showcompetition.asp?H=Win-1-of-3-Keep-Calm-and-Stay-Cosy-CDs&nCompetitionID=2704

keep calm and FUCK RIGHT OFF

as if they couldn't get any fucking worse

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/02/amazon-withdraws-rape-slogan-shirt