Police Misunderstand Internet Meme: Warn People About Pedobear

from the now-that's-creepy dept

A few folks have been sending in various versions of the fact that the San Louis Obispo police department has decided that the infamous Pedobear meme is something that people need to be warned about because “PedoBear is and should be associated with Internet pedophiles/sexually-preferential offenders who reportedly use him to communicate their interests in young children to each other.”

Of course, this ignores what the Pedobear meme is really about — which is more of a 4chan /b/ “you’re being creepy” sorta of thing, which expanded to take on a life of its own (in typical /b/ meme fashion). Amusingly, the police also complain about an internet jokester (with too much free time) dressing up like Pedobear at Comic Con and handing out candy — noting that after police discovered him, he was “excluded from this family-friendly event.” Watch out, Rick Astley, you may be next.

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Comments on “Police Misunderstand Internet Meme: Warn People About Pedobear”

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57 Comments
Killer_Tofu (profile) says:

Re: Re:

I believe authority figures have repeatedly shown that they have no sense of humor and cannot take a joke most of the time.
For a piece of evidence aside from this I point to the Boston police incident involving Aqua Teen Hunger Force (which was funny, even after they ruined it and made themselves look dumb).

william (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

actually, I don’t think this has anything to do with sense of humor.

it’s to do with a even bigger problem, unwilling to admit fault, after it’s been pointed out that they are morons.

Police and government authority figures has a long standing problem of admitting any mistaken when they are caught.

Hey, some how we teach all our kids to correct and apologize for mistakes, but when it comes to the big mans, they can do whatever they want.

Blatant Coward (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

“How can anyone with a brain not figure this out??? “

Waits for it….

PADIIIIIIING

There ya go.

So do car jackers wear jacks? if so are they car jacks, apple jacks, or those spiky jacks that used to come with a ball? This is why crime is so rampant in this country. All the police wear coats with POLICE written on them but the crooks don’t wear their CRIMINAL coats. Not even the striped shirts and black masks. Except in Duckburg.

Marcus Carab (profile) says:

I have to admit, Pedobear is one of the more despicable memes to come out of the depths of 4chan. It seems to rely on finding pedophilia hilarious, by taking any random image and saying “think about the sexual assault of children while you look at this image, hahahaha!”

Of course, having an inappropriate sense of humour and actually being a threat to children are very different things, so this is still pretty silly. I’m not too impressed by the comicon parents who thought it would be funny to get a shot of their kid with Pedobear though, that’s for sure.

Free Capitalist (profile) says:

Re: Re:

inappropriate sense of humour

Context can be paramount to propriety. There is a malady I like to call “brainless drone syndrome” which can be diagnosed by the repeated act of impulsively projecting context based on some completely unrelated predisposition where no context understood.

Dumb cops are dumb. Nothing to see here.

Marcus Carab (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

Not true! I was a teenager for three-and-a-half weeks and I once visited a college website.

I regret using the term “inappropriate sense of humour” – it did indeed sound pretty ornery. But I also don’t find things funny just because they flirt with controversial or potentially offensive concepts – I want them to have some actual value that goes deeper. I’m not really convinced Pedobear does.

interval (profile) says:

Re: Re:

‘I have to admit, Pedobear is one of the more despicable memes to come out of the depths of 4chan. It seems to rely on finding pedophilia hilarious, by taking any random image and saying “think about the sexual assault of children while you look at this image, hahahaha!”‘

Woosh. Right over the old noggin’. You really don’t get it. I’m not saying its a brilliant meme, but its really not that hard to get, and you still ain’t got it. Its not about “thinking about the sexual assault of children.” You’re waaaay off the mark.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

I think the joke is kind of going over your head.

People who engage in rampant hysteria over an inflated threat of pedophilia are a caricature of a normal rational person. Pedobear is a caricature of the endlessly sinister, omnipresent pedophile threat that these people fear. That’s why it’s funny to put him in every situation. If fear of pedophiles weren’t so completely overblown and radically pervasive in our society, pedobear wouldn’t be funny.

Even that’s probably much too serious of an interpretation.

PaulT (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

Erm, this…

Pedobear is not making fun of pedophilia, it’s poking fun at the hysteria. As for “threat to children”, it’s actually far more likely that a kid will get abused by a family member than a random stranger, and it’s highly unlikely than an actual pedophile would mark himself out in this way.

Oh, and I watched A Serbian Film last night (because it was banned from the Frightfest festival I was at in London last month – Hah!). If you’re this sensitive, do NOT watch it. Seriously.

Marcus Carab (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Yeah thanks folks… I’m not quite that daft. I get how it’s easy to come up with a justification of Pedobear as satire. But go spend five minutes reading /b/ and then tell me you really think that’s the case. Because it sure as hell doesn’t seem that way to me.

I am the last person to care about offensive humour. There are lots of comedians who can handle topics like child abuse and pedophilia in a manner that is hilarious – comedian Louis CK and the show The Venture Bros. spring to mind. I just don’t really get any of the same sense of maturity or actual comedic value from the Pedobear meme or the /b/tards who push it around the internet.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: 4chan punking oprah.

http://ytinstant.com/

Use the YouTube instant search with “4chan oprah” and it might find another one, no promises though, but it is a funny video.

Curiosity: the guy behind the YouTube instant developed it in 3 hours loosing the bet with his roommate that it would be done in one and got a job offer from Google.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

Son I am dissapoint…

You obviously have never been to /b/ or you know that what you just said is a load of bullshit.

/b/ lives for the lulz and nothing else. Anything to get a rise out of anyone is what /b/ does and they are good at it. raep, child raep, necroraep, 40lb box of raep is just a few of the weapons /b/ desploys in the endles war-of-the-lulz

Anonymous Coward says:

proper use of the pedobear meme:

1. find some image or text that, in the proper context would seem to insinuate pedophelia ie. “jesus loves the little children”

2. place a “pedobear seal of approval” image on the mildly inapropriate image/text and post to an image board.

3. view the now modified image, think to yourself “awwww, thats f***ed up!”

4. /facepalm

Anonymous Coward says:

I hate pedobear, if I caught someone doing that to a child I’d beat their butt and castrate them so couldn’t harm anymore children….at least I wish i could castrate them….call the popo, have their butt arrested, get the electric chair but the other inmates raped and killed him already. Ik that sounds hateful, but they kill the molesters before the wife beaters and serial killers, I mean, cmon its a child that is just sick…

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