What on earth are you talking about?
If you have a point about how awful it is that people find the site funny, please make it. If you have a point about how awful it is that people laugh at the humor-impaired, please make it. But these attempts as being sly and insinuating aren’t working.
:rolleyes:
People don’t find Bonsai Kitten funny because they think stuffing a cat in a jar is hilarious (unless they have the mind of a ten-year-old. Then it’s high comedy). People find the site funny because they recognize it for the great piece of satire it is.
Yes, actualy stuffing a helpless, fuzzy little kitten into a cold, unyielding jar would be horrific. That’s why the satire is effective. People so jaded as to find the concept mundane would not be affected by the satire, and would not find it funny.
How do you explain satire, its correct application, and the fact that it is destroyed if you include a disclaimer for every brain-dead moron and humorless busybody who might stumble across it?
If Bonsai kittens bugged you so much, Cat-scan.com ought to make you blow a gasket.
The snopes article just about says it all for me. Basically, sure you are allowed to find the humor in bad taste. Just realize that taking the site down does nothing to improve the world.
Personally, I love the site. Especially the shoehorn.
Ice Wolf, I’ve seen that site quite sometime ago. We obviously had completely different reactions to it.
I respect you as a thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate person and have gotten lots of enjoyment from interacting with you, even though we haven’t met yet (get on a damn plane already 
).
Because of these reasons, I haven’t passed on to the next thread, like I normally would. I am interested in your opinion. Could you take a moment to clarify what exactly you object to and why it’s “beyond the pale” ? I’m very interested in how you view this site, and it’s impact.
The makers of that site apparently don’t know that there’s more to bonsai then using a small vessel to grow it in - you also have to regularly prune the kittens.
And there’s the wiring of their limbs in order to force them to grow into more aesthetically pleasing shapes…
Aw, Goo, do I have to? I thought I could just walk away, knowing my opinion differed from everyone else. Go off somewhere an’ bleed, quietly.
sigh Okay. This is for you.
I, personally, don’t like seeing animals as part of sites like this, satire, humour or otherwise. This is just my opinion, and just how I feel. I’m uncomfortable with the site, and (poorly, I’ll admit!) expressed my views. Everyone else here has expressed their views right back, and that’s that.
I dunno. Maybe there’s some part of me that really hates seeing animals used as a joke. And I’m concerned (yes, I know everyone disagrees, you don’t need to go on) that “fun” stuff like this can be turned into cruel acts by those who get their kicks doing it.
If you want to do satire, whatever, fine. Put it wherever, I don’t really care. Censorship sucks, an’ all that. But I still don’t like that site. Described all this to some friends today, who reckoned it sucked too. But what matters, after all, is what happens here, I guess.
Right. The bullseye’s back across my chest, people, the blindfold is on. Have another go.
Shit, I really wish this thread would die. It ain’t worth the fuss.
Re copycats: There’s enough brats (and older brats) doing vile enough things to animals anyway - think petrol and lighters, air rifles, tying them to car bumpers…
The fact that this satire raises our awareness of animal cruelty can only be a good - if uncomfortable - thing.
Thanks, istara, you’ve made a good point. I certainly hope for that.
There’re far worse things on the 'Net, Mr. Wolfie, than some mock kitten-stuffers. The Stile Project, for instance, or Consumption Junction.
Jaded? Me? Yeah, but I get jaded really quick.
Hell, SPOOFie, Stile is nothing. Mostly pr0n these days anyway.
I admit it, when I first heard about the Bonsai Kittens I believed it.
Why?- Well, we live on a planet where followng atrocities happen:
And on and on…
Why should Bonsai Kittens be so hard to believe?
Thankfully, this atrocity turned out to be a hoax.
Well, Wolfie, to me, the scariest thing about that kind of website is the fact that there are folks out there who (a) don’t realize that it’s a joke, and (b) try it at home–really. I was registered at a pet hobbyist BB when the bonsai kitten thing first appeared, and there were actually people posting on that Pet BB who believed it, and who didn’t want to read my Snopes link that I was frantically providing right and left. They preferred to believe it was possible, for whatever reasons.
Very spooky world out there, ya know? Lotta marginal people who still somehow manage to get themselves down to Circuit City and buy a computer and get themselves hooked up to the Internet.
But, that said, I don’t think we should ban all forms of satire involving animals having strange things done to them, because if we’re going to ban that, then why not ban all forms of satire involving people having strange things done to them?
What would that leave? Satire involving vegetables having strange things done to them? Not to mention the fun we could have with small appliances, railroad trains, geologic faults… :rolleyes:
And…
…poof! there goes the Internet, magically turned into a combination of the Sears Home Repair and Handyman Guide, the Merck Manual, and Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. Sure, nice to be able to look stuff up, but without an entire category called “satire”, where’s the entertainment value?
We live in a world were foot binding, female circumcision, bear baiting, cat skinning in the name of art, and “squishy” films are made, why would be hard for some people to believe that there are people in the world who would stick kittens in jars? Hell, the Chinese used to stick children in jars to alter their body appearance!
Again, I know that the Bonzai Kittens are a hoax, but things far worse than that have happened, and continue to happen, on this planet we live on!
The human condition will never stop amusing me. In total of human experience there are thousands upon thousands of things that need to be fixed to make the world a better place(1) and yet you just need to cruise the web and find people blowing gaskets over sites like the Bonsai-kitten, that human meat one, and www.netauthority.com (2)
The first time I read the site it was completely obvious that it was a hoax 
If you read all of the site they have pictures with them shoving the baby in the container and a “scientific report” that cats drive people mad. Or just look at the kid’s corner page
Ok, I’ve now managed to annoy the other lab tech I work with cause I’m laughing so hard from rereading the bonsaikitten site.
I guess what I’m saying is that there are lots of things out there to get upset about, and you’re at a loss for words over the bonsai kitten page. Yes animal cruelty is bad, but I’d think taking care of cruelty to other humans is worse and should be a more primary job.
But I’ve lost this arguement several times on the boards all ready.
1-- The total annihilate of France
2-- For those of you who missed out on this it was a fundamental christian web site where people could lodge complains to anti-christian/dangerous material for investigation and later legal action by the parent company of netauthority.
Only 5 people seemed to get the joke out of 30,000 hits a day. It was mindblowingly funny. I managed, with a friend’s web site, to get a “warning” from them [We sold consecrated sperm of Jesus for use as a contraceptive in nations that outlawed most types of birthcontrol stemming from religious edicts. “The body of Christ will set you free! To FORNICATE” People took us seriously, it was great.]
Btw, anyone got enough web space to restart the Body of Jesus Birth Control Site? This time I’d like to have someone help who actually does have their minister’s certificate to endorse our product:)
Think IPO, think stock options, think the sky is the limit, think… excommunication
As well they should … As well they should. That is just SICK
[Andy Griffith]
Sherriff Taylor: Well why don’t we go about finding the real ones rather than sitting here looking at this fake one Opie.
Opie: Cause the lightin’s a lot better over here Paw.
Sherriff Taylor: Well, that don’t make no sense Opie.
Opie: Otis says you got a point Paw, that don’t make no sense.
[/Andy Griffith]
Just a nitpick, but bear baiting is actually a “sport” where a bear is chained to a post and attacked by a pack of hunting dogs. The bear usually loses.
Even to chihuahuas? That’s a pretty lame excuse for a bear.