# Did I ever tell you about the time mswas met Obama? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 25, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577 "2009-08-25T00:33:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/81 "2009-08-25T15:05:57Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > When did the Pit degenerate to kindergarten? When was it different? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/82 "2009-08-25T15:06:12Z")
No, not really. Back when I joined - I know, everyone feel free to dismiss my opinion now - the Pit, along with the rest of the boards, was a place of intelligence and wit. Nasty wit, to be sure, but still wit. Now it’s full of this bullshit. Honestly, the level of debate and insult in this thread is on par with any local kindergarten. It’s “you’re stupid” “no, you’re stupid” ad nauseum. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/83 "2009-08-25T15:09:37Z")
But now we don’t say “fuck you”! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/84 "2009-08-25T15:28:34Z")
One benefit of the “don’t be a jerk” rule was you they didn’t have to deal with childish “I’m not touching you” style argumentation. If he’s trolling you get rid of him, you don’t have to prove intent. You’d have to be born yesterday to seriously believe the OOP was a geniune attempt at a joke. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/85 "2009-08-25T15:57:03Z")
> [@askeptic](#): > > [This post brought to you by the editors at FOX News] So…what you’re saying is that the editors at FOX News are occassionally correct? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/86 "2009-08-25T16:03:43Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > One benefit of the “don’t be a jerk” rule was you they didn’t have to deal with childish “I’m not touching you” style argumentation. If he’s trolling you get rid of him, you don’t have to prove intent. You’d have to be born yesterday to seriously believe the OOP was a geniune attempt at a joke. You’re a moron. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/87 "2009-08-25T16:03:45Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Who are you that I should put you on ignore? I’m not sure you’re the sort of person I’d like reading my posts. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/88 "2009-08-25T16:04:59Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > So…what you’re saying is that the editors at FOX News are occassionally correct? Everyone slips up now and then. I thought **mswas** ’s original thread was obvious (albeit poorly constructed) satire. So - not a troll, just really quite sad. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/89 "2009-08-25T16:13:45Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Everyone slips up now and then. > > I thought **mswas** ’s original thread was obvious (albeit poorly constructed) satire. So - not a troll, just really quite sad. Really? Failed jokes are really that sad? I mean really? This has been kind of entertaining because people are blowing it all out of proportion. Even ‘really quite sad’ is an extreme overstatement. I would go with, “Dumb joke, generally an inconsequential moment in time.”, myself. But if you want to weep tears of grief because I dropped a dud, be my guest. OMG mswas made a joke that wasn’t funny! Oh the humanity! Won’t someone think of the children? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/90 "2009-08-25T16:15:24Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’m not sure you’re the sort of person I’d like reading my posts. I’m barely aware of your existence as it is. You’re basically some stranger who has never made an impression on me coming up and saying, “I don’t like you, would you put me on ignore too?” Basically, you were already on ignore. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/91 "2009-08-25T16:17:15Z")
Like a stand-up comic who’s joke dies a-borning, who spends the next two hours insisting that the audience recognize that it was actually pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/92 "2009-08-25T16:17:54Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Like a stand-up comic who’s joke dies a-borning, who spends the next two hours insisting that the audience recognize that it was actually pretty good. Cite? Where did I insist that it’s actually pretty good? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/93 "2009-08-25T16:18:18Z")
It could be an inconsequential moment if you’d just _shut the hell up_. If you’d said “Well, that didn’t go over as well as I expected,” and let it die, then yeah, it was just a goof and people would have forgotten. But you keep trying and trying so hard to make yourself come out on top and be the superior one that it _is_ pretty damn sad. You’re frankly posting an awful lot about something you keep trying to be flippant about. And on preview, **elucidator** ’s got it. If you bombed and moved on, nobody would think twice about it. But you just keep at it. You’re letting yourself get mired in with the hecklers. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/94 "2009-08-25T16:18:18Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > You’d have to be born yesterday to seriously believe the **OOP** was a geniune attempt at a joke. Don’t you mean ‘Oops’? ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/95 "2009-08-25T16:18:37Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Cite? Where did I insist that it’s actually pretty good? Well you’re claiming people are stupid for not getting it. It’s not stupid to not get a terrible joke. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/96 "2009-08-25T16:25:03Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > Well you’re claiming people are stupid for not getting it. It’s not stupid to not get a terrible joke. Yes it is. Obama isn’t German. Most people got it, it was the minority that didn’t and they are all butthurt I guess cuz it made them feel stupid. **elucidator** I went back and found my first commentary on the quality of the joke. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11478716&postcount=69](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11478716&postcount=69) > [@](#): > > I think it tells us something about the opinion that members of the SDMB have, more than half of the responders were whooshed, only a few realized it was just a lame parody. But they all universally thought that I was dumb and they were smart. I have to say the only ones who I think have a credible claim to that are the ones who realized it was a lame parody. > > I’m going to have to actually give Vinyl Turnip the incisive commentary award. I can’t say I was actually stoned because I neither own a bong nor any pot right now, but that’s about the spirit of it anyway. Which is why I dropped it in MSPIMS. You’ll notice that the first time I made any comment on the quality of the joke, I recognized that it was a dumb joke. A bunch of knee-jerking idiots providing fodder for further entertainment does not mean that I thought the original joke was that clever. I honestly kind of new it wasn’t that great when I posted it but I posted it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/97 "2009-08-25T16:26:10Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Like a stand-up comic who’s joke dies a-borning, who spends the next two hours insisting that the audience recognize that it was actually pretty good. Except in this case the comic is crying and shrieking at random audience members in a paranoid attempt to suggest that they are out to get him. Honestly I’d always assumed mswas was a fool, but I never saw him as a blubbering six year old. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/98 "2009-08-25T16:28:36Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > …I honestly kind of new it wasn’t that great when I posted it but I posted it anyway. _Egotist te absolvo._ Go, and sin no more. Or sin, but elsewhere. Whatever works best for you. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/99 "2009-08-25T16:29:34Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > It could be an inconsequential moment if you’d just _shut the hell up_. Why do I need to shut the hell up? You could shut the hell up too. > [@](#): > > If you’d said “Well, that didn’t go over as well as I expected,” and let it die, then yeah, it was just a goof and people would have forgotten. But you keep trying and trying so hard to make yourself come out on top and be the superior one that it _is_ pretty damn sad. You’re frankly posting an awful lot about something you keep trying to be flippant about. Actually it kind of did go over how I expected. I didn’t expect people to get so angry and to insist to violently that their anger was justified when it wasn’t, but I never thought the work was a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Come out on top of what? I’m making fun of people who are making fun of me. What’s coming out on top in that equation? > [@](#): > > And on preview, **elucidator** ’s got it. If you bombed and moved on, nobody would think twice about it. But you just keep at it. You’re letting yourself get mired in with the hecklers. No, **elucidator** didn’t have it because his statement is counter-factual. I never said the joke was good, I just said it was obviously a joke, which has been corroborated by several posters. I’m not getting mired in the hecklers, I am heckling the hecklers. 😉 I got a thread dedicated to me, so I came out to visit my adoring public. I ignored one person who tried to follow me to Great Debates, another one who was transmitting messages for said idiot, and another person who I just find to be obnoxious in general. You guys have some really strange notions. People trolled me by starting a Pit thread, and so I’m having some fun with the trolls. If it doesn’t amuse you don’t open the fucking thread. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577/100 "2009-08-25T16:30:35Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > _Egotist te absolvo._ Go, and sin no more. Or sin, but elsewhere. Whatever works best for you. This is my thread. If you want to leave my presence, by all means, don’t open my thread. 😉 In otherwords YOU go elsewhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-mswas-met-obama/507577.md?page=6)