Anyone heard that one yet? Just saw this on a bumper sticker and thought it was hilarious. I can’t find an accurate recreation online - the ones I found all seem to have some knowing wink built into it. The one I saw was played dead-straight to accurately match the self-righteousness of its target.
A blue rare example of right-wing humor done right.
Note: This is not me sharing my political position, this is just me appreciating a gag well done.
Years ago bumper stickers for “Re-Unite Gondwanaland” were occasionally seen.
I guess I should have clicked the link first. 
But the joke is at least 30 years old, probably more.
I’ve got an ancient T-shirt that says that.
Yeah, and that’s a perfect example of sloppy humor (which is typical for political bumper sticker slogans). Besides the fact that Gondwanaland is extremely obscure, compared to Pangaea (or maybe it wasn’t 30 years ago), there’s no political issue involving re-uniting anything. “Stop Continental Drift” is directly parallel to “Stop Global Warming” and thus makes the satire more potent. The idea behind it is that that both sentiments are equal - that both are calls to take political action against natural planetary changes that are outside of mankind’s power.
How about “186,000 miles a second isn’t just the law, it’s also a good idea.”
No, it’s not. Reunite Gondwanaland is infinitely superior to “Stop Continental Drift”. It sounds like a political statement, and “Gondwanaland” really does sound like some 1960s-era post-colonial African state. It makes you think and maybe look it up. (Thorty years aho “Gondwanaland” and “Pangaea” were equally obscure)
“Stop Continental Drift” is iommediately obvious and doesn’t sound sufficiently like anything else (even “Stop Global Warming” ) to do anything but fall with the dead thud of witlessness.
I just did. Now I want the bumber sticker.
I’ve got to agree with CalMeacham. The Gondwanaland slogan is much funnier, because it’s more obscure. Most people are going to take it at face value. You have to actually know something about how the continents are formed to get the joke. It’s excellent insider humor, while “Stop Continental Drift” is merely adequate satire.
Incidentally, I recently purchased this t-shirt for myself.
ha!
Were there calls for third parties to re-unite any dissolved post-colonial African states back then (I really don’t know, tell me)? Even if there were, such an issue would be too far removed from global warming to be sufficiently clever.
Okay…you realize I’m gaging the gag on it’s propensity to get a laugh, not on its ability to get someone to jump through sadistic loops to decipher a code. That it’s relatively immediately obvious is why it’s funny. It’s actually a bit of a thinker but pays off in the time that a bumper sticker should. And why should it sound like something else besides “Stop Global Warming” (which it does, I don’t get why you’re saying it doesn’t, they’re perfectly parallel if you’re taking the position of the sticker)?
Why does that make it funny? Because you get to congratulate yourself about your superiority? It’s sloppy because there’s less of an attempt to connect it to its target. In fact, you’re admitting that that’s not the source of the humor at all - it’s funny simply because it sounds like something it’s not. That’s quite banal compared to the biting satire that “continental drift” offers. *The author of the “continental drift” gag found a perfect analogy (assuming his position is sound) for global warming to make his point. That’s more laudatory noticing that “Gondwanaland” sounds like an unstable African country. What does that have to do with anything?
*(added via edit)
I used to have a t-shirt that proclaimed that I was a member of the Pangaean Liberation Front.
Miller, I love that shirt!
Eh, that should be "more laudable than noticing
Well, it could be funny, on Iceland.
According to this Iceland is widening at a rate of about 2 cm/year.
See, I don’t get this at all. When I saw the bumper sticker I had no concept that it connected to global warming. None at all. Lady Chance has had a sweatshirt for fifteen years that proclaims “STOP PLATE TECTONICS”. So I didn’t even notice the humor, much less the supposed satire of the OP.
Gondwanaland, now, that’s funny on it’s own.
I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this, pizzabrat. “Stop Continental Drift” to me has not an iota of wit. It states its premise bluntly and blandly and doesn’t have the lots-of-information-packed-into-a-tiny-space-that-makes-you-think-and-reconsider that is, to me, the heart and soul of humor. “Reuynite Gondwanaland” sounds like a political statement, but a little thought or research shows that it’s not, yet it sounds incredibly plausibly like the name of a real country. It’s got nothing to do with smug superiority over those “not in the know”. It’s the re-adjustment of your viewpoint neatly packaged in a two-word statement. Brevity is indeed the soul of wit.
“Stop Continental Drift” hasn’t got that seems-to-mean-something-else-wait-it’s-not quality that yanks you by the neck and makes you stop and think. It ain’t funny.
I’m with pizzabrat, I think SCD is funnier than the Gondwanaland one, which is a bit clunky IMO.
No, that’s what makes it interesting. I don’t really have to explain the concept of an inside joke to you, do I? What makes it funny is the juxtaposition of a relatively obscure scientific term in the context of political sloganing.
There’s no target to begin with. It’s not satirical, it’s absurdist.
Yes, and what of it?
“Biting?” Not particularly. I don’t really think you can get “biting” satire out of such a short slogan. There’s just not enough room to properly establish a biting tone on a bumpersticker. Biting satire needs to really demolish it’s target. It has to make people who hold the position being satired look like idiots, and there’s just not enough meat in “Stop Continental Drift” to do that.
Anyway, I never thought to take the bumpersticker as an anti-global warming swipe. I figured it was more of an anti-Creationist joke.
Who gives a fuck about “laudatory?” I’m interested in funny. The Gondwanaland joke is much funnier, if for no other reason than it contains the word “Gondwanaland,” which is an intrinsically funny word.
Off topic, but did you ever get that webcomic up and running?
Ah, inside joke… Makes more sense in that context… Okay, I get that. I’ll admit I can see the humor in that now (I wouldn’t have been in on the joke since I never heard of Gondwanaland). But then, thought of that way there’s really no point in comparing the two slogans at all.
It does exactly that. Continental Drift is an existing phenomenon, and can cause huge problems for mankind. But how ridiculous would anyone sound mounting a political movement to get the government and its citizenry to stop it, rather than just dealing with it as a natural planetary quirk?
It’s not a webcomic, it’s a graphic novel, and no, still working on it.