Funny Pics on Lawrence.com

[groovepuppy]

Lawrence.com has got some good info along with some hilarious pics http://www.lawrence.com/news/2008/may/27/LOLhippies/

[Pauly's Cheese]

I personally don't think those pictures are very funny. Seems like a bunch of stereotyping bull**** to me. And I'm gonna let them know how I feel about it.

:evil:

This is what I posted on their website:

This is an unfortunate post by a website that practices \"journalism\".

I am a registered professional engineer, and have been attending Wakarusa since its inception. I take great offense to these stereotypical images.

They are not funny. You have engaged in nothing but untrue stereotyping. How come you refuse to embrace people's differences? Is it easier just to make fun of them? Does that make you feel better about yourself?

In all the years I have attended Wakarusa, I have met some of the greatest people that I will ever know. People don't come to Lawrence in June to get messed up on a bunch of drugs....which is what you elude to in your last picture. That is fundamentally wrong. They come for the fellowship of friends and the beautiful music that they want to experience.

Do you not want our dollars in your community? Do you not want to have professionals vacation in your community? It seems that you don't because these types of actions will drive them all away.

These are simply pictures of people having fun. That's it. Why must you destroy that by inserting ridiculous captions that drive your stereotypes? People come to Kansas in June to have a vacation and enjoy great fellowship and spectacular music. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you have some type of inhibition about that, then you should probably take it up with yourself rather than posting ridiculous images on the internet.

I'm callin' bull****.

[KCNorthlander]

We didn't used to call it the Lawrence \"Urinal\" World fer nothin! :P

[Leeland]

Good for you Pauly. I was also amazed at the ignorance, demonstrated by those pictures.

[Pauly's Cheese]

Thanks, Leeland. That kinda **** is just uncalled for. They took some great pics and completely destroyed them by adding those stupid captions.

I mean....in one of them, there is a woman who is wearing a \"Code Pink\" shirt.....for breast cancer awareness. Then they degrade her by insinuating that she's a swinger??? Seriously..... :(

[tnkrbellup]

THAT is unbelievable!!! Man, I'd be pissed if I ran across a picture of me used in that matter. Especially if it was done by a newspaper. To me that was very juvenile and completely unprofessional behavior. I don't even care if the guy is a satirist (I don't know what his role is) or whatever he could claim to be. I want to write a response also, but I'm too angry right now. I'll have to do it tomorrow when my thoughts are more organized & less hateful!

[Dark Star]

I happen to agree with Pauly. The stereotyping is inappropriate.
In My camp last year we had:
1.) Entrepeneur (3 businesses)
2.) CPA, Senior Bank VP
3.) A city manager
4.) A real estate agent
5.) Oil Comapny VP
6.) Store Manager of Large Hardware Chain
7.) Kansas State Department of Natural Resources, Upper Management Director
8.) House wife mother of 5, grandmother of 3
9.) Holistic Healer
10.) Several college and graduate students, our children, studying in fields such as Engineering, Medical, Law and Accounting/Finance.

This group of friends use Wakarusa as a gathering place for reunions and a chance to catch up with each other, not to mention the music. The core group of friends met each other 30+ years ago and began attending concerts and festivals together.

People who are guilty of stereotyping in public bare watching because most likely they are guilty of racism and hate crimes. There was nothing good or even humorous about these pictures.

Oh speaking of economic impact perhaps we all should spend our money for supplies, food and gear in our home towns instead of Lawrence. Eat only purchased meals from the vendors at Waka no more trips to town to eat steak.

Peace

Peace

[musicmonster]

I understand the concern about negative stereotypes, but I DID laugh at those pics, hell, anything's funny when you write a LOLcat caption across it...
and the final one \"but I eated it\" was the one I giggled at most...

[lord zonkington]

They had to interrupt a World of Warcraft tourney to find someone lame enough to come up with these ridiculous captions.

If you're coming from out of town, know this: Lawrence residents and ESPECIALLY the administrators over at Lawrence.com ARE better than you simply for the fact that they are from Lawrence. People in this town have huge ****in heads and they all unfortunately own computers.

P.S. The poor dude with the \"FAIL\" caption was at the Slip show sitting in some pre chewed pizza or something. i went over to see if he was alive at one point and he said something in Ewok i think.

[kgbnfx]

I wonder if Lawrence.com is hiring? I do dumb **** like that for free? I'm not sure if I'd call it journalism?

[lord zonkington]

[quote:5f7c092539=\"kgbnfx\"]I wonder if Lawrence.com is hiring? I do dumb **** like that for free? I'm not sure if I'd call it journalism?[/quote:5f7c092539]

seriously man if that's all you have to do to get stuff published...

[cornboarder]

I hope those people with words like, \"Hai. We Be Singerz\" and \"Iz Brot Youz A Bag of Mefamfetameens... But I Eated It...\" authorized those photos to be published.

And publishing something that makes fun of rickets is really unprofessional. They should be ashamed of posting that as humor.

What if someone took your pic and posted it like that?

[Coop]

LAME

[arwriterrider]

Stereotyping Wakarusians as being ignorant and out of control is about as relevant as stereotyping capital hill suits being upright and professional.

Not that there's anything wrong with a suit. :wink:

[musicmonster]

calm down folks, let's not have a penis panic!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_panic

[moedunk]

They're just not that funny, or even cleaver, really. If you're gonna do it, do it right, at least. :roll:

[ajones6]

Well, regardless of if they were funny or not, (I giggled) there is no a legal issue here. I'm assuming that the professional journalists requested consent from the people they took the pictures of before publishing them. If not, there could be a mass media libel problem. Defamation, identification, publication, injury, falsity and fault. However, all six must be proven to win a libel case.

However, the defense would counter that the captions were used with rhetorical hyperbole; meaning it was so outrageous that people know that they weren't meant to be taken seriously or as a fact.

But they aren't obscene and are an exercise in free speech. And the responses to the photos are also and exercise in free speech. This forum is an open marketplace of ideas (Milton).

Unethical? Or maybe just inappropriate for this particular forum?

Long live the first amendment!

[scottt]

I'm all for the first amendment, but I don't find this sort of thing appropriate in a 'real' newspaper. Seems more like Onion fodder to me.

Perpetuating stereotypes is not responsible journalism. Replace \"hippies\" with Jews, or immigrants, or whatever group you like. Would they take photos at an event heavily attended by african-americans then publish them with captions about eating watermelon and fried chicken, or smoking crack cocaine? Hell, no! I guess we're just easy targets.

I was certainly hesitant to return to Wakarusa after the persecution by law enforcement that I witnessed in 2006. This article - while I realize it's just a really lame attempt at humor - doesn't help me feel any more welcome in Lawrence. Tell me again why I should spend my hard-earned dollars in town...

[PeartMoon]

Pauly - great response. I hate this sort of stuff as much as you do. Lawrence.com and The Pitch are great at exacerbating \"hippie fest\" stereotypes to reinforce their \"hipper than thou\" posturing. They're appealing to their market. It almost feels like they are incapable of an honest thought that's not masked with sarcasm. Honestly, most hipsters actually have exceedingly narrow musical tastes. They simply will not listen to something if it lacks the indie credibility they absolutely have to have. Hipster music has to have a hipster endorsement before it's ok to listen to. It's lazy journalism and boring. I wrote a letter to the Pitch a couple of years ago after Jason Harper wrote an embarassingly bad Wakarusa article. Jason didn't even really try. Timothy Finn of the KC Star is about the only local music critic who doesn't fall into the stereotyping rut too often. It literally feels like most local writers absolutely cannot write a full article on Wakarusa without attaching some sort of derogatory \"unwashed hippies\" comment which is usually followed closely by the phrase \"jam band festival.\" What exactly is \"jam band\" about Emmylou Harris?

[kgbnfx]

I love being dumbed down! I hope they are hiring!

[LunaChic420]

[quote:58966d1892=\"Dark Star\"]I happen to agree with Pauly. The stereotyping is inappropriate.
In My camp last year we had:
1.) Entrepeneur (3 businesses)
2.) CPA, Senior Bank VP
3.) A city manager
4.) A real estate agent
5.) Oil Comapny VP
6.) Store Manager of Large Hardware Chain
7.) Kansas State Department of Natural Resources, Upper Management Director
8.) House wife mother of 5, grandmother of 3
9.) Holistic Healer
10.) Several college and graduate students, our children, studying in fields such as Engineering, Medical, Law and Accounting/Finance.

This group of friends use Wakarusa as a gathering place for reunions and a chance to catch up with each other, not to mention the music. The core group of friends met each other 30+ years ago and began attending concerts and festivals together.

People who are guilty of stereotyping in public bare watching because most likely they are guilty of racism and hate crimes. There was nothing good or even humorous about these pictures.

Oh speaking of economic impact perhaps we all should spend our money for supplies, food and gear in our home towns instead of Lawrence. Eat only purchased meals from the vendors at Waka no more trips to town to eat steak.

Peace

Peace[/quote:58966d1892]





oh dear lord, please please please do not see Lawrence.com as representative of what the community at large thinks. That thing exists solely for the amusement of drunken frat-boys. I did have to laugh at \"digieridon't\" because I have been treated to some bad bad digeridoo playing...but otherwise, those captions were tasteless and poorly done. Seriously, as a longtime resident, downtown worker and Waka vendor, I say that is not Lawrence. Feel free to express your disdain towards Lawrence.com but know that many of us locals don't even go there because it isn't about us.

[~dave~~wave~]

Stupid captions not funny, agreed. Neither is the \"Dam Libs! Annoying Festival Dude Edition.\"

But let's not throw Lawrence.com under the bus for a failed attempt at humor.

[quote:0b2de94c8e=\"groovepuppy\"]Lawrence.com has got some good info along with some hilarious pics http://www.lawrence.com/news/2008/may/27/LOLhippies/[/quote:0b2de94c8e]
The Pocket-friendly PDF stage schedule is great, it printed out better for me than what I could get from jambase, plus it has the updated map. http://media.lawrence.com/pdf/2008/wakarusa_guide.pdf

The \"best bets,\" written by a guy who signed his name, is informative and positive. http://www.lawrence.com/news/2008/may/27/wakarusa_best_bets/

Nice interview with Paw here: http://www.lawrence.com/news/2008/may/26/mended_paw/

I am very grateful for the great photos that they have put up in years past, dozens of which are now on my hard drive and ipod.

They have consistently covered the festival thoroughly and objectively through the years. I appreciate it.

[tnkrbellup]

[quote:19ef79cfe9=\"lord zonkington\"].......

If you're coming from out of town, know this: Lawrence residents and ESPECIALLY the administrators over at Lawrence.com ARE better than you simply for the fact that they are from Lawrence. People in this town have huge ****in heads and they all unfortunately own computers........
[/quote:19ef79cfe9]

I have to disagree with this statement. I lived in Lawrence & worked downtown for 5 years, and saw all sorts of people walking the streets daily. While there were people who felt superior to others (as there are everywhere!), it is not the overall attitude of Lawrence. Lawrence is a very open community. You can see that at any given time in the downtown area. There are people from all walks of life!

Everyone has their take on their \"hometown\", and it is all based on personal experience, but, everyone should be careful when they share their opinion & make generalized statements. Isn't that exactly why this thread is here???

[groovepuppy]

I guess I kinda' know how politicians feel after they say or do stupid things and later realize that they stuck their foot in their mouths. On a closer analysis most of the the pics and associated captions are really not that funny- at least on my comedic scale, and they are probably a weak mediocre at best. Please be advised that there is little if anything that is portrayed or implied in those pictures that reflect or represent my core beliefs or values and I probably should have done a better job of not only closely reviewing what I post, but providing a better title than \"funny pics\" which is pretty shallow. It sure stirred the pot though! Now a little humble pie for breakfast.

[funkybegonia]

Those pictures are amusing in their own right. But those captions were lame, I hardly understood what they said they were so dumb.

[RobDogg15]

[quote:bc0fe01f5a=\"groovepuppy\"]I guess I kinda' know how politicians feel after they say or do stupid things and later realize that they stuck their foot in their mouths.....It sure stirred the pot though! [/quote:bc0fe01f5a]

I think politicians call it \"Creating dialogue\" :wink:

I'm pretty sure we've all been there my friend.

[Pauly's Cheese]

I don't think I was too pissed until I saw the very last one.....I might have almost grinned at one or two.....but when I hit the last one, I was a bit perturbed.