Not that anyone wandering through even later than I would know or care, but it made me smile, and it’s more than their comic has ever done.

it’s like wearing a gigantic neon sign above your head that says “i’m a douche”

And if you don’t fancy yourselves trolls but some sort of activists, I would say, learn to take criticism and respond in a mature manner. No one will take you seriously if all you can do is shout obscenities at people. No one infringed upon T-Shirt Hell’s right to produce and display their pitiful attempts at irony. It closed voluntarily because the owner couldn’t deal with the criticism. Activism isn’t about throwing a tantrum to try to get the critics to shut up, it’s much more than that. Until you can realize that, you will be treated as nothing more than children with poor senses of humour, or, as I said before, trolls who are rather bad at their occupations.

As far as all this “irony” nonsense being thrown around…you DO know what irony is, right? Irony is when what is displayed is different from or contradictory to what the audience expects, and these jokes are hardly unexpected or surprising in any way. Oh look, a fat chick joke, never heard one of those before! Misogyny? That’s a new one! And homophobia, in this day and age? Well, I never! Except that these things are still quite common, and just because people don’t usually put them on shirts doesn’t mean the sentiments aren’t held far and wide. These jokes are mostly reiterations of old themes, and I find them very tired. They only continue the hate–and face it, if you’re not with us, you’re against us. Sure, I doubt anyone will take a look at one of these shirts and say, “I’d never thought of being religiously prejudiced before, I think I’ll try it!” But I also feel that it’s wasted space. Instead of giving positive or thought-provoking messages (which can be just as “edgy” and humorous as offensive ones), it’s reinforcing the status quo. I do think there are people who will laugh at these shirts not because they see them as “ironic” (I hate that word now) but because they see them as truth presented in a funny way. That same shirt could have been used to combat such views in a more definitive, less nuanced way. It doesn’t take a genius to say something stereotypical in a sarcastic voice, but it takes some skill to come up with a humorous message that still has the same undertones in print as it does vocally. I don’t see that skill here.

Also, I lol’d heartily at “uptight liberal”.

It’s the people who “protest” stuff like this that makes me want to wear it (although some I found hilarious without being offensive at all). Maybe I missed the “offended” gene, but I find shit like this funny as hell. People who get oversensitive about others expressing satire through a “non-politically correct” means make me roll with laughter. However, I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. Cuz, like my bro, I believe in freedom.

Too bad so many offended protestors don’t… unless people agree with their point of view.

Common words that can be construed as ‘offensive’. All of which my father has told me never to use because it is an insult to people like that. There are probably hundreds of them. Every single insult is probably one of them. Yet we still use them and we don’t jump up in arms about them.

Yes, I think those shirts are offensive. To me, they really are. Really really silly too. However at the same time, people saying the will spread hate? Seriously? If someone is really that gullible to be led to be a racist or a sexist because of a shirt? Yes, it propagates the views that it is ‘alright’, but think about how many people actually -believe- what they put on their body. It’s most likely a shocker technique to get attention. And if someone actually believes that it’s right because they see it on hundreds of shirts… I feel sorry for them. They have bigger issues than a few people in t-shirts or making jokes.

Give people a little more credit. I doubt someone’s racist, sexist or bigoted ideals come from a t-shirt or from talking about it or making jokes about it. It’s so much more complex and nipping one shirt company won’t do a thing and you’re not going to get everyone to care enough to really stop it.

The shirts are a joke. You either laugh at the joke or at the person who wears the shirt for wearing it. Going up in arms over a shirt shows that you guys need to step back from the way you think and learn to laugh at life a bit more. Sometimes it isn’t funny, true. But things can always be funny if you look at them the right way. But maybe it’s funny because you know that someday it will be gone because people are working to change it. Or maybe because the issue has become so trivial to some people that they feel they can wear the shirt and not really care. If an issue becomes that small, that’s a good thing. Or you can just ignore it. But getting mad seems as silly as wearing the shirts in the first place. They’re just shirts.

Again, the shirts are offensive. But that’s the point. They put them on to offend you. So either do what they want and get offended or turn the other cheek and do something a bit more productive with your day than get in to a tiff over some stranger with a shirt. Heck, if I saw someone with a Jesus shirt, I’d laugh. Why? Because Jesus would. He’d roll his eyes and prolly realize he had better things to do than worry about someone who was wearing a ridiculous shirt. Also assuming anything about that stranger, just because they wear the shirt, isn’t the right thing to do either. Maybe they’re not trying to be offensive but make a statement.

Very few jokes aren’t made at someone else’s expense. Either try and remove every single joke like that or learn to lighten up a bit. Schadenfreude. You see someone fall on a banana peel. You laugh. You can’t help it. Then you go over to help them. Is that a bad thing, even though you laughed at the expense of another person?

So while you might say it’s horrible to take it as a joke… Would you rather them take it seriously? Make life a little easier, stop trying to take every single joke and change it to YOUR (re-emphasis on YOUR, since not everyone has the wonderful gift of being in your head) view of correct and laugh a little more. Because there are a lot better things to get mad about than a stupid slogan on a t-shirt.

And yet people mistake it for satire because it is considered to be edgy. ”

This is exactly how I feel, as well. I don’t find anything funny or clever about this kind of offensive “humor”. The fact that they spread the hate around doesn’t make it hilarious or in any way less offensive. Should it be banned? Of course not. But that wasn’t ever the point here. However, because I spend my days working with children, I will say that I wish there was better control at home over what children watch. I am shocked by how many of them (we’re talking about ages 9-10 here) watch South Park and Family Guy and various and sundry Adult Swim cartoons. They quote them all the time–and not in an ironic way.

One of the things that has only been mentioned peripherally here is that children and pre-teens do not generally have the ability to distinguish between, “this is funny because it is so incredibly offensive that no one would actually act this way and they are making fun of everyone equally” and “this is funny because cartoon characters or comedians are saying it and I’ll be sure to mention it to my friends tomorrow at school”. They think that this kind of stuff is funny on its face and then they imitate it.

Thanks for the alert. I’ve put a trigger warning in and a jump. I apologize that it took me so long to get to it.

(I’m a Jew, I’m allowed).

“It’s Not Gay” about idiotic machismo mentality, for instance, the banned Snickers commercial. Not, “Lets go out and lynch us some fags ya’ll”

“Kill Yourself” it’s more of a modern, “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it?” Not, “Suicide is fun!!”

Trying to turn some shirts into advocation of violent crimes says something about you. I find some shirts funny and others just outright idiotic, and I wouldn’t wear some outside. They’re supposed to be taken at face value, not as moral authority. Hell, Christianity is much more offensive than T-Shirt Hell is and it is accepted by the masses.

Soon we won’t be able to say something is “sick” because that’s “healthist” or that something is “neat” because that offends us cluttered people.
So, to reiterate: pffft.