Tigga Revisited
So, okay, I did my little "Tigga Please" joke, and a few days afterwards I entered "tigga please" into Google, because of ego. Among other things, I came upon someone selling Tigga Please t-shirts. My first thought was "Wow, someone sure turned my little joke into a T-shirt fast." But there's a 2004 copyright on the image, and archive.org has a cache confirming that they've been selling the shirt for nigh unto two years now. So, coincidence.
And then, this morning, I'm watching Robot Chicken on the TiVo and one of the Shirt Tales (Shirt Tales! I feel much better about making Smurf jokes) is wearing a Tigga Please shirt. The episode's new, but I imagine there's some production time behind it. So, another coincidence.
I guess it's just a joke whose time had come. Or whose time came about a year and a half ago, not sure about that.
What interesting to me -- because it's about me -- is that I have kind of an odd way of approaching stuff like this. I don't feel at all bad about coming up with the gag after Tastes Like Chicken did, because I came up with it independently. But if I had thought of the joke and sat on it instead of doing the graphic, and then I had run across the TLC shirt by accident, I never would have put it up. It doesn't really make sense, but if I know someone else has done the same joke, even if I came up with it independently, I don't like to publish my version.
Sometimes I'll come up with a pun or a play on words, and I'll think "I bet someone else has made this joke before," but I won't search for the phrase because I want to be able to use the joke, by my own strange rules, if the opportunity presents itself.
Comments
that's...bizarrely rational...
Posted by: Chris Sanner | May 2, 2006 10:48 AM
In a similar vein, Natalie Dee was selling a T-shirt earlier this year (but no longer available) of a horse with the caption "Trigger, please".
Posted by: Anonymous | May 2, 2006 12:12 PM
Lore is, above all things, bizarrely rational.
Posted by: Umbriel | May 2, 2006 01:01 PM
ah, that's too bad... the internet can be disappointing sometimes, in that you can find out that every clever idea that you've had has already been wrapped up and sold.
Posted by: cibbuano | May 2, 2006 03:56 PM
A 2004 copyright on a trademark-infringing image? Bet that'd hold up real well in court.
Posted by: fluffy | May 2, 2006 05:42 PM
If it helps, the classic Pooh was a MUCH better fit.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 4, 2006 06:52 AM
I'm reading a book on entrepreneurship in which the guy talks about "web-roaching." This is the theory that no matter how original you think your idea is, a little web search will result in several roaches running out from under the proverbial stove who already have your idea.
Posted by: "Hank" | May 4, 2006 07:12 AM
The joke was also made in The Boondocks earlier on in the decade, in relation to BET VJ Big Tigga.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 14, 2006 12:23 PM
Awesome blog. Peace out until next time TabathaOster
Posted by: TabathaOster | May 18, 2006 08:20 AM
Yah. My housemate was talking about doing a story about Skeletor (Yes- From He-Man) 20 years down the track as a divorced, disgruntled bus driver. About a week or two later we saw through Boing Boing that someone is already doing a show about Skeletor. It's kind of weird and disappointing that someone else would dare come up with your idea. But that's the nature of things I suppose. You don't get a prize for coming up with a Bill Hicks skit second.
Posted by: Fatman | May 25, 2006 07:48 PM
Officially that is.
Posted by: Fatman | May 25, 2006 07:51 PM