Keep Calm And .....

So, thee jigsaw finally comes together. Excellent work, Corporal Ravensburger.

"Nicht problem, and danke for the ring, it's lovely"

Keep Calm and Carry On was irritating enough BEFORE I found out from this thread that it is a Stereophonics album. Now it is officially the worst.

you never not even HER

Wait, reading between the lines of ENBB's posts, this stuff is ubiquitous in the US too?

I am very, very tired of seeing this stuff, but the first time I saw one of the posters it did raise about 0.001% of a "lol ironic hell-in-a-handbasket/stiff-upper-lip WWII kitsch" smile, and I thought that association was the only reason anyone might find any redeeming features in it. The idea that people might be buying it without that is weird to me.

Eh, maybe there are buying it because of that and it just sort of passed me buy? All I know is that there is tons of this (and various variations on the theme - Keep Calm and Carry Yarn, Keep Calm and Love Hedgehogs*) on Etsy. Here, have a look:

http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?search_submit=&ref=auto&q=keep+calm+and+carry+on&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US

* OMG WTF IS THIS? I like a nice little hhog as much as the next person but good Lord.

don't worry be happy

In thinking about it, I guess I did know but had just forgotten the origin. Anyway, hedgehogs people, hedgehogs.

Hm, most of those sellers are in the US. I guess this is a worldwide thing. I suppose there's nothing specifically British about the joke, especially since the original poster never ran, but I'm still a bit surprised.

Also, many of those are pretty ugly and/or wtf, as you'd expect from Etsy, and yet none of them are as ugly as the stuff sold by the guy trying to copyright it.

look it's not a *joke* okay? and part of the joke is that it *is* a peculiarly british sentiment i.e. stiff upper lip and getting on with things while the bombs rain down

So it's not a joke, and the joke has parts?

i'm not quite old enough to remember the war (that war) but my mum and dad were schoolskids, and afaict the "keep calm and carry on" posters were MUCH less part of shared memory than the "careless talk costs lives" cartoons, maybe partly bcz the cartoons have a sense of fun in the CTCL which appealed to them (also they were a series)

my mum also talked about radio malt as a favorite memory (she was 4 in 1939 and basically always said "The war was great!")

I find that there is nothing calm about my hedgehog love.

ew

KCACO posters were never put up unlike the CTCL ones

I have long had a jokey affectation for saying 'Steady on' in a kind of early carreer Hugh Laurie voice to friends who are excited, drunk, or about to drop something or trip. KCACO is related to this but I don't think it's as much of a joke in a country that has not only lots of anglophiles but a certain idolatry for Churchill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l_3-23zAWM

the design is no joke but its use now is a joke what's so difficult to understand

Also, fwiw, in addition to all the bond posters and recruiting posters and victory garden and scrap collection posters, the US was full of loose lips sink ships style posters during WWII, too.

obvs at some point i shd actually RTFA -- KCACO turned up on the back of "the little book of calm" boom, no? so the part of the "joke" was a sort of anachronistic affirmation of a minor current fashion, from a stylistically and/or culturally unexpected quarter and indeed historical time

xp yes, half the pix i posted i discovered by GIS-ing "loose lips sink ships"

CALM DOWN DEARS

the first time i saw the "keep mum, she's not so dumb" i honestly was baffled, like first of all, my mum's not dumb and no i wasn't planning on getting rid of her either

and third she's hott amirite

is "keep mum" brit-only slang?

haha yeah that was the other thing, "why is mum so hot?"

no i think americans say "keep mum" too, i'm just slow on the uptake.

x-post - I don't think so, no. It's not particularly common though.

Keep schtum. Well that might not be either but I have never heard it outside of England.

Oh I meant that keep schtum is brit-only, btw.

haha schtum FROM THE GERMAN

http://stephengreensted.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/careless-talk-costs-lives.jpg

I've never even heard it in German weirdly enough. I think it's Yiddish originally.

Mum's the word

Comes from mummer, btw.

got caught up in a BNP rally once and a few of them were wearing t-shirts with this on. For some time i assumed anyone I saw wearing t-shirts with this on was far right, until the profile became so vague and generally applicable that it was clear it had gone beyond that. Still has the whiff of association though and I'm not sure that the source of its revival can't be located there.

look it's not a *joke* okay? and part of the joke is that it *is* a peculiarly british sentiment i.e. stiff upper lip and getting on with things while the bombs rain down

― conrad, Tuesday, October 11, 2011 12:27 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

I realize that the original poster was not a joke, but it's just astounding to me that this thing would be memeing about for 10-odd years and it would not have - for at least some segment of the population - taken on the jokey connotation I've been reading into it.

Also, regarding the US vs. UK prevalence of this, I've only seen it before on ilxor.

So, thee jigsaw finally comes together. Excellent work, Corporal Ravensburger.

― Lars and the Lulu Girl (NickB), Tuesday, October 11, 2011 11:35 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a+

i like the keep calm and carry on poster, its gorgeously designed, i appreciate the sentiment too, i feel like maybe some people in this thread should "keep calm" about the posters ubiquity

So, thee jigsaw finally comes together

Is this a reference to the clothing store?

http://www.newtsgames.com/images/feature_variant/5/manufacturer_feature_image_26.jpg

My gf shops at Jigsaw occasionally and I've seen the KCACO poster there.

honestly surprised there isn't a

KEEP ON

TRUCKIN'

refit yet.

"DO, please, continue trucking. Pip, pip. Cheerio!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FrHkKXFRbCI

errrrr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI

I hate this fucking thing, and I am glad that I can count on ILX to have already pulverized it.

I saw a dude in a KEEP CALM AND CHIVE ON shirt on the weekend and I wanted very much to punch him

Is it wrong that I'm wearing this right now?

...shill for Warner Bros TV

Keep Calm and Cancel Your Cable Subscription

Keep Calm and Go Fuck Yourself

Keep Calm and Take Speed

Keep Calm and No One Watches Your Show

Keep Calm and Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?

Keep Calm And Remember When Martha Plimpton Was Awesome