How can you NOT have a sense of humor in this town?
It all started with a couple of Tweets from Buffalo Geek:
A local seller of pro-Buffalo T-shirts replied:
Well, that sounds rather reasonable, right? We used an on-demand online t-shirt manufacturer because we’re not in the t-shirt development, printing, inventorying, and sales business, but if someone’s willing to partner with us on that, then it might work.
To which the local t-shirter replied:
We’ve seen this kind of pointless nonsense time and time again over the past few years. A lot of people are dummies, and a lot of people have no sense of humor whatsoever. More often than not, the two are amalgamated into one dumb, humorless person with no sense of irony or self-awareness.
How can a Buffalo booster be fundamentally opposed to the message of “Keep Buffalo Lame”? Buffalo’s lameness keeps it empty and different. It’s what enables you to talk about keeping chickens in your backyard or buying up city blocks for a farm. What would this community be if it couldn’t bitch, moan, and argue about casinos, Bass Pro, parking, the Peace Bridge, preservation, bad design, concrete shit, zoning issues, and other crap that other cities have resolved through the election of reasonably competent people, reasonably executed laws, and a general notion that progress is good? What would you do if you couldn’t boast about our great schools, 20 minute commutes, cheap housing, cheap land, and practically an entire city waiting for gentrification if only someone would bother.
Buffalo’s lameness is what makes it unique and interesting. It’s a statement of pride – this place may be lame, but I love it and I live here, and I want to keep it just the way it is.
Even a commenter or two on my site, where I wrote an entire tongue-in-cheek post announcing the t-shirt store, saw the point zip past them like an air-to-air missile missing its mark.
If you think an ironic or funny t-shirt is a horrific message, then you need to get a (1) grip; and (2) sense of humor.
But that’s almost become a pattern – a typical way for the cool Buffalo kids (you know, the ones who know better than you and tell you all about it) to hector, nag, whine, and moan about stuff. There is no sense of self-awareness; no sense of humor to be had. Need proof? The Coalition of Enough Already. Here’s the original post, and here’s a reply post I did commenting on how people in this town need to get a fucking sense of humor.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/434529[/vimeo]
It’s Buffalo, NY – butt of jokes, home of the Bills and Sabres. It snows 7 months out of the year. Our economy sucks, our politics suck, our taxes suck, and people are leaving as quickly as U-Haul can get trucks back up here.
And I love it.
How can you not have a sense of humor and survive in this environment?
Some blow off steam and express frustration by marching in the streets and holding up signs. Others do it through petitions and attending public meetings. Some do it by holding a kaffeeklatsch at Sweetness 7 on Grant, (because it has more urban hipster cred than Spot now.) I do it by mockery, poking fun, and maintaining a sense of humor and irony amidst the failure.
Don’t buy the shirts if you don’t want to. But remember this: it’s just a farking t-shirt. Lighten up.
22 Comments
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That last line would be perfect on one of the shirts!!!
The irony of this whole thing is that these people that are frustrating you so much are precisely the people that are working so diligently to keep Buffalo lame.
Wadi Sawabini would see the humor in this, I think.
It’s kinda funny because I’m fundamentally opposed to deluding myself into thinking wearing a Buffalo t-shirt with a positive message makes this place suck any less.
Any true Western New Yorker would see the humor in this.
The funniest part is that we didn’t actually expect people to really buy them… But they have
The Wadi Sawabini bowling shirt is on its way, pauldub!!
YESSS!!!!
I get the humor. And the Wadi shirt is priceless. And anyone who loves the B-lo so much, they refuse to wear a Buffalo is Lame t-shirt does need a sense of humor.
But forgive me for being naive, Pundit, but I thought you ranted, raved, complained, cajoled, investigated, and punditized about Buffalo because you DO want it to get better. I didn’t know that you like complaining just for the sake of it, and like Buffalo because there is a lot of material. Me, I get the joke, but the taxes/politcians/stupidity does actually get to me, and I’d like it to get better. I delude myself that maybe, someday, it actually will. Is that so bad?
BP,
You should give a guest lecture to the MUP students at UB’s School of Architecture and Regional Planning. The “coalition of the enough already” is brilliant.
Thsi only proves that if you put it on the internet, people will buy it!
Please consider adding a CheektoVegas shirt to your line up. Photos of lawn flamingos and Jesus and Mary statues would be good choices for the t-shirt art.
BP “complaining just for the sake of it?” NAH!!!!
Keep Bufalo Lame is the best of all those shirts. You have to get this place to appreciate it. Community Association types will not be amused but pissing them off is pure WNY.
The shirts remind me of the reactions to the Keep Austin Weird campaign: Keep Round Rock Mildly Unusual”, Keep Pflugerville Dull, Make Austin Normal, and so on. I think they’re brilliant.
Through the years, Ive had a bunch of dumb ideas for Buffalo-related t-shirts. How about one with the logos of Sattler’s, Freddie’s Donuts, The Town Casino, Deco and WKBW 1520? Guaranteed to make anyone over 60 break down in tears. Gimme Jimmy Griffin’s Corpse For Mayor?
Wadi! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwywtymklKs
i get humor but i don’t get this. it’s all negativity. i don’t understand how you can equate “lame” and “mockery” to “pride” and “love.”
to me your cynicism just comes off like either a) you think you’re smarter than everyone else or b) you’ve generally given up on things ever changing for the better
This entire discussion is an OUTRAGE.
I would buy a ‘Gimmie Jimmy Griffin’s Corpse for Mayor’ t shirt in a heartbeat.
Someone needs to make that happen.
Hmmm, I think this is a wonderful idea that you’ve come up with to raise money for charity. In fact I like it so much I may do it myself. A mock of a mock if you will. Lets see we need a good charity, hmm how about Clarence schools, we wouldn’t want anything to be cut from that budget now would we?
I think my first t-shirt will be “Keep Clarence White!”
I really don’t think they will sell but you’ve inspired me.
I tease I tease. I do like the t-shirts.
great ideas everyone… those shirts will be in the store on Friday… After a conversation with Wadi Sawabini this afternoon (he found the shirt in two days…nice!!) we will have a shirt upgrade for that one too…
i get humor but i don’t get this. it’s all negativity. i don’t understand how you can equate “lame” and “mockery” to “pride” and “love.”
Since it’s my slogan, let me defend it.
If you read the description I wrote on the sales site, it reads:
Everyone is all about changing Buffalo for the better or spends a lot of time remembering when it was a big city that was all important and whatnot. Well, we at WNYMedia kinda like Buffalo and WNY just the way they are, mmkay? We like that people outside of Buffalo think it sucks, more wings for us! Be defiant, be different, be lame.
I don’t know why I feel like I have to make this clearer for the irony-deficient, but I’ll try. Over the past couple of years, I’ve invested time in trying to improve Buffalo’s national image as one of the organizers of Buffalo Old Home Week. I have also spent just as much effort trying to cajole local people into embracing change and new ideas. I found both of those tasks to be equally frustrating. What I have decided is that I don’t care if most people in America think Buffalo is a dump. I don’t care what hipster asshats in Park Slope think of Buffalo. I couldn’t give one flying fuck if we get mentioned in New York Magazine or if Better Homes and and Gardens says we have incredible backyards. I don’t care that people think we live in 11 months of snowy weather or that we’re some cultural backwater town. I really, really don’t care about any of that.
I don’t think America has a perception problem with Buffalo, I think WE have an acceptance problem.
We need to embrace who we are and tell the rest of America to go fuck itself. We’re Dyngus Day and underwhelming St. Patty’s Day parades featuring pickup trucks full of SEIU employees. We’re chicken wings, terribly unhealthy food, six pound fish frys, hockey and fans of one of the worst teams in football. We’re one of the few places in America where a guy like Wadi Sawabini can have a successful career in television. We’re full of cool little spots to drink beer, tell lies and enjoy our shared culture. We’re a city that has been shaped by its past and is immersed in maintaining some weird sense of status quo. We just are. So, we can dream of being cooler or more progressive or whatever we think will put us in the “big leagues” of America’s pantheon of new urbanism, but I’ll take Buffalo for what it is, a place. A place that I call home and that I like, just as it is.
I like it here and I don’t give a flying fuck if anyone outside Buffalo thinks it’s cutting edge or cool. I don’t really care if Jon Splett thinks this town is a dump and can’t wait to leave. Instead, I’ll hope that my friend finds a place that makes him happier and I’ll stay here keeping the fish fry warm for him. If he comes back, great. If he doesn’t, oh well…I’ll just go ahead and eat his fish fry.
I also know that Buffalo has a hard time with irony, so I expected people not to get it. That’s why the t-shirts are for those who do.
So, Keep Buffalo Lame.
In Buffalo people want things to be different but they don’t want anything to change. You have lived here long enough if you understand that this is not an oxymoron.
Reverse psychology…don’t some of you get it?
Another excellent t-shirt idea: a photo of a dripping buffalo wing smothered with blue cheese with the words “Buffalo’s Health Food” under it.
That was beautiful Chris. *Wiping a tear from my eye*