Shirt.Woot

eHalcyon wrote:Abe is holding the wand with his left hand and holding the giraffe's neck with his right. Assuming that Abe is in fact choking the giraffe rather than just pulling it out of the hat, it is interesting to note that this act of violence is being committed with the right hand as opposed to the left hand (the latin word for left is "sinestra", from which we also derive such words as "sinister"). Even as the "good" hand acts horridly, the left hand holds the wand. If we hearken back to our childhood days, we remember that magic is AWESOME. Clearly this reversal of roles suggests that we are all capable of good and evil, and that we should not assume the character of anyone based on our own prejudices and stereotypes.

Ha ha, I'd buy it if it said that on the back.

MaryESP wrote:Ha ha, I'd buy it if it said that on the back.

Get a sharpie and hit the button

I really love Abraham Lincoln. He is my favorite historical figure of all time, but this shirt seems either dull and nonsensical from a literal standpoint or horribly offensive and punch-in-the-face worthy from a metaphorical standpoint.

Wow, this is racist.

Going to bed.

i think its racist to assume the giraffe is african. the only giraffe i ever knew was from the poconos.

peppersabaddog wrote:i think its racist to assume the giraffe is african. the only giraffe i ever knew was from the poconos.

You win the thread.

serfer0 wrote:Whoa, Nellies!
Sometimes a Woot shirt is just a Woot shirt.
It is a nod to the old time circus banners with lofty names. Say it to yourself in a scary, magical voice: The Greeeeat Emaaaaancipaaatorrr!
See? No racism. Gee whiz, y'all.
And yeah, his hat was tall. Why waste all that space on a tiny rabbit? Go big or go home!
This proud Illinoisan will take one please!

All right! Face value! Since when were these about symbolism? I buy 'em because they are sometimes funny and/or look nifty. Funnifty, if you will (I am not proud of that).

Here is some more symbolism though. Not only does The Great Emancipator sound like a stage magician's name, but magicians wear hats, and Abraham Lincoln, too, wore a hat. Definitely some symbolism going on there, what with the hat being a symbol for hats.

Congrats MJ! In for one for sure. Also, lol wooters.

I only wish people thought as hard about which shirts to vote for in the derby as they do about how to make an innocuous shirt racist.

I kind of like the randomness of the design, myself.

Ok, So I have analyzed all the comments, done some independent research, and I think I have managed to determine what this shirt is about.

Beard + Hat + Tall - Alive - Moustache = Abraham Lincoln

Animal + Hat + Wand = Magician

as a lemma:
Lady/Saw + Wand = Magician
Lady/Saw + Wand = Animal + Hat + Wand
therefore, Animal + Hat = Lady/Saw

sin(Great Emancipator) = Magician_(type announcement)

so, using simple mathematical induction, this shirt is about how there is a dude that looks like ol' Abe that is pulling a thing out of a hat, and also he is called the Great Emancipator. Hehe, its funny, because he emancipated things, but that also sounds like a magician name. Get it?

Who comes up with these terrible shirts anyway? only an emo 12 year old would buy this apcray.... so basically it'll sell great. LOL!

Slinky83 wrote:Who comes up with these terrible shirts anyway? only an emo 12 year old would buy this apcray.... so basically it'll sell great. LOL!

Really? I'm not 12, not emo, and I would buy this. Why? Because it's ridiculously unexpected.

Um, FOURscore...

EdwardBlake wrote:Better to leave them in the hat. Gotcha.

There ya go. They can get themselves out.

Only a 12 year old emo kid would buy it? But... it's Abe Lincoln. Emo kids wouldn't touch this shirt.. sorry just had to say it.

flibbityjibbet wrote:Only a 12 year old emo kid would buy it? But... it's Abe Lincoln. Emo kids wouldn't touch this shirt.. sorry just had to say it.

Some people are stuck in their youth... I'm betting that secretly, the person pines for the days they locked themselves in their room. I bet they'd listen to their moody music with a candle or two burning and wrote in their diary that they wish everyone in the world would just disappear or that they could die to teach them all a lesson.

Slinky83 wrote:Who comes up with these terrible shirts anyway? only an emo 12 year old would buy this apcray.... so basically it'll sell great. LOL!

HA! I see what you did there. See, you said it would sell great (you meant "well" or "very well", since "great" is an adjective, of course) that was subtly implying that all of your fellow wooters were 12 year old emo kids!

Whoo, man, thats a hoot. Good one. Bet anybody who bought it feels stupid now that they read your comment. You pegged em spot on man. Abe is the ultimate emo, what with his bangs combed over his face, and this shirt is very depressing and everything -- not at all whimsical.

xxchange wrote:Interesting! Would have never thought of that. Though, in reality, he really wasn't very tall. Only about six foot two.

Putting it in historical perspective, six foot two (actually six foot four) was extremely tall at that time.
Next you're gonna tell me Napoleon was incredibly short...at least that's what the victors would have you believe

HA!
great shirt, MJ!

this immediately made me think of Bullwinkle. How he kept trying to pull a rabbit out of that hat, and there was always something bizarre, unexpected, and random that came out instead.

very good...

Jestik wrote:HA!
great shirt, MJ!

this immediately made me think of Bullwinkle. How he kept trying to pull a rabbit out of that hat, and there was always something bizarre, unexpected, and random that came out instead.

very good...

All I gotta say is: Thank god it wasn't a cake-lion. ;) luv ya, MJ

EdwardBlake wrote:Took me a while to get this shirt.....

Fancy top hat = Wealthy people = plantations owners = South

.....

Sorry, but you need to spend a little more time on this part. Or maybe it's just bad symbolism. Slavery was not a Southern thing, There were slave owners all over America, and they weren't all wealthy nor were they all plantation owners.

Woooooo! MJ rules!

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyouwm ------------------->

Uh, remember that Abe himself had quite a long neck!

caspianta wrote:am i taking this the wrong way, or is this the most offensive thing ever? likening the man who is remembered for ending slavery (emancipating) to a magician who's...i dunno...getting PETA upset by forcing an abused giraffe be a part of a trick. i'm kind of ashamed of woot for producing this shirt...for me it goes a little too far.

Are you for real?

I have to tend to agree with some people who think this shirt is a bit offensive. I'm afraid you might get your ass beat for wearing this shirt at the wrong place and time.

Yea, MJ!!!!!!!!! Congratulations!

xxchange wrote:Clearly we have a northerner designer here. See, the point of the shirt is that Abe is MAGIC. He's taking the giraffe out of the hat! I mean, you'd have to be magic to get that animal in in the first place. And you know no one but the northerners are going to think highly of Abe. The southerners are still fighting the Civil War, and the rest of the world is using Abe to make fun of the US for not banning slavery until the 1800s.

(From Birmingham,AL)
So...You are writing from the 1930s?
You sure as hell don't live in the south.

I mean its no Virgin Mary painted with elephant dung, but its definitly stirred up some controversy among the Woot discussion community. Personally, I think the illustartion looks like something that I would view in The New Yorker. Being that I live in the South (despite the actual meaning of this shirt - if any), I do not have the cohonnes to wear it and field an onslaught of harmful leers and accusatory questioning.

EdwardBlake wrote:Took me a while to get this shirt. Quite clever use of symbolism. For those who don't get it...

Stay with me.

Abe is freeing the giraffe from the hat.

Abe = Abe

Griffine = Africa = Africans = Slaves

Fancy top hat = Wealthy people = plantations owners = South

Got it, people? Good.

Man!You are Soooooo HIGH!!!

This thread is hard to read, so many of the posts with the most outrageous theories are not for real, and so many others seem to be taking them as though they are. I really cannot imagine it ever occurring to anyone when I walked by them that this shirt was offensive.
It's an unusually tall dude w/ an unusually tall hat, using an unusually tall animal for a trick. That's it. An unusually funny shirt.

MJ!!!!!!!!!!!!! *glomp*

IndependentVik wrote:I only wish people thought as hard about which shirts to vote for in the derby as they do about how to make an innocuous shirt racist.

I kind of like the randomness of the design, myself.

I love the randomness too. And I love Abe. And I'm thinking really hard about buying it.

xxchange wrote:Nuh-uh. I used to have a wand. My brother used to have a wand. We MADE wands. They were white on ONE end.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=magician+wand&gbv=2&aq=0&oq=magician+wa

Ah for the love of twinkies...

Look at the picture:

http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cwpb/04300/04326v.jpg

He wore a tall hat. Giraffes are tall animals. That's the symbolism. The end.

The only way to settle what this shirt is about is to rassel fer it.

serfer0 wrote:Whoa, Nellies!
Sometimes a Woot shirt is just a Woot shirt.
It is a nod to the old time circus banners with lofty names. Say it to yourself in a scary, magical voice: The Greeeeat Emaaaaancipaaatorrr!
See? No racism. Gee whiz, y'all.
And yeah, his hat was tall. Why waste all that space on a tiny rabbit? Go big or go home!
This proud Illinoisan will take one please!

Ditto. Abe was tall. His hat was tall. Ergo, a tall animal comes out of the hat, i.e. a giraffe. Don't overthink it people.

oh, wow! did this take me a while to 'get'
for all those who need more coffee like me:
abe wore a stovepipe hat...magicians wear hats
magicians have rabbits in their hats...abe had a really big hat so let's say a giraffe could fit in it.
magicians have names according to what their best trick is...abe's best thing was emancipation.
whew!
clever and i don't think related (much) to africa, but i'm still not buying it. too much explaining.

cmabratte wrote:I have to tend to agree with some people who think this shirt is a bit offensive. I'm afraid you might get your ass beat for wearing this shirt at the wrong place and time.

Yeah, people who care about Abe Lincoln go around beating people's asses.

xxchange wrote:That's you. If you have a cheat or something to get these shirts cheaper, YOU MUST TELL ME.

They were $5 every single day and now $10. You're telling me you've been paying $10 all along? I'm getting more confused.