I saw some high traffic stats from the fledgling Demotivational Posters: Countries of the World page, and decided to take a look at what people were saying about them. Granted, I didn’t expect a ton of positive response, since every one of these was just off the top of my head, and I know they can get better. But then I read 93 reviews from Stumbleupon folks, and I was floored by the copious amounts of hate.

I guess nobody understood the point of the exercise: take something negative that a certain country is known for, represent that thing with an image, and write a somewhat funny caption underneath. Quick, easy, hopefully entertaining . . . or so I thought. Guess not.

I’ll do more of these pics soon, but for now, let me just respond to a few of the questions/statements from my many detractors.

• I don’t need to hear another word about the North Korea picture being inaccurate. I know the picture is from Vietnam, and I know it won a Pulitzer Prize, and I know it’s one of the most famous pictures in the world. That’s why it instantly popped into my head when I wanted a picture of North Korea acting like a bully . . . I couldn’t very well settle for a picture of Kim Jong-il just standing around looking angry . . . it had to be one-on-one bullying, and the famous pic snapped by Eddie Adams was the first that came to mind. So please, enough with the North Korea image.
• As for the rest of the images, yes, I am well aware that many of them are not actually from the country listed, but they illustrate the point.
• I am not a racist. I got a lot of those comments, which surprised me, because not one of the posters is about race. Except maybe Germany, but that’s a bit of a stretch. I mean, the Holocaust was all about race, but I’m really calling attention to the absurdity of the Germans at that time, not the Jews. As for the Vietnamese picture working for North Korea, well, it’s close enough, isn’t it? I needed a picture that at least looked like it was from East Asia. Vietnam was close enough. France: I don’t know where the pic was taken, but the lady looks European enough to me. Canada: Dude looks like he’s from North America, at least. Close enough. Good grief.
• Speaking of America: No, I am not picking on third-world countries. You’ll notice plenty of first-world countries in there, too. And I only left out America because I didn’t get to it yet, not because I think we’re superior. We’re just one more stupid country in a world full of stupid countries. In fact, I also plan on creating a whole category of these posters based on the U.S. States. There’s plenty of idiocy and stereotypes to go around in there. Maybe once those go up, people will stop complaining about the “typical American attitude,” and realize that the point of this whole thing is to poke fun at everyone equally, and point out some of the less desirable characteristics of each locale, which is the complete opposite of the kind of thing you would expect to see on a real motivational poster for a country, if such a thing even existed.

Sigh.

I never knew some mildly amusing pictures could become so complicated and controversial. But maybe now some people can see where I’m coming from. Do me a favor, please. If you understand what I’m talking about, give this page a thumbs-up and a good review on Stumbleupon, or vote it up on Digg or Reddit or wherever. If you don’t understand me and still think I’m an idiot, vote the link down and write a scathing review — whatever you want. I’ll check back on the reviews periodically and see what the madding crowd thinks. And please don’t give me any garbage about trying to boost the pageviews to make a profit. Do you see any ads at all on the posters page? No. And the very few ads we have here on Candy Smokes don’t even cover the hosting fees. If I were in this to make money, I wouldn’t be writing for a humor blog.