HA! HA! Guy Whiteboards

Legend has it that The HA! HA! Guy or Laughing Quaker burst on to the Internet mid-2003 on the Something Awful forums during one of the site's regular Photoshop contests. The original Forbes' advertisement was modified to read "I'm Using THE INTERNET!!!1" in a witty play of sarcastic humor.

Soon after, the HA! HA! Guy migrated to the Fark.com forums where his brief nuggets of humor helped lighten the highly flammable Fark atmosphere, as a breath of minty fresh air smooths the ruffled edges of awkward conversation. It didn't take long for the HA! HA! Guy to reach celebrity status on the forums and the Internet at large.

It was around this time that the HA! HA! Guy's fame began to impede the rights of others. During his peak, the Laughing Quaker would pop up in almost every thread, much to the dismay of serious Farkers and administrators. Some members were even banned for spreading the joy of the HA! HA! Guy. This period became known as 'The Grey Wave'.

In an attempt to permanently extinguish the HA! HA! Guy's celebrity flame, Fark administrators started the now legendary thread "Put your HA!HA! guy pictures in this thread and stop threadjacking the rest of them". Rather than over popularizing the cliché as hoped, this thread only served to strengthen the HA! HA! Guy's resolve. Thread number 1578737 become one of the most popular threads in Fark history.

The HA! HA! Guy, loved for his humor and brevity in the most mundane and random situations, has again returned to true form embodied in the future of door and cube enhancements. The HA! HA! Guy Whiteboard is your ticket to a new world, one unshackled from the demands of flowery diplomacy and tact. This Utopian future can be yours. Get your HA! HA! Whiteboard today!

Let's start with an example taken from one of the infamous Fark threads, presented here in whiteboard form.



Upon first inspection this image appears to be nothing more than a simple case of anatopism. "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard" is a statement one might expect to hear from a voluptuous, scantily clad female and certainly not from the man depicted in the image above. The statement itself is amusing, "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard." Knowing that the statement is a metaphor whose origins are in the rap genre makes it even more amusing in the given context. But anatopism itself is not enough to make one laugh out loud (LOL) at a HA! HA! Guy. Let's dive a little deeper.

Study the words. "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard". The words appear in different font sizes with the subject of the sentence in smaller font and the predicate in a noticeably larger font. The larger font acts as a call to action in this case, to bring something. What is your milkshake bringing? Why, it's bringing all the boys to the yard! This is a classic example of a HA! HA!ism. Surely, there must be more to it than just a silly phrase that makes the HA! HA! Guy so great.

Look at his teeth. No, really look at his teeth. Stare at his teeth. Stare. Keep staring. Many researchers feel His smile is the source of His comedy. Is he laughing or plotting something maniacal? Since The Quaker (irony abounds for he is not really a Quaker!) can't tell us so we must rely on context clues. Notice that a single "HA!" is juxtaposed to the left and right of His face. These words seem to indicate laughter but not just any laughter. "HA!" is capitalized and has a trailing exclamation point denoting intense laughter. It can be assumed that either The HA! HA! Guy just heard the joke of his life or he is intensely making fun of something.

Stare at his teeth. Think, HA! HA!. Now read the words again. My milkshake brings ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD! LOL at your leisure, but try not to spray spittle on your monitor.

Now imagine bringing the joy of the HA! HA! Guy with you everwhere you go even when you don't have a computer handy. That's the joy of owning a HA! HA! Guy Whiteboard.