With the second trade of his scorching war satire, ARMY@LOVE: GENERATION PWNED, about to ship, Rick Veitch writes to tell us of real life imitating art yet again as NATO has hired soda execs to work on their branding:
During the cold war, when Western and Warsaw Pact tanks massed on either side of the Iron Curtain, the idea of a brand for NATO would have been ludicrous because everyone knew why it was important.
Not anymore.
Less than a year before its 60th anniversary, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is determined to revamp its image, establishing a media operations center for Afghanistan and hiring an executive from Coca-Cola to manage the way the alliance is seen around the world.
Okay, what does “Pwned” stand for and how is it pronounced? (I mean, besides “very carefully”)
— Rob — would feel old asking about this, but frankly, even the definition of “punk’d” was far more straightforward on the face of it than this one is
Pwned = Owned
It came from the net so some feel than there is no clear pronuciation. Some saw pawed and some say pone.
People feel a quick look at your keyboard will give you an idea how the word came about.
Oh, man–this news leaves me wondering whether to laugh or cry.
cry, definitely cry.
Rob, if you use the internet, you need to be more in the know. ;P
“People feel a quick look at your keyboard will give you an idea how the word came about. ”
(looks at keyboard)
Okay, it’s a keyboard. So . . . I don’t get it. (scratches very receding hairline in befuddlement).
— Rob
@Rob
“Owned!” is an expletive to shout at someone when they are dramatically defeated either by an outside force/party or by their own misguided efforts. Perennial youtube examples are things like this; skateboard down railing, slip, crotch impact, fall off railing face first onto pavement. In the commends, everyone tries to be first proclaiming this person to be “Owned!”
If you were typing very quickly because you wanted you asinine post to say “First! Owned!”, you might fat-finger the “O”, and look what is right next to the “O”.
Once enough people had done this, the word “Pwned” itself became the go-to word for the ironic 4chan internet set.
See also “teh”
Okay, I just got back from Comic-Con last night, so sorry about the lag time — but thanks, Bill, that was a great explanation!
(And thanks to everyone else for trying to explain it to very dense me.)
— Rob