It’s not that the snarky/satirical t-shirt market was cornered. It’s just that you figure T-Shirt Hell would at least survive a full decade before being pushed by the wayside.
This bit of Sunshine Megatron’s, owner and operator of T-Shirt Hell, outgoing letter explains a lot.
I started this company in June of 2001, nearly 8 years ago, with the intention of producing the best satirical, the most controversial, the funniest t-shirts on the internet. Generally speaking, I feel I’ve accomplished that and am satisfied with what we’ve put out. I made a shitload of dough along the way. I’ve done cocaine off the better body parts of supermodels. I’ve even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi. But these perks are besides the point.
I just don’t feel like dealing with idiots anymore. I’ll give you an example of the kind of misguided morons we deal with on a regular basis at T-Shirt Hell. We released a new shirt a couple weeks ago that says “It’s not gay if you beat them up afterwardsâ€. I will not explain the irony or the social commentary of the slogan because anyone with half a brain should be able to handle that on their own. Problem is, we’ve been besieged with emails from angry people complaining about the “fact†that the shirt is hate speech or that we’re promoting gay bashing and should take it down immediately.
Comments like:
Now, I can’t say I’m surprised we’re getting hate mail from people who have nothing better to do than to start half-assed campaigns because of their lazy, just enough passion for an email, ideals towards a misguided cause. It happened when we did our first really controversial shirt, “The School Shootings Tourâ€, it happened when we did our “What About All The Good Things Hitler Did†shirt, it happened when we did our “Arrest Black Babies Before They Become Criminals†shirt (boy did it happen then). It used to happen all the time when we did more social commentary and didn’t give a fuck about what anyone thought and did shirts that did not leave anyone out. Unfortunately, as a concern for the safety of my employees, we don’t push the envelope as much anymore…and I can’t say I feel good about having caved in.
Techcrunch has the entire letter ready for reading.
On the bright side, there’s a 10% off going out of business sale. Their pain is pleasure for your wallet.
(via 7d, techcrunch)
