Today in things that may inspire rage:Â Hot Topic, noted purveyor of “music/pop culture-licensed and music/pop culture-influenced apparel, accessories, music and gift items for young men and women principally between the ages of 12 and 22” [their words], is now selling FFFUUUUUUU-inspired t-shirts. On their site, they bill them as the “FU RAGE MEME T-SHIRT,” available for $19, or $21 for double extra large. Who would have thought that someone’s MS Paint doodle about being splashed with toilet water would turn into (someone else’s) big business?
Update, 11/18: Hot Topic has announced that it is discontinuing sales of the shirts.Â
As Redditors absurdlyobfuscated and TangLikeAnAstronaut note, Hot Topic’s execution of this ‘popular Internet meme’ is just a little bit off: For one, the text is below the rageface rather than to its right; for another, it should end with an emdash rather than a bunch of exclamation marks; lastly, the F and U counts are off, with 10 F’s and 8 U’s rather than the standard 7 F’s and 12 U’s or the foreshortened 3 F’s, 7 U’s. Oh well.
Cashing in on Internet memes is nothing new, so something like this was probably inevitable: Still, we hope this doesn’t signal the beginning of a broader trend of aspiring ‘edgy’ clothing makers raiding random Dramatica pages for ideas.
