It started with the names – blipoo, badoo, yahoo, capazoo. Woophy. Twitter. Google.
“They’re like something out of Jabberwocky,” thought I, uffishly.
So, a bit of research later, here it is! I’ve tried to keep it true to the original rhyming and scansion, and where this isn’t possible I’ve tried to make it still ‘poetical’.
The biggest frustration? I can’t find any social media site to rhyme with ‘web’! So, ‘Friendfed’ is a bit of a frig, I’m afraid.
There are one or two other ‘stretches’. If you know of better words, let me know!
`Twas Twitter, and the MySpace Mixx
Did Pownce and Plaxo on the web:
All Woophy were the DotNetKicks,
And the socialogs Friendfed.“Beware the YahooMash, my son!
The jaws that Joost, the claws that Cloob!
Beware the Qoolsqool bird, and shun
The CouchSurfing DailyHub!”He took his Xanga sword in hand:
Long time the Blogmeme foe he sought –
So rested he by the Bebo tree,
And stood awhile in thought.And, as in ThisNext thought he stood,
The YahooMash, with FARK of flame,
Came Xing through the Nettby wood,
And LinkedIn as it came!Blipoo! Badoo! And through and through
The Buzzflash blade went ZigaZoga!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went a-googling back.“And, has thou slain the YahooMash?
Come to my arms, my blogger boy!
O Phanfare day! Kaioo! Kazaa!’
He jaiku in his joy.`Twas Twitter, and the MySpace Mixx
Did Pownce and Plaxo on the web:
All Woophy were the DotNetKicks,
And the socialogs Friendfed.
You might find a rhyme for web here: http://momb.socio-kybernetics.net/
Cracking piece though – worthy of Radio 4 comedy!
Nice post, wish I’d thought of that. Shame you didn’t find room for plurk. Next stop The Waste Land. Or a widget that automatically generates nonsense company name (and jargon-laden business model).
Yay – didn’t realise you’d finally got this together. I think the works of Lear and Dr Suess now beckon.
Hurray! I wasn’t sure about publishing this. You can take the copywriter out of copwriting but…
Interesting thought: if Jabberwocky is about inventing language, and making words mean what you want them to mean (re Alice in Wonderland), I wonder whether that’s what happens with social media names? That is, make names suitably ‘generic’, we adopt them, and give them meaning? And sentiment? And maybe that’s what happens with brands that allow people to own them? The word Chumby comes to mind…
What fun. I’ve been thinking that social media is a bit like Alice Through the Looking Glass. Our (marketing) worlds are topsy turvy .. which is really a good thing.
Hmmm, I’m not actually sure it’s such a good thing. Sometimes I do wonder whether the names put people off. They’re just so bizarre, but they describe something fairly easy to grasp.