pedolympics.jpg

Hayyyyyy. How'd Pedobear get into the mascot lineup for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in this highly esteemed Polish newspaper (hi-res scan JPEG)? Who cares! Buzzfeed article, and more here about the pedoshop disaster. Anything's possible on the internet, maybe the whole thing's a hoax, but it looks like this /b/eautiful art really did get published in Poland.

Update: More online news coverage indicates this really happened. LOL. And BB moderator Antinous points out that a sports blog in Spain did the same thing, even straightfacedly crediting the guy who altered the image as the artist behind the official mascot drawings. (via @veronica, @jpdef)

Previously:

  • Anonymous

    *MUST* *HAVE* *TSHIRT* *OF* *THIS* (I live in Vancouver, and I would wear it everywhere.)

  • chlitto

    @DataShade – pardon.pl is not a newspaper…

  • Anonymous

    This is a beautiful moment for the Internet.

  • Anonymous

    the vancouver pedobear image also got published in a Lithuanian magazine. i was very surprised but i have a copy so…

  • Anonymous

    pedo means fart in spanish.
    i really hope they change the name!

  • VICTOR JIMENEZ

    Wow, 4chan just keeps pushing the boundaries of trolling. IRL Newspaper! Anonymous deserves an internet medal. Win is you.

  • Anonymous

    RULE #1

    • Julian Bond

      Rule #34

  • zerozero

    I think Pedobear belongs with this ragtag group. He too is pointing at his crotch.

    If I had the inclination I would go to the protest on Friday with a placard of Pedobear, and shout: “more pedobear! More…..”

  • relgin

    I think “Antinous” is on to something. These so-called “mascots” are wearing no pants! It is really shameful the great Olympics should stoop to having such representatives, even if one of them is from Poland.

  • Anonymous

    It did happen in Poland, but it’s not “highly esteemed” newspaper. Just some local newspaper. “Olsztyn Newspaper”. Olsztyn is 200.000 inhabitants city.

  • Anonymous

    Foreshadowing from said previous boingboing article’s comments,

    “on 17 posted by rollerskater , November 29, 2007 9:52 PM

    holy shyte, it’s PEDOBEAR!!! keep your children away!!”

  • simonemarie

    pedobear is never, ever funny.

    pedobear is a mascot for kiddie porn.

    xeni, have you even seen what happens on /b/ when pedobear is op’ed? it’s a signal for people who have it to post their cache of child images. every single one of those KIDS was forced to make kiddie porn, maybe raped. funny? /b/eautiful?

    please use your head and your voice, boingboing. pedobear is not a joke.

    • Anonymous

      Eh… no. Have you actually been on 4chan? Pedobear IS just a joke, not a pedophile bat signal.

    • Anonymous

      Yes, I’ve seen what happens when people on /b/ post Pedobear and ask for CP. They get a hundred images of Captain Picard. The bear didn’t take pictures of kids, he’s just a Japanese character who got adopted by the internet as a joke about the fact that everything from Japan HAS to have something to do with rape. Its a joke. Deal with it.

      And pretzellogic: you are the best trollbait I’ve seen in weeks.

    • Taskbot

      I would like to convey that its a symbol and therefore can carry meanings to different people. I for one do not associate Pedobear with child pornography, its just a meme and it is more a mascot of 4chan (sort of like Yotsuba and Moot which are other 4chan mascots).

      Also, I believe the particular threads you are thinking of are the infamous USB Line threads which didn’t use Pedobear as a symbol but rather a usb cable to hide the real content of the thread.

  • Anonymous
  • dubzee

    I thought that damn bear had lost the ability to make me giggle after all these years…

  • pretzellogic

    What’s so controversial about this? What percentage of the Polish population (or any population) would recognize a “Pedobear”? I guess you have to spend time on websites where pedophiles tend to congregate…

  • Natmonkey

    In my television guide the same image appears. Fools. But at least they don’t mention Pedobear as a mascot.

  • http://www.desutoys.com BroccoliDog

    This is a conspiracy by Desu Toys for pedobearplush.com.

  • Antinous / Moderator

    This Spanish sports blog is actually crediting Pedobear by name.

    Quatchi, Miga, Sumi, Mukmuk y Pedobear son “Las Mascotas de Vancouver 2010″, y como era de esperarse, no sólo estarán presentes en en transcurso de los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno, sino que ya se encuentran en cada rincón del mundo creado por el merchandising que rodea a estos juegos.

    And…the guy who created it.

  • pKp

    OMG this is hilarious.

  • Anonymous

    It takes someone with the name “Pretzellogic” to accuse people of being pedophiles for knowing what pedobear is. Hey guess what Pretzellogic? With your reasoning, you too are now a pedophile!

    I’m sorry, but I can’t stand for this witch hunt type thinking.

    • pretzellogic

      I HAD no idea what “pedobear” was until today, and it isn’t funny. Some witches deserve to be hunted…especially when they’re “anonymous”.

  • simonemarie

    look: 4chan is the basement of the internet– it’s underground. the language of images that anonymous uses is complex and often nonsensical to the outsider. 4chan has its own vocabulary and its own sense of humor and justice– the racier the better. i’ve laughed hard at it, i’ve seen anon attack huge corporations to defend internet rights, i’ve seen them take down cat killers and potential child-abusers. it’s a /b/rotherhood open to anyone with the guts to be there. that’s why it’s such a great meme generator.

    on one hand, this is great. free speech is awesome.

    on the other hand, it’s anarchic. there are very few rules, and the rules that DO exist get broken every single night after moot goes to bed. people take advantage of 4chan, using anonymity to share their images of racism, gore, and child pornography. pedobear is one of these. absolutely and without a doubt: i am not waving the panic flag. what’s horrible is that these images inadvertently become part of the general 4chan vocabulary, mixed in with LOLcats and boxxy, and people seem to think it’s ok. it’s not ok, it’s not funny, it’s kiddie porn.

    boingboing’s responsibility (and our own), is to remember ethical boundaries and decide when they’re being crossed. pedobear may not look the part, but he stands for pedophilia– and that’s not funny.

    • pretzellogic

      I’m still with you on this one. I don’t think it’s a good idea to draw attention to something like pedobear with all the horrible baggage attached to the image (Perhaps we’re completely wrong, and Captain Picard is all you’ll ultimately end up with, but I’m not going to start clicking on images of pedobear on 4chan just to see if I’m right.)

  • smandich

    Yay for Pedobear. For fans of Meomi’s kickass Olympics mascots (especially the sasquatch Quatchi), check out my QuatchiWatch blog: http://quatchiwatch.wordpress.com/

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    Thats the pet…. i saw it in the Sonic the hedgedog in the winter games (game for iphone)

  • Sork

    Some laugh at what character was added. Other laugh at the copyright issue. If that paper did any research to ask the artist about permission to publish his art then it would be clear it wasn’t even the original artist’s work (which in it self had no permit from IOC).

    Remember Bert?
    http://www.boingboing.net/2001/10/12/the-nyt-have-tracked.html

    • The Chemist

      What copyright issue? Parody is protected (he needed no permit from the IOC) and the paper, thinking it was the official mascot, would have been protected by fair-use had it been the real mascot- regardless of where they downloaded it from (fair-use doctrine deliberately makes it so that the source copied from is a non-issue). If anything, this is a completely inadvertent case of unauthorized copying, and even if the original creator wanted to pursue the matter, I doubt it would go anywhere.

      • Sork

        Copyright laws are different in every country. Fair use is not an international standard. I don’t know if more than USA has it, and this is an issue between Canada and Poland. And I’m not resident of any of the mentioned countries. VANOC implicitly say they won’t pursue non commercial fan art of the logos. Although I’m not clear about what deal they have with the artists.

  • Anonymous
  • arkizzle / Moderator

    simonemarie,

    “have you even seen what happens on /b/ when pedobear is op’ed? it’s a signal for people who have it to post their cache of child images.”

    Have you witnessed such behaviour, or are you just waving the panic flag?

  • Mindpowered

    What did Pedobear say to the other mascot when he’d been caught playing hide the salami with Miga?

    So Sumi…

    (also this is the 4rth link when you google 2010 mascots)

  • freshyill

    I’m disappointed. Where are the Polish jokes?

  • Anonymous

    It is not Pedobear.
    It is Kumah in made in 2ch and is nothing to with pedo.
    Other country people has misunderstanding.

    • BroccoliDog

      yes this is meerly running bear. see him walk!

    • BroccoliDog

      yes this is meerly running bear. see him walk!

  • Anonymous

    A Dutch public broadcaster (AVRO) published it in their magazine: http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/826491/93f0c859/pedobear_everywhere.html

    ^_^

    seriously… why are these journalists getting paid haha.

  • Anonymous

    Poland be trollin’.

  • Anonymous

    yes, simonemarie and pretzellogic, the internet is serious business.

  • ArghMonkey

    Thats fricking hilarious …

    The Olympics are the biggest, most expensive joke around.

    I live in Vancouver, its Fing shameful.

    I hope the rest of the world is embarrassed by my city and what the Olympics have done.

    • Anonymous

      I’m not ashamed and I live in the Lower Mainland.

  • Sharkhunt
    • http://www.xeni.net Xeni Jardin

      Of course it was ‘shopped from the official art — but it looks like the modified, pedo-fied art DID run in the Polish newspaper in question. So the story does not appear to be fake.

    • lovelystrangeness

      Actually, I think it’s conceivable that the Polish newspaper used the fanart instead of a more accurate image. After all, it does show up on the first page of Google Image search results for “Vancouver 2010 mascots.”

  • Matthew Miller

    Just wanted to point out the previous boing boing article on the real mascots, designed by Meomi.

    • Xeni Jardin

      added the previously link, thanks!

  • merreborn

    This appears to have been the source image, upon which pedobear was likely overlayed by some 3rd party:

    http://www.spikecomix.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=3&pos=2

    That’s what you get for selecting imagery for your paper via google image search…

  • elleomnom

    Original pedoshopper (http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/) says he’s been alerted that a Spanish Newspaper has used the image also …

  • TEKNA2007

    No Pedobear page on Wikipedia? What’s up with that?

  • blueelm

    Haha! That’ll teach them to get their pics from google.

  • Anonymous

    You know some Polish guy is sitting around laughing at how he got away with it.

  • Anonymous

    being polish…must…resist…urge…to correct…
    i don’t know where the “highly esteemed” came from. it’s a local paper, with circulation of about 30.000, never heard of it to be “esteemed”.
    nooo….

  • chlitto

    its not a hoax, and its no a “highly esteemed Polish newspaper” – the only thing this is, is a way to bust the circulation ;]

  • Antinous / Moderator

    Of those mascots, Pedobear is the least creepy. The one with the ear muffs is pointing to his crotch!