I had no idea that people even thought it was a war thing. Now that I know it wasn't a war thing I guess I'll just add it to my useless knowledge database.
Except this video kinda says that it actually is a genuine war thing, albeit one that was never actually used. That's way more authentic an origin than I assumed it had, which was that it was the cynical creation of a coked up marketing executive in the early 2000s.
I was going to comment the same thing. I think at one time I wondered about where it came from, but weirdly, I never thought to look it up. Now not only do I know where it came from, I also know where it didn't come from. Two learns with one stone.
Of course it's a 'war thing'. It was made in WW2 to be used in WW2. That's like saying the Maus supertank wasn't a war thing because it wasn't actually used in the war.
No your right, no-one in the UK anyway, was lead to believe this was ever used in WWII. But its hard to get new content when you work 100% from an office.
Most people in the UK know that this was, along with two other motivational posters, printed up, but never used, in the war. The recent craze for it was started when a bookshop owner found the poster folded up in a donation of books he had received, and put it up in his shop, simply because he liked it. Customers asked him about it, and he had copies made, which sold like hot cakes, even to the point of the Prime Minister owning one. Comic maestro Alan Moore knew about it before it became popular - it appears, with a different device, in the graphic novel 'The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen'.
Cheesycurve 54 no they declared war on Japan after pearl harbor and the declared war on Germany because Germany attacked poland not because they were working together
The very fact you folks are arguing about it evidences that there was no single objective cause and it was likely just an irrational and emotional response, as seems to always be the reason the USA goes to war, regardless of the justification after the fact.
Diaper is actually English - English. Diaper means diamond shaped you see them in brick wall in the home counties. These diamonds were made for babies before Terry towelling nappies were invented some American words are relics of what we used back in the day like sidewalk and The Fall.
Fascinating as always. I always enjoy learning what happy sounding thing has a much darker meaning. "Life is short. Life is shit and soon it will be over." -Kids in the Hall
Oh hey, the one Alex was telling us about at the Kurt Vonneguys live episode! Most excellent, Alex! I feel like I knew in the back of my brain that "Keep calm and carry on" was never used during war, but the reason it was created was not something I was aware of. O_O Wow, scary stuff.
One good google search will basically give you this: "Although 2.45 million copies were printed, and although the Blitz did in fact take place, the poster was hardly ever publicly displayed and was little known until a copy was rediscovered in 2000 at Barter Books, a bookshop in Alnwick. It has since been re-issued by a number of private companies, and has been used as the decorative theme for a range of products" or I can just ask my history professor...so saying it was a lie or even dark is pointless
In "Just My Type" Simon Garfield Attributes the design to Edward Johnston, the designer of that typeface (that people keep getting wrong by the way whenever they make new versions) which is also used in the London Underground Logo
holy traps Batman I had no idea this meme had so much history behind it! anyway love your show you did a very nice job and I hope you have a great day!!
You know we know this? anyone who buys a piece of "keep calm" merchandise and takes the time to read the small booklet with it will see that they say "The keep calm and carry on posters were discovered in a box in the basement of a bookstore. The Posters were initially designed as 'IN THE EVENT OF INVASION', KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON".
THANK YOU FOR ACTUALLY INCLUDING CANADA WHEN TALKING ABOUT WWII. Even if it was just implied more or less. So much stuff just ignores "The British Commonwealth" and our contributions to history.
goofy voice. most definitely, guvna. and by the by, thank you for elucididating upon the grim origins of said poster/meme. i thought it was from The Walking Dead. i loved you CRACKED dudes...been reading it since I was 11 yrs old. 33 yrs of age now, guv. peace.
'Britain's people and cathedrals survived' I see the broad point but 32000 civilians were killed and 87000 maimed in the Blitz alone, and so many buildings were destroyed that there are still signs of it today. The entire city of Coventry (inc its cathedral!) was levelled to the ground.
I was wondering where that phrase came from. A few years back I’d see a lot of people wearing keep calm shirts but the words would always be changed instead of carry on, it would say something else
I never knew the origin of the logo. I just remember it popping one day and thinking, why would I want that shirt. Sometimes I wondered why it existed, but then I stopped wondering because I didn't care.
The worst thing about this "Keep Calm" trend is the lengths lazy cash-ins have gone to stretch the reference to the point that they no longer make any sense at all. It used to be you'd see "Keep Calm and Game on" or "Keep Calm and Party On" and then it stretched to "Keep Calm and Jump On," "Drive On," etc. Lately, they've completely dropped the second half. I've seen "Keep Calm and Be You," "Keep Calm and Follow Jesus," "Keep Calm and Love Penguins" (all real shirts). I've seen posters advertising your team (?), gymnastics, web security, university, Batman, the Minions, and a bunch of other things that have nothing to do with anything. Pretty soon the expression will be abstracted to a font, a single colour background and phrases so vague they won't even be interrelated. I fully expect to see a Keep-Calm style "Eat Pancakes and Avoid Open Manholes," t-shirt, because why not, anything with this font will sell now. Somebody will come in with a mall-wrapped package, their eye-brows raised, their eyes glinting like, "See, I know you love pancakes and not falling into open manholes, so I figured this is the gift for you! I got myself a 'Don't Worry Be Happy And I Like Batman' tee while I was in the store, so we totally match. Yes, that's a silhouette of Calvin peeing on a Ford, so what, it's part of the design, now let's go watch the Emoji Movie 2, this one has the Rock in it!" There needs to be more trends.
Yo, this dystopian alternate timeline shit is WAY better than the fake history behind it. If it weren't mired in copyright bullshit I might actually consider buying a poster now. I can probably just make a glossy print of my own.
This one isn't as surprising but maybe this is a problem with the site being american. I never thought it was used in WWII I always knew it was in storage. His end accent sounds more Australian than British.
I'm honestly glad I watched this because I thought it was a Doctor Who thing. Not trying to offend anyone, (I'm a 40 year old American) haven't been to school since '95 so I learned something new. Thanks for the knowledge.
Some people think talking about talking about soft things makes you a softie. So if I'm going to talk to you about the Fruit of The Loom Eversoft T, I'm going to do it in the manliest way possible. With my then I forgot
Erik Harker I got the one with the holes in the parachute. That guy is a dick for cutting the other guys parachute and then not grabbing on to the other guy before he hit the ground.
I knew something wasn't right - I never saw that poster in my WW2 history lessons like "Dig for Britain" and "Britain wants you"; the fact that it was for when the Nazi's take over UK says a lot.
the picture used for the ministry of information is actually the university of london. but I guess you got it because it was used for the ministry of truth in the film adaption of 1984
I'll be honest, as someone who was born in the UK and have lived here all my life, when I first saw this poster I was super confused as to why people related it to us Brits. I never associated it to anything historical and just thought it was a weird trend.
I always wondered what Tracer in Overwatch was referencing in her "Keep calm and Tracer on" voice line. Now I know whoever decided to put that in was uninformed.
I'm pretty sure "Freedom is in peril - defend it with all your might" was actually printed on war posters a couple of times? It does stick more to the messages you were describing
ironically, news that the "Keep Calm..." poster was used in World War II caused panic to spread like wildfire across the internet, and shortly thereafter, the earth's collective mind was blown, killing everyone aboard. "funny, i never thought it would end like this" said the earth before it died.
Who didn't know this? I mean, specific details, no. But my basic understanding was that someone found an old unused propaganda poster design a few years back and was like "Oh, this is cool." And that was it.
2:43 in england no one says diaper😂 its nappy over here don
Hitler invading Russia in 1939? Someone didn't do their homework...
I was thinking the same thing.
nathan mills yes, but not in 1939
The Peace Mouse I know that but I think cracked is just condensing the entire thing into 1939 and beyond
nathan mills they phrased it as if hitler invaded Russia and then France & lowlands
The Peace Mouse yahtzee
I had no idea that people even thought it was a war thing. Now that I know it wasn't a war thing I guess I'll just add it to my useless knowledge database.
it's Jonah! he watches the same videos I do!
Jason Jason Logan Logan.
Except this video kinda says that it actually is a genuine war thing, albeit one that was never actually used. That's way more authentic an origin than I assumed it had, which was that it was the cynical creation of a coked up marketing executive in the early 2000s.
I was going to comment the same thing. I think at one time I wondered about where it came from, but weirdly, I never thought to look it up. Now not only do I know where it came from, I also know where it didn't come from. Two learns with one stone.
Of course it's a 'war thing'. It was made in WW2 to be used in WW2. That's like saying the Maus supertank wasn't a war thing because it wasn't actually used in the war.
Is keep calm and carry on actually thought to have been a thing in WW2? I've never heard of that before.
Rebecca Hartopp me neither and I have a history degree from uni
I'm glad, I thought this was some huge secret the rest of the world was keeping from me, the actual history behind it is pretty cool.
Same here. I figured it was just a meme.
No your right, no-one in the UK anyway, was lead to believe this was ever used in WWII. But its hard to get new content when you work 100% from an office.
I also never thought this was a real WW2 poster. I always assumed it was a retro piece of tat dreamed up by a marketing person in the last few years.
Did people not know the posters never saw use during the war? I admit I didn't know it was for a defeat, but I knew they never used it.
I got a chuckle out of "We know war is scary just don't poop your diaper". I love this series, A+
Most people in the UK know that this was, along with two other motivational posters, printed up, but never used, in the war. The recent craze for it was started when a bookshop owner found the poster folded up in a donation of books he had received, and put it up in his shop, simply because he liked it. Customers asked him about it, and he had copies made, which sold like hot cakes, even to the point of the Prime Minister owning one. Comic maestro Alan Moore knew about it before it became popular - it appears, with a different device, in the graphic novel 'The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen'.
3:21 America didn't declare war on Germany, America declared war on Japan for Pearl Harbor then Germany declared war on the US a few days after that.
All he said was "America was years away from declaring war", he didn't say against which country.
Cheesycurve 54 no they declared war on Japan after pearl harbor and the declared war on Germany because Germany attacked poland not because they were working together
Cheesycurve 54 Italy and Germany declared war on America, America never declared war on Italy
Cheesycurve 54 no they specifically declared war on Japan
The very fact you folks are arguing about it evidences that there was no single objective cause and it was likely just an irrational and emotional response, as seems to always be the reason the USA goes to war, regardless of the justification after the fact.
IT IS A GODDAMNED SHAME THAT THERE ARE ONLY 7 OF THESE VIDEOS! I DEMAND MORE!!! ... thank you. great videos. big fan. 😁
3:15 the war with USSR started on june 2nd 1941 not in '39!!!
dika_the_wise You expect Cracked to fact check? Lol
Comrade Tito komrade generale brate tito vrati nam se sad kad si nam najviše potreban.
I'm fascinated by how much he pronounces the "L" in "calm".
How else do you say 'calm'?
L is always the most important letter.
I've never met anyone that didn't pronounce the "L" in "calm".
Cole Garland Do you say "cam"? lol
JaiFlame it's pronounced like it's spelled calm. C-a-l-m. But I get your point.
"pounded some black tea"... as someone who's British, I'm not sure how to feel about this
"in this goofy voice..."
every British subscriber leaves en masse
Matt Johnston is every British subscribers that massive?
Too much fried food? 😉
"The British pounded some black tea." 😂👌🏻
so... it's now an appropriate time to spread this message
BMUSTDIE dark dude. dark
when we will be able to buy the "become a resistance fighter because Hitler is having a wank in Buckingham palace" posters?
Graphic design , the truest form of war survival
I knew these posters just spontaneously appeared in the early 2000's!
Did Nazi that coming.
This bit of dry humor gave me a chuckle.
Anne Frankly these jokes are getting tired.
That's how they took Poland.
Were you proud when you typed that in?
Nater 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
"You're allowed to like it..."
It's a shame we have to verbalize this nowadays...
I actually really like this series. Hope they make more.
Can't someone pick up Hilarious Helmet History? This is better than 99% of TV, including the History Channel!
The moment youtube is hit by the adpocalypse cracked begins to push quality content.
Or it's just me keeping calm and carrying on
Congrats on your Jeopardy win!!
This was very interesting/scary/funny . Great job! Pip pip, cheerio and other British stereotypes
Diaper is actually English - English. Diaper means diamond shaped you see them in brick wall in the home counties. These diamonds were made for babies before Terry towelling nappies were invented some American words are relics of what we used back in the day like sidewalk and The Fall.
Fascinating as always. I always enjoy learning what happy sounding thing has a much darker meaning.
"Life is short. Life is shit and soon it will be over." -Kids in the Hall
Every time I'm getting bored with Cracked I fall in love with another series. Loving Helmet History
Kinda slipped into Australian and New Zealand accent at the end there. XD
I'm waiting for;
Keep calm and carry on my wayward son
"youtube is imposible to navigate with lubed up sex fingies"
You underestimate my power!
Oh hey, the one Alex was telling us about at the Kurt Vonneguys live episode! Most excellent, Alex! I feel like I knew in the back of my brain that "Keep calm and carry on" was never used during war, but the reason it was created was not something I was aware of. O_O Wow, scary stuff.
One good google search will basically give you this:
"Although 2.45 million copies were printed, and although the Blitz did in fact take place, the poster was hardly ever publicly displayed and was little known until a copy was rediscovered in 2000 at Barter Books, a bookshop in Alnwick. It has since been re-issued by a number of private companies, and has been used as the decorative theme for a range of products"
or I can just ask my history professor...so saying it was a lie or even dark is pointless
I kid you not, when I saw the picture of the Ministry of Information I thought to myself, "well if that isn't Orwellian.".
In "Just My Type" Simon Garfield Attributes the design to Edward Johnston, the designer of that typeface (that people keep getting wrong by the way whenever they make new versions) which is also used in the London Underground Logo
Did you know George Orwell's real name was Eric Blair? Now you do.
shouts to lord kitchner not the greatest guy though but you brought some of my old memories back with this one Schmidt.
holy traps Batman I had no idea this meme had so much history behind it! anyway love your show you did a very nice job and I hope you have a great day!!
“Become a resistance fighter because Hitler’s having a wank in Buckingham Palace” had me dying
I actually been to the bookstore in Northumberland that found the poster
You should go there if your British, it's a great place
Can we get a re-record of this video in that "goofy" voice at the end? I loved it.....please?
Ok that history is way cooler than I thought it was.
I knew Australia was run by kangaroos!
Doug Adams must have had a psychic link with his motto, 'don't panic" , repeated throughout 'Hitchhikers Guide'.
I desperately need that "BONES WANTED" poster.
*is watching video
* puts down tea on coaster
*looks at coaster
*coaster says keep calm and drink tea
You know we know this? anyone who buys a piece of "keep calm" merchandise and takes the time to read the small booklet with it will see that they say "The keep calm and carry on posters were discovered in a box in the basement of a bookstore. The Posters were initially designed as 'IN THE EVENT OF INVASION', KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON".
I like this series. Keep it up.
THANK YOU FOR ACTUALLY INCLUDING CANADA WHEN TALKING ABOUT WWII. Even if it was just implied more or less. So much stuff just ignores "The British Commonwealth" and our contributions to history.
Hitler: chucks some planes at us that imminently bounce off
Hitler: SURRENDER, THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE!!!! I’M WARNING YOU!
This is brilliant! 👍👍👍👍👍
Come back Cracked! Make more great videos!!!
"Slippery sex fingies" is my new favourite phrase.
goofy voice.
most definitely, guvna.
and by the by, thank you for elucididating upon the grim origins of said poster/meme.
i thought it was from The Walking Dead.
i loved you CRACKED dudes...been reading it since I was 11 yrs old. 33 yrs of age now, guv. peace.
why are you doing an australian accent?
That is not our accent.
why are you doing a new zealand accent?
Because Australians are just British once removed, the same as Americans (one less willing than the other of course).
betabenja ikr it’s so annoying
We don't sound like that
Glaring mistake. Germany conquered eastern Europe and invaded the USSR AFTER France and BENELUX.
Nice profile picture. :)
'Britain's people and cathedrals survived'
I see the broad point but 32000 civilians were killed and 87000 maimed in the Blitz alone, and so many buildings were destroyed that there are still signs of it today. The entire city of Coventry (inc its cathedral!) was levelled to the ground.
I was wondering where that phrase came from. A few years back I’d see a lot of people wearing keep calm shirts but the words would always be changed instead of carry on, it would say something else
I never knew the origin of the logo. I just remember it popping one day and thinking, why would I want that shirt. Sometimes I wondered why it existed, but then I stopped wondering because I didn't care.
Second favourite cracked series.
The worst thing about this "Keep Calm" trend is the lengths lazy cash-ins have gone to stretch the reference to the point that they no longer make any sense at all.
It used to be you'd see "Keep Calm and Game on" or "Keep Calm and Party On" and then it stretched to "Keep Calm and Jump On," "Drive On," etc.
Lately, they've completely dropped the second half. I've seen "Keep Calm and Be You," "Keep Calm and Follow Jesus," "Keep Calm and Love Penguins" (all real shirts). I've seen posters advertising your team (?), gymnastics, web security, university, Batman, the Minions, and a bunch of other things that have nothing to do with anything.
Pretty soon the expression will be abstracted to a font, a single colour background and phrases so vague they won't even be interrelated. I fully expect to see a Keep-Calm style "Eat Pancakes and Avoid Open Manholes," t-shirt, because why not, anything with this font will sell now. Somebody will come in with a mall-wrapped package, their eye-brows raised, their eyes glinting like, "See, I know you love pancakes and not falling into open manholes, so I figured this is the gift for you! I got myself a 'Don't Worry Be Happy And I Like Batman' tee while I was in the store, so we totally match. Yes, that's a silhouette of Calvin peeing on a Ford, so what, it's part of the design, now let's go watch the Emoji Movie 2, this one has the Rock in it!"
There needs to be more trends.
These are great! More please!!!
no one thought this. thanks for clearing up that misconception that no one had.
Yo, this dystopian alternate timeline shit is WAY better than the fake history behind it. If it weren't mired in copyright bullshit I might actually consider buying a poster now. I can probably just make a glossy print of my own.
Dear Cracked
If you attempt another English accent, we will declare war on you.
You have been warned.
Love and best wishes, England
CRACKED - I will give you all the money if you make a poster for "Become a Resistance Fighter Because Hitler's Having a Wank in Buckinham Palace."
This one isn't as surprising but maybe this is a problem with the site being american. I never thought it was used in WWII I always knew it was in storage. His end accent sounds more Australian than British.
Fascinating. Thanks for this.
I'm honestly glad I watched this because I thought it was a Doctor Who thing. Not trying to offend anyone, (I'm a 40 year old American) haven't been to school since '95 so I learned something new. Thanks for the knowledge.
I'm really tired of this ever soft commercial.
Some people think talking about talking about soft things makes you a softie. So if I'm going to talk to you about the Fruit of The Loom Eversoft T, I'm going to do it in the manliest way possible. With my then I forgot
Erik Harker I got the one with the holes in the parachute. That guy is a dick for cutting the other guys parachute and then not grabbing on to the other guy before he hit the ground.
Great video, very informative, I loved it, Good thing you didn't use that voice for the hole video.
"Keep Calm and Carry On" is the second-best contraceptive-related branding ever. The first? "Don't Panic" in large, friendly letters.
"slippery sex fingies" well now i've got to go behind the bush
I knew something wasn't right - I never saw that poster in my WW2 history lessons like "Dig for Britain" and "Britain wants you"; the fact that it was for when the Nazi's take over UK says a lot.
"Crumpet boy" made me giggle like Nick Offerman
'poo your pants' would be the correct British English rendering, not 'poop your diaper'.
the picture used for the ministry of information is actually the university of london. but I guess you got it because it was used for the ministry of truth in the film adaption of 1984
“Slippery sex fingies” best quote ever
Thanks for clarifying this, I didn't know
That accent was awesome. Australian, Manc, Cockney, and some South African... its like you had the whole commonwealth in your mouth at the same time.
A scream becomes a yawn. I'll shut up, and carry on.
Mr. HoneyComb Metric?
Good one Cracked
Just one thing. TH-cam is quite easy to navigate with 'slippery lube fingers'... erm, so I'm told.
minnesota cop. musta got lost on the way to the lake. clearly you're from the midwest, AND I LIKE THAT.
Fun fact- the rare bookstore that found this is also the town that has a castle that was used as Hogwarts in the first Harry Potter movie.
Dude, this just makes the poster cooler.
appreciate the history lesson. wasn't a fan aesthetically and didn't know the story.
I'll be honest, as someone who was born in the UK and have lived here all my life, when I first saw this poster I was super confused as to why people related it to us Brits. I never associated it to anything historical and just thought it was a weird trend.
I died at “slippery sex fingies” 😂
"your allowed to like keep calm and carry on" thanks cracked for the premission.
I always wondered what Tracer in Overwatch was referencing in her "Keep calm and Tracer on" voice line. Now I know whoever decided to put that in was uninformed.
I'm pretty sure "Freedom is in peril - defend it with all your might" was actually printed on war posters a couple of times? It does stick more to the messages you were describing
Halloween movies? You forgot Ernest Scared Stupid!! :D
I didn't even know the heavily abridged history of that meme. I just knew it was obnoxiously popular.
I like it even more now.... love the link to the InfoMini
ironically, news that the "Keep Calm..." poster was used in World War II caused panic to spread like wildfire across the internet, and shortly thereafter, the earth's collective mind was blown, killing everyone aboard. "funny, i never thought it would end like this" said the earth before it died.
Pip pip and stop at 4pm for tea. MMMM tea.
The British government coined the slogan, “Keep Calm and Carry on” during World War 2 in order to motivate citizens to stay strong
Who didn't know this? I mean, specific details, no. But my basic understanding was that someone found an old unused propaganda poster design a few years back and was like "Oh, this is cool." And that was it.
I love this guy. Why aren't there more HHH vids??? WHYYYYYYYY??????
Invaded halfway through USSR by 1939? Srsly? I trusted you, Schmidt!