Growing Up With T-Shirt Comedy

By Kenneth Bendis


There was a dull time in years distant when t-shirts were boring and drab. They were plain white and used as underwear and that is just about as exciting as things got. Then, one day, a person thought about how cool it would be to put something entertaining on one of these boring old shirts, and the world of funny t-shirts was discovered. This was sometime in the middle of the big civil revolution in the United States. Young people were tired of not having a voice and they said whatever they wanted, even if it was on their clothing.

The first decorative tees starting popping up right around when the peace movement got a full head of steam behind it. The first shirts were actually pretty lame, with political humor that barely made any sense except to the people who made them. Many of these clothes were made at home, even going so far as to be written on with black markers. These would never sell if someone tried to make money off of them, but they had special significance to the owners who created them. While not uproariously funny, they were personal and significant to the individual.

The 70's and 80's were dominated by music. Rock and roll was everywhere, and the clothing had to reflect that cultural obsession. Bands started using the common t-shirt as a medium for revenue and advertising. If you loved a band, then you had to have the t-shirt that they sold. It wasn't enough to listen to the music and attend the concerts. You had to now prove that you were a loyal fan by sporting the band's logo everywhere. There was not enough room for the tees we know today during this time, but many bands did have shirts that were pretty hilarious.

Sometimes when something is born again, it seems to rise from the ashes of its near demise as a fiery phoenix that is beautiful and profound. This is not what happened when funny tees came back from being choked out by band shirts in the 70's and 80's. The 90's were here, and the general attitude in the 90's was that of brash offensiveness and speaking your mind, no matter what you were thinking. These new shirts were terrible, and not even particularly funny. They typically veered toward low-brow toilet humor about getting drunk and chasing women. Every time one of these shirts shows up on a local news program is a blow to our shared psyche.

As a boon to human ingenuity, funny shirts have finally grown up. The 90's were an age for adolescent humor and potty jokes, while the new generation of funny clothing producers have become something bordering on brilliance. The glory of the Internet has made it so that people with odd ideas can experiment with very low cost to themselves or even much risk. This has allowed for innovation to boon, and pop culture has delivered to us a huge selection of great funny tees now.

Hopefully, the world of fashion will not be dragged down by the sins of the past and continue onward in this way for many years to come. When I wear humorous t-shirts now, the sharpened wit of these shirts transfers over to me. People think I am much more gregarious, witty, and cool than I actually am because of the shirts I wear. I guess, in a way, I deserve some of that credit because I did pick the design out, of course.




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