Matthew Inman is sick of memes about bacon and kitties. Better known as web comic artist The Oatmeal, Inman gave TechCrunch the lowdown on what’s funny, what’s not, and how he finds inspiration. In this video interview he shoots off his thoughts on 4Chan and The Harlem Shake. When asked about LolCats, he bluntly replied, “Tired of that”.
After the interview, Inman insisted he has no beef with Ben Huh and his company ICanHasCheezburger. The Oatmeal just doesn’t want to see humor turned into a formula of “cat photo + impact font”. Here he describes where he goes for a laugh, plus offers an update on the Nikola Tesla museum he helped fund.
For those of you asking “Why is this on TechCrunch? I thought you were about tech and startups”, The Oatmeal is the future of visual communication online. Much like how Instagram has accelerated the shift from words to photos for conveying our thoughts, The Oatmeal demonstrates how the web’s short attention span values the efficiency of cartoons. Expect to see more businesses and startups ditching long-winded mission statements and blog posts for more communication through images.
But back to Inman. One bit of warning? If you ever meet the guy, don’t scream about bacon or your feline friend Chairman Meow. “I wrote an entire book about cats. Then I went on a book tour and every single person would come up to me and say ‘oh let me tell you about your cat’.” Eye rolls ensued. If you want to get in good with The Oatmeal, you have to reference Admiral Ackbar.
Check out The Oatmeal’s comics. They’ll make you happy.
