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{{trope}}
{{demotivator| no_demotivators_00_6596.jpg | Text in images | The easiest way to make image captions inaccessible to translators and screen readers. }}
{{quote|''"I think that communication skills have really improved around here since we all went on that course, and put up that blue poster that says 'Communicate!'"''
''"I totally agree; and I think that what that course showed me is that sometimes it does help to pay someone really quite a lot of money to state the obvious."''
▲{{quote|''"I think that communication skills have really improved around here since we all went on that course, and put up that blue poster that says 'Communicate!'"''<br />
If you've ever been in an American school or office environment, you've seen them: Posters encouraging the viewers to [[Grasp the Sun|Reach For The Stars]] and to [[The Determinator|Never Give Up]]. Invariably, these lessons are accompanied by a cute picture or a vaguely inspirational stock photo. Are you feeling motivated yet?
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One would have to be [[Nietzsche Wannabe|the most cynical misanthrope in the world]] to disagree with concepts like "[[Adolf Hitler|Leadership]]" or "[[Torches and Pitchforks|Teamwork]]", but one would also have to be the most optimistic [[The Pollyanna|Pollyanna]] in the world to deny that the presentation varies between [[Glurge|painfully corny]] and [[Narm|unintentionally hilarious]].
Thus, the
[[wikipedia:Successories|Successories]] is probably the most popular brand of Motivational Posters (inspiring many imitators); consequently most parodies follow the same layout that Successories popularized: A stock photo on a black background, with a one-word title in large text below, with a pithy saying or quote beneath that.
An [[Undead Horse Trope]]: Straight motivational posters are still in use in schools, offices, and some gyms (and prisons), but the parodies and subversions far outweigh straight uses everywhere else. Therefore, it's a classic example of the [["Weird Al" Effect]]. Even when media does use straight Motivational Posters, it's almost always as an ironic counterpoint to some soul-crushing environment where the poster is hanging.
Parodies are often called "Demotivators" or "[[wikipedia:Motivational poster#Parodies and demotivational posters|Demotivational Posters]]", regardless of their content; the name is taken from a series of posters by [http://despair.com/ Despair Inc] with genuinely demotivational themes. You have been warned.
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Compare [["Faux To" Guide]]. A specific type of [[Detournement]].
{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In ''[[
==
▲* In ''[[PS 238]]'', the walls of the titular school are adorned with such posters as "Super Strength: If you don't have the power to move mountains, make friends with someone who can."
* In ''[[Megamind]]'', upon taking over the city the titular supervillain has posters made of him in the style of the famous "Hope" poster of Barack Obama, except with the caption changed to read "No, You Can't" instead (referring to Obama's famous "Yes, We Can" message).
* On ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'', the "Hang in there" poster is hung on Susan's cell in a pathethic attempt to make her imprisonment more tolerable. It doesn't work. "I want a ''real'' kitten, hanging from a ''real'' tree!"
* In ''[[Igor]]'', Dr. Glickenstein's girlfriend gets him an inspirational poster of a kitten hanging from a tree, but since the movie is set in a [[Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad]] world, the kitten is hanging from a noose. "To remind you to always take time in your day for a little torture."
* ''[[The Truman Show]]'': When Truman tries to book a flight, there's a poster on the wall showing an aeroplane being struck by lightning with the caption "This could be you".
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[Who Moved My Cheese?]]'', Haw has a habit of drawing (straight) motivational graffiti on the walls, both to motivate Hem and to act as a landmark when searching the maze for New Cheese.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'': "Fun and Failure start the same way".▼
* Barney from ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' has a wall full of actual motivational posters, including a tailor made one for Awesomeness, but one seems decidedly fauxtivational which he showcased for Marshall (who questioned its motivational ability). It was an image of a group of Penguins, with the the text being the uplifting "Conformity: It's the one that's different that gets left out in the cold".▼
* The Doublemeat Palace in season 6 of ''[[
▲* Barney from ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' has a wall full of actual motivational posters, including a tailor
* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' has two: In Gnothi Seauton five bad ass resistance fighters have a cute kitten "hang in there baby" in their hideout, which conceals a safe. In Dungeons And Dragons the future resistance have a badass mural of the same theme, except it's a lion jumping out of fire, a Terminator skull in its jaws.
▲* The Doublemeat Palace in season 6 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has these in its employee break room, and manager's office. It is duly lampshaded:
▲{{quote| '''Tara''': I have this sudden urge to dedicate my productive cooperation...}}
▲* ''[[Arrested Development (TV)|Arrested Development]]'': "Fun and Failure start the same way".
▲* ''[[The IT Crowd (TV)|The IT Crowd]]'': The basement has several memetastic posters hanging up.
==
* ''[[
* ''[[Dead Space (
* From the
* In the office level of ''[[
** a sinking boat - caption "this is your life"
** a marble with the caption "You are this sharp"
** stick men - caption "Just remember you are an individual, just like everybody else"
* In ''[[The Adventures of Sam
* The [[Homestar Runner
== [[Web
* In ''[[
▲* The [[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|Strong Bad email]] "[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail86.html no loafing]". In addition to the eponymous sign, Strong Bad purchases some more traditional posters, featuring windsurfers and [[Space Whale|Space Whales]].
* ''[[
▲* In ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', the principal of one of the high schools values motivational ''murals'' more than anything else. Those things range from odd to disturbing to hilarious -- [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-06-24 "READ or the owl] [http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2004-07-03 will eat you]", or "[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2004-10-29 Homework rules!]", or "[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-07-23 Thespians are neato]" (as [[The Rant]] points out, a play on [[Chivalrous Pervert|Tedd]]'s motto "[[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot|lesbians are neato!]]").
▲* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]:'' [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=73 "READ. It makes you cool. Honest."] [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=186 "Knowledge is power."]
** Also, [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=121 the First Treatise] ''could'' be considered a straightforward motivational poster [[Bilingual Bonus|for those who know Latin]]: "Pray, read, read again, work, and you shall find."
*** And the page is also a [[Genius Bonus|spiffy reference for those who know alchemy]]: it's from the Mutus Liber, a 17th century Huguenot alchemy text, Latin and all.
* ''[[Starslip Crisis]]'' had a [[Story Arc]] (beginning [https://web.archive.org/web/20080625053233/http://www.starslip.com/2005/10/31/starslip-598/ here]) in which curator-snob Vanderbeam sees the "Hang In There" cat poster on Jovia's wall, and becomes obsessed with finding out what a fellow lover of [[True Art]] could [[What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?|possibly see]] in such a piece of obvious shlock.
* [http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=QOW3001 This]{{dead link}} appears to be a literacy poster showing Kestrel from ''[[Queen
* Fauxtivational posters are one of the most popular subjects on the [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49314 twin] [[Remix Comic|art-remix]] [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49479 threads] on the ''[[Erfworld]]'' forum.
* ''[[Concerned]]'' had Frohman make some of these, with slogans like "Being beaten hard, or hardly being beaten?"
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** There's a somewhat sillier take on the "Hang In There Baby" poster in [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=990425 this] strip.
** Torg's cousin sends him the Christmas present of an "inspirational calendar" with a picture like a motivational poster for each month, illustrating various captions such as "Inspiration" and "Success" with inspirational pictures... all of which are the same picture of an alligator eating a guy.
{{quote|
* An early ''[[Bizarre Uprising]]'' comic had a poster saying "Reading is KITTY!" in a classroom background.
* Mike of ''[[
* In the ''[[Zodiac (
** Related to the above is a similar poster depicting a lion. Its caption: "'''Humor''': [[Brick Joke|See notes on Patience]]."
* [[4chan]] has a long, ancestral tradition of making sometimes ''very lewd'' Fauxtivational Posters based on their own [[Memetic Mutation|memes]]. You can see them in [http://www.macrochan.org/search.php?tags=Motivational+Poster Macrochan] ('''''OH-SO-GODDAMN-VERY [[NSFW]]!!!''''').▼
▲== Web Originals ==
▲* 4chan has a long, ancestral tradition of making sometimes ''very lewd'' Fauxtivational Posters based on their own [[Memetic Mutation|memes]]. You can see them in [http://www.macrochan.org/search.php?tags=Motivational+Poster Macrochan] ('''''OH-SO-GODDAMN-VERY [[NSFW]]!!!''''').
** And basically every other -chan (''especially'' those with a more... mature focus than 4chan.)
*** And, yes, there are things [[Even Evil Has Standards|Too Spicy]] [[Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth|for 4Chan]].
** On that note, there used to be an anime motivational poster thread (nicknamed /amp/ or /mot/ as a homage to [[Image Boards|something...]]) on Crunchyroll that had about 2000+pages growing at about 8 pages daily. Unfortunately its contents started to live up to its name resulting in its deletion and [[Deader Than Dead|a permanent ban against the creation of any other such threads.]]
* Big Huge Labs has a web-based program for making custom posters. [http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php Go knock yourself out.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131125085254/http://www.llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/index.html An index of RPG and Geek-culture-inspired posters.]
** See also [http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/index.html this collection of RPG Motivational Posters].
* Made ''especially'' famous by ''[[Television Without Pity]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120813105822/http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3142036 Here's a link.]
* ''[[Something Awful]]''{{'}}s "Photoshop Phriday" once commissioned [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/motivational-posters.php a number of these].
* ''[[Forum Warz]]'' has a whole minigame dedicated to creating these.
* ''[[Worth1000]]'', a site which
* ''[
* This
* [http://www.halolz.com/category/motivational/ Halolz.com] also has some of these. While not as bad as the 4chan example above, there's still some [[NSFW]] things there.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131008124014/http://www.motifake.com/ Even more of them] could be found at the now-defunct Motifake.com.
* Polish site [http://www.demotywatory.pl Demotywatory.pl].
* [[Doctor Steel]]'s riffs on the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110101222756/http://www.toysoldiersunite.com/propaganda/1077/2/3646 ALA "READ" posters] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20110827093728/http://www.toysoldiersunite.com/propaganda/1077/0/3702 Got Milk? posters]
* [[Wikipedia]] has one accompanying the [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Somebody
* In [[
* In an early episode of ''[[RWBY Chibi]]'', among the things Ruby provides Weiss to help her get over a tummyache is a "Hang In There!" poster with [[Catgirl|Blake]] on it instead of an actual cat.
▲* In [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]]'s review of [[The Movie]] of the [[Care Bears]], he produces one of these around [[Memetic Molester|Mr. Cherrywood creepy smile]]. In his later commentary on the episode, Doug explained that he had seen several of the other visuals he had used in his reviews being made into these, and decided to try and save fans the trouble.
* The "motivational poster" format is a favorite template for web memes.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' featured the "Hang in there!" cat poster. Marge notices that, since the copyright on the poster dates back to the 1968, the cat must be long dead, which she thinks makes the poster actually "kind of a downer".
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' featured the "Hang in there!" cat poster. Marge notices that, since the copyright on the poster dates back to the 1968, the cat must be long dead, which she thinks makes the poster actually "kind of a downer".
** It also had, in "And Maggie Makes Three", Homer's ''de''motivational plaque: "Don't forget, you're here forever." Homer used pictures of Maggie to turn it into "Do it for her," in a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]].
* The "Hang in there!" poster also appears in ''Dr. Katz''.
* ''[[Futurama]]''--
** In the episode "Cryonic Woman", Leela reapplies for her old job at the cryonics center:
{{quote|
"Monday monkey lives for the weekend, sir!" }}
** There was another one from the first episode which refers to the policy of people being assigned careers instead of choosing their own, which features a man in a hard-hat with a rather dubious look on his face giving a thumbs-up, with the caption "You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do".
** Paying attention to the background nets a few more of these as well. In one episode, a poster outside an army recruitment office reads:
{{quote|
What are you, Chicken?
Bwak Buk Buk Bawk!" }}
* Peter Potamus has several posters with a hippopotamus "reaching for ''that thing''" in ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney
* Played straight but subtle in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. When we see Prowl's room as he meditates, there's a poster of a cute little puppy on a branch reading "Chin up!" Made hilarious as one wonders where Prowl found the poster (that size) in the first place, and what prompted the [[Deadpan Snarker]] to hang it in his zen spot.
** This is made interesting by the fact that it appears ''every'' time that room is shown. Possibly one of the writers has it in their office.
* ''[[Family Guy]]''. When Peter took over his father-in-law's company, Brian had a poster of a ball in his office that said "Go Get It. Go Get It, Boy".
{{quote|
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* Web retailer Successories.com [https://www.successories.com/motivational-posters/1#listview-page-1 plays this straight with a selection of genuine motivational posters].
▲== Real Life ==
* [http://www.allposters.com/-st/Motivational-Posters_c12920_.htm AllPosters.com's top-selling motivators.] - One of the few places where real motivational posters are located.
* Possibly the origin of the concept of "Demotivational" posters, [http://despair.com/viewall.html Despair, Inc.]
* The famous British "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster from [[
** And one of the hundreds of inevitable [http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollym/3427210378/
** And
* The American Library Association (ALA)'s famous [https://web.archive.org/web/20120625052144/http://www.alastore.ala.org/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=160 "READ" posters].
** ...and the inevitable parody (see ''[[
* A painful example of wildly inappropriate (and probably sadistically ironic) Straight Lesson in the wrong environment would be the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" (Work makes [you] free) at the entrance of Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]▼
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:Memetic Mutation]]
[[Category:Undead Horse Trope]]
▲[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]
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