Internets

"Internets" is a Bushism-turned-catchphrase used humorously to portray the speaker as ignorant about the Internet or about technology in general, or as having a provincial or folksy attitude toward technology. United States President George W. Bush first used the word publicly during the 2000 election campaign. The term gained cachet as an Internet humor meme following Bush's use of the term in the second 2004 presidential election debate on October 8, 2004.

Presidential debates

Bush used the word "Internets" [#fn a| ^[a] ] in the third Gore-Bush presidential debate on October 17, 2000: [cite web | title = Transcript of the third Gore-Bush presidential debate | publisher = Commission on Presidential Debates | date = 2000-10-17 | url = http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2000c.html | accessdate = 2006-12-23 ]

JOYCE CLEAMER, AUDIENCE MEMBER: ...I'm very concerned about the morality of our country now. TV, movies, the music that our children are, you know, barraged with every day. And I want to know if there's anything that can be worked out with the—Hollywood, or whoever, to help get rid of some of this bad language and whatever, you know...
BUSH: ...We can have filters on Internets where public money is spent. There ought to be filters in public libraries and filters in public schools so if kids get on the Internet, there is not going to be pornography or violence coming in.

In the 2004 election's second debate in St. Louis, Missouri, Bush used the word "Internets" [#fn a| ^[a] ] in response to an audience question about a potential military draft: [cite web | title = Transcript of the second Bush-Kerry presidential debate | publisher = Commission on Presidential Debates | date = 2004-10-08 | url = http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004c.html | accessdate = 2006-12-22 ]

DANIEL FARLEY, AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. President, since we continue to police the world, how do you intend to maintain our military presence without reinstituting a draft?
BUSH: Yes, that's a great question. Thanks. I hear there's rumors on the, uh, Internets [#fn b| ^[b] ] [pause] that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period. The all-volunteer army works. It works particularly when we pay our troops well. It works when we make sure they've got housing, like we have done in the last military budgets.

fnb|a The word "Internets" as used by Bush is capitalized in the official debate transcript.
fnb|b The official transcript follows the word "Internets" with "(sic)". The transcript also omits the filler word "uh" preceding "Internets". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKTH6f1JfX8 Video footage of the quotation] shows the full version.

Reaction

Ridicule, and later parody, of Bush's uncommon pluralization spread quickly on the Internet and in traditional media following the 2004 debate. Minutes after Bush made the remark, posters to online forums remarked that the term was "Another Bushism!", [cite web | title = UserFriendly Strip Comments - "On tha internets" | publisher = UserFriendly.org | date = 2004-10-08 | url = http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/read.cgi?id=20041008&tid=1367477 | accessdate = 2006-12-23 ] wondered "is this where I find those 'internets' the President mentioned?", [cite web | title = Bush vs Kerry II open discussion | publisher = BlueOregon.com | date = 2004-10-08 | url = http://www.blueoregon.com/2004/10/bush_vs_kerry_i.html | accessdate = 2006-12-23 ] and hypothesized "Something tells me our president does not spend a lot of time online." [cite web | title = Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment | publisher = Salon.com | date = 2004-10-08 | url = http://blogs.salon.com/0000014/2004/10/08.html | accessdate = 2006-12-23 ] The following evening, on October 9, 2004, "Saturday Night Live" parodied the debate, [cite web | title = "Saturday Night Live" Transcripts - Season 30: Episode 2 - Queen Latifah | publisher = snltranscripts.jt.org | date = 2004-10-09 | url = http://snltranscripts.jt.org/04/04b.phtml | accessdate = 2006-12-23 ] with Will Forte's George W. Bush saying,

I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft. I don't know how many of these Internets are carrying these rumors, but they're just wrong. I think the problem here may be more of a question of getting rid of the bad Internets and keeping the good Internets. You know, 'cause I think we can all agree... there're just too many Internets. [cite web | title = Debates and Internets | publisher = Tuba City | date = 2004-10-10 | url = http://www.tubafrenzy.org/weblog/archives/2004/10/debates_and_int.html | accessdate = 2006-12-23 ]

The "SNL" parody was replayed the following morning on CNN's "Inside Politics Sunday". [cite web | title = "Inside Politics Sunday" transcript | publisher = CNN | date = 2004-10-10 | url = http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/10/ips.01.html | accessdate = 2006-12-23 ] Numerous homages and parodies, most including an audio or video clip from the second 2004 debate, appeared on other humor and entertainment web sites, including YTMND, [cite web | title = theinternets | publisher = ytmnd.com | accessdate = 2006-12-23 | url = hyperlink blacklisted ] [cite web | title = theinternetsmix | publisher = ytmnd.com | accessdate = 2006-12-23 | url = hyperlink blacklisted ] and spread virally on the Internet.

On his show "The Colbert Report", comedian Stephen Colbert consistently refers to "the Internet" as "the Internets". cite web | title=CNN story about "the Internets" and "the Google" | url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MunMCO3uNdA | date=2006-10-27 | accessdate=2007-12-27 ] On the Thursday Mar 20 2008 World Water Day Episode: #04039 [http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=164481]
Stephen Colbert states,

"Last night, as I was surfing the the Internets...literally:My backyard wave pool has Wi-Fi..." [Thursday Mar 20 2008 World Water Day Episode: #04039 http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=164481]

Keith Olbermann similarly makes use of the term during his "Oddball" segment whenever viral videos are covered. The term continues to appear as a popular topic tag on both technical [cite web | last=Benedict | first=Jared | title="Internets" tag at the future is yesterday | url=http://redjar.org/jared/blog/archives/category/internets/ | accessdate=2007-12-27 ] and political [cite web | last=Clarke Jr. | first=John | title="Internets" tag at Wonkette | date=2007-12-24 | url=http://wonkette.com/tag/the-internets/ | accessdate=2007-12-27 ] blogs.

Older use of "internets"

The singular "Internet" (usually capitalized, but see Internet for discussion) results from the connection of many smaller networks. In the early years of internetworking, an "internet" (uncapitalized) represented the connection of any two separate networks, and this word can be properly pluralized. For example, RFC 1918 refers to "Address Allocation for Private Internets". This usage has not been common since the 1980s; today, systems of internetworked computers apart from (or as a subset of) the larger Internet are referred to as intranets. The term "intranet" is also used to refer to collections of Internet-technology applications (i.e. private web pages, portals) that are not visible on the public Internet.

ee also

*Interweb
*Series of tubes
*List of political catch phrases

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/internets.php A flash video of the "internets" quote from George W. Bush]
* [http://www.hulu.com/watch/1623#135 SNL Clip of the "internets"]