Introducing Opera Models

funny

I like Opera models

Muhaha! I've seen enough pics of happy people doing computing on sunny beaches - this is the real sh*t!

Where is Operaman ?
Not fair! I want Operaman. : :

Hahaha.

Bwhahahaha. Man you guys rock

You shouldn't do such things to spare your time. Look, google has announced its browser.

Should have known...

Love the "Meanwhile at Microsoft's Internet Explorer development lab..." picture!!

too bad its april fools. the good vibrations ad might have attracted curiousity

muhaha

Excellent

Originally posted by Jon:

We are always looking for new ways to monetize our staff

Source: press release

Is the 4th pic the party photo Opera mentioned? I don't quite get the intrigue behind that one.

the bill image took ages to load- 405kb! Save images in png format plz.

Great initiative.

Hahaha

Some of the pics are a little sexy, don't you think? S.

excellent

April Fools jokes always get a little carried away, but thats what makes them funny!

As always, you guys rock the web ! ! !

You guys and girls at opera.com definitely need a break. It must be a sign of severe intellectual depletion when people who have delivered such a brilliant piece of software as the Opera browser are suddenly unable to produce even one original joke per year and have to descend to the level of tired old MEN JOKES with tired old themes - "rejection by a woman", "that guy is definitely not Chuck Norris", "erectile dysfunction" etc.

I dare everyone to try a simple creative imagination exercise. Just try to imagine that Janne Rud Hansen girl instead of the guy on the Opera Models "ads". No, not Janne Rud Hansen as her face looks in the photo, but Janne Rud Hansen 10 years from whenever that smiling picture was taken, after two births, with cellulitis and slightly overweight. Imagine it is she whose boyfriend surfs a dating site while pretending to make love with her. Imagine her sitting on the toilet. Imagine her putting a cellphone in her pants and making the stupidest face she can make. Finally imagine her browsing after whatever frigidity pill there is, while her boyfriend is falling asleep with an expression of ultimate dissatisfaction on his face.

Tasteless, unoriginal, shallow, rude, sexist, misogynist, offensive, hostile, objectifying? Perhaps still just a joke, but one that would cost Opera tons of PR karma and get their fax machines DDOSed by feminist organizations? You bet. How is it then, that same jokes with sexes switched pass for fine humour? If it is not meant to be fine humour but your culture's 4/1 code allows for somewhat thicker jokes, why does it allow for thicker jokes about men but apparently not about women?

It should be noted for everyone to ponder that the quote next to Jane Rud Hansen's photo reveals extensive feminist inspirations. It seems very likely that Ms Hansen has read at least "The Beauty Myth" by Naomi Wolf. Of course this is just a pure coincidence, and feminism has absolutely nothing to do with hating or dissing men. And today is April the 1st.

@rulatir Well yeah, if you take it like that.

See, that was a joke. Literally. Funny part is I admitted the campaign stimulated my dirty mind too, but yours...
Too many things you said are wrong. Just the main one: they said "opera employees" just because they were not. Stop making it so personal with the staff and yourself.

Nice one!

Lol, funny.

Umm... WHAT?

Please tell me that this rant is an April Fool's joke in itself...

second photo (guy on toilet browsing with Opera Mini) is 100% true . This is just so me

Bhtooefr, the part of my "rant" that begins with "I dare everyone to try a simple imagination exercise" was meant for the likes of you. YES YOU. Do try it. Try to imagine a female character being the butt of ALL those jokes. You would see immediately that those would be tasteless and primitive jabs at women's sexuality/physiology, and you would perceive them as a transgression against the code that holds women's sexuality/corporality sacrosanct. Why only women's and not men's? If a woman saw such hypothetical "jokes" printed and hung on a wall in a room where she works, she could complain about "sexual harrasment" and "hostile work environment", and her complaint would most likely be upheld, PARTICULARLY in Scandinavia where Opera is based. Why then is a man's objection to tasteless and primitive jabs at men's sexuality/corporality downplayed as an April Fool's joke?

Men jokes. How cheap. Downloading Mozilla Firefox...

Yes, thats great, thanks!

Originally posted by rulatir:

Downloading Mozilla Firefox...

Hey man, that will only increase your frustrations.

Besides, the Opera devs are so secure of their sexuality, they said they approve of the campaign 100%. That, and Olli was brought in when Jon asked for their input.

i cannot download anything from opera mini i use nec e313.somebody help. ceejay80s@yahoo.com

> Besides, the Opera devs are so secure of their sexuality,
> they said they approve of the campaign 100%.

Firstly, don't bother social-bullying me with this "opposed to male bashing = insecure about his sexuality" kindergarten logic. I'm immune. Perhaps the devs were not?

Secondly, how the devs felt about the campaign is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is how the target of the communication feels about the message. I now know I will not be buying any Opera products from now on. Within Opera's potential customer base, just as within any given demographic, there is an increasing share of men fed up with stupid "men jokes".

"What is relevant is how the target of the communication feels about the message."
I agree, that is what is relevant. But I think the target of the communication is fine about the message. You are the only one complaining. Alone. But I don't think it's a problem for you.Considering the content of your messages and your total lack of sense of humor, you must be used to loneliness. But just remember it's not Opera's fault.

i support rulatir on his crusade. i want to see naked girls all over the place the next time!! hold on, that's what i see everyday all over the place. now some smart guy could come and say "stop this disrespectful treatment of females!" ... "SHUT THE F*CK UP" ... that's what i -- and the other (male) part of human population -- would say

> But I think the target of the communication is fine
> about the message. You are the only one complaining.

Men usually prefer to "complain" directly to the sales department. Without a word, they just stop buying the offending product. That's right, without a word - because speaking a word of dissent immediately gets you drowned in responses like "you don't have a life", "you don't get any", "you have no friends", ad nauseam. One thing that I am indeed used to is such kindergarten-level responses. This is the male bashing culture's first line of defense.

As to my sense of male-bashing "humour" - senses tend to get desensitized by excess stimulation, don't they? What was funny the first time is no longer funny the 1000th time you see it.

This is funny because it's men bashing men. Opera is clearly a male-dominated company, and so it makes sense for those men to have a humorous look at themselves.

That rulatir is equally offended at men making fun of men and men making fun of women is his problem, not everyone else's.

He needs to understand that some people actually don't take themselves that seriously.

> This is funny because it's men bashing men. Opera is
> clearly a male-dominated company, and so it makes
> sense for those men to have a humorous look at themselves.

If they want to have THEIR OWN independent creative humorous look at THEMSELVES, then why don't they actually HAVE one, instead of copying themes and lines from feminist manhaters?

> That rulatir is equally offended at men making fun
> of men and men making fun of women is his problem,
> not everyone else's.

Geez, you really think you can successfully defend hate jokes by saying they are "just jokes"! Now THAT's a joke!

"Men usually prefer to "complain" directly to the sales department."
Now, the made-up theories.
Where did you learn that? Oh, I know, at kindergarten, your favorite place (maybe because then you had friends, a life...)
I'll pray for the end of your misery.

Gentlemen, no fighting in the war room.

We seem to have some pretty valid yet horribly argumented ideas. The worst problems are lack of empathy and using wildly different definitions.

But that's just boys, I think. Smile if you can

Originally posted by rulatir:

If they want to have THEIR OWN independent creative humorous look at THEMSELVES, then why don't they actually HAVE one, instead of copying themes and lines from feminist manhaters?

Newsflash: Not taking oneself too seriously also includes making fun of yourself using common stereotypes.

Geez, you really think you can successfully defend hate jokes by saying they are "just jokes"! Now THAT's a joke!

How is it a hate joke when a man jokes about himself?

> Now, the made-up theories.

Now, argumentum ad ignorantiam.

> Where did you learn that? Oh, I know, at kindergarten,
> your favorite place (maybe because then you had friends,
> a life...)

You disappoint me. You can't really provide any input other than cheap jabs, can you?

> I'll pray for the end of your misery.

Omigod! They're co... [SPLAT!]

> Newsflash: Not taking oneself too seriously also includes
> making fun of yourself using common stereotypes.

Counternewsflash: The fact that men don't take misandry seriously enough is precisely THE problem.

> How is it a hate joke when a man jokes about himself?

These are hate jokes whenever anyone actually laughs at them, no matter who joked in the first place.

Misandry (in case of women) or "not taking oneself too seriously" bordering on dissociation (in case of men) is whenever someone sees the situation depicted on ad #1 and thinks "what a loser, this is funny" instead of "this woman is virtually cheating on him, this is wrong".

Misandry/dissociation is whenever someone sees ad #4 and thinks "what a loser, this is funny" instead of "this is ridicule of an illness, this is wrong".

What is problematic is that both these themes are only perceived as funny when a MAN is the butt of the joke. I dare Opera to try and ridicule anorgasmic women next year - just to see what will happen. I dare them to actually show pictures of semi-naked less-than-perfect FEMALE bodies - and in the same derisive vein, NOT the cutesy lovable style of the famous Dove ad.

I have NO PROBLEM with humour, however I do object to the common practice of using depictions of men, men's physical imperfections, men's misfortunes and men's health problems as a cheap generic laughter inducer of choice.

I don't think you have actually bothered to read my comments, since I've clearly explained that this is men making fun of men, not men making fun of women, or women making fun of men. In a female-dominated company, they would be making fun of the female gender.

"argumentum ad ignorantiam"
Oh, Latin. I'm impressed. That´s so snobbish as saying that people are from kindergarten or ignorant if they don't agree with you (who does, by the way? Just the wont-speak-males from your imagination).

----------------------------------------
Sugestion for Opera staff:
We have member of the week, now we could have:THE MOST BORING MEMBER OF THE WEEK (or should I say YEAR?)
--------------------------------------

> "argumentum ad ignorantiam"
> Oh, Latin. I'm impressed. That´s so snobbish

This one is basically English with slightly changed endings. A piece of trivia: where I live, English macaronisms are seen as even more snobbish than an occasional Latin word...

> as saying that people are from kindergarten or ignorant
> if they don't agree with you

I never called anyone ignorant in this thread, and I only sent back to kindergarten those who had dissed me first and then wondered why I lost interest in their arguments (if they had any).

> wont-speak-males

Please do not use "male" as a noun in reference to humans.

> THE MOST BORING MEMBER OF THE WEEK

Wow. "Boring". The second line of defense. You took me by surprise. You're da man!

Rulatir, we recognise that the jokes are simplistic humour. We were making a quick joke, working with the available material. This isn't the kind of activity Opera is prepared to spend its precious development resources on in any great quantity.

I have no idea if Janne Rud Hansen has read "The Beauty Myth". But I am upset, on behalf of our male models, that you seem to think so little of them. Look again, they're actually pretty good-looking blokes. If not airbrush model perfect, a bit of airbrushing and they would seem it. The same with the women who would have been available for photos when this was being done - so we couldn't have had the kind of photos you suggest above anyway.

Humour is a risky business. Almost anything that many people think is funny, others think is offensive. One strategy (the one we effectively chose) is to poke fun at people who we believe see it as humourous rather than offensive - in this case ourselves. The alternative is to find something that almost nobody thinks is offensive (there will still be someone). On the other hand, if that leads to something that few people think is funny, it was probably not worth the effort. Especially as an essentially throw-away joke.

Maybe next year's April Fool's press release will look a little less offensive...

Opera Software ASA wishes everyone a hysterically funny 1st of April. We trust that people will make inoffensive, yet sidesplittingly humourous content and put it on the web, for people to read and laugh at. We would like to remind people that with Opera, you can laugh at these jokes anywhere. Thanks to our ERA technology, we can provide access to this mirth and jollity on the bus, on the loo, on the job, on the go, in the privacy of your own home or the company of an internet cafe full of friends and strangers.

Opera Software ASA is headquertered in Oslo, the hilarious capital of Norway, and likes to laugh at frankly risible unfavourable comparisons to similar products. Employing almost 300 jokers from around the world, it's a scream of a place to work.

(Maybe it's not such a bad thing I work on standards, not marketing ).

There is a difference between misandry (or misogyny or misanthropy, for that matter) and being able to laugh at jokes about men (women, people...). The difference is in whether you lok at people and simply see them as "other", unrelated to you, or related to a part of yourself for which you have no respect, or whether you look at them and see an aspect of yourself that you hadn't considered in that way, that doesn't threaten your self-respect or respect for others, but does momentarily give a ridiculous perspective.

I wonder why you didn't consider the other potential subtext of the viagra joke - that what was on offer wasn't quite good enough for the bloke, who was therefore looking for something more (in the same way as the woman in ad 1). Again, this is simply a superficial exercise in playing with perceptions, somewhat lacking in depth. In other words, a silly joke that appealed to us, and which we hoped people would find funny.

(Do you really think that Opera employs people so narrow minded as to base their worldview on a single text, rather than read it, extract what might be interesting, use it to weigh up the other things read, seen, experienced, heard in a lifetime? That's not a very flattering opinion of our intelligence, but it is a wonder that such a simplistic group would produce a good product. But I suspect I misunderstood something).

first line of defense, second line of defense... so creative. so smart. Learning a lot from you. When I can keep myself awake.

"I never called anyone ignorant in this thread"

Do you even know what "argumentum ad ignorantiam" means?

Ok, back to the original topic. Nobody agrees with you (maybe those fictitious men. And the bogeyman), so the joke wasn't the problem. The problem is the way you interpreted the message. It was just a joke.

" 'what a loser, this is funny' instead of 'this woman is virtually cheating on him, this is wrong'"

Humor is almost always 'cruel' to somebody, if you had any sense of humor you would know that.
How can you be so judgemental about someone you don't know! Even worse, about someone that doesn't exist! It's a bloody character! You should keep your "ethics" to yourself. In the real world everybody makes mistakes.

I wonder why you didn't consider the other potential subtext of the viagra joke - that what was on offer wasn't quite good enough for the bloke, who was therefore looking for something more

Now you've gone too far!..... Always making fun of women. S.

Sabrina,

I, being totally asexual and humourless, am of course not making fun of, nor judgements about, anyone. Merely in attempting to analyse the various possible rationales which those who are less uptight than myself might employ in coming to an appropriate reaction to the piece it struck me that there are other possibilities, than that offered by rulatir.



Besides, I wouldn't be game to turn up to work today if my colleagues thought I was making fun of them. Wait a minute. I didn't go to work today ...

Smile. Spring is in the air. Yay!

Hola saludos a todos soy de mexico soy nuevo en esto necesito un paro

Eivind..... such a cutie!....