As Facebook Puns Dominate News Headlines Worldwide, One Man Is Fighting Back

“Where are Facebook’s friends? Stock slide deepens‎,” the Associated Press wondered recently. “Facebook’s flotation: more pokes than likes‎,” The Guardian quipped. “Status change for Facebook’s IPO?,” MSNBC questioned. After all the awful Facebook puns in headlines over the last few weeks, TechCrunch couldn’t hold back any longer — “After Years Of Flirting, Facebook And Apple Set To Achieve Relationship Status In iOS 6.”

But do not fear, dear readers. A champion has emerged to hold the perpetrators accountable. And you may know him.

Former TechCrunch writer and current karaoke competitor Jason Kincaid is taking Facebook pun headlines, marking them up with a digital red editor’s pen (via Skitch, I’m pretty sure), adding a few critical thoughts, and posting the results up on a site called Friends Don’t Let Friends Use Friends/Likes/Pokes/That “in a Relationship” Crap.

He actually started the campaign over a year ago after he found he wasn’t the only one getting upset. He hasn’t kept it up, presumably because he burnt out on blogging in general….

But Kincaid couldn’t stand idly by, he explains, as Facebook went public and took over the news cycle. So what can you do to help him on his noble quest? Email him him links and any scans of puns in print: terriblepuns (at) gmail (dot) com.

Why does all this matter, besides these headlines being annoying?

“The only reason there are puns to be made is that Facebook has gone beyond its own name by becoming a verb,” resident Facebook expert Josh Constine replied soberly, after I asked him to read a draft of this post (he’s working today despite it being his birthday — happy blogger birthday, man!). “It has cleverly co-opted words such as ‘friend’ and ‘like’ such that even conversations that have nothing to do with it conjure thoughts of the social network.”

“This isn’t something to joke about,” he added. “It’s seriously changing the way we live, and the constant puns belittle its impact.”

So, there’s lots of work to be done here, folks. Just do a Google News or Techmeme search with Facebook and any of its verbs and you’ll see what I mean.