"Internets", also known as "The Internets", is a Bushism-turned catchphrase used humorously to portray the speaker as ignorant about the Internet or about technology in general, or alternatively as having a provincial or folksy attitude toward technology. Former United States President George W. Bush first used the word publicly during the 2000 election campaign. The term gained cachet as an Internet humormeme following Bush's use of the term in the second 2004 presidential election debate on October 8, 2004.
Bush used the word Internets[a] in his third presidential debate against Al Gore on October 17, 2000:[1]
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: ... You bet there's things that government can do. We can work with the entertainment industry to provide family hour. 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, this time opposing John Kerry, Bush used the word Internets[a] in response to an audience question about a potential military draft:[2]
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[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.
^a The word "Internets" as used by Bush is capitalized in the official debate transcript. ^b The official transcript follows the word "Internets" with "(sic)". The transcript also omits the filler word "uh" preceding "Internets". Video footage of the quotation shows the full version.
Bush used Internets for a third time on May 2, 2007:
Information is moving—you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it's also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets.[3]
During a discussion on education at a Twitter-themed town hall meeting on July 6, 2011, at the White House, President Barack Obama used the term "Internets" and quickly corrected his statement.[4][5]
Reaction
On the evening of October 9, 2004, the day following the Bush/Kerry debate, Saturday Night Live parodied Bush[6] with Will Forte's impression of George W. Bush:
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.[7]
The Saturday Night Live parody was replayed the following morning on CNN's Inside Politics Sunday.[8] 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,[9][10] and spread virally on the Internet.
Last night, as I was surfing the Internets … literally: My backyard wave pool has Wi-Fi …[12]
Keith Olbermann similarly made 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[13] and political[14] blogs.
Other use of "internets"
In general, an internet (uncapitalized) results from the connection (internetworking) of at least two computer networks by establishing a gateway (router) between them. It is proper to pluralize this term. For example, RFC 1918 refers to "Address Allocation for Private Internets". However, since the establishment of the Internet, this usage has been less common.
A much lesser-known recorded use of "internets" actually preceded Bush's use in the October 17, 2000 debate with Al Gore by about eight months. It appeared in a sketch of the comedy show Upright Citizen's Brigade in the episode entitled "Music", which was aired February 7, 2000.[15] In the sketch, the host of a country-western music TV show tells a guest from New York City that "[t]here's a whole lot of things you can't learn in your fancy books and internets."
In 2010, in a Los Angeles Times interview, author Ray Bradbury (author of Fahrenheit 451), who was distrustful of modern technology, said "We have too many cellphones. We've got too many Internets."[16]
From January 14 to June 8, 2004, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 2004 United States presidential election.
The 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry, the longtime U.S. senator from Massachusetts, began when he formed an exploratory committee on December 1, 2002. On September 2, 2003, he formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. After beating John Edwards, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, and other candidates in the primaries, he became the Democratic nominee, challenging Republican incumbent George W. Bush in the general election. Kerry selected Edwards as his running mate.
The following is a timeline of events during the 2004 U.S. presidential election:
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The 2000 presidential campaign of Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States under President Bill Clinton, began when he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Carthage, Tennessee, on June 16, 1999. Gore became the Democratic nominee for the 2000 presidential election on August 17, 2000.
The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North Carolina for vice president, respectively, in the 2004 presidential election.
The United States presidential election debates were held in the 2004 presidential election. Three debates were held between Republican incumbent George W. Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry, the major candidates, and one debate was held with their vice presidential running mates, incumbent Dick Cheney and John Edwards. All four debates were sponsored by the non-profit Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which has organized presidential debates since its establishment in 1987.
JibJab is an American digital entertainment studio based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1999 by brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, it first achieved widespread attention during the 2004 US presidential election when their video of George W. Bush and John Kerry singing This Land Is Your Land became a viral hit. Initially known for political and social satire, JibJab produced commercials and shorts for clients such as Sony, Noggin, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, Sprout, NBC, Qubo, and Disney before focusing on its now-flagship personalized eCard and messaging services. In 2016, its animated sticker-making program – which has been available since 2004 – became the top App Store app by download growth.
The 2004 United States presidential election was the 55th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. The Republican ticket of incumbent President George W. Bush and his running mate incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney were elected to a second term, defeating the Democratic ticket of John Kerry, a United States senator from Massachusetts and his running mate John Edwards, a United States senator from North Carolina.
The Colbert Report is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focused on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits. Furthermore, the show satirized conservative personality-driven political talk programs, particularly Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor. The Colbert Report is a spin-off of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, where Colbert was a correspondent from 1997 to 2005.
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Albert Arnold Gore Jr. is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1985 to 1993 and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1985. Gore was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in the 2000 presidential election, which he lost to George W. Bush.
Howard Brush Dean III is an American physician, author, consultant, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 2009. Dean was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election. Later, his implementation of the fifty-state strategy as head of the DNC is credited with the Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Afterward, he became a political commentator and consultant to McKenna Long & Aldridge, a law and lobbying firm.
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