In 2001 when Mac OS X was first released, it was forgivable. In 2012, it’s not only old, it’s just downright lazy. I’m talking about those pathetic headlines that Web sites use to usher in a new release of Apple’s operating system. You know the ones I’m talking about — “Mountain Lion roars” or “Mountain Lion leaps.”
I asked my Twitter followers for their favorites and they came through for me. Here is a list of the worst Mountain Lion headlines. If you’re on this list, it’s not just me laughing at you, it’s your readers too.
-
Cat power: Apple’s Mountain Lion is quickly marking its territory — VentureBeat
-
Is Apple’s Mountain Lion About to Roar Into Life on Wednesday? — YouGadgetGuide
-
Apple OSX Mountain Lion now out in the wild — GMA News Online
-
Apple’s new Mountain Lion for Macs roars — ABC News and USA Today
-
Mountain Lion 10.8 first impressions: sweetly purring along!
-
Apple OS X Mountain Lion uncaged — Techwatch
-
Let out a little roar, Mountain Lion Mac OS X is finally here! — Shiny Shiny
-
Lion roars into app store — Fox couldn’t even get the name of the operating system right.
-
After 2 days, OS X Mountain Lion adoption already outrunning Lion — GigaOM
-
Apple’s Mountain Lion Off to a Roaring Start — AllThingsD
-
Unleash A Mountain Lion On Your Mac For Just $19.99 — Mobile Magazine
-
Mountain Lion leaps from Cupertino’s servers — Tech Trader
I’ve read most of those articles. It’s not just the headlines that were stupid, lame and lazy.
I didn’t think the GigaOm one was so bad. it might not have been intentional anyway.
even I was of the same opinion!
Time for em to say something like Mountain Lion Barks!
How about this for a headline:
Apple Fanatic Finds Yet Another Trivial Thing to Complain Abou-ROAR!!!
On the other hand, Ars has their head screwed on tight. They’ve figured out that the star’s name goes above the title itself. Their review is called “John Siracusa’s Ars Technica Review”.
agreed, I dont think Giga Om should be on this list. Same for AllThingsD. And given the Game of Thrones mania I thought someone would have used ‘Hear the (Mountain) Lion roar!’ 😀
I’d like to know how many of these headlines were concocted by the people who actually wrote the articles, as opposed to their “editors” who can think of nothing but SEO-generated page hits.
I’m glad someone is collecting a list of this shit this year. (Seriously.)
Yup. If the GigaOm one is an intentional pun, they’ve perfectly nailed subtle. Completely deniable. “Outrun” is a perfectly fine word for “faster.”
As a former newspaper editor, gotta say with shame and sorrow that it’s probably an editor, not the reporter, who coined these cliches. Where I live, we have a daily whose copy editors seem never to let a story get in the way of a bad pun. Yuk.
…hey, at least we’ve been spared the “Cougar” jokes…..so far….
I thought GMA News “out in the wild” was more original than most.
This problem has long afflicted Apple articles in general, particular on the financial news sites. If there’s a problem, it must always be “Worm in the Apple”, or “Rotten Apple”, or some other such nonsense. I’ve become somewhat inured to it over the years, but it still grates.
Ah, I see. That’s the stage we’re in now. 1. Exist->saturate 2. Attempt cleverness->saturate 3. Critique previously highly regarded cleverness->saturate 4. Revive cleverness as retro or ironic. We’re in full stage 3.
When Star Trek (2009) came out, I made a Tumblr of the stupid, lame and lazy reviews that used the same old tired Trek cliches. It was depressing how easy it was to find them. http://boldlyhack.tumblr.com
Facepalms all around, to be sure. Most of them don’t surprise me, but there are a couple of actually respectable news sources in there. So sad.
Agreed.
Sure it’s lazy but what else are they gonna go with?
It was my assumption that they teach you to intentionally do puns when you study journalism. Am I wrong? Well then why is it common practice in news media? I never liked it, but it just seemed the common practice.
Immediately after writing this comment I head over to Engadget and what’s the first story I read (just published) was “Ice Cream Sandwich takes a bite out of Gingerbread, represents 15.9 percent of Android devices” You have got to be kidding me. If punny headlines isn’t a conspiracy then you had me fooled.