"The day I made that statement, about the inventing the internet, I was tired because I'd been up all night inventing the Camcorder"
About this Quote
It lands because it’s self-mockery with a purpose: Al Gore takes one of modern politics’ stickiest caricatures (the guy who “claimed he invented the internet”) and flips it into a punchline so exaggerated it neutralizes the accusation. “Up all night inventing the Camcorder” isn’t a brag; it’s a deliberately ridiculous escalation that signals, to anyone listening in good faith, that he knows the meme and refuses to litigate it on its opponents’ terms.
The context matters. Gore’s original line about having “taken the initiative in creating the internet” was political and procedural, not Promethean. But the soundbite culture of the late 1990s and early 2000s rewarded the most mockable version of a statement, especially when it fit an existing narrative: technocratic, stiff, self-serious. This quip is a media adaptation, not a policy argument. It’s a veteran politician learning to speak in the grammar of late-night television, where credibility is often earned through preemptive humility rather than corrective footnotes.
The subtext is sharper than it looks: the internet story wasn’t just about Gore’s ego, it was about who gets to be seen as an “inventor” in public life. By joking about “inventing” a consumer gadget, he exposes how unserious the whole framing is. It’s a reminder that public contributions are usually incremental, collaborative, and boring - and that our culture often prefers a punchline to the truth unless you deliver the truth as one.
The context matters. Gore’s original line about having “taken the initiative in creating the internet” was political and procedural, not Promethean. But the soundbite culture of the late 1990s and early 2000s rewarded the most mockable version of a statement, especially when it fit an existing narrative: technocratic, stiff, self-serious. This quip is a media adaptation, not a policy argument. It’s a veteran politician learning to speak in the grammar of late-night television, where credibility is often earned through preemptive humility rather than corrective footnotes.
The subtext is sharper than it looks: the internet story wasn’t just about Gore’s ego, it was about who gets to be seen as an “inventor” in public life. By joking about “inventing” a consumer gadget, he exposes how unserious the whole framing is. It’s a reminder that public contributions are usually incremental, collaborative, and boring - and that our culture often prefers a punchline to the truth unless you deliver the truth as one.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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