Apple unveiled its newest lineup of high-tech goodies Wednesday, and if you managed to stay awake during the bloated two-hour presentation and filter out the filler content, it’s an impressive slate. One item, however, has caught the attention of the Internet’s bullshit brigade, which was quick to pounce on the accessory designed for the new iPad Pro, the equally affected and silly Apple Pencil.
You know you’re in trouble when even “Moons Over My Hammy” slinger Denny’s is mocking you:
introducing denny's toothpick.
your teeth, performing at full potential. pic.twitter.com/a8uxWmAwXF
— Denny's (@DennysDiner) September 9, 2015
Yes, it seems like a cool tool for the tech company’s flagship digital sketchbook, capable of drawing and painting and dragging and doing everything else that your standard-issue Wacom tablet has done for almost a decade. Is it worth getting if you’re an artistically inclined iPad owner? Definitely. Does hyping up the white stick as a technologically advanced wand and giving it a pretentiously simple name do anything but smack of overdesign and a justification for a relatively hefty price tag of $100? Nope.
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Apple Pencil gets laughs in a room of people specifically chosen not to laugh at dumb names of things.
— Jeff Cannata (@jeffcannata) September 9, 2015
2014: bigger phones!
2015: apple pencil
2016: apple fax machine
2017: apple pager
2018: apple abacus
https://t.co/LLJe2QWSWv
— arit john (@aritbenie) September 9, 2015
"Oh, and one more thing..."
[Tim Cook walks up to the TV, writes on it with Apple Pencil like a digital whiteboard]
[Thunderous applause]
— Christopher Mims (@mims) September 9, 2015
Looking forward to the second-generation Apple Pencil, the No. 2 Pencil.
— ᴠᴀɴᴄᴇ ʟᴜᴄᴀꜱ (@vlucas) September 9, 2015
Apple Pencil. Can no longer tell parody from genuine.
— Latent Ella (@latentexistence) September 9, 2015
See if you can pick out the exact moment the Apple Pencil was introduced. pic.twitter.com/BpJQjwqz47
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) September 9, 2015
As many people were quick to point out, OG Apple visionary Steve Jobs openly derided the concept of a stylus years ago:
RIP Steve Jobs. (h/t @fmanjoo) pic.twitter.com/EAcFtnHNix
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) September 9, 2015
OK, laugh now. But let’s be real—it’s only a matter of weeks before we’ll be seeing these things magnanimously wielded in public by hipsters and yuppies pantomiming their way through a physical humblebrag, conducting an orchestra of high-design condescension on those of us who are still stuck in the drab past with just a mere “stylus,” suddenly the cultural equivalent of a stubby, bite-marked Dixon Ticonderoga.
As a wise man once said, “Laugh hard, it’s a long ways to the bank.”