Anyone seen this Omicron film yet?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I think it may have been released a few weeks ago...

[Ed Gordon]

No. In a word, no.

Though social media is rife with pictures of a poster for a purported 1963 movie called "The Omicron Variant," with the shocking tagline "The Day The Earth Turned Into A Cemetery," there was actually no such film.

Irish director Becky Cheatle took to Twitter this week to admit the poster was a hoax, one she made for fun because the COVID-19 variant sounded like a good name for a classic science-fiction movie.

Hi. It's been brought to my attention that one of my posters is circulating on Spanish language Twitter as "proof" of a COVID hoax. It's just a goof because I thought Omicron Variant sounded like a 70s sci-fi movie. Please do not get sick on account of my dumb joke. Thanks https://t.co/iecwEEOVBq
— Becky Cheatle (@BeckyCheatle) December 1, 2021

Nonetheless, even though Cheatle admitted quite clearly that it was all a goof, the Internet's interest is undiminished.

As of Thursday evening, according to Google Trends, three of the top 25 searches related to "omicron" in the United States over the last day were related to the supposed movie.

According to IMDb, there was in fact a 1963 picture called "Omicron," an Italian sci-fi piece -- but that was about alien bodysnatchers, not pandemics.

Source is here.

You got me Mark! I had to google it immediately.

[Frank Angel]

even though Cheatle admitted quite clearly that it was all a goof, the Internet's interest is undiminished.

The internet -- the downfall of civilization as we know it. My one wish in my dotage, is that before I "kick the bucket" as Milton Berle says in IAMMMMMW, I want to see one huge sun flair with a massive EMP, strong enough to knock out the internet and every cellphone on the planet. I am wishing for at least a month, but wouldn't mind if the Universe Gods deem a longer punishment would be more appropriate for these stupid earthlings.

[Mike Blakesley]

Be careful what you wish for, though.... the world would come grinding to a halt almost immediately if the internet were to go down. (And all the "bad actors" in the world know that, I'm sure)

[Frank Angel]

But Mike...the world was at a halt for eons before the intermet and we seem to have done pretty well. We would survive and probably do quite nicely again without twitter and selfies and the tsunami of bullsheet that comes at us every day.

[James Biggins]

My one wish in my dotage, is that before I "kick the bucket" as Milton Berle says in IAMMMMMW, I want to see one huge sun flair with a massive EMP, strong enough to knock out the internet and every cellphone on the planet.

People under the age of forty would have to speak to one another in person. How would that work?

[Frank Angel]

Jim, they would have to take immersive courses in Conversational Interaction at school. Those classes would be filled up before everything else; they'd be in such high demand as would any teacher who'd had majored in it and had their Masters Degrees -- schools would hire them on the spot, no questions asked...background checks were a mere formality. Retirees who had no teaching experience at all could hire themselves out to tutor high school kids who could barely speak at all and even when they could, they suffered from a odd affliction -- both their thumbs would constantly move and twitch with every word...a syndrome that many found impossible to overcome, even after years of physical therapy.

[Mike Blakesley]

.the world was at a halt for eons before the intermet and we seem to have done pretty well. We would survive and probably do quite nicely again without twitter and selfies and the tsunami of bullsheet that comes at us every day.

The bullsheet, yeah..... but we have come to depend on the internet to do virtually everything when it comes to commerce. We would survive, sure, but it would set business back about 30 years and it wouldn't be pretty for a while.

I agree with you about Twitter. That (and Tik Tok) has caused way more trouble than it's worth. Social media in general is going to be the ruination of our society, if it isn't already damaged beyond fixing.

[Frank Cox]

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[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Oh noooo!!!! Not Tic-Toc....The, Financial and Stock Market communities would die in under 5 minutes if the internet disappeared. Or would we be able to survive with just Starlink?

[Ed Gordon]

Why be gloomy? Cut thy nose off to spite thy face?
Listen to me: A nose is hard to replace.

Source:

All kidding aside, until adequate regulation of social media is implemented, we are in danger of loosing more than a nose...

[Marcel Birgelen]

Oh noooo!!!! Not Tic-Toc....The, Financial and Stock Market communities would die in under 5 minutes if the internet disappeared. Or would we be able to survive with just Starlink?

Musk's ultra-hyper-net-in-the-sky would probably the first to be fried in one massive solar flare or other global EMP event. The global fiber infrastructure will probably fare quite well, but we still need power to operate those.

I don't think that social media is just a force of evil. Especially in times like this, it's great that people can keep in touch over great distances and without too much efforts. But we've allowed the big corporates to dominate us. The Internet was all about "open standards", that's what e-mail and the World Wide Web are based upon, but nowadays we use "Zoom", "WhatsApp" or "FaceTime" instead of those open standards. We've given away the freedom of the Internet and allowed them to use us as their product and not the other way around.

[Brad Miller]

Mark, you've been around the forums for what, 20 years? It seems you have forgotten there are no teaser subjects permitted.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Sorry, I actually did realized that after my editing time expired. I was going to change it to "Anyone Seen This Omicron Film Yet"...