Osama bin Laden This article is more than 12 years old

Bin Laden jokes flood Twitter as news of death spreads

This article is more than 12 years old'They should have captured Bin Laden alive and made him continually go through airport security for the rest of his life'

The death of Osama bin Laden was met by a predictably rapid barrage of online jokes. Within hours, and as details of the attack were still emerging, there was frenzied comment on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Versions of "Osama dead: Donald Trump demands the death certificate" were quickly tweeted, retweeted and posted. Sikipedia, meanwhile, was swiftly adding to "the world's best collection of sick jokes". Posts included "So, Osama Bin Laden is dead. Shall we have another bank holiday?"

On Twitter, Prodnose – aka the comedian Danny Baker – was getting in on the act. "Taliban say Bin Laden death a 'setback' but won't give up on dream of world domination until 'mathematically impossible'.

Dave Gorman added: "Now would be a good time to release bad news. If only everyone who had bad news to get out of the way hadn't released it on Friday."

And DanaArikane wrote: "They should have captured Bin Laden alive and made him continually go through airport security for the rest of his life."

Paul-Arthur on Quora wrote: "Bin Laden must have had his contact info in his PSN [PlayStation] account" (there were myriad variations on this theme involving iPhone apps and Facebook) and "RIP Osama bin Laden, World Hide and Go Seek Champion (2001-2011)".

On Yahoo one user offered: "What did al-Qaida learn from Osama bin Laden's death? Location, location, location."

Alaskanyakdessert was on Youtube within an hour of the end of Obama's address saying: "At least he got to see the royal wedding before he went out." And: "This is good news for the other guys on the top 10 wanted list – finally they get to move up in the rankings."

The shelf-life of such Bin Laden "jokes" may be rather short. Soon after the initial burst of comment, Twitter users were expressing gag fatigue. By 10.13am amyplusbaby tweeted: "Oh I am so over hearing Osama jokes/hearing about him at all. Bore OFF."

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