Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders. – Finding back the source
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/09/15
A lot of people publish unattributed copies of the cartoon “Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”, so I tried finding it back.
I found out that the Google Image Search has deteriorated to the point where it could not find the 2012 original.
Luckily [Wayback/Archive] Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders. – Google Suche did find the original.
So, without further ado, these are links, the original cartoons by [Wayback/Archive] Tom Toro, first published in The New Yorker:
- [Wayback/Archive] A Cartoon from The New Yorker not dated, but the image having# profile_date_time 2012:01:25 03:41:57
[Wayback/Archive] 121126_a16995_g2048.jpg (1280×1015)
“Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
- [Wayback/Archive] The Planet Got Destroyed by Tom Toro – Date: November 26, 2012
[Wayback/Archive] the-planet-got-destroyed-tom-toro.jpg (900×805)
Description: A man and 3 children sit around a fire in a scorched wasteland.
Caption: “Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
- [Wayback/Archive] Interview: Tom Toro on His “New Yorker” Climate Cartoon – InsideHook mentions yet another date:
Tom Toro: Yeah, I looked back at it and the exact date was the 25th of November, 2012. It’s coming on the nine-year anniversary.
- [Wayback/Archive] The New Yorker on Twitter: “A #shareholder cartoon by Tom Toro: …” dated Nov 21, 2012
So now we have 4 different dates. But at least we have the year 2012 (:
Generative AI LLM imaging
This of course is a very good example of the pun of the cartoon: having computationally heavy machinery trying to encapsulate human humor in images.
With the advent of LLM generative AI (two examples: DALL-E – who includes watermarks* in generated images – and Midjourney – who doesn’t), [WaybackSave/Archive] “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.” : midjourney showed how badly AI compares to human created art:
Bored. Felt cute. Ran my favorite cartoon through Ai.
The first is DALL-E, the next four through MJ with text prompt, and the last four include an image of the original cartoon in the prompt. I used Firefly to remove text and text balloons from the renders.
Some great images, especially the first two, but I don’t think any of them top to original, which is posted at the end.
The prompt:
/imagine prompt:https://s.mj.run/zaJ7A2Demls man in tattered busines suit sitting in from of a campfire, talking to children, surrounded by apocalyptic wasteland. He says "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders." --ar 1:1
Note: [Wayback/Archive] s.mj.run/zaJ7A2Demls is a coarse version of the original cartoon used by Midjourney.
For the ones interested, the first two AI generated images
- [Wayback/Archive] 402375177-9984ff0c-8817-4d23-9c7f-00e7154d2fe3.png (1024×1024)
- [Wayback/Archive] 402375244-c396423a-ffd8-4742-81c0-bb9d7632feb2.png (2048×2048)
Watermarks
Some LLM add watermarks to their content which you can verify using [Wayback/Archive] Content Credentials at [Wayback/Archive] Content Credentials
# image metadata
I used these to verify the metadata:
- [Wayback/Archive] Metadata2Go.com: Download file – your conversion was successful
- [Wayback/Archive] View or remove EXIF metadata from the photo | Jimpl
Reddit and Imgur images
I also learned that I am not the only one being unable to open links to Reddit and Imgur images any more (Archive Today saves images, but the above Reddit ones are limited to 640 x 640 in resolution there) [Wayback/Archive] Direct links to Reddit-hosted images redirect to image page on first click : bugs:
It’s a feature, not a bug (both here and on Imgur). They really, really want you to download their shitty apps.
…
The distinction is in theAcceptrequest header. Iftext/htmlis present, Reddit will freely send you a shitty HTML image viewer instead of the raw image. This can (for the moment) be worked around by modifying or not sending that header for the entirety of thei.redd.itandpreview.redd.itdomains. There’s bound to be browser addons to do this.The fact that it doesn’t always happen? They probably haven’t deployed that change across all servers yet, or are doing A/B-testing on us.…
Thanks, managed to get it working with this extension
…
for anyone less techy, these rules work:rule type: modify request header match type: domain match rules: preview.redd.it execute type: normal header name: accept header value: */*edit: also do a second rule:rule type: modify request header match type: domain match rules: i.redd.it execute type: normal header name: accept header value: */*…
Chrome extension: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/header-editor/eningockdidmgiojffjmkdblpjocbhgh/related
…
i replaced the header value with
image/*for good measure, works well. thanks a lot for this and may modern web developers forever wake up with sweat-soaked bedsheets…
On Chrome you can use this extension and add a rule which sets
Acceptto*/*.…
…
So I copied the images with attribution to a gist, then archived that one. It’s here: [Wayback/Archive] Images from “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.” : midjourney – https://old.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/1c11pb4/yes_the_planet_got_destroyed_but_for_a_beautiful/ · GitHub
--jeroen
- 1280*1015: [Wayback/Archive] A Cartoon from The New Yorker not dated, but the image having# profile_date_time 2012:01:25 03:41:57
[Wayback/Archive] 121126_a16995_g2048.jpg (1280×1015)
“Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
Description: “A man and 3 children sit around a fire in a scorched wasteland.”; Caption: “Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
- 900*805: [Wayback/Archive] The Planet Got Destroyed by Tom Toro – Date: November 26, 2012
Description: “A man and 3 children sit around a fire in a scorched wasteland.”; Caption: “Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
- 852*690: [Wayback/Archive] s.mj.run/zaJ7A2Demls is a coarse version of the original cartoon used by Midjourney.
Description: “A man and 3 children sit around a fire in a scorched wasteland.”; Caption: “Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
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