# Michaelsoft Binbows Michaelsoft Binbows was a used computer repair store in Maebashi, Japan, whose storefront logo openly ripped off the Microsoft Windows wordmark while making a bilingual pun on the Japanese word 'binbo,' meaning 'poor.' Documented on a Japanese blog in 2001, the image slowly turned into an international image macro over the next two decades. ## Origin The earliest documentation came from a Japanese personal blog called 'Alf's Room,' which published a photo of the shop on July 20, 2001[1]. The post includes a fictional back-and-forth between the blog's elf mascot Alf and another character debating whether the Microsoft parody was legal, with Alf suggesting the store closed around 2002[1]. The shop sat in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, in a quiet residential block, and the real location was not pinned down for years afterward. - **Platform:** Alf's Room blog (origin) / 4chan and forums (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2001 ## Overview The joke operates on two levels at once. The storefront paired Microsoft's old four-color Windows flag with wordmark-style text swapped out for the mangled title, so English speakers see a clumsy bootleg[1]. For Japanese speakers, 'binbo' (貧乏) means poor or broke, so the store essentially advertised itself as 'Microsoft Poors,' a self-deprecating fit for a used PC repair shop[2]. Early circulation treated the storefront photo as its own punchline. Image macros that followed often added captions like 'seems legit' or layered a confused Bill Gates over the shop[8]. The template became internet shorthand for low-rent Microsoft knockoffs and any suspiciously bootleg brand aesthetic. ## How to Use The format is almost always just the storefront photo on its own, dropped as a reply or caption when something feels like a bargain-bin ripoff. Common conventions include pairing it with 'seems legit' captions, a confused Bill Gates reaction, or 'copying homework' layouts where Binbows plays the clumsy copier[9]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Michaelsoft Binbows? A now-closed used computer repair store in Maebashi, Japan, whose logo was a brazen Microsoft Windows parody that turned into an internet image macro[1]. ### Where did Michaelsoft Binbows come from? The earliest known documentation is a July 20, 2001 post on the Japanese personal blog Alf's Room[1]. Photos began circulating on Western humor sites and forums starting in 2007[5]. ### What does Michaelsoft Binbows mean? It is a bilingual pun. The Japanese word 'binbo' (貧乏) means poor or broke, so the shop was effectively calling itself 'Microsoft Cheap'[2]. ### How do you use Michaelsoft Binbows? People drop the storefront photo as a reaction to anything that looks like a bargain-bin ripoff, often with 'seems legit' captions or a confused Bill Gates overlay[8]. ### Is Michaelsoft Binbows still popular? It picked up fresh attention when Nick Robinson's May 2021 video tracking down the physical location crossed 500,000 views in a week[3]. ## References 1. [https://alf-s-room.com/etc/nandarou/binbows/index.htm]() 2. [https://consumerist.com/2010/03/03/michaelsoft-binbows-is-japanese-for-get-a-cheap-pc-here/]() 3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDzAAjzbV5g]() 4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giqZQXPi214]() 5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20091217203612/http://www.paranoias.es/michaelsoft-binbows/]() 6. [https://www.velocidadmaxima.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74597]() 7. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/michaelsoft-binbows]() 8. [https://www.facebook.com/489103154460537/posts/1181080418596137]() 9. [https://www.reddit.com/r/me_irl/comments/799v4v/me_irl/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/michaelsoft-binbows Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library