Apple Introduces "iPad," Internet Jokes Ensue. iTampon, Anyone?

MadTV was all over the iPad before Steve Jobs had a clue. (OK, he apparently still doesn't.) Video from 2007.

Whatever one thinks of the technology or functions of the iPad that Steve Jobs introduced today, two things are clear: 1. Jobs doesn't have any women in his inner circle, and 2. he doesn't watch MadTV. The blogosphere and Twitterverse were buzzing Wednesday with jokes about the name iPad and how it sounds like some kind of, um, feminine protection.

For much of Wednesday night, "iTampon" and "iPeriod" were trending topics, ahead of the product's name. Jokes floated around beginning immediately after Jobs spoke the word iPad: wondering if the high-capacity version called a Maxi-iPad; remarking that the gizmo is "bloody brilliant," etc. You get the idea.

And yes, MadTV saw the comic gold in iPad as a feminine hygiene product back in 2007, as the clip above shows. Seriously, no one in the top levels of Apple watches MadTV? No woman was privvy to the product information and said, "Umm, bad name, guys"?

Having the most unbridled fun at the iPad's expense was Rachel Sklar, editor-at-large for the Mediaite Web site. Sklar's Twitter stream was full of iPad cracks Wednesday, and I couldn't stop reading them.

Fortunately, Sklar wrote a column collecting many of the funny iPad jokes, as well as the MadTV video and a photo of Steve Jobs speaking in front of a blowup of the iPad (with wings for added protection PhotoShopped in). And she announced the article with the following tweet:

"My Bloody iValentine: Welcome, Apple iPad! More iPad jokes! Absorbent + fresh!"

A couple of Sklar's previous tweets on the iPad:
"Convenient! When your iPad spends a lot of time with other iPads, they sync up."
and:
"If you take your iPad with you in the ocean, you're more likely to get eaten by a shark."

Of course, if the iPad functions well and becomes a big seller, all this joking will just be a one-day story in the Twitterverse. If not, it'll be an even bigger blunder than Apple's Newton.