Rule number one of the Web: You don't mess with The Oatmeal.

Last day was a great yet angry day for The Oatmeal website. It faced a legal threat by Funnyjunk (another website related to the comic industry). Claiming Defamation, FunnyJunk asked for $20,000 compensation from the Oatmeal. Which the Oatmeal raised in an hour from its readers and other internet users, under a campaign mocking FunnyJunk again.

So here is the complete story.

(Enjoy the funny Blog Posts by The Oatmeal.)

Almost a year ago, the wildly popular comics artist, whose real name is Matthew Inman, wrote an angry blog post against humor aggregator website FunnyJunk, deriding the platform for allowing (and ad-serving) un-credited images of his work.

FunnyJunk fired back on Monday (11th June,2012) with a letter claiming defamation — and asking for $20,000 in damages.

Naturally, Inman then wrote an even angrier blog post that annotates the legal request. In addition to calling the claims “fiction” and the lawyer, media attorney Charles Carreon, a “jackass,” he carefully detailed his plan to respond to the letter:

• I’m going to try and raise $20,000 in donations.
• I’m going to take a photo of the raised money.
• I’m going to mail you that photo, along with this drawing of your mom seducing a kodiak bear 

• I’m going to take the money and donate one half to the National Wildlife Federation and the other half to the American Cancer Society

In just over an hour, “Operation: Bearlove Good. Cancer Bad” already reached its $20,000 goal on IndieGoGo and is still climbing. At time of writing, the figure has broken past the $30,000 mark and is growing like crazy.

[ UPDATE : Over $70,000 in 7 hours. http://www.indiegogo.com/bearlovegood and currently it is $114,169 ]

“Holy shit $20,000 in 64 minutes! YOU PEOPLE ARE AMAZING,” writes Inman on his fundraiser page.

Did FunnyJunk realize what it was in for? What should TheOatmeal do next? Love to know from you. Do comment.