We've also had non-internet celebrities for a long time, not to mention politicians, etc. Trying to go after one of them is going to be a bad time too.
The issue is when you try to use the law to go after someone with more _power_ than you.
The Oatmeal's power is their internet fans, but obviously FunnyJunk thought they had the same power and were on equal footing.
You probably have not been following this issue as long as others, but do you realize that in May 2011 that FunnyJunk's admin sent out a message to all of their users asking them to harass the Oatmeal?
"The FunnyJunk owner known as Admin responded with a message to all users “the Oatmeal wants to sue funnyjunk and shut it down! He thinks we're nothing more than dirty content thieves...Contact Oatmeal anyway you can!" and provided links to The Oatmeal's e-mail and Facebook page.[1] This triggered spamming by FunnyJunk users and a flame war with The Oatmeal readers."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oatmeal_and_FunnyJunk_legal...