Trolls

It’s a weird time right now, and people are alternating between boredom and incredible tension. When you add that to the really polarized political time we’re in right now, it has led to a huge rise in internet trolls, and that is fucking awful.

I think the worst part of troll culture is the weird glee they get when they make people mad. I went through that phase too, and thankfully I grew out of it. This sick joy a troll feels at “triggering” someone is awful, mostly because the joy they’re feeling is misdirected in the first place. I’ve never once been offended by a joke. What I’ve been offended by is someone thinking that a joke that terrible was funny. Things like hacky race and sex jokes aren’t funny, and they certainly aren’t offensive. They’re just disappointing.

The big moves for trolls are to a) say something racist, misogynistic, or homophobic; or b) make obviously false claims, then demand you spend your time and energy disproving something they don’t actually believe. That second one takes place a lot in political arguments. Most people know that Donald Trump is lying about most things (see: everything, all the time), and they don’t actually believe him. But they get such a bizarre thrill out of “owning the libz” that they’ll repeat the nonsense over and over because all they care about is making people mad.

My most recent troll interaction was particularly bizarre. I’d commented in a meme group that a racist joke was bad (and racist). In response, one of the joke’s defenders went to my personal page, then to my comedy page, then looked me up on youtube. He watched one of my clilps all the way through, gave it a thumbs down, then tried to make fun of the last joke I told in the set. So . . . he gave me a view, caused a negligible impact on my likes percentage, and then cited a joke that has gotten me paid work as an example of why he doesn’t like me. It was pretty nuts.

By the way, the go to move for a troll is always to say things like “you’re not funny.” Problem with that is, yeah . . . I am. I’m definitely not BIll Burr, Sammy Obeid, or Nikki Glaser, but I do get paid to tell jokes when we’re not in a quarantine and are allowed to leave our houses. So the blanket “you’re not funny” is a stupid waste. But even if you really don’t like my humor, the day I’m heartbroken that someone who thinks calling a picture of a kid with a weedwhacker “homeschool Spanish class” doesn’t think I’m funny? I’ll fucking kill myself.

This one got a little dark at the end there, didn’t it? Times are weird, gang. But we’re gonna be okay. Scout’s honor.