200! Critical Thinking: The Art of Pissing People Off From The World’s Greatest Internet Troll

06 takeaways from this video:

00:00:01 Ken M. is known as ‘the world’s greatest internet troll.’ All his profile photos are either anonymous or fake, and he leaves vague and well-meaning comments all over the internet and then proudly displays their aftermath on his twitter, facebook, reddit, and tumblr pages.

Ken M started as a respectable and conscientious commenter on Yahoo! news forums, but became so tired of the futility of trying to have intelligent discussions that he just decided one day to stop being rational.

Internet trolling is like ‘bringing a banana to a gun fight.’

00:03:18 Dysfunctional comments sections and news posts who attract an older audience make the easiest targets.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: I suppose this is because dysfunctional comments sections aren’t usually monitored, and because it’s hard to tell whether or not commenters are serious. Tightly knit communities would probably block or ignore him.]

00:03:30 Borschet Belt comedy is ‘rapid-fire, often self-depreciating style humor, and include themes about bad luck, puns, physical aches and pains, and annoying relatives and colleagues.

00:03:54 Usually when you post a troll comment you expect the conversation to be predictable enough that you can direct it towards your intended punchline, and the other people involved will never realize they were involved in a joke. The challenge is when people respond to you in ways you weren’t expecting, and so must adapt to the conversation without getting caught.

It’s especially fun when people assume I am as naive as I appear to be and try to help me out.

00:04:45 Another fun aspect to trolling is with brands because no matter how preposterous the comment, the brand’s official respresentatives HAVE TO be polite and helpful.

Jimmy Dean Sausage once mailed me nearly 8 pounds of sausage after trolling them on their Facebook page.

00:06:18 The amount of hatred and insulting online is ridiculous, and it’s disappointing that it seems those who participate in it find it necessary to be assholes. I (Ken M) enjoy redirecting it towards something more light-hearted and funny.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: For more on distinguishing Jerks and Assholes, watch my lecture Managing Age, Cultural & Personality Differences, Jerks & Assholes.]