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The Art of Trolling
The Art of Trolling
The Art of Trolling
What is Trolling ?
Internet 'trolling' is the anti-social act of causing of interpersonal
conflict and shock-value controversy online. Named for the wicked
troll creatures of children's tales, trolling is purposely sowing hatred,
bigotry, racism, misogyny, or just simple bickering between others.
Trolls themselves are emotionally-immature users who thrive in any
environment where they are allowed to make public comments, like
blog sites, news sites, discussion forums, and game chat.
Nowadays, the phenomenon of trolling other people online is considered a bad thing. But it
has not always been so. Trolling was a noble cause once, perpetrated by Usenet veterans, who
would pull simple and innocent general ignorance type of jokes on unsuspecting newbies.
There was much rejoicing and a handful of tears, but in the end, people learned through
whimsical, violent allegories.
Lately, trolling has become synonymous with mass spam and viral videos, with regurgitated
catch phrases and inane jokes practiced by more computer savvy against the webplebes. Now,
how about we reverse that? I'd like to shatter this dreadful image and revitalize trolling as a
noble learn of studying. To wit, I've compiled this guide to help you get around. Here, you
will learn what trolling is and what it isn't, and how to use it to boost the quality of the
Internet as a whole.
This is the face that started it all. No one would have believed, in the last years of the
twentieth century, that a simple and innocent MS Paint job would grow into a titanic legend.
Trollface is like Yakety Sax. No occasion is too sacred to use with or against. P.S. If you don't
know what Yakety Sax is, or who Benny Hill is, please hit the tubes this very moment, check
what this is, get blazed, and then get back to reading.
Forever Alone
This is probably the wittiest drawing of a crying spud ever made. If you gaze closely, you will
notice the scrunched potato face on its tripod actually wears a semi-amused half-grin
expression that wavers between sad and smug. And there's no way of knowing the truth. As
such, it may yet become the new Da Vinci code.
Use case: Any situation where one or more parties get the short end of a stick, but deep down,
feels glad of the outcome. For instance, when you NOT get invited to other people's
weddings. In the first heartbeat, there's the fleeting moment of disappointment, the flicker of
abandonment and panic, quickly replaced by a warm, gushing feeling. Not only do you need
not participate in another tribal ritual that is absolutely identical to every other wedding
ceremony, you save money and time.
Y U No
Y U No, alternatively spelled Why U No or Why You No, sometimes capitalized, sometimes
not, is the ultimate form of disagreement with the world at large, and specific things at small.
Whenever someone tries to argue with your cunning, use Y U No to blow them apart. Y U No
also has many political and cultural undertones, which makes it even funnier.
Use case: Any disagreement with anything.
Rage Face
Much like Forever Alone, Rage Face and its variant Rage FU (the upgraded version) hides a
tricky second-layer of emotion beneath the obvious displeasure. You see rage twitching the
facial muscles, but then you wonder why there's that calm, relaxed undertone in the
expression you're seeing. Ambiguity like that can be maddening.
Use case: Like Forever Alone, except you are truly disappointed. Or when your printer runs
out of ink. Or when you download a movie and it turns out to be dubbed. Or when you realize
the online form you just filled gets blanked when you accidentally refresh the page. Of course,
like many others, it can be found in different forms,shapes and sizes.
Me Gusta
This face is what Beethoven had in mind when he wrote the Ode to Joy. If you look closely,
you'll realize it's the twin brother of Y U No, but let not subtlety confuse you. Me Gusta saves
you the hassle of spilling your emotions into prose. Rather than hammering four paragraphs
on your germ-infected keyboard about how your trip to Ibiza was great, just write Me Gusta.
The simple Spanish phrase crosses all linguistic barrier and makes your innermost feeling
plain writ to all.
Use case: When you feel satisfied or smug.
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Useful phrases
Now, if you want to impress your wife or her parents, here's a handful of phrases you must
embrace, so that your linguistic skills match your graphics skills. Using images is fine, but
what do you do when you're engaged in a heated conversation with other people and there's
no computer nearby? Be versed, talk the talk and walk the walk. In no particular order:
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One of the best way to earn lulgolds is to send links to Youtube videos, claiming they are
whatever, but make sure they point to either Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up or
Eduard Khil's Trololol song. If you're not familiar with either, run away now. You might be
excused if you don't know the latter, but this is a great opportunity to get familiar with some
proper Soviet trolling.
For the fun of it, embedded here, plus links for those of you who don't like embedded stuff.
And real links, not links to something else claiming to be something else. This is a case of
recursive trolling, also known as divide by zero.
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Rickrolling
Astley recorded "Never Gonna Give You Up" on his 1987 album Whenever You Need
Somebody. The song, his solo debut single, was a number one hit on several international
charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks and UK Singles
Chart. As a means of promoting the song, it was also made into Astley's first music video,
which features him performing the song while dancing.
Rickrolling is said to have begun as a variant of an earlier prank from the imageboard 4chan
known as duckrolling, in which a link to somewhere (such as a specific picture or news item)
would instead lead to a thread or site containing an edited picture of a duck with wheels. The
user at that point is said to have been "duckrolled".
The first known instance of a rickroll occurred in May 2007 on 4chan's video game board,
where a link to the Rick Astley video was claimed to be a mirror of the first trailer for Grand
Theft Auto IV (which was unavailable due to heavy traffic). The joke was confined to 4chan
for a very brief period.
By May 2008, the practice had spread beyond 4chan and became an Internet phenomenon,
eventually attracting coverage in the mainstream media. An April 2008 poll by SurveyUSA
estimated that at least 18 million American adults had been rickrolled. In September 2009,
Wired magazine published a guide to modern hoaxes which listed rickrolling as one of the
better known beginner-level hoaxes, alongside the fake e-mail chain letter.
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Trolololling
Eduard Khil - Trololol (link)
Eduard Anatolyevich Khil (4 September 1934 4 June 2012) was a Russian baritone singer
and a recipient of the People's Artist Award of the RSFSR. Khil became known to a western
audience in 2010 when a 1976 recording of him singing a non-lexical vocable version of the
song "I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home" became an Internet meme,
known as "Trololololololololololo" or "Trololo".
The name "Trololo" is an onomatopoeia of the distinctive way Khil vocalizes throughout the
song. The quirky and catchy video quickly became an Internet meme and Khil became known
as "Mr. Trololo" or "Trololo Man".
The Trololo video first appeared on some sites beginning on 21 February 2010, the most
prominent of those being the "Trololo" website trololololololololololo.com that rocketed the
meme into popular awareness, receiving more than 3,000,000 hits in its first month. It gained
prominence on 3 March during a segment on The Colbert Report after appearing on Red Eye
w/ Greg Gutfeld a handful of times over the previous couple of weeks. It was also parodied by
actor Christoph Waltz on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as well as Craig Reucassel on the Australian
TV show "The Chaser", and in September 2011 on the animated American television series
Family Guy in its tenth season premiere episode, "Lottery Fever".
The "Trololo" meme in turn re-ignited interest in Khil's singing career aside from his
vocalised performance; for a time, the "Trololo" website included a petition for Khil to come
out of retirement to perform on a world tour.
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Conclusion
That was long, but most necessary. Now, you know what trolling is all about and how it can
be used to better the world. Trolling allows you to fight the online pollution on its own terms.
Your friendly, conventional and chivalrous methods of yore do not apply here. Trolling is
what must be used to sanitize the net. Hopefully, this beautiful guide has provided you with
enough data to start enjoy and participating.
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