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Post by Tea Rex on Feb 10, 2017 22:13:41 GMT -5
I've never actually seen a Kaufman film (I know I need to change this) but I need to put this thread in perspective. The night is young. Watching "Being John Malkovich" right now could really lend some perspective on this situation. The perspective being "maybe we're all just meat puppets run by a conglomerate of olds!"
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Post by rimjobflashmob on Feb 10, 2017 22:16:14 GMT -5
I've never actually seen a Kaufman film (I know I need to change this) but I need to put this thread in perspective. The night is young. Watching "Being John Malkovich" right now could really lend some perspective on this situation. Oh I've seen that! For some reason I thought that was a Michel Gondry joint.
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Post by Floyd Diabolical Barber on Feb 10, 2017 22:29:38 GMT -5
So, we're just accepting that cat cafes are a real thing? I tried to go to one today, and they chastised me for not having a reservation. What kind of wine goes with cat?
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moimoi
AV Clubber
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Post by moimoi on Feb 10, 2017 22:36:35 GMT -5
Looking forward to the next Chicago meetup since I can't currently prove my existence through last year's group photo with ayatollahcm (I came in late!). MrsLangdonAlger - did you take any pics at Kopi (which would also substantiate MrsJayeDavidson over at the Avocado who is a good friend of mine IRL)? Looking forward to meeting John Pertwees Shameless Gurning, since after outing yourself, I looked you up on LinkedIn and learned we also have mutual friends through my former workplace. I think PatBat best expressed my shock over this revelation and subsequent wariness/unease. I'd like to believe that the people I'm talking to are being as honest with me as I am with them, but either way - whoever you people are - you crack me up and I'm glad I'm here.
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Post by Floyd Diabolical Barber on Feb 10, 2017 22:45:57 GMT -5
Looking forward to the next Chicago meetup since I can't currently prove my existence through last year's group photo with ayatollahcm (I came in late!). MrsLangdonAlger - did you take any pics at Kopi (which would also substantiate MrsJayeDavidson over at the Avocado who is a good friend of mine IRL)? Looking forward to meeting John Pertwees Shameless Gurning, since after outing yourself, I looked you up on LinkedIn and learned we also have mutual friends through my former workplace. I think PatBat best expressed my shock over this revelation and subsequent wariness/unease. I'd like to believe that the people I'm talking to are being as honest with me as I am with them, but either way - whoever you people are - you crack me up and I'm glad I'm here. I will vouch for moimoi's existence (Or at least someone claiming to be moimoi) at last years St. Pat's day (or thereabout) meetup. I hope I can attend another Chicago meetup this year, and also, I asked in the meetup thread if anyone was thinking of watching this year's total eclipse (Aug 21) from the southern Illinois area. GF and I hope to, and since it isn't that large a geographical area, if anybody else is, it might be an opportunity for a meetup. By the way, Amtrak runs from Chicago to Carbondale, and back, every day.
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Post by Stuffed Salvador on Feb 10, 2017 22:48:22 GMT -5
Is it weird that the first thing I thought of when I read the doc was 'Maybe it's a good thing I stopped commenting on AVC?' Also, yes people I'm real. I think
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dLᵒ
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𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝓦𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓸𝓵 𝓨𝓮𝓽?
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Post by dLᵒ on Feb 10, 2017 22:54:03 GMT -5
almost all pictures that even I have of me are available by typing "Edmonton mosquito" into Google image search. holy shit we have a celebrity on here
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Feb 10, 2017 22:55:26 GMT -5
I love that right after the shock of the catfishing our second instinct is to prove we are who we say we are.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Feb 10, 2017 23:10:04 GMT -5
I love that right after the shock of the catfishing our second instinct is to prove we are who we say we are. I'm not 100% sure I'm me, but I'm open to being convinced.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Feb 10, 2017 23:14:37 GMT -5
For the record the only person I've met is Lone Locust of the Apocalypse. But then living in Ireland and also being a recluse does not make for many connections. I do record a podcast with other members of this site though. Otherwise there's no real evidence I exist; I have posted less selfies online than 'Harriet Peters' did.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Feb 10, 2017 23:27:10 GMT -5
So, just to be my overly sincere self:
For those of us who were in closer contact with Buzz and Opera Punk, are y'all doing okay? I know this has got to have left people pretty shaken.
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Post by rimjobflashmob on Feb 11, 2017 0:01:39 GMT -5
I love that right after the shock of the catfishing our second instinct is to prove we are who we say we are. Djse can vouch for me, and the fact that I own a Frasier T-shirt. Unless he is in it for the longest of cons, in which case YOU CAN PRY THE $31 IN MY BANK ACCOUNT FROM MY COLD, DEAD FINGERS. Haha! Just kidding, I don't have 31 whole dollars in my bank account.
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Post by The Narrator Returns on Feb 11, 2017 0:15:16 GMT -5
I haven't commented here in like three years, but I just want to confirm that I do, in fact, exist and am not Steven Soderbergh (unless there's some dense time-travel shit coming). I was lucky enough to not be subjected to the malevolent mind games this person was pulling on several others, but I was still pretty goddamn shaken up by this, and am awed by all the accounts of those who did interact with them on Twitter or elsewhere.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Feb 11, 2017 0:57:12 GMT -5
My guess, based on how long ago the account started, is that this didn't start as a catfish, it's that at some point he made up a fake girlfriend and trying to cover it led to more and more ludicrous attempts to cover it. Eventually he had to blow up the account. If that's what happened, it's reasonably likely hes started a second account and is back on the site. It's possible that's an overly charitable reading, though. That's how I read it, too. Of course, his regular account, pre-fake girlfriend, was often inclined toward dramatic statements of suicidal intent (along with voluminous pop culture commentary and otherwise normal AVC content, of course); I don't figure that was catfishing so much as a more mundane desire for affirmation and attention.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Feb 11, 2017 1:59:15 GMT -5
This is pretty bizarre, even for the internet. Which is really saying something. How does someone have time to do this for so long? That's amazing.
However, it is really creepy that someone is stealing and using some other person's photos. I hope whoever is looking into this can somehow put a stop to this?
It seems so weird to me that someone would make a fake identity to comment on a site where (nearly) everyone commenting are strangers using pseudonyms.
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Feb 11, 2017 2:18:49 GMT -5
Goddamn, this is scary and sad. I remember seeing E Buzz and OperaPunk around and thinking they were cool, and seeing their relationship as a happy ending of sorts, and then being saddened to find out he had killed himself - and all of it was fake. Wow. Pretty clearly this person is dealing with some form of mental illness. The sheer loneliness that it must take to invent a significant other, and put so much work into it - it's heartbreaking to think about it. But at the same time this person deceived a whole lot of good people into grieving for 'him,' which I imagine would be hard to forgive. (I exist, but I'm really lame, so I don't feel like there's any point in trying to prove it.) I finally finished the Google doc and now I want to vomit. And call Interpol. I can only imagine how violated I'd feel if I ever actually interacted with the fuck, or was the innocent person he was claiming to be married to. Jesus fucking Christ. MrsLangdonAlger or swagonion , can one of you reach out to AVC and have them take down that obituary? It's fucked that Miss Anthropy's real death got overshadowed by his fake one. If it is, then it could potentially be a current or former AVC staffer, as I've heard it alluded to that ZMF (who, fuck, recorded an in-house audio commentary for Crank 2 for them) is one of the writer's persona. In the same way that it's alluded to that Tarkovsky's Former AD is also a writer, and the barely-a-secret that Cookie Monster is Mike Vago (who had been commenting as Cookie for years before his job with AVC) The knowledge that Cookie is Mike Vago almost makes up for this shitshow. I'd love to know which staffer ZMF is, if he is one. He's a Dril-level surreal internet personality in my book. I follow him on Twitter now and he's great. I don't even know what to think. When I found out he died, I was with my family on vacation and I had to go into another room to cry about it. Someone I didn't even know, but for their online persona. And it was such a nice, thoughtful gesture that they posted it on AVClub out of respect for the community. And now none of that is real. And they've just been posting away on Twitter. No one's called them on it? I had a hard time scrolling down through this thread at first because I knew there would be comments like this. Not because this sort of comment is bad, but because it takes genuine goodness to connect with somebody the way so many people connected with Buzz, and to have the whole thing be a fucking scam is just remarkably cruel.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2017 3:17:36 GMT -5
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Post by pairesta on Feb 11, 2017 8:01:47 GMT -5
Oh man, Opera Punk was all over the RIP Buzz newswire. At the time I thought it was weird that she was able to even function or wanted to hang out there, but I chalked it up to them seeming to have become estranged before his "death". Now I realize it was just him, soaking up all that attention. I wonder if he felt any kind of regret when he saw how much it tore people up.
Also, didn't he have an account here? Can he see this?
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Post by Ben Grimm on Feb 11, 2017 8:09:10 GMT -5
Also, didn't he have an account here? Can he see this? Both Buzz and Opera Punk have accounts. Buzz isn't listed as having been online since June, OP since August. I wouldn't be shocked if he/they have a third account on the site, but I don't think we need to get paranoid about it.
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Post by pairesta on Feb 11, 2017 8:11:45 GMT -5
Also, didn't he have an account here? Can he see this? I wouldn't be shocked if he/they have a third account on the site, but I don't think we need to get paranoid about it. That's just the sort of thing Buzz would say if he created a third account! Get him!
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Post by Ben Grimm on Feb 11, 2017 8:13:49 GMT -5
I wouldn't be shocked if he/they have a third account on the site, but I don't think we need to get paranoid about it. That's just the sort of thing Buzz would say if he created a third account! Get him! Trying to get me is objective proof that you're the real Buzz! Everybody, get HIM!
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Feb 11, 2017 8:22:03 GMT -5
Oh man, Opera Punk was all over the RIP Buzz newswire. At the time I thought it was weird that she was able to even function or wanted to hang out there, but I chalked it up to them seeming to have become estranged before his "death". Now I realize it was just him, soaking up all that attention. I wonder if he felt any kind of regret when he saw how much it tore people up. Also, didn't he have an account here? Can he see this? Both accounts were banned as soon as the news hit us like a tidal wave of gruesome.
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Post by Murray the Demonic Skull on Feb 11, 2017 8:55:30 GMT -5
Yep. First time I've banned a dead guy.
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Post by haysoos on Feb 11, 2017 9:48:50 GMT -5
Also, didn't he have an account here? Can he see this? Both Buzz and Opera Punk have accounts. Buzz isn't listed as having been online since June, OP since August. I wouldn't be shocked if he/they have a third account on the site, but I don't think we need to get paranoid about it. At least this is pretty good evidence that they are not also Fatman.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Feb 11, 2017 10:26:51 GMT -5
Both Buzz and Opera Punk have accounts. Buzz isn't listed as having been online since June, OP since August. I wouldn't be shocked if he/they have a third account on the site, but I don't think we need to get paranoid about it. At least this is pretty good evidence that they are not also Fatman. ^^ This is exactly the sort of thing Fatman would say ...
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Post by ComradeQuestions on Feb 11, 2017 11:08:03 GMT -5
Oh man, Opera Punk was all over the RIP Buzz newswire. At the time I thought it was weird that she was able to even function or wanted to hang out there, but I chalked it up to them seeming to have become estranged before his "death". Now I realize it was just him, soaking up all that attention. I wonder if he felt any kind of regret when he saw how much it tore people up. Also, didn't he have an account here? Can he see this? Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't "they" decide to have an open marriage at some point, which seemed to really break him up? Like, he seemed really depressed about it. I felt bad for thinking this at the time, but after his "death", when she was the grieving widow, I thought it strange that she seemed to feel like she had no role in his depression.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2017 11:15:30 GMT -5
Murray knows I exist because he mailed me cigarettes. Or...he mailed SOMEONE cigarettes. Which were delicious.
Maybe Baron von Costume and I should meet up and confirm each other's existence, since we both live in the "godless frozen hellscape that is Winnipeg" (Munster, 2017).
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Feb 11, 2017 11:23:12 GMT -5
Man, this whole thing is just so fucked up. As others have said, who has the time and inclination to devote to all this? I know I spend a lot of free time dicking around here and TOC, but not enough to make up a whole other persona. I used online personas when I first started using the internet when I was 12, because it was 1997 and I had it drilled into my head that the internet was full of perverted weirdos who would find you and kidnap you if you told them your real identity, but I relaxed that by age 17 or so.
With me, what you see is basically what you get. I don't really hide much, except my last name because it's so unique that it's (far too) easy to track me down if you know it. But if you really wanted, you could track me down anyway based on my commenting history without it. But at least several people here can vouch for my existence in meatspace thanks to DC meetups.
I wasn't terribly close with E.Buzz or OperaPunk, but I had seen them both posting a lot when I was much more of a lurker, and I was saddened by his "death", as I was by Miss Anthropy's. IIRC there was an actual obituary for her, and she requested donations be made to her local food bank in her name, which I did. This pisses me off, not because I feel duped (though I do) but because it really hurt a lot of people to lose E.Buzz, and whether or not it was meant maliciously, it still caused them grief and sorrow. I don't have any respect for people who would play with others' emotions like that.
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Feb 11, 2017 12:01:08 GMT -5
This by far out-weirds anything else we've ever had go on in this fucking insane forum. Jesus. This is my response—just pure, slack-jawed amazement, plus a feeling of relief that it didn’t get weirder or more outwardly malicious (à la Fatman, whose initial forays into the AVC ca. 2012 were also very much along the lines of “Your community is so wonderful—I’m announcing my suicide [so Phipps can talk me down and I can get a huge ego boost]”). Not that his psychodramas weren’t a sort of malice, of course, but to quote someone from the AVC Star Trek Review Boards facebook page, “No one should be assamed of their compassion.” In any event I think back to stumbling upon Sluggo’s blog, where he claimed that he put more effort into trolling the AVC than saving his marriage. Internet comments are too often a crutch.
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Post by Jimmy James on Feb 11, 2017 12:07:12 GMT -5
Remember when he called us all jackanapes? So someone who didn't even exist didn't like us. That stings. I think the more optimistic way of phrasing it is that people who don't like us don't exist. Also (because I spend too much time lurking here, even when I don't spend too much time commenting here) I had the rather petty reaction, "WE TRUSTED YOU! WE NAMED ONE OF THE COMMIES AFTER YOU!" Now I'm wondering if there should instead be an eponymous award for the most involved lie.
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