A report by - Heather Spoonheim
Just in case you have been confused by recent buzz about TamTamPamela and the resulting YouTube flamewars, I thought I would summarize the history here. For the past year, a girl calling herself TamTamPamela has been posting videos to YouTube which echo some extremely fundamentalist Christian views. Several atheists had been adding harsh comments to her channel, but she seemed rather unfazed and continued to upload videos of the same format.
After the March 11th earthquake in Japan, TamTamPamela posted a video in which she rather charismatically thanked god for grabbing the atheist nation of Japan by the shoulders and giving them a good shake to show them the error of their heathen ways. Her glassy eyed joy at the Japanese tragedy sparked greater outrage than her previous videos, grabbing the attention of an atheist YouTube vlogger who goes by the moniker Thunderf00t.
Thunderf00t posted a video that contrasted science based reasoning with fundamentalist Christian unreasoning and compared TamTamPamela’s condemnation of Japan with that of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson’s rants about other natural disasters being directed upon the sinful by a vengeful god. Thunderf00t's subscriber base is in the six digits, and this led to TamTamPamela’s video going viral.
The comments began to stream down TamTamPamela’s page, hurling voracious threats of every kind. The search for the real TamTamPamela began and quickly yielded all of her personal contact information. Some people went as far as to credit the revelation of these details to Anonymous. Regardless of who first dug up her personal information, it rapidly spread and the threats against TamTamPamela began to include her home address and phone number. These actual details will NOT be revealed in this article because such inclusion would only increase the potential of violence against her.
By midnight on March 14th, several dozen pizzas had been ordered for delivery to TamTamPamela’s home address to ensure she would know that her address had been compromised - just in case she wasn’t keeping up with the rapidly scrolling comments on her YouTube channel. Shortly after midnight, in the wee morning hours of March 15th, TamTamPamela posted her final video, ‘coming clean’, which now only exists as a mirror. In it, she said that her fundamentalist Christian videos had been nothing more than a ruse. She admitted to being a troll, indicated she was tired of pizza, and acknowledged that things had gone a bit further than she had anticipated.
The streaming hatred shifted from her video condemning Japanese heathens to her ‘coming clean’ video. The death threats escalated, and within a few hours TamTamPamela terminated her YouTube account. Regardless of the credibility of her recantation, the anger over TamTamPamela now continues on message boards all over the internet.
There are those who hate her for her glassy eyed praise of god bringing death and destruction to the Japanese. There are those who hate her more for being a troll. There are Christians who hate her for satirizing their beliefs and, finally, there are atheists who hate her for the potential backlash her actions could create if it turns out she was motivated by some sort of misguided atheist agenda.
Whether she really was a troll or just made that claim in an attempt to cool the flames, TamTampamela is definitely the best illustration to date of Poe’s Law; "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."
Who is TamTamPamela? In my opinion she is what is known, in forum parlance, as a 'Poe'.
tamtampamela was and is hilarious. full stop. a parody is only successful (and funny) when it is widely mistaken for the real thing. it took me 3 vids to see that she was a troll and she was brilliant. 1 of the best. on the same level as weev, easily. trolling is supposed to be in bad taste. it appeals to those of us with a darker sense of humour (and a brain). it's a real shame that people are generally so backwards. watching these trolls get (figuratively) stoned to death by uninformed mobs and gov agencies (in the case of weev) is sad. it exposes how far we still need to develop socially and spiritually - which is actually part of the reason for trolling in the first place. trolling is art. and this is just the beginning.... and to tamtampamela: god is truly with u! god bless! :) x
ReplyDeleteIf you ask me trolling is just a waste of time in general to seek attention but sure I have nothing against it. What she did was crossing the line. You just don't joke about people dieing, losing everything they love, their possessions. Maybe if she did it two months later it would go unnoticed but she did it when it's still happening. People are suffering and this is just something you don't joke about. Coming clean video isn't any better. There is no sorry in it, just smiles and even if she put on a strong girl face, she shouldn't have. If you think joking over people that died or are dieing is funny than you need help my friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you for both for commenting. I am very much against trolling, although I hope she is safe. Regardless of how terribly she crossed the line, I think that once people can view the uproar that she caused in and of itself, most will find some humour in it.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing funny about thousands of people dying and thousands more loosing their homes and livlihoods. Whether it was a joke or not its left a bad taste in everyone's mouth... but not hers (makes one wonder what the hell is going on in her head).
ReplyDeleteApparently she is an agnostic teenager who thought it would be a good idea to get people riled up over the sorts of fundamentalist Christian views her parents espouse by making a video that parodied the sort of diatribe such people spew everyday.
ReplyDeleteHahah... My my, the person who said trolling was an art. Well, troll hunting is one too. And its something I enjoy very much. Trust me.
ReplyDeleteSo, Anonymous -> what exactly are you trying to say? Perhaps you should take your meds, because not all of us can hear the voices in your head.
ReplyDelete