Trolls — frequent online commenters with infrequent good manners — are coming to the fore in Internet culture.
As reported in the UK's MailOnline.com Friday (June 8), British woman Nicola Brookes won a landmark case in the country's High Court. It requires Facebook to reveal the identities of members who were cyber bullying her online, even issuing death threats, because she posted in support of a particular musical competitor on "The X Factor" TV show. [ Top Facebook Privacy Tweaks: How to Unfriend, Delete & Untag ]
Also on that side of the The Pond Friday, comedian Isabel Fay released an overly sweet YouTube video in which she and other victims of trolls satirically thank them for all the terrible things they've written. (Warning: some inevitable profanity in the video.)
They especially address "funkygibbon69," who relentlessly slammed Fay and other British comedians and actors such as Noel Clarke, perhaps best known for playing the hapless Mickey Smith on "Doctor Who."
Clarke, among the other performers, recorded a cheery video message quoting funkygibbon69, who wrote (but without the dashes): "you black bast--- ur films are sh-- an if I ever see u in the street im gonna cave ur head in." With a giant grin, Clarke then says "Thanks man, I look forward to that!"
But Fay's lyrics themselves are the most biting and irony drenched, for example, as she sings to a boppy beat after a Samba instrumental:
You wished me cancer and misspelled "cancer"
But I know that it's a metaphor. You hope that I will grow,
Just like the tumour you hoped would kill me
Inside the t--- on which you said you'd also like a go.
In just its first day the video, predictably, gained pages and pages of comments. Most praised it. But the trolls came out as well, including, of course, funkygibbon69, with a personal best of vile, violent ranting that made a perfect parody of himself.