Behind the Scenes
INTERNET PERSONAS
I think that these Andy Kaufman videos are really great. There’s also a not-that-cool video on youtube (which I’m not posting because of the high ratio of boring parts) of Kaufman being interviewed by Steve Martin. Which goes like this:
Steve Martin: That character with the uh, I don’t know what kind of character it is, exactly, or where it’s from…
Andy Kaufman: That one?
Steve Martin: The one out there that you did.
Andy Kaufman: Oh no, that’s really me.
Steve Martin: Ah, and then…
Andy Kaufman: The foreign man, you mean? That’s another character.
Steve Martin: So that was really you out there, and then what are you doing now?
Andy Kaufman: Right now this is really me.
Steve Martin: Oh. And then, what about the foreign man?
Andy Kaufman: Oh, that’s just a character I do.
Steve Martin: I see. So there’s two real you’s and then there’s a character.
Andy Kaufman: There are some others also. There’s other real me’s. But the foreign man isn’t one of them.
The interview sort of reminded me of a conversation I had with Mike Young about internet personas when he was in Oakland last month. The conversation went like this:
Me: Do you think my internet persona is different form my real life one?
Mike: I always get in trouble when I answer that question.
Me: I’m not looking for any particular answer.
Mike: You’re different than your online persona.
Me: Is it disappointing?
Mike: No. It’s just different. You’re quieter and nicer that I expected.
Me: Yeah.
Mike: Is my internet persona different from real life?
Me: You’re funnier online.
Mike: I can see that.
Me: Probably because you have more time to formulate funny things to say.
Mike: Yeah.
Me: But you’re easier to talk to in real life.
Mike: That’s good.
Then we directed the conversation away from ourselves and started talking shit about the other online people we’ve met in real life.
Just kidding?
Tags: Andy Kaufman, Internet Personas, Mike Young
everybody please welcome the majestic and amazing chelsea martin to the giant
i had not thought my love for her be could be greater,
then she wrote this post
everybody please welcome the majestic and amazing chelsea martin to the giant
i had not thought my love for her be could be greater,
then she wrote this post
chelsea, good to have you here. i’m excited about your book coming out from Future Tense. i also gush about your website a lot….
(how “long time listener, first time caller” was that?)
on the subject of internet personae i don’t really have much as i have yet to meet any writers that i knew their internet selves first. sadly, my internet presence is not a persona, this is pretty much who i am all the time…
chelsea, good to have you here. i’m excited about your book coming out from Future Tense. i also gush about your website a lot….
(how “long time listener, first time caller” was that?)
on the subject of internet personae i don’t really have much as i have yet to meet any writers that i knew their internet selves first. sadly, my internet presence is not a persona, this is pretty much who i am all the time…
that’s my new favorite conversation
that’s my new favorite conversation
this is good stuff. all of it.
“You’re quieter and nicer than I expected.” i expect that might be the case in many cases.
not only due to the nature of fleshspace interaction, the contact of the human being with itself, but the freedom enabled by the internet to be dismissive and mean is like driving in a car, it’s easy to give someone the finger when you’re surrounded by metal.
“You’re quieter and nicer than I expected.” i expect that might be the case in many cases.
not only due to the nature of fleshspace interaction, the contact of the human being with itself, but the freedom enabled by the internet to be dismissive and mean is like driving in a car, it’s easy to give someone the finger when you’re surrounded by metal.
“it’s easy to give someone the finger when you’re surrounded by metal.”
i don’t know why, but that reminded me of this line: “just because i rock doesn’t mean i’m made of stone”
“it’s easy to give someone the finger when you’re surrounded by metal.”
i don’t know why, but that reminded me of this line: “just because i rock doesn’t mean i’m made of stone”
Chelsea @ HTMLGiant = Good.
Chelsea @ HTMLGiant = Good.
hi chelsea, i like this post. i think i would agree with maybe what mike said about how you were quieter and nicer than i thought you’d be. like, i was surprised to feel like i didn’t have to be entertaining or joke-y the whole time when we hung out. i don’t know what you thought about me, however. i still feel vaguely embarrassed about the whole “i’m going to hand out pieces of gum to strangers while they walk down the street and if they don’t want it that’s even better because i’ll try to force them to take some” incident. i think i was “trying too hard”. that happens sometimes.
hi chelsea, i like this post. i think i would agree with maybe what mike said about how you were quieter and nicer than i thought you’d be. like, i was surprised to feel like i didn’t have to be entertaining or joke-y the whole time when we hung out. i don’t know what you thought about me, however. i still feel vaguely embarrassed about the whole “i’m going to hand out pieces of gum to strangers while they walk down the street and if they don’t want it that’s even better because i’ll try to force them to take some” incident. i think i was “trying too hard”. that happens sometimes.
wow, you completely recontextualized that statement to give it a whole new meaning that i did not recognize at first. that is so cool the way words do that. i’ve been thinking a lot about that recently so it was wicked cool to see a serendipitous example of that. linguists have attempted to show that it is possible to generate meaning from a non-sensical statement, doing so by contextualizing chomsky’s classic, “colorless green ideas sleep furiously”. i wonder if chomsky was aware of the lush poetic flavor of that sentence.
wow, you completely recontextualized that statement to give it a whole new meaning that i did not recognize at first. that is so cool the way words do that. i’ve been thinking a lot about that recently so it was wicked cool to see a serendipitous example of that. linguists have attempted to show that it is possible to generate meaning from a non-sensical statement, doing so by contextualizing chomsky’s classic, “colorless green ideas sleep furiously”. i wonder if chomsky was aware of the lush poetic flavor of that sentence.
i tend to think about that a lot. for my essay semester in my mfa i wrote about mis-communication driving a story, and read books about how language is created/formed versus how it is used, etc. i think it is the key to people getting or not getting along, a topic which fascinates me.
i tend to think about that a lot. for my essay semester in my mfa i wrote about mis-communication driving a story, and read books about how language is created/formed versus how it is used, etc. i think it is the key to people getting or not getting along, a topic which fascinates me.
which books would you recommend re: “how language is created/formed”?
which books would you recommend re: “how language is created/formed”?
This video is how reading Thomas Pynchon makes me feel.
This video is how reading Thomas Pynchon makes me feel.
knb– The Langauge Instinct by Steven Pinker was probably the best that i read.
knb– The Langauge Instinct by Steven Pinker was probably the best that i read.
hi ryan and everyone.
james yeh, i didn’t have any preconceptions about who you were. actually i guess when we were talking on the phone i was imagining that you were this person i went to high school with. but then you said you were asian.
i forgot about the gum thing until right now.
here i am, htmlgiant.
hi ryan and everyone.
james yeh, i didn’t have any preconceptions about who you were. actually i guess when we were talking on the phone i was imagining that you were this person i went to high school with. but then you said you were asian.
i forgot about the gum thing until right now.
here i am, htmlgiant.
Related but different, is Narratives of Human Evolution by Misia Landau. Good stuff. Someday I hope to post about it.
Related but different, is Narratives of Human Evolution by Misia Landau. Good stuff. Someday I hope to post about it.
i’ll have to look into that.
completely unrelated, i just ordered a book for my wife called, Elephants on Acid about weird scientific experiments. Entertainment!
i’ll have to look into that.
completely unrelated, i just ordered a book for my wife called, Elephants on Acid about weird scientific experiments. Entertainment!
Chelsea Martin = cinnamon to the apple of HTMLGIANT. HTMLGIANT is the apple. Chelsea is a brown spice.
Chelsea Martin = cinnamon to the apple of HTMLGIANT. HTMLGIANT is the apple. Chelsea is a brown spice.
i liked the gum thing, to a certain extent. it was “memorable”. though probably not “advisable”. next time i’m doing it with something people would actually want. not sure what this is though. money had been something i considered but it also seems “not advisable”.
i liked the gum thing, to a certain extent. it was “memorable”. though probably not “advisable”. next time i’m doing it with something people would actually want. not sure what this is though. money had been something i considered but it also seems “not advisable”.