The votes are in and the winner of the highly coveted Man Boobz Troll of the Year Award for 2012 is … MRAL!
Wait, you say, he wasn’t even on the ballot?
Well, no. The troll that got the most votes from you, my dear readers, was the verbose anti-Man Boobz crusader known as Steele — also known as Mikhael Varpole and, briefly, as Torvus Butthorn. Indeed, Steele cruised to victory, getting 47% of the vote, as compared with the 33% received by Tom Martin, his only real competitor. (Dr. Pell came in third, with a mere 6% of the total.)
But as it turns out we’ve been played, big time. The troll we know and love as Steele turns out to have been MRAL all along.
Yes, that MRAL – the long banned commenter who cannot seem to walk away from this blog. We’ve uncovered and banned many of his previous sockpuppets, but somehow he managed to slip his boldest sockpuppet right by us.
Oh, sure. I and others here often wondered if Steele was for real; it seemed pretty clear to me that he couldn’t possibly believe everything he said. But it wasn’t until I went back to some of “Steele’s” earliest comments here, in preparation for this post, that I discovered how justified these suspicions had been. Turns out that one of “Mikhael Varpole’s” IP addresses matched one used by an earlier troll, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, who had been outed as MRAL a couple of months earlier.
D’OH!
“Torvus Butthorn” really should have been a dead giveaway. But otherwise the highly dedicated MRAL did a masterful job of keeping his troll character consistently ridiculous yet plausible enough to not be an obvious phony, and of hiding his particular obsessions in such a way that he didn’t give himself away.
So, congrats, MRAL, and you’re banned again.
After this, the rest of the results are a bit of an anticlimax.
Sunshine Mary wins the Special-est Snowflake award for Female MRA Trolls, with 52% of the vote. Driversuz comes in second with 32%.
Tom Martin easily wins the Worst Human Being award with a stunning 73% to David K Meller’s 22%.
Some Guy Bored With Your Schtick wins Most Tiresome with 58% of the vote; Diogenes is a distant second with 24%.
And JudgyBitch wins Most Pathetic Vote Beggar.
I hope they’re not all MRAL too.
If ever we needed to prove that Mr. Al has boundary issues and doesn’t understand no means no…
Holy fuck.
Well, that was an unexpected plot twist. Hilarious yet disturbing.
Wow. Next year’s trolls are going to have to seriously exert themselves if they have any hope at all of topping that. That was epic. And a little disturbing. I missed Mr Al’s final meltdown (I seem to miss most of the big meltdowns), but I was fully engaged with Steele for a while. Did not see that coming at all.
OK, in all seriousness, that boy needs help.
If Tom is a troll he’s the British version of Westboro Baptist Church.
WOW.
I have to give credit for the bad writing. Real attention to detail there.
I went back and read a few of Steele’s earliest posts and his writing wasn’t so bad. I wonder if he was just trying to sound pompous and we gave him hell for it, so he ramped it up to get more attention? Remember how bad his writing was as Josephine, too? That’s why I didn’t think Jo was Mr. Al, because Mr. Al at least could string together a coherent sentence.
WHAAAAAAAAT. I was sort of disappointed until I read the article! That is… wow. Just wow. I’m genuinely impressed.
Remember “toe the dogma”? Good times, good times.
Well,knock me down with a feather. I kinda wish we could have one last poke at MR SteAL. I am pretty impressed.
HAHAHA. Wow. Oh my glob. Talk about the long con. MRAL just skyrocketed past even Pell as an epic sockpuppeteer. That certainly explains how Steele so often seemed to be consciously having fun.
If it weren’t so funny, it would be dreadfully sad.
Myoo, those trophies are perfect!
Funny thing though, the second one looks like it should be called Uncle Monty.
“OK, in all seriousness, that boy needs help.” — seriously Mr. Al, Torvis Butthorn, Varpole, Steele, Josephine, and whatever other names you’ve used, find another hobby. May I recommend 1,000+ piece puzzles? They take about the level of dedication you’ve put in here, while being far better for your mental health.
Count me among the seriously surprised though!
Holy plot-twist, Batman! The chattering misogynistic pain-in-the-arse was… a different chattering misogynistic pain in the arse. I’m not sure whether I’m impressed that he stayed in character so well for so long, or deeply worried.
It’s also funny that he’d do something as weak-sauce as Josephine at the same time. Do you think he wanted Jo to get found out, or what? Someone capable of a character as consistent as Steele shouldn’t get caught up on “I saw a bra once.”
Alcohol, it’s a terrible thing really.
Perhaps he really was drunk-posting with Josephine? If not, it was like a controlled explosion. Or implosion, maybe – started more or less coherent and slid into a rambling mess. Which is pretty good socking if it was all done deliberately. Suggests even Mr Al is just an act, though, to me.
Maybe, but I think he likes being found out. He’s not one of those that denies it to the death; a bit like Pell, he really, really craves attention and just doesn’t get what he wants unless we know it’s him.
I think Josephine was a red herring.
Post drunkenly as Josephine, huzzah we found another Mr Al sock, and then he can keep Steele-ing away under the radar.
I wish he’d find a new act instead of Diogenes the Terminally Tedious, though. Makes Abnoy look interesting.
Wow, this is incredible, and a well-deserved award! Congratulations! Is it possible to get an apprentis-ship to study for you?
Futrelle: Did I got any votes in the vote beggar category? Was I close to winning?
Holy frijole!
I am also that strange mixture of a) shocked, b) impressed and c) completely creeped out.
Also a bit sad because if Steelepole is now banned, all the good trolls have gone. Even Sunshine Squickpants only visits us if we call her by name. It’s been ages since F1r5tJ03 came to tell us his latest conspiracy.
If all we’re left with is talacaris, Dingleberry and John Anderson I might have to start my own damn sock. Abnoy has shown a little promise but not enough conspiracy theories for my liking.
The only way the current lot could become interesting is if Abnoy turned out to be a poe who has no interest at all in anime and who just wanted to see how much women on average dislike hardcore otaku.
Seriously great plot twist! I really didn’t see that one coming, after the Anti-ManBoobz blog and everything. Stunning.
Oh man, I just started looking at the thread Cloudiah(?) linked to. It’s from July and people were wondering why Ruby didn’t just go away already then. I was shocked but then remembered once having a go at the Scooby Doo on Zombie Island sock and being pissed off that Ruby voiced her support for me, and that was in March because I remember it was the day that I moved house. So not only has MrSte-Al been going for nine months, Ruby’s been unwelcome but still posting here for more than that.
Creepy trolls are creepy.