# Jack Thompson calls cops on Penny Arcade: Hilarity Ensues **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 18, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787 "2005-10-18T18:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/1 "2005-10-18T18:58:39Z")
Has anyone been following the saga of Jack Thompson vs. Penny Arcade? It’s seriously one of the funniest and greatest things to happen in the history of the video game industry. Here’s the latest - [Jack Thompson calls the cops claiming “harrassment.”](http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/18/1516223&from=rss) It’s pretty amazing, the whole ordeal - Jack Thompson has become the Joseph McCarthy of video game violence, pulling ridiculous stunts like has filing a wrongful death suit against RockStar, claiming that Grant Theft Auto is a cop killing training simulator responsible for the murder of a pair of cops, and claiming that he’d donate $10K to charity if someone developed a game based around murdering video game programmers (when someone took him up on his offer and produced a game, he backpedaled, so Penny Arcade donated the $$ in his name). What a tool! ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/2 "2005-10-18T19:14:42Z")
This guy has either gone completely off the deep end, or is deliberately being ridiculous just for the notoriety. I suspect it’s both. I mean trying to get someone arrested for extortion for making a donation to charity you yourself back-pedalled on? Come on! On second though, I’m going with gone completely off the deep end. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/3 "2005-10-18T20:04:14Z")
This thread should go into the BBQ Pit so Mr. Thompson can get the two-fisted virol he properly deserves. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/4 "2005-10-18T20:15:25Z")
This is definetly delicious, but I thought his [exchange with the creator of VGCats](http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php) was infinitely more insanely stupid. How fuckin’ dumb do you have to be to confuse the president of the ESRB with a guy who draws a webcomic about cats playing video games? Incidentally, there’s a related [GD thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=339466), but there’s not much to actually debate going on in it. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/5 "2005-10-18T21:16:55Z")
This thread makes the [Oct 17 Bunny strip](http://www.frozenreality.co.uk/comic/bunny/) _so_ much clearer now, although the author’s already invoked Godwin through its mere existence. For a while there, I was all ‘Jack Thompson who?’ ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/6 "2005-10-18T21:39:18Z")
While this is tangentially about entertainment, I think the Pit is, indeed, the better place for it. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/7 "2005-10-18T22:57:29Z")
“Officer, arrest those men! They just donated $10, 000 to charity!” ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/8 "2005-10-18T23:09:38Z")
I’m just happy to see that the anti-video game movement finally has a spokeperson to give it the dignity and class that it so richly deserves. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/9 "2005-10-18T23:17:15Z")
This year’s donation to Child’s Play is definitely going to be in Jack Thompson’s name. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/10 "2005-10-19T03:32:48Z")
[Here’s a link](http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-10-17)to the posts about it at Penny Arcade, with an actual scan of Thompson’s letter to the cops (scroll down a bit.) What a snivelling little worm of a man! ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/11 "2005-10-19T03:38:57Z")
> [@Nithotep](#): > > (scroll down a bit.) W\! Cool! But, Um . . . [Here](http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-10-17#2837) is a link to just the same thing, but without the need to scroll down. (I was about to post it, I swear! ) ---
**Author:** ![Andros\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Andros\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andros_X)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/12 "2005-10-19T04:01:15Z")
This man’s such a psycho that [the National Institute on Media and the Family, the people that want us all to watch family films and play , has distanced itself from him.](http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12259) I give 5:1 odds that this guy’s going to go postal at a Gamestop inside of six months. ---
**Author:** ![Andros\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Andros\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andros_X)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/13 "2005-10-19T04:02:48Z")
> [@Andros\_X](#): > > This man’s such a psycho that [the National Institute on Media and the Family, the people that want us all to watch family films and play , has distanced itself from him.](http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12259) > > I give 5:1 odds that this guy’s going to go postal at a Gamestop inside of six months. Dammit, that was supposed to read, “…watch only family films and play only edutainment games.” ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/14 "2005-10-19T04:09:01Z")
The man is completely wacked out of his gourd. I love the complaint to the SPD. I hope the police don’t waste too much time investigating this nonsense. It’s one thing for this guy to spout off about the horrors of naked Ken dolls in the Sims2 on CNN. It’s quite another to be interfering with public services that could be helping people that actually need help. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/15 "2005-10-19T10:57:03Z")
Based on the fax he sent to the Seattle PD, this guy appears to be the shittiest lawyer I’ve ever seen. When even ultra-right-wing conservative nutjobs start distancing themselves from you, Jack, it’s time to hang it up. Your core group of supporters figured out that you’re a lunatic, and now that they can read the fax you sent about Penny Arcade, they know you’re a moron too. How the hell did that man get a degree in law? ---
**Author:** ![Spudo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Spudo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spudo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/16 "2005-10-19T11:26:35Z")
I find it endlessly amusing that in his fax to the Seattle police he gave them the wrong URL to the Penny-Arcade website. I can just imagine some cop sitting there, trying to get the page to work and then giving up, realizing how fucking stupid Thompson is. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/17 "2005-10-19T14:05:17Z")
Not to detract from the OP, but if the illiterate moron who wrote that Slashdot article. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/18 "2005-10-19T14:09:07Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Not to detract from the OP, but if the illiterate moron who wrote that Slashdot article. Could finish a post, then But really, what was wrong with the article? ---
**Author:** ![Gerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Gerome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerome)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/19 "2005-10-19T14:13:44Z")
Seems to me ol’ Jack is just attention whoring. Glad to see some good came of it in the form of PA’s charity, but seriously, Jack Thompson sounds like a nutter. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787/20 "2005-10-19T14:17:33Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > But really, what was wrong with the article? When someone parsed this: > [@](#): > > He also offered $10k to charity if anyone who would develop some ridiculous murder spree game. When someone did it, and he changed his mind and Penny-Arcade donated the cash instead. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-calls-cops-on-penny-arcade-hilarity-ensues/326787.md?page=2)