I have to admit it. I love the SDMB lunatics. Well, maybe love is too strong of a word, but I have to let you know that the presence of rigidly argumentative subject-obsessed loonies contributes greatly to my enjoyment of this board. In fact, the first thread I ever started was a series of questions for the infamous loonie Jack Dean Tyler.
What makes a good looney? I think it helps to have a good obsession. Something that most other people might not care about or even believe in, but which to the loonie is the entire crux of existence. For JDT, it was his dear little foreskin that the entire world revolved around. A good looney should be impervious to sound logic, but not so one-key that they become boring quickly. Prefrerably, over the course of their posting history a warped and disturbing world view should slowly come to light. Memorable loonies will make themselves hateable in the same way as a bad-guy pro wrestler- on the one hand they cause feelings of anger and disgust, but on the other hand they’re still fun to watch.
So, who will be the next superstar of SDMB madness? In this thread, I hope to find out.
Jally wasn’t exactly new, but I had never noticed her until her recent public announcement that she would no longer be frequenting this message board. That’s a shame, really. As a resident looney Jally had a lot to offer. First of all, she had a number of obsessions and some pretty strong, unpopular opinions. Secondly, she was openly dismissive of “linear thinking” and preferred “circular logic”. That in itself could have resulted in many an entertainingly unresolvable thread. Thirdly, judging from her (former) user profile, it certainly looks like she came to this board with the intent of picking fights with all of us “cult-inators”. Personal mission, skewed view of reality, sounds like good stuff… So what’s the problem? She apparently has no ability to withstand criticism, so she packed up and left. Thin skin has marked the end of many a would-be board lunatic; OneCell immediately springs to mind… Aspiring loonies should really look back to JDT; now there was a man with a real thick skin for criticism.
Nothing But Net had a short-lived rise to infamy and plummet towards obscurity. But does he qualify as a looney? On the plus side, he had a real talent for self-serving delusion. What was that he was saying about Wally anyhow? On the down side, he didn’t really seem to have any of the sorts of obsessions which really drive our most successful lunatics. He was obnoxious, certainly. Deluded, apparently. Stark raving looney? Doubtful.
That Esprix-and-Gaspode-are-Nazis Guy… I can’t remember his name. Does it really matter? He wasn’t particularly looney, or even all that interesting of a troll… probably just a high school kid jackin’ off on an overworked server. Trolls and jokers register as occasional blips on the looney radar. Based on his statements in the Atlantis/Nadia thread, I was really hoping that Wishbone would turn out to be as looney as he initially appeared. As it turns out, he definitely is wacky, but apparently not looney. Too bad. He would have made a good one.
Scoo-guy is the last name on my score card tonight. He’s a new face on the looney scene, with an obsession for Pink Floyd synchronicity and almost no communicative skills to speak of. I’m not really sure at this point that Pink Floyd is a wide enough obsession to allow him to hijack all kinds of other threads, but maybe this definition of the word gay discussion can help him branch out to other forms of looniness. His rejection of logical argument, spastic prose, and general estrangement from reality make him one hot young looney to keep an eye on. It’s gonna be a hell of a meltdown, folks.
