Coleman traces the origins of the hacker collective Anonymous from “trolls” on
Chapter 1: On Trolls, Tricksters, and the Lulz: Definition: “trolling”: the targeting of people and organizations, the desecration of reputation
-
“Lolz” is corrupting of L O L, which stands for “Laugh Out Loud, signifying laughter at someone else’s expense.” (pg 30)
-
A distinct internet flavor of humor.me
-
“Lulz is a quintessential example of what folklorist define as argot — specilized and esoteric terminology used by a subculture group. […] it functions to enact secrecy or, at minimum, erect some very stiff social boundaries. As an anthropologist, it is tempting, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, to view lulz in terms of epistemology — through the social productions of knowledge. At one level, the lulz functions as an epistemic object, stabilizing a set of experiences by marking them available for reflection.” (pg 31)
-
The pleasure and aesthetics of a prank predated the term, but as Coleman argues, “Once a name like ‘lulz’ comes into being, it opens the very practice it names to further reflection by its practitioners.”
-
“Lulz are darker: acquired most often at someone’s expense, prone to misfiring and, ocassionally, bordering on disturbing or hateful speech.”
-
“Lulz are unmistakably imbued with danger and mystery, and thus speak foremost to the pleasures of transgression.” (pg 31)
-
Trolls: the scared to the lewd
- “Trolls enjoy desecrating anything remotely sacred, as cultural theorist Whitney Phillips conveys in her astute characterization of trolls as “agents of cultural digestion [who] scavenge the landscape, re-purpose the most offensive material, then shove the resulting monstrosities into the faces of an unsuspecting populace”