Og ichi plof ti ra nesi. How many people remember this? You need to have been a child of the 80’s to get it, or understand it. It’s a marketing line from a very popular soft drink and it’s a part anagram for “original of the species”. (NB: It’s a “part” anagram, there’s no point in sitting down in an attempt to work it out, because the letters don’t add up). However, it was a pretty successful marketing campaign and one of those ads that people my age remember. It’s said that if you asked for a bottle of “og ichi plof” in Clonmel, the barman knew exactly what you wanted.
As Irish people, we hate to see anybody getting on, or being successful, we love to see the fall from grace. There’s nothing like the person that gets a bit too big for their boots coming back down to earth. Your man down the road with his fancy new car — I bet the bank own it. Look at your one with the new hair style — far from fancy hair styles she was reared. No country seems to have embraced the name and shame culture quite like the Irish. It’s a daily ritual to see “who made the papers”. Students go to college, training to be journalists and the height of their journalistic career is sitting in a court room with a pen and pencil, writing a piece about who was involved in a misdemeanour. Take a walk down the town and you are invariably asked if there’s “any news”. Any ould bit of gossip will do, the juicier the better.
The internet troll is a spin off, or a by-product of the above and most certainly the original of the species. They are very critical of people, especially successful people, whether it’s in business, politics, music or sport. Any walk of life will do them in fact, as they are not very particular. Some of their musings can range from the amusing, the controversial to the downright abusive and insulting.
I read a very funny exchange recently between an Irish comedian and a troll. The comedian was giving his new DVD a mention on his website, when the troll began asking “why people would ever even consider buying that rubbish”. Quick as a flash, the comedian replied that he would pass on the concerns to his “couldn’t give a f*ck department and as soon as they found a single f*ck to give, they would reply to him”. Game, set and match to the comedian.
I made a reference recently about a guy in some band (I can’t remember their name – LCD Soundsystem, thanks Google), who made offensive comments about our Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar on Twitter. My point was, why he didn’t say it to the man’s face, as they were in the same room, when he first got annoyed with him.
Sportspeople have to deal with a ridiculous amount of trolling. Take for example a person, who is deemed talented enough to represent their county or even their country. We’ve all seen it ,where they are given a hard time because they have a bad day and things don’t go to plan, or even in some extreme cases, because of the shirt they wear.
It never ceases to amaze me, to see Irish people walking around with a well-known footballer’s name on their back, because he plays for some English football team. Then, the same player puts on his international shirt, normally English and he is immediately ridiculed, by people he has never met. Most of the ridicule is from people without a fraction of his ability.
Imagine if one of us mere mortals went in to work, made a mistake and were ridiculed in front of the other staff by management. How long would the manager keep their job? Not long I hope and with good reason.
It’s very easy to hide behind a computer keyboard, to ridicule and slag off people, who are not in a position to defend themselves. Recently, I wrote about our freedom of speech and how I consider it so important. I also wrote about how I feel it’s under threat from people with way too much time on their hands, on the internet in particular. I asked the question, are people beginning to ask why they would bother commenting online or making an opinion, where they run the risk of being abused or trolled by people they have never met.
I’ve been trolled a few times myself, but I’m mature enough (I hope) to laugh it off. I consider it a badge of honour that people feel it worth their while to write about you. Normally, if you pay them no attention however, they run away under a rock or wherever they came from in the first place. I remember one guy that did it and I saw him on the street a few weeks later. We were at both sides of a pedestrian crossing, so as he frantically looked for a place to escape, he ducked into a shoe shop, rather than meet me face to face. I’d say I won that one would you?
That can be a bit easy for me to say, as I’m my own person and I really don’t care what people think about me. As a person who is very active on media, you could say I leave myself open for it, so “if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”. However, if a person gets easily worried, maybe has a weaker type of personality where they take things seriously, it may not be all that funny.
Good natured ribbing and taking the pee goes on in every country and every culture in the world. Life would be very boring without a bit of fun and a laugh at somebody’s expense. However, is there a thin line between that simple bit of fun and trolling. Where does the fun stop and where does it become something a little more sinister.
Is it just meant as a bit of harmless fun or is it a cowardly way to have a “sly dig” at people. Done without having to conjure up the courage to say it to their face.
Most certainly, the original of the species.
The Unknown Bike Rider 