“Snacks and Shit,” “Look at That Fucking Hipster,” “People of Walmart,” “FML,” “Texts from Last Night” – these are just a few blogs that cleverly poke fun at poor, unfortunate people that show up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
These blogs are appealing because apparently everyone can relate to the subjects. Everybody knows an “ironically-dressed” hipster or can envision Wal Mart’s middle-America clientele.
Blog creators who share the amusing mentality of “if-no-one’s-going-to-say-it-we-will” have been successfully humoring readers for the past several months. “Look at That Fucking Hipster” even has a book deal – sounds ridiculous, but it goes to show the possibilities of viral success.
One of the latest installments in this series of quirky blogs is “Random Creepy Guy” (randomcreepyguy.com), created by UCSB alumnus Chris Arreguin, UCSC alumnus Jonathan Garcia and UC Davis alumnus Bryan Yong. The site sprouted up a week ago and is reportedly already attracting a large number of visitors.
And it’s exactly what it the title sounds like. User-submitted photographs are posted onto the site almost every day, generally consisting of various poses with a random, “creepy” person somewhere in the background.
“[Random Creepy Guy] started out as a hobby,” Arreguin said, founder and CEO of RCG Media. “‘FML’ and ‘Texts from Last Night’ made it possible for … humor blogs to find an audience. They really exploded in April of this year.”
Arreguin, who graduated as a political science and international relations major at UCSB, made the shift to the social media world a few years ago when he realized its potential worth in the coming years.
In its first official week of operation, news of “Random Creepy Guy” spread through newspapers, websites and word of mouth. Yong, RCG’s Chief Brand Officer, was featured on the local morning show, “Good Day Sacramento,” Tuesday morning. Yong, who majored in economics at UC Davis, is responsible for handling day-to-day blog maintenance, approving new photos and brand marketing.
“We have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter [page] and we’ve been picked up by a lot of mass media lately,” Yong said. “We wanted [Random Creepy Guy] to be something people can go to while at home, at work.”
Yong also mentioned users will find comfort in the site’s lack of pornography and obscene material, even though the photos are, in fact, creepy.
The blog has been doing considerably well since its recent startup. Jonathan Garcia, who majored in film at UCSC, built and maintains the blog.
“It took us about two months to put it together, to build it and to go around and make sure everything was good,” Garcia said. “[This is] fun for us to do. It gives us joy when people come to see [the blog]. It’s exciting that it’s taking up so early.”
So now is the time to get with the social media age and bookmark “Random Creepy Guys.”
SIMONE WAHNG can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.
