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Internet Scientist AMA: Alison!

Last posted Sep 12, 2012 at 11:35AM EDT. Added Aug 24, 2012 at 09:51AM EDT
117 posts from 33 users

Hey everyone!! Alison, who you may know as Zoidberg, has joined KYM and you can now ask her anything :D

Outside of the videos, she's into improv and works on Cheezburger sites (although I am not sure which ones ALISON THIS IS YOUR FIRST QUESTION)

Since it is only 7AM her time at publishing, she will be back later to answer all your burning questions :)

I'll start with the standard questions:

-How did you get to Cheezburger?
-How's working on the episodes? Any experience you'd like to share?
-Favorite Meme?
-Pinkie Pie, best pony or bestest pony? (Yes, that question is mandatory)

WHAT UP KYM? How are all of you lovely people doing? For the very first question (thanks again, Amanda!) I am a full-time employee at Cheezburger. I run Lolcats, Animal Gifs, and reposting for ICHC. No, I am not a cat person. Yes, I love my job. A paradox, I know. I also just finished running our Olympics site, and miss it already. In addition to running sites, I also help source material for other websites and assist in various projects for the creative team of Cheezburger.

How did you get to Cheezburger?
-How’s working on the episodes? Any experience you’d like to share?
-Favorite Meme?
-Pinkie Pie, best pony or bestest pony? (Yes, that question is mandatory)

-I applied! I knew I'd be moving to Seattle, and knew I'd love to work for the internet, so I applied and worked my butt off and scored my dreamjob.
-Working on the episodes is rad. Everyone is hilarious, which always helps, and the atmosphere is really positive. My favorite experience would have to be one in an episode you haven't seen yet. We spent all day shooting five (FIVE) episodes at once, and closed out the day with us doing sketches on the back lawn of Forest's house. I can't spoil anything yet, but it was amazing.
-For some reason I'm obsessed with Nigel Thornberry. I have no idea how or why. I think we were soul mates in a past life. It's smashing.
-Zomg ponies. I believe that although Pinkie Pie has cemented herself as the most recognizable pony, the writers of MLP have done a spectacular job at creating a universe with a true ensemble for a main cast. Pinkie is initially likeable and distinct, but through watching the show I feel that it's unfair to pick just one out of the ensemble of five. I think Andrea Libman is a spectacular voice actor (she does Pinkie and Fluttershy, yes?) and so by default I'd have to say my favorite pony is…… both of them. Because Andrea Libman is amazing.

……..in case you can't tell, I'm the resident fangirl of KYM Video Team.

What did you aspire to be as an adult when you were a little kid?

Uuuuuugh all I wanted to do was train whaaaaaaaaaaales.

That totally didn't end up working out. But I think 8-year-old-Alison would have been happy that I ended up being a professional internet anyways.

Oh, so Allison was Zoidberg in the last episode?
Not the same boobs as Sarah then. My mistake.

OKAY SO HERE'S THE DEAL. I DO NOT HAVE BIG BOOBS. A TRAGEDY, I KNOW. WHAT YOU CANNOT TELL IS THAT UNDERNEATH THAT G--DAMN GIANT ASS LAB COAT I HAVE A SPECTACULAR PAIR OF LEGS AND AN ADORABLE BUTT. ITS JUST IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE UNDER THE GIGANTIC LAB COAT.

We have since bought lab coats that actually fit. Which is a good thing. ALSO SARAH JUST SHOWED UP TO THAT SHOOT WITH BOOBS AKIMBO AND I WAS LIKE 'GIRL, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE GETTIN ALL SEXY SO I COULD GET ON YOUR LEVEL NOW I'LL JUST BE FRUMPY GIRL ZOIDBERG'. So yeah. Miscommunications. Sarah and I are cool now, don't worry.

#smallbustsizeproblems

What’s the best part of your job?

I get to do be funny all day.

I did improv in college, comedy is my big passion in life. My senior year, my improv team and I won the National College Improv Tournament . Scoring this job at Cheezburger was a massive deal, because getting paid (WITH BENEFITS!11) to be funny is something really important to me. I adore my job, and in the evenings I get to be an Internet Scientist along with a semi professional actor.

Also, working for Cheezburger is the tits. Everyone brings their dog in to work, everyone is a massive nerd, and there's scooters in the office. Who doesn't like scooters?

Question, what fandoms are you a part of?

Yaaaaay, I was waiting for this one.
I adore Doctor Who. Watched Classic Who with my dad as a kid, fell in love with it again in the reboot. here I am heading to Emerald City Comicon as Girl 11. I've been saving up for the last few months for a circular Gallifreyan tattoo… the fandom is rad, I love my DW buddies.

The next big one, as you can tell from my profile pic, is the Avatar series (Last Airbender, not space!Pocahontas). My house is named Ba Sing Se, and I am in the midst of building a Pro Bending Beer Pong Table with my friends.

BBC's Sherlock is the one I'm most involved w/ at the moment… I'm balls deep in fanfic at the moment, trying not to pull my hair out waiting for Season Three.

Theeeen there's Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire, really). Dang, I adore that series. Helped my bf and his friends make a GoT themed Parody Video . I feel incredibly fortunate that I managed to find a bunch of friends who embrace my nerdiness, haha.

Oh. Also various anime (I just finished Toradora AAH!), Adventure Time, Venture Bros, SNL, IT Crowd, and like five other things I'm forgetting.

Hey Alison! For one, it’s always nice to see a new internet scientist here! Also, what is your favorite kind of music, and could you give me some of your favorite songs/bands?

Thanks Zarath! Glad you guys are bein' so friendly. My taste in music is kind of all over the place. I've been on a classical kick lately (Mendelssohn what WHAT) while simultaneously having a modern Americana band on repeat (if you haven't experienced Delta Rae stop what you're doing right now and watch this).

As for general music taste, being from Seattle means I love folksy-dirty-hipster music by default. Beirut, Fleet Foxes, First Aid Kit, and Grouplove, even though they aren't folksy at all. It also means part of my brain wishes it were still 1992. I love old school Green Day, Nirvana, early Weezer, etc.

I also adore rap. Like… adore. I grew up in a really diverse community, and it gave me a taste for grimy, awesome hip hop. I can probably rap you all of The Chronic if you asked, and have used Biggie's 'Hypnotize' as my standard vocal warm up for YEARS. So next time you watch a KYM video… just know that I've sped through the first three verses in Hypnotize before doing anything on camera.

Oh. Also, I'm half British, so a bunch of my favorite are ones from across the pond. I've been super into Dizzee Rascal and Chase and Status' new album as of late, and for some reason The Kooks and The Libertines.

I should also mention that I adore One Direction. Judge me all you want. They fill an N*Sync-sized hole in my heart that I cannot explain. Plus they're horrible dancers, which is adorable.

Alison wrote:

Oh, so Allison was Zoidberg in the last episode?
Not the same boobs as Sarah then. My mistake.

OKAY SO HERE'S THE DEAL. I DO NOT HAVE BIG BOOBS. A TRAGEDY, I KNOW. WHAT YOU CANNOT TELL IS THAT UNDERNEATH THAT G--DAMN GIANT ASS LAB COAT I HAVE A SPECTACULAR PAIR OF LEGS AND AN ADORABLE BUTT. ITS JUST IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE UNDER THE GIGANTIC LAB COAT.

We have since bought lab coats that actually fit. Which is a good thing. ALSO SARAH JUST SHOWED UP TO THAT SHOOT WITH BOOBS AKIMBO AND I WAS LIKE 'GIRL, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE GETTIN ALL SEXY SO I COULD GET ON YOUR LEVEL NOW I'LL JUST BE FRUMPY GIRL ZOIDBERG'. So yeah. Miscommunications. Sarah and I are cool now, don't worry.

#smallbustsizeproblems

From what I noticed, we have a lot of ass-people here. So you've basically scored already without knowing it.

Hi Alison, I noticed you refer to yourself as "Professional Internet" a few times which I thought was rather interesting. Is that for a lack of a better term like "Professional Internetist", "Professional Internetologist" or "Professional Netgineer"?

If not, how big is the responsibility of being the Internet? :D

Blue Screen (of Death) wrote:

Hi Alison, I noticed you refer to yourself as "Professional Internet" a few times which I thought was rather interesting. Is that for a lack of a better term like "Professional Internetist", "Professional Internetologist" or "Professional Netgineer"?

If not, how big is the responsibility of being the Internet? :D

It partly has to do with this kickass shirt my coworkers and I all bought last week.

I spell things incorrectly for a living. Typing in lolspeak for 8 hours a day for a year can do many things to a person's mind. I am not are as well as i once was. :C

Being responsible for a major cultural cornerstone of the net can be tricky. Running lolcats is especially hard, since its tricky to find the balance of stuff that will make our powerusers happy (really saccharine happy stuff, no swearing/dark themes ever) while still putting out lols that the rest of the internet will enjoy as well. It's all about striking a balance. It's kind of scary to think that I'm responsible for the material tens of thousands of people will see and expect every day. Doesn't leave a lot of room to screw up.

By the way, you should all totally come to ICHC and say hi. I can't respond in the comments, but I promise I read everything because its my job.

Random 21 – The correct answer is Vikings.

Sarah – My real dream man is my boyfriend (DAWWW) but thats not what you're asking. So obviously my real dream man is the spectacularly talented Bandersnatch Cumberbund. Mmm. Dat Classical Training.

My fictional dream man is and will always be Brock Samson. Which should be everyone's answer. You're a liar if you say otherwise.

Cirno wrote:

Do you like Scifi? And if so, what is your favorite scifi show/movie/comic/thing.

I'm going to try really hard to give this a short answer. Sci Fi was my first love, and will always have a special place in my heart.

I adore classic Sci Fi goodness (Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still) and got my first introduction to the genre reading Vonnegut when I was waaaaaaaay too young for it. I was raised on a healthy diet of Doctor Who, Star Wars and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

As for recent obsessions, I JUST got around to watching Metropolis (both the original and the anime version from 2001). Dang, that stuff is good.

As for other disambiguations of sci fi… I watched David Bowie's Man Who Fell To Earth a few weeks ago. Nothing like watching a lubed up eighties icon for two hours, amirite?

Also I FORGOT TO MENTION 'LOST' AS ONE OF MY FANDOMS. I'm gonna slap that in here because I count it as Sci Fi. F*#%$ the haters.

Last edited Aug 24, 2012 at 12:48PM EDT

amanda b. wrote:

a) we don't have scooters in new york :(

b) I HAVE THE FULL TIME INTERNET SHIRT TOO i bought it to wear when I spoke at a librarian conference. can we wear them next cheezcon?!?!?!1

OH MY GOD YES PLEASE.

Jill and Nick bought them too! We can have a full time internet party!

Mack TheUnoriginal wrote:

Hey Alison! Do you play any videogames?

I'm awful at videogames. It's the one corner of nerdom I know next to nothing about. Believe me, I've tried. :(

I'm far better and more involved in table gaming. RPGs, boardgames, you name it. My friends and I have been super into Arkham Horror lately. It's a table game set in the universe of H.P. Lovecraft. You get to spend three hours fighting monsters and trying not to go insane from terror (really, you get a sanity meter as part of the game. It's badass). We have discovered it's best played by candlelight while wearing a fedora/cocktail hat.

@ Mexican Android

It feels like I've both upped my internet cred to the power of a thousand, and also like I have a brand new place to go if I ever wanted to be told I'm a fat ugly girl by Youtube commenters.

@ Quantum Meme

Forest ranks about (7,5) on the coolness scale

Last edited Aug 24, 2012 at 01:28PM EDT

Alison wrote:

@ Mexican Android

It feels like I've both upped my internet cred to the power of a thousand, and also like I have a brand new place to go if I ever wanted to be told I'm a fat ugly girl by Youtube commenters.

@ Quantum Meme

Forest ranks about (7,5) on the coolness scale

Alison wrote:

@ Mexican Android

It feels like I've both upped my internet cred to the power of a thousand, and also like I have a brand new place to go if I ever wanted to be told I'm a fat ugly girl by Youtube commenters.

@ Quantum Meme

Forest ranks about (7,5) on the coolness scale

Sarah "Pikachu" Hiraki wrote:

Hey gurl,
I think I already know this one, but who's your dream man. Real and/or fictional.

I'm going to hijack this thread here and say that Jamie Dubs is clearly the sexiest, most intelligent, funniest, badass man, fictional or otherwise, in the whole bloody universe. You think Forest is cute? Wait until you meet this guy, the fucking creator of Know Your Meme.

Just look at dat smoulder:

He's sexy and he knows it:

Such a loving father:

He has great taste in board games:

And great taste in general:

Remember the good old days of Rocketboom KYM?

Need some fap material?

Image limit? Psh. Jamie takes the image limit and uses it as his toilet paper. Take that, mods, from the original Scientist Emeritus himself.

I think there's two questions somewhere in here already, but I'll ask another:
What do you think of Jamie?

Last edited Aug 24, 2012 at 04:29PM EDT

Allison, have you realised yet that your mouth complexions are very similar to Carl Sagan's mouth complexions? Furthermore, how do you believe this affects your life?

Piano wrote:

Allison, have you realised yet that your mouth complexions are very similar to Carl Sagan's mouth complexions? Furthermore, how do you believe this affects your life?

Holy crap. You are so right. I had absolutely no idea. My mouth feels so much more important now.

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