Tom Green’s TV Career
Tom Green began his career in entertainment when he began hosting The Midnight Caller Show a late-night call-in radio show in the University of Ottawa’s radio station CHUO. Together with his friend Glenn Humplick, the two would take calls from listeners which mostly consisted of pranks.
The Tom Green Show began as a cable access show in 1994, and was eventually picked up by MTV in 1999. By 2009, Tom Green was household name and a Hollywood Celebrity. His bizarre style of humor in which he is mostly the butt of his own jokes has been the defining factor of his career; and taking random calls has remained a staple in his show.
Tom Green’s Internet Show & 4Chan Prank Calls
June 15th, 2006 marked the launch of Tom Green’s own Internet TV Show, then known as Tom Green LIVE! and now known as Tom Green’s House Tonight. Green spoke at length in interviews about his excitement for the convergence of old and new meda. And the show continued the tradition of Green’s odd sense of self-targeting humor.
In converging with the Internet, Tom was able to tap a new audience of participants for his “taking calls” segment; /b/tards.
The first raids began on August 16th 2006 and after that every episode of Tom’s show was flooded with prank calls and attempts to get internet memes into the show.
What is immediately apparent, is that rather than stopping the calls, Tom would entice the trolls, deliberately feeding them. While his previous shows only managed to get the occasional weird callers, Tom Green’s House Tonight enjoyed avalanches of prank calls, with Tom proudly featuring them again and again.
At one point, Tom even says “This is what happens in the real world when you don’t have a call-screener.” Reading between the lines, this could be taken as “You get raw, unedited, uncensored comedy.”
On-Air Raid: 08/16/06
After enduring an hour of Desu spamming, “Pool’s Closed”, and “do a barrel roll!” Green had had enough, announcing “thanks to you assholes this will no longer be a call in show”. Although, Tom has continued to take calls to this day, repeating the phone number over and over again.
Other Clips of Tom Green Raids
Tom Green Raid 1
Tom Green Raid 2
Tom Green Raid 3
Tom Green Raid 4
Tom Green Raid 5
Tom Green Raid 6
Tom Green Raid 7
Tom Green Raid 8
Tom Green Going Mental
Raids on Girltalk
It was not just Tom Green who was targeted however, a segment of the show called Girltalk enjoyed heavy pranking too. They even attached their own unofficial catch phrase to the segment, “Shame on you!”
Girl Talk Raid 1
Girl Talk Raid 2
Girl Talk Raid 3
Girl Talk Raid 4
Girl Talk Raid 5
Girl Talk Raid 6
Girl Talk Raid 7
Girl Talk Raid 8
Girl Talk Raid 9
Girl Talk Raid 10
Conclusion
The key to Tom Green’s success has always been by drawing comedic attention to himself through deranged outbursts. By enticing /b/ to raid his show with floods of calls, he (and Girl Talk) have managed to crowdsource their content. These particular /b/ raids may have been the best thing to happen to the Tom Green Network.
The question of “Who’s Trolling Who?” becomes moot, because in the end it has been a back and forth participation of all parties involved: trolls baiting trolls.
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