Fake Yo-Yo Master Strikes Local Morning Shows

Kenny "K-Strass" Strasser has managed to fake his way onto several local morning shows in Wisconsin and Missouri over the past month. Kenny bills himself as a yo-yo master with a message for kids, but what he delivers is several uncomfortable minutes reminiscent of an Andy Kaufman appearance. Chris Papst, who anchors an early show that had Kenny as a guest said, "You never know because some people on TV are just very nervous and they say things they otherwise wouldn't say. He said, 'It's hard for me to get gigs because I make $2,000 a show and the schools won't pay it.' Right then, I thought something was weird."

Wow!

[ArcherB]

It would have been much better had he actually given a real charity. At least then they could get some pity donations.

Total Fraud

[jockeys]

this has been discussed at great length over the past couple of weeks on most of the big yoyo forums. The unambiguous conclusion is that he is a fraud. The tricks he can be seen to perform are beginner and intermediate level, not even slightly impressive to anyone in the yoyoing community.

Re:Total Fraud

[JWSmythe]

Swinging bunch of yoyo's around by their strings, and getting them tangled are beginner or intermediate level? I thought that was pretty close to the "doesn't have a clue" level. At least when I played with yoyo's (like when I was a kid) I could not only make it go down, but back up the string too.

    It would have been funnier if he knocked himself senseless with the 7 yoyo's that were still attached. :)

Re:Total Fraud

[JWSmythe]

... and to reply to myself ...

  I found this YouTube video [youtube.com] where they pretty much out him as being a fraud, and info on the other stations he's scammed.

    Suckers. I thought they kept up with the competition, so they didn't make the same mistakes.

Re:

[oldspewey]

Well, the forums are pretty big, but membership goes up and down.

Big yoyo forums?

[buback]

this has been discussed at great length over the past couple of weeks on most of the big yoyo forums.

Most? you mean there are Multiple Big yoyo forums?

Well i'll take your word that there's some huge stealth yoyo community out there on the internet. What are the other yoyo forums saying about this? Do they think that he's just a misunderstood artist? An Avant-garde experimentalist working outside the box?

Re:

[jockeys]

There are around half a dozen yoyo forums with members numbering from hundreds to a few thousand. I don't post on all of them so I can't comment.

Re:

[bluefoxlucid]

There is a rather large shaving forum (23871 members) I frequent, one of three main large communities, plus two main large straight razor shaving communities that are separate. Then there are about .. 5? ... French shaving forums, a German one somewhere... and then there's Basenotes, which discusses perfumes...

How big could a yoyo forum be? 10 people?

Re:

[Itninja]

Wow. Talk about whoosh. That's the biggest whoosh that ever whooshed.

You know...

[denzacar]

...for kids.

Soundex panic

[Just Some Guy]

As part of an old family with a lot of branches that changed the surname spelling, I can only say:

Please don't let him be related. Please don't let him be related. Please don't let him be related.

Re:

[sznupi]

Hate (well, not really...) to break it to you, but we are all related. Most recent common ancestor of all present humans lived perhaps even in 1st or 2nd millenium BC. If you take a group such as "Western Europeans" (and closely related to them), it was probably as recently as 1000 years ago. Heck, go back ~250k greats-grandparents, and you're at the point of a creature from which all humans, chimpanzees and bonobos are directly descended...

Re:

[Just Some Guy]

While you're technically accurate, I'm thinking more along the lines of "3rd cousin".

Re:

[Ltap]

While we are all technically related, I think what he means is "let me be more closely related to a variety of other people than to this person." It's a technicality, but so was your argument.

Re:

[Surt]

You might be somewhat off on that timeline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_recent_common_ancestor#MRCA_of_all_living_humans [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[sznupi]

Hm? I said "perhaps even in 1st or 2nd millenium BC", that easily falls under one of commonly accepted estimates (which that Wiki link mentions)

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Great!

[maxrate]

This is pure genius. Goes to show they'll put anything on the air at times with out checking their sources. For instance, CNN has an 'authority' on the topics at hand over the telephone, only to find out it's a prankster that's a fan of Howard Stern - I love when stuff like this happens. The guy is so good at keeping a straight face - that's the tricky part.

Re:

[Kozz]

I think you nailed it on the head. I'm familiar with the several WI local news stations & anchors shown in the clips. I can't say I'm surprised. What passes for "journalism school" these days? There rarely seems to be any checking of sources, fact-checking, etc. In fact, they seem to enjoy repeating urban legend. They're as gullible as anybody you could think of in your office. I've snagged local journalists citing as fact things like Rand Corp 1954 Computer [snopes.com] and repeating the urban legend of razo [snopes.com]

Very Successful troll

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

Is very successful.

I read that wrong at first...

[TerranFury]

...and was expecting a guy with a cello.

Re:

[ShadowDragoonFTW]

Can't blame you for that. Likely would have been WAY more entertaining, though.