Copyright © 2001, Joke A Day, Inc. -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
News stories from around the world. (Very graphic intensive -- slow modems beware!) -- Last Updated January 7, 2002
Letters from real people who appreciated my style of humor. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
Letters from real people who have no business near a computer. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
About.COM's schizoid feelings about my little joke. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
The bastards at Symantec who should know better than to piss off a comedian. -- Last Updated July 20, 2001
Follow-up articles. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
AOL FAQ
Reader Bruce Andis told me About.com's rather nasty article about the "virus". The site was holding a "poll" where they
were asking if Ray Owens, the AOL Hoax Creator, is a Jerk, Funny Guy, or Can't Decide. 4% are obviously AOLiens and can't figure
out what the question's about, so they're undecided. 45% think I'm a jerk (that's lower than normal!) And 51% believe I'm
pretty funny. But you could tell "antivirus.guide" Mary Landesman didn't think I was funny at all:
"Consumed with his own interpretation of humor, Ray Owens, the owner of the Joke A Day mailing list, decided to
play a spiteful trick on his readers. Taking his cue from the hysteria created by the SULFNBK.EXE hoax, Ray thought
it might be funny to compose a similar warning - this time telling people to locate and delete the AOL.EXE file,
claiming it was a virus. Complaining that AOL users were the "the absolute stupidest people", Ray created his
joke and sent it out on two separate mailing to his list subscribers. Rather than incorporating a bit of humanity
and realizing that not all people have achieved the same level of computer savvy as he, Ray then blasted the
unfortunate novices who believed the hoax and deleted the file. Shame on you, Ray.
Ray's follow up comments defend his actions, scoffing at AOL users as the "clueless teeming millions who
have absolutely no business anywhere near a computer or on the Internet." Careful, Ray. Remember, what goes around, comes around."
Here's my version of a poll for Mary:
My response to Mary:
Dear Mary
Interesting article you've got there, Mary. Nice to see 52%
of people don't share your opinion and believe I'm a pretty
funny guy.
I'm curious how else would one run a humor site except by
using his or her *own* interpretation about what's humorous
and funny? I guess it's possible to run one where you'd tell
your readers "I didn't think this was all that funny, but Joe
from down the hall did, so here it is."
AOL users *are* the stupidest computer people on the planet.
If you're not in agreement with that statement, then you're
not much of an Internet "expert" and you've certainly not
spent any time actually *conversing* with AOL subscribers.
"Humanity" has no place in a joke list, Mary. We make fun
of any and everything, any and everybody. Everyone gets
their turn the barrel. Those people who fell for the hoax are
the same people who take up 90% of a support tech's time
because they CANNOT or DO NOT read "the instructions."
There is absolutely no other way to interpret this paragraph
FAILURE TO REMOVE THIS FILE WILL KEEP YOUR "UPPER
MEMORY MANAGEMENT" MODULE OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE
QUOTIENT (IQ OVER 85) BLOCKED. DELETING AOL.EXE
WILL FREE YOUR IQ TO GO ABOVE 85!!!
or
DELETING THIS FILE WILL ALLOW YOU TO SPELL
CORRECTLY AND USE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
PROPERLY.
except as an OBVIOUS spoof. Do *you* know of a virus
that can affect your IQ or your command of English?
It's funny that people must obtain a license to drive a car,
pilot a boat, fly an aircraft . . . but no one seems to think
it's the least bit important (least of all AOL and its defenders)
to learn how to operate a computer before being allowed on
the Internet.
During this event I've discovered the people who are the most
vocal about what a "travesty" this was (and those who
ominously warn "Careful, what goes around comes around")
are the people who stand to profit *most* from the clueless
in the crowd. I stand by my remarks.
Respectfully,
I noticed there was no easy way right on the article page itself
to respond to what Mary had written. I had to poke around a little
bit before I found I could click on Mary's picture and it'd bring
up her bio. I found her email address there. But Mary won't post
what I've written above. So, in a fit (ha!) of tit for tat, I won't
post Mary's response to my letter above. (Yep, I always
get the final word.)
Reader Rachel Steadman sent me a copy of the email that was sent to
About's mailing list. Under their Hot Topic I was listed as:
"Humorous Hoax Takes America Online." They go on to say:
"Ray Owens, the owner of the "Joke A Day" mailing list, sent his readers an interesting
email which advised them to erase the file AOL.EXE from their hard drives to avoid a
virus. Of course, AOL.EXE is not a virus, but that didn't stop thousands of readers from
erasing it and destroying their America Online software. Antivirus Guide Mary
Landesman reports on this joke gone bad."
Well, you've seen what I sent. Did I advise them to erase AOL.EXE to AVOID a virus?
No. I told 'em it WAS a virus. And, since only about 5 AOL people have written me
about the subject (none of them claimed to have erased the file) how does About.com
arrive at the figure "thousands of readers"? You know, I never had too much love for
About.com before. I guess those feelings were justified, huh?
Andy with pfancorp
I was a first time visitor inspired to write to that annoyingly smug
About.com bitch, err... woman about her piece on your AOL.EXE joke.
Thought you might like to see the copy... (and feel free to post it if the
fancy hits ya...)
Ready for an E-mail flame? Well here goes...
Shame on Ray Owens? You must be joking...
If you can honestly say that you didn't at least smile when you heard about
the AOL.EXE "virus" warning and those who actually believed it, then you
are either a bold faced liar or someone who desperately needs two things...
A sense of humor and a self admission that some people deserve what they
get.
Who are these people who actually deleted their AOL.EXE files? Let's start
with what we know...
1) They are AOL users, and as such they receive large amounts of SPAM on a
daily basis, much of which is either misleading or outright malicious. (AOL
needs you to confirm your CC info, click on this link to re-enter your
information... Sound familiar?)
2) They are people who obviously will believe whatever they are told, no
matter who tells them. This, in and of itself, is a danger to both
themselves and the overall health of the net. What happens when someone
with actual malicious intent (Which Mr. Owens did NOT have, whatever the
opinion of those who got burned) gets hold of these people? How many
hoaxes, chain letters, etc do these people forward just because an E-mail
tells them to?
3) If they deleted AOL.EXE, chances are they got cut off from the internet
for at least a day. Well, guess what. HAPPY99, Prettypark, Melissa,
ILoveYou, AnnaKornikova and all of their variants are perpetuated by people
EXACTLY like the ones you are so interested in considering "poor
(unfortunate) AOL users". They aren't unfortunate, at BEST they are
IGNORANT. Obviously not the same as stupid, but bad enough to where it
doesn't matter in the long run. You want to fight viruses? Get rid of the
people who spread them via ignorance.
As more and more people get online, the power wielded by the gullible and
those who would seek to utilize their ignorance becomes greater and
greater. Already, yellow journalism has proven it's potential for
self-fulfilling prophecy in cases like the "US vs. China Hack Attack" buzz
perpetrated by Wired magazine. The Outlook viruses mentioned above crashed
corporate mail servers on sheer volume, and despite international TV, Web,
and even RADIO coverage, still all it takes is a new subject line and back
we are at the IT nightmare of yester-week.
Obviously the ignorant have no interest in learning from the mistakes of
others. Mr. Owens, albeit inadvertently, taught them their lesson via the
only means which appears to work. Obviously we cannot prevent hoaxes from
being created. We can only hope to educate those who are repeatedly
subjugated by the corporations who want their users to stay uninformed.
AOL, MS, INTEL, and many others are all to happy to say "Hey, if you don't
know computers, let us handle things. We PROMISE not to screw you..."
Don't know how to drive a car? Let me handle all the details and I'll find
the perfect ride for you! And while I count my profits, I hope you have fun
at the bottom of the river that you didn't know you needed a bridge to
cross.
I said it before, I'll say it again. Shame on Mr. Owens? You must be
joking...
Brent with acan
Ray Owens is a moderator of a joke mailing list which is subscribed to,
voluntarily, by people who are looking for humorous content to liven up
their day. The AOL.exe joke did this for many of his subscribers. This
joke was sent out as a regularly scheduled joke mailing using the same
format as all his other publications including the joke a day date header
in the subject line. This was not intended to be a spiteful trick on
anyone. Of course it was reasonable to assume that there would be some
people who might be likely to take it as serious. How many people were
fooled by Orson Well's war of the world, which aired on on Halloween,
October 31st, 1938. I think ray owens little joke caused far less
psychological damage than that.
So Ray makes fun of AOL users by stereotyping them as dumber than average.
Ray has many loyal fans who are on AOL and he himself has an AOL account.
Ray does not blast anyone for not having enough computer savvy. He blasts
them for not having enough common sense. His primary complaint about AOL
users is that they, more than any other group, despite the fact that they
only comprise about 20% of his subscribers cannot read and follow the
simple directions to unsubscribe from the mailing list when they decide to
do so. Even when he tells them that the directions are right their on the
email:
To unsubscribe CLICK on the URL below this line:
mailto:leave-jokeaday-list-1396847P@lyris.jokeaday.com
If you can't "click" above, then send a blank email to:
leave-jokeaday-list-1396847P@lyris.jokeaday.com
How much computer savvy does it require to read and follow simple instructions?
Additionally how much computer savvy does it require to understand that no
virus can do this?
WARNING: KEEPING THIS FILE ON THE SYSTEM AFTER JUNE 8 WILL COST YOU $2.90
MORE PER MONTH!
FAILURE TO REMOVE THIS FILE WILL KEEP YOUR "UPPER MEMORY MANAGEMENT" MODULE
OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT (IQ OVER 85) BLOCKED. DELETING AOL.EXE WILL
FREE YOUR IQ TO GO ABOVE 85!!!
Mary, you should be aware that the largest factor responsible in the
proliferation and spread of actual computer viruses is ignorance. The only
way to be reasonably certain that your computer will be up and running is
to take the responsibility to learn more about it and if you don't know
about something then you better consult someone who does before taking
actions that you do not understand the consequences of. People who use
computers and the internet who do not understand this put themselves and
other people, pepole who trust them, at risk.
I check all virus alerts I recieve in email against the virus libraries
maintained by Norton and Mcafee and I check the various internet hoax
libraries for legitimacy before passing them on. ANy that were forwrded to
me that are found to be a hoax I send corrections out to all on the email
header that it is a hoax along with some general information on how they
can check these things out for themselves. For my efforts I now have
people emailing me about alerts they recieved asking me to look it up for them.
These people have enough computer savvy to send emails and surf the net.
Thats all it takes to find out the rest of what they need to know to
prevent risk to themselves and others. If they cannot do this and they
happen to be stupid enough not to be able to tell the difference between a
real virus alert and an obvious joke (that does not require anything more
than common sense, not computer savvy to determine), and if the result is
that they either look foolish asking the question (at least they were smart
enough not to take action without at least trying to understand) or worse
they delete AOl.exe from their computer and they aren't smart enough to go
into the recycle bin to retrieve it when AOL no longer works, Then I would
hope at least that they would learn their lesson and maybe educate
themselves rather than to expect pity or compassion for their ignorance.
The internet is a resource and the ignorance of others causes grief to all
those those who use it. Real viruses would not spread so abundantly if
people would just learn what attachments are at risk and not open them
without scanning them with an up to date virus scanner. I can assure that
anyone who took the AOL.exe virus joke seriously is likely to, in their
ignorance, cause a lot more grief down the road for someone else than Ray
Owens did in sending out a joke making fun of AOL users intelligence. They
truely have "absolutely no business anywhere near a computer or on the
Internet".
Shame on you Mary, for your liabelous accusation of assumed ill intent by
Ray to "play a spiteful trick on his readers". Shame on you for either not
taking the time enough or having the intelligence enough to consider and to
take into account all of the details before forming and publishing your
caustic opinions. Shame on you for fostering a tolerance for willfull
ignorance rather than holding people accountable for their own
responsibilty to educate themselves.
And Shame on you for not having a sense of humor.
July 3, 2001
On June 16, I received this letter from Apryl Duncan, another About.com "guide":
Dear Mr. Owens,
Congrats on getting such great media exposure!
Even those articles with a negative slant are still good for
jokeaday.com. As we say in the advertising business, even bad
publicity is good publicity.
I realize another Guide on the About network wrote an article
that didn't set real well with you and your fans. As About.com's
Advertising Guide, I'm interested in writing a balanced article
with a spin on the situation. After all, you may have created
the AOL.EXE Virus Hoax to be a joke but it's turned into one
of the greatest publicity stunts ever!
If you'll grant me an interview, I'd like to present you with
a short list of questions. These questions will address the AOL
Virus Hoax itself as well as the worldwide exposure you and jokeaday.com
have received.
As any good journalist should be, I'm completely neutral in my
reporting. Under no circumstances do I write editorials so, rest
assured, this article as well as all of my articles report the
facts without slanting.
I am truly a professional journalist, with over 10 years of experience
in television, newspaper and worldwide magazines. About.com Guides
are independent contractors and 99 percent of them have never
even met each other. So we're not sitting in an office conspiring.
In other words, I'm in no way affiliated with any other reports
out there (positive or negative) regarding you and your site.
Please take all of that into account when deciding on this interview.
Looking forward to your response!
I agreed to the interview, sent back my answers to the questions
she asked, and Apryl came up with the article below. Nice to see
someone at About.com recognizes a joke when she sees one.
Apryl's article:
The AOL Virus Hoax produced a lot of laughs as well as a lot of anger. Recently, I interviewed Ray Owens, the joke's creator, to investigate the advertising side this publicity brought on. The following piece is based on that interview.
-Apryl Duncan
Ray Owens sparked a whirlwind of emotions when he created the AOL.EXE virus hoax and sent it out to his JokeADay.com mailing list. Little did he know, his joke would turn out to be the biggest publicity stunt the Internet has ever seen.
Mr. Owens' joke targeted America Online users and told them they should delete their AOL.EXE file in order to "free your IQ to go above 85." The virus hoax took on a life of its own and many AOL users believed the virus warning was real. Ultimately, they deleted the .EXE file, removing their access to the Internet.
The joke caused quite a stir in the online community. JokeADay.com instantly gained worldwide exposure from media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, CNET, Yahoo, The Standard, ZDNet, AOL, InfoWorld, Science Magazine, PCWorld.com, USA Today and About.com.
Mr. Owens generated a whole new fan base for his Web site through this newfound publicity. Even the controversy behind his joke caused a firestorm of response.
Immediately after the hoax was sent out to over 342,000 of his mailing list subscribers, Mr. Owens would open his Email box to find 300 to 400 hundred messages waiting on him. All in all, he says he's received anywhere between 3,000 to 3,500 Emails both praising his joke and ridiculing his sense of humor. Some of those Emails came straight from AOL users.
Margaret, an AOL subscriber, wrote Mr. Owens saying, "This was beautiful. I'm putting it right up there with Orson Welles and his radio program War of the Worlds. Keep up the good work!"
Nancy, also an AOL subscriber, didn't agree. "I found your rant about AOL subscribers tasteless and insulting. Guess I can't take a joke," she wrote.
But Mr. Owens says his joke was just that: a joke.
"Anyone who could read and comprehend English at a basic level would have been able to figure out (and appreciate) the fact that it was a joke," he said. "And several AOL people who can do those things wrote me in appreciation of it."
Close to 30 million people subscribe to AOL. The company holds the number one Internet Service Provider position and even Mr. Owens recognizes AOL's power online.
"I've always known (and maintained) that AOL itself is a terrific idea. Their marketing prowess is second to none. I've also always said there's plenty of intelligent people who use AOL for whatever reason. (Lack of available service in some areas, for instance)," he said.
JokeADay.com receives about 80,000 visitors each day. Initially, the site experienced a 10 to 15 percent spike in traffic the week media coverage broke the story. Subscriptions to the JokeADay.com mailing list also increased. The number of paid subscriptions as well as subscriptions to the Joke A Day premium Web site also increased about 10 to 15 percent.
The week after the intense media exposure, though, Mr. Owens noticed Web traffic actually declined just as much. "So, for the first time in the history of Joke A Day, the number of visitors too a noticeable dive," he said.
Mr. Owens tapped into a unique marketing concept. He admits he had no idea his joke would turn into an outright publicity stunt.
"I thought it was kind of cute," he said. "My regular readers know of my disdain for all things AOL. So who could have possibly predicted it'd go as crazy as it did?"
That doesn't mean that every Web site owner should begin producing virus hoaxes. Mr. Owens is in a unique situation. His site is completely joke-related and his concept, although risque in some aspects, was completely original. Any copycats trying to capitalize on this type of publicity stunt simply won't receive the same media attention.
One of the major factors to consider with any type of publicity you receive is that even negative press is good. You're still raising awareness of your company and its products/services. Mr. Owens found that out as several negative reports were published regarding the hoax.
But when asked if he'd do it all again, Mr. Owens simply replied, "In a heartbeat."
Ray Owens claims he didn't intend for his joke to attract so much media attention. But it certainly did.
People have been talking about this virus hoax on a variety of message boards. Some have even said AOL should sue Mr. Owens.
However, no one from AOL has contacted him. And he feels no harm was done to the company itself.
"Only if someone had the file and an active account with AOL and had been dumb enough to delete it...well, it's not a requirement for the software to actually be working for AOL to bill you for a subscription. As a matter of fact, you could have an AOL account without even having a computer."
"What I sent out was so obviously a joke, that for AOL to claim I 'injured' their service in any way would be laughable.
July 5, 2001
I heard back from Apryl:
Just wanted to let you know the article "Laughing All the Way"
is receiving front page promotion on About.com today.
P.S. I just received a marriage proposal from someone who enjoyed
the article. LOL
Enjoy,
Apryl Duncan
July 16, 2001
One more letter from Ms. Duncan:
Just to let you know, the article pulled in the highest hits the Advertising
site has ever seen. The front page promotion helped greatly. Everyone wants
the buzz on this hot topic! :o)
News stories from around the world. (Very graphic intensive -- slow modems beware!) -- Last Updated January 7, 2002
Letters from real people who appreciated my style of humor. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
Letters from real people who have no business near a computer. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
About.COM's schizoid feelings about my little joke. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
The bastards at Symantec who should know better than to piss off a comedian. -- Last Updated July 20, 2001
Follow-up articles. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
AOL FAQ
