Here’s the definition of an internet troll, as defined by Wikipedia: “In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic (content) with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”
And here’s how a few trolls explained their end game in a 2008 New York Times article on trolling:
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score. A corruption of “LOL” or “laugh out loud,” “lulz” means the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium. “Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh,” said one ex-troll who, like many people I contacted, refused to disclose his legal identity.
Another troll explained the lulz as a quasi-thermodynamic exchange between the sensitive and the cruel: “You look for someone who is full of it, a real blowhard. Then you exploit their insecurities to get an insane amount of drama, laughs and lulz. Rules would be simple: 1. Do whatever it takes to get lulz. 2. Make sure the lulz is widely distributed. This will allow for more lulz to be made. 3. The game is never over until all the lulz have been had.”
My purpose in reiterating what many of you reading this probably already know — the definition and motivation of a troll — is to backup an assertion that I, and a few others, now believe to be abundantly clear via this song and video, “Bitch Suck D*ck”: Tyler, the Creator is not so much a psychopath musician as he is a troll, perhaps one of the biggest we’ve ever seen, and I suspect he’ll get plenty of lulz from this.
He’s just trolling us all at this point.
