If we needed more proof — and, y’know, we absolutely didn’t, but still — that Flavorwire hero/2015 man of the year/general internet legend Dr Chuck Tingle, PhD, is the best, then here it is: he has apparently purchased therabidpuppies.com, the domain name associated with the right-wing activist group that managed to get him nominated for a Hugo Award.
OK, so, if that news doesn’t appear particularly interesting on face value, bear with me, because there’s a backstory here for those who are not especially interested in the internecine politics of the Hugo Awards (and, honestly, who could blame you?). Here goes: the Rabid Puppies are a bunch of Gamergate-esque dipshits who — presumably for want of anything better to do — specialize in bloc voting in order to get novels nominated for the Awards. Their preferred nominations, shockingly, tend to be politically right-wing, and their campaigns have drawn laudatory coverage from Breitbart — ever focused on the big issues of the day — for “shutting out the ‘SJWs.'”
So far, so tedious. But! This year, the group managed to get the good Dr Tingle’s Space Raptor Butt Invasion nominated for the Best Short Story award. This was clearly meant as a troll-ish gesture, but it rather underestimated Tingle’s general awesomeness, and has blown up in the Puppies’ faces, like a Coke Zero that’s been overshaken by a nefarious SJW. Tingle has responded in a variety of increasingly hilarious ways (the Daily Dot details his needling of the Rabid Puppies here), perhaps the best of which is this: Tingle prefers to remain anonymous, but his nomination comes with an invitation to the award ceremony, so as his proxy he has nominated… Gamergate bogeywoman Zoe Quinn. This, one expects, is not exactly what the Rabid Puppies were expecting when they got together to get a omg-it’s-so-gaaaaaaay-lulz book nominated for an award they clearly both loathe and covet. (And isn’t that always the case with these people?)
All of which brings us to today, and the discovery that the Rabid Puppies, bless them, have forgotten to buy therabidpuppies.com, which is now owned by… why, one Dr Chuck Tingle of Billings, Montana. Click through, buckaroos, and rejoice.