Monthly Archives: June 2017

Misc

And Now, a Word From Zero Sponsors

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Update: Friday’s “no ads” discussion from This Week in Enterprise Tech has been added to the video.
Rare picture depicting Lisa Laporte harvesting Galapagos money in the wild

We previously reported on Leo Laporte shitting on sponsor Ring.com just before leaving for his Galapagos vacation. Why can’t we find any discussion of this vacation on TWiT on any show??

Shortly thereafter, during his vacation, Ring.com disappeared from the sponsor list. But — if Leo is to be believed — his lies and ridicule of the FMCP-approved surveillance device company prompted the owner to reach out to tell Leo how much he loved him and wanted to buy more ads. Silver-tongued Uncle Leo isn’t to be believed — of course — but how he talked himself back into Ring.com’s graces, we’ll never know.

Leo said he got in trouble with his wife, Lisa Laporte, supposedly the CEO of the failing company, which already has a lot of trouble selling ads. Leo claimed Ring bought “a whole bunch more ads” just to show him how much Ring loves TWiT.

Hilton A. Goring could not be reached for comment.

But here’s the weird thing. Many shows regularly have zero ads, as you heard in the video above. FLOSS Weekly went without, on the same day. Windows Weekly went without, on the same day.

Home Theater Geeks has gone without ads this entire year. Circumstances are so dire that Scott Wilkinson made on-air remarks about how there are never any ads to read on his teleprompter.

Total Drama dug deeper. Expert analysis revealed the following shows had zero ads recently — by no means an exhaustive list, just spot checks. Something is rotten in the TWiT ad sales department.

I guess that Richard Branson money doesn’t go as far when you constantly shit on your advertisers.

TWiT is going to have to fire a lot more people than just Tony Wang and Kara Kohl to make up for this shortfall.

Other Recent Shows With No Ads

Windows Weekly June 28
Home Theater Geeks The entire year of 2017
FLOSS Weekly June 28
This Week in Enterprise Tech June 30
Tech News Today May 22
  May 23
  May 24
  May 25
  May 26
Know How January 19
  January 26
  January 30
  February 6
  February 23
  March 6
  March 20
  March 23
  March 30
  April 6
  April 10
  April 20
  April 24
  April 27
  May 8
  May 22
  May 25
  June 5
  June 12
  June 29
Misc

Scott Wilkinson Gets Masterfully Trolled

67 Comments
Update: By popular demand — one guy using a bunch of different names in the comments — here’s the video of Leo handling a call from Longmont Potion Castle the following weekend.
For better quality watch the video fullscreen.

Scott Wilkinson is a professional home theater expert who we affectionately refer to as the maniacal cackling Santa Claus. He’s probably never been targeted by an Internet troll. But cue “Carmelo” from Needles, California, calling in to The Tech Guy.

Facial composite of “Carmelo” drawn by police sketch artist after listening to audio

What started off as an innocent home theater question quickly turned into a trolling master class. There’s no doubt that “Carmelo” meticulously planned and executed this troll to perfection. This was not a mindless Howard Stern fan yelling “ba ba booey” and then hanging up. This was someone who spent a lot of time writing what he was going to say, choosing every word and sound effect with precision.

Editor’s Note: We found out “Carmelo” is Longmont Potion Castle, a famous prank caller.

At TotalDrama we don’t condone trolling good and honest people like Scott. However we were amazed and in complete awe at the amount of preparation and courage this must have taken. Congrats on the good job “Carmelo” and enjoy your video tribute.

Misc

In Memoriam 2: Remembering Those We’ve Lost at TWiT

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For better quality watch the video fullscreen.

This is a follow up to HelloWorld’s inspirational video about the great men and women who worked hard and gave their best every day but were still fired in the end.

“Who da’ f*ck is Johnny Jet?”

The latest firings came only days before Leo Laporte and Lisa Laporte ditched TWiT to go on yet another luxurious vacation.

I’m not saying the timing is suspicious but three employees are fired and a week later they are jet-setting to somewhere new. TotalDrama reached out to Robin Leach for comment and his only words were “Shieeeeet these gangstas are legeeiittttt”.

But even though countless employees are now wondering how they are going to make rent this month, every cloud does have a silver lining. For Leo and Lisa, this is that the vacation fund is safe once again. Our sympathies go out to Tony, Kara, Frédérique and the countless other employees who have lost their jobs because of this financially careless waste of money.

Dearly departed Curtis Franklin, who didn’t even make it into the video

Late Update: After the video’s creation, we became aware that Curtis Franklin aka “the swamp monster” has recently gone missing from twit.tv/people.

We aren’t sure if he’s been fired or has simply returned to the Florida swampland to reunite with his own.

Full list of those fired (including the first In Memoriam) and escapees:

Justin Robert Young Iyaz Akhtar
Lamarr Wilson Amber MacArthur
Shannon Morse (Snubs) Gina Trapani
Chad Johnson (OMGChad) Brian Brushwood
Tom Merritt Dane Golden
Evan Brown Sarah Lane
Joe Panettieri Jason C. Cleanthes (EffenDunn)
Myriam Joire Tonya Hall
Frédérique Louis Tony Wang
Kara Kohl Mike Elgan
Jeff Stewart Curtis Franklin(?)
Misc

Leo Laporte Shits on Sponsor Ring.com

27 Comments
Time capsule of the last time Leo learned something new about technology.

Leo Laporte used to crow far and wide about how much he loved “the Ring video doorbell” on all of his shows. He did one of his signature ten minute ads any time he was given the chance — and the dollar bills.

We had concerns about the company, given that Father Robert Ballecer claimed he was able to write some Python scripts to intercept the video from the Ring doorbell, which is supposedly strongly encrypted with TLS.

If a fake priest can break your encryption, how good can it be, unless the fake priest is lying?

The love affair has come to an end. Like the many, many times hosts on the TWiT network have shit on sponsors, Ring.com is now a target.

In the clip above, Leo Laporte claims that Ring didn’t pay their bills, perhaps slandering the company if that isn’t true.

Here’s how TWiT co-host Katie Brenner disrespects sponsor NatureBox on air.

And here’s how TWiT host Tonya Hall disrespects sponsor ZipRecruiter on-air.

And here’s how TWiT’s TNT host Mike Elgan trashes sponsor PayPal on-air.

And here’s how Leo trashes previous sponsor Citrix ShareFile on-air.

And here’s Leo making fun of Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans.

So, if you choose to do business with TWiT as a sponsor, know what you’re getting into, and know that #soup loves to show his email on screen all the time, including the phone number of his soon-to-be stepchild (withheld because we are not monsters).

Caveat emptor. You might be thrown under the bus next, and be assured, the humiliation will be televised.