-
ADD TIME NEWS
- NEWSLETTERS
Hank the Angry Dwarf Is a Giant in Poll
The campaign to write in Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf -- a regular on the Howard Stern show -- in People Magazine's Most Beautiful Person poll started quietly enough last week. But as word spread across Usenet from alt.fan.howard-stern to rec.humor and University of California newsgroups, the votes surged. By Monday, Hank was pulling even with Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson. Tuesday, Hank was gaining on Leo Di Caprio himself. And by noon, the votes gave Hank the crown of the world's most beautiful person -- at a rate that caused People's poll to shut down about an hour later.
The insanely heavy level of voting (something like 50 votes a minute) caused People.com's people to suspect a sinister kind of electronic ballot-stuffing: vote-bots. But Usenet erupted in fury, with irate protesters screaming that there really are that may Stern fans out there. By late afternoon the poll was back up, with Hank the undisputed winner. Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf had more than 40,000 votes, easily beating out Leo's paltry 5,000. If Stern fans were able to agree on the spelling and punctuation of Hank's moniker, his total would be even more astronomical.
Andy Emmerich, a freshman at the University of Illinois and a ringleader of the write-in, summed it up nicely: "Isn't the Internet great?" No mister, it's democracy that's great. Sheesh.
Most Popular »
- The Ft. Hood Hero: Who is Kimberly Munley?
- The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record on the Job
- Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?
- Hasan's Therapy: Could "Secondary Trauma" Have Driven Him to Shooting?
- The Meaning of Manny Pacquiao
- California's Plan to Keep the Water Running
- Troubles for a Deal and for Obama in Honduras
- Is the Dollar Dying a Slow Death?
- 'I Am Autism': An Advocacy Video Sparks Protest
- Environmentalism, the British Religion
- Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?
- Hasan's Therapy: Could "Secondary Trauma" Have Driven Him to Shooting?
- Is the Dollar Dying a Slow Death?
- The Meaning of Manny Pacquiao
- The Ft. Hood Hero: Who is Kimberly Munley?
- 'I Am Autism': An Advocacy Video Sparks Protest
- Environmentalism, the British Religion
- California's Plan to Keep the Water Running
- The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record on the Job
- Troubles for a Deal and for Obama in Honduras







RSS