Episode 311: The Ugliest American

Summary

Blocked and Reported – Episode 311: The Ugliest American

Hosts: Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal
Date: June 8, 2026

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Overview

This episode dives into the phenomenon of "nuisance streamers"—online personalities who travel, particularly in Asia, engaging in offensive, antisocial, and often illegal acts for the sake of livestream content. Katie and Jesse focus on the case study of Johnny Somali, a particularly notorious streamer whose international antics (especially in Japan and South Korea) push the stereotype of the “ugly American” to new extremes. Along the way, the hosts also take diversions into issues of media ethics, online cancellations, and the quirks of contemporary influencer culture.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The State of Sports, Hair, and AI

Time: 00:10–13:00

• Sports Talk as Local Culture: Jesse and Katie riff on sports, especially the fervor of local fandoms (New York Knicks, NBA finals, Seattle’s Super Bowl win).
• Katie’s Dog Moose: A tangent about dog longevity trials (Dog Aging Project) and Moose’s enviable hair, with jokes about selling Moose’s hair to listeners.
• AI-generated Theme Song: The pair debut an AI-made podcast theme and reflect on the increasing quality (and weirdness) of AI-generated content.
  • Quote: “People are going to start making love to this song. This song is good.” – Katie (11:55)
• The Problem with AI Art: Katie laments AI art becoming "too good" and losing its prior uncanny valley appeal.

2. The Mascunility Crisis Podcast and Internet Grifters

Time: 13:00–31:00

• NYT's Masculinity Crisis Discussion: Jesse highlights a recent New York Times podcast episode on masculinity, quoting guest Frederick Joseph's intersectionality metaphor:
  • Quote: “I think the reality is that we've always had patriarchy at the intersection of capitalism and white supremacy and how those things feast on one another...” – Frederick Joseph (13:06)
• Frederick Joseph's Past: The hosts recall previous segments about Joseph, notorious for overblown online complaints and attempted cancellations, including the infamous Airbnb “witchcraft” incident and a racially charged encounter in a dog park.
• Selective Cancel Culture: Katie and Jesse discuss how some media figures weather scandals (plagiarism, journalistic malpractice) while others are ostracized for heterodox views, especially on trans issues.
  • Quote: “You have people like Ryan Broderick who...got busted for plagiarism...who is still in the good graces of...podcasts that would never have someone like you or I on when we haven't done anything wrong.” – Katie (27:27)
• Media's Selective Forgiveness: They muse on how “the right views” insulate some people from career consequences, while moderate but controversial reporting gets others unofficially blacklisted.

3. Nuisance Streamers: Definition and Jackass Roots

Time: 34:41–39:13

• Defining Nuisance Streamers: “Someone who streams while being a giant pain in the ass.” – Katie (34:41)
• Cultural Predecessors: Jesse compares modern streamers to Jackass and Tom Green, but notes today’s examples cross the line into outright hostility and illegality.

4. The Rise of Johnny Somali

Time: 39:14–46:00

• Profile: Johnny Somali (real name: Ramsay Khalid Ismail), a 25-year-old streamer from Phoenix, claims wild backstories (child soldier, pirate).
• Early Content: Started modestly with travel vlogs in Asia, quickly escalating into public nuisance behaviors for views.
  • Notable Quote: “His videos show him traveling through various countries, mostly in Asia. He's not like a travel influencer, he's just...a nuisance streamer who does this abroad.” – Jesse (37:05)
• Escalation: Examples range from shouting obscenities and racial slurs to outright harassment and disrespect of local cultures.

5. Why Asia? The Globalization of Toxic Streaming

Time: 46:00–54:15

• Motivation: Cheaper cost of living in Asia, novelty, and a sense of fewer consequences.
• Reactions and Risks: Local populations respond differently compared to the US—with potential for stronger pushback (legal and extralegal).
  • Quote: “Like a Black guy like Johnny Somali pretending to be mentally ill in public at home in Arizona, he could get shot. Way less likely to happen in Thailand.” – Jesse (43:22)
• Example Cases:
  • Logan Paul’s “Suicide Forest” incident (Japan, 2017) as an early example of extreme streamer misconduct.
  • Dalton Etherle “Chud the Builder” walks around the US yelling slurs, eventually engaged in a shootout and faced attempted murder charges.

6. Tourist Culture Backlash: Local Responses

Time: 54:15–62:00

• Asian Countries Fight Back: Over-tourism and influencer disrespect—such as vandalizing sacred sites, public nudity, or mocking local traditions—has led to strong pushback.
• Notable Signs in Japan warn tourists not to use temples as photo backgrounds or treat cultural heritage as gym equipment.
• Criminalization: In the Philippines, Russian-American streamer “Vitali” arrested for “unjust vexation” (being a giant dick) and held for months.

7. Consequences: Arrest, Deportation, Jail

Time: 62:01–66:00

• Swift Justice: Johnny Somali is banned from Twitch and Kick for extreme antics. Arrested in Israel (after pranks at the Western Wall and harassment of police), then in South Korea after deeply offensive acts related to war memorials and sex slave history.
• Local Vigilantes: Korean men physically confront and attack Johnny Somali, lauded in local media as heroes.
• Legal Proceedings: Charged with everything from obstruction of business (throwing noodles, playing loud music, foul-smelling pranks) to deepfake pornography (making fake videos of himself and local celebrities).
  • Quote: “He arrived late to the trial wearing a MAGA hat.” – Jesse (63:29)
• Sentencing: Six months in Korean prison with hard labor for deepfake pornography, considered mild by local standards due to strong laws protecting against deepfake abuse.

8. Big Picture Reflections

Time: 66:01–End

• No End in Sight: The hosts conclude that, despite increasing local and governmental resistance, nuisance streamers will persist as long as views and ad dollars remain their incentives.
• Dark Irony: Sometimes prison stints become part of their “content” or persona—raising stakes, not ending the cycle.
• Moral Frustration: Katie laments the “hellish age” created by such antics, jokingly wishing for the death penalty for nuisance streamers.
  • Quote: “I’m anti-death penalty—except for nuisance streamers.” – Katie (68:11)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On AI Podcast Jingles:
  “People are going to start making love to this song. This song is good.”
  – Katie (11:55)

• On Selective Cancel Culture:
  “There are some people whose moment in the...social media...makes you...prohibits you from being welcomed in polite society again...And there are some people who just sort of skate through this.”
  – Katie (27:11)

• On the Global Spread of Antisocial Streaming:
  “You can be a complete psycho online...if you just have the right views...some of them weather scandals, some don’t.”
  – Jesse (28:09)

• On Cultural Backlash:
  “Over-tourism and local people are fed up with tourists behaving badly. Japan is not a theme park.”
  – Jesse (45:06, referring to signage seen in Japan)

• On Johnny Somali’s Stunts:
  “He made numerous videos...shouting about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, about how the bombings, quote, ‘got me lit’ and how he hoped the US would do it again.”
  – Jesse (54:05)

• On Prison as Streamer Content:
  “This might be good for like...nuisance streaming from prison. That could be a whole new thing.”
  – Katie (67:08)

• On the Limits of Free Society:
  “Can you have a society that is both free but also kills anyone who’s annoying?”
  – Jesse (53:27)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:10–04:30 – Sports, Local Energy, Personal Tangent
• 13:00–31:00 – Media Scandal, Cancel Culture, and Online Grifters
• 34:41–39:13 – Introduction to Nuisance Streamers
• 39:14–46:00 – Johnny Somali’s Origin and Evolution
• 46:01–54:15 – Antisocial Streaming Abroad: Why Asia?
• 54:16–62:00 – Local and Legal Pushback
• 62:01–66:00 – Arrest, Trials, and Sentencing of Johnny Somali
• 66:01–End – Big Picture Takeaways and Moral Frustrations

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Final Thoughts

Blocked and Reported’s trademark blend of irreverence, deep dives, and cultural skepticism is in full force in this episode. Through the lens of Johnny Somali and other bad actors, Katie and Jesse illuminate not only the bizarre incentives of online attention culture, but also the unpredictable ways that other societies push back. The show wraps up in trademark fashion: with frustrated laughter and a darkly comic sense that things probably won’t get better soon—but dammit, they’ll keep reporting.

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For more:
www.blockedandreported.org

Transcript

[A]

Katie, you've always been a pretty big sports guy, right?

[B]

Oh, huge. Go team.

[A]

Gotta root for the team. I'm worried that I will not survive June in New York City. Given what's going on now. Are you. Are you familiar with like the basics?

[B]

Well, June in New York City, Muggy, ratty, garbagey. Are we talking about something else? I don't know why you're bringing sports into this.

[A]

The New York Knicks are a beloved local franchise and they are in the NBA championships. Championship, I should say. They are.

[B]

It's still NBA season. Is it all year?

[A]

This is. You're such a. You're a girl. You never fail to be a girl. You can try to hide being a girl with the whole lesbian thing, but you're. You're a girl at heart. That short hair is not fooling me.

[B]

I have long hair now. Excuse me. I'm a long haired.

[A]

But it's not that way.

[B]

It's pretty long.

[A]

Look at the video.

[B]

It's pretty long.

[A]

Oh, well, yeah, it's actually is pretty. What do you have like. Like. What's like the. Is that like a highlights thing?

[B]

No, just grows like that.

[A]

You have Moose. Do you and Moose have the same hair?

[B]

We have very similar.

[A]

Is that why you love so much?

[B]

His is much better than mine. And in fact, I have thought many times if I could shave this dog and make a wig out of his hair, anybody would like, love to have. He has the hair. You know the Zoomers who like perm their hair. They're doing the like the broccoli hair thing. I don't know if they're still doing it, but like the curly hair.

[A]

I don't know what it's like. Zoomer is.

[B]

Kids today have like. Boys today have these like curly. Shaved under the bottom, but it's curly on top. Moose has that, but it's all natural and it's blonde on. He's. God, he's just so gorgeous.

[A]

Anyway, you were saying you should tell people would buy. When we did the Dropout TV episode, there was one thing they did where they like sold a cast member's hair care.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not pubic. It was not pubic hair. Don't be weird about it. But if you.

[B]

That's the weird part.

[A]

It was head. Moose has. Moose produces so much hair.

[B]

He does.

[A]

You could sell hair for like a dollar a vial to our sick, sick audience. You could do that.

[B]

I don't know that I. Someone might try to clone him, which actually would be fine. I'm doing this thing now. Can I derail this very quickly I'm doing. So there's a. Yeah, you have probably. You're probably familiar with the human longevity projects going on now.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Okay. So the same thing is happening with dogs. There are.

[A]

I'm in the. I'm in the control group of what happens if you don't improve your lifestyle.

[B]

Yeah. So the same thing is happening dogs. There's a drug, one drug in particular called. I think it's called rapamycin, and it's. It's in humans. It's an immunosuppressant. But there are studies testing whether at low dosage, I believe it's low. Low dosages, this could increase dog longevity. And there's one of these studies. It's called, I think like the Old Dog Project or the Dog Aging Project out of University.

[A]

The Old Dog Project.

[B]

Yeah, something like that. And out of the University of Washington. And they're recruiting.

[A]

It's called the Dog Aging Project.

[B]

Yeah, the Old Dog Project. They're. So they're recruiting subjects for this study. And of course, I want to get moose in the trial, but you have to be neutered something. I'm cutting off my balls.

[A]

The. One of the first video result that came up was from 60 Minutes, actually R.I.P. the Dog Aging Project, Sunday. What do you mean, R.I.P? it's still around.

[B]

So I don't think that he. So he doesn't qualify for the trial because he's got his nuts. And I'm not willing to cut them off quite yet. But. So I've been. I've been reaching out to vets, asking if they would just prescribe it off label. No hits so far. I don't know why.

[A]

The point I was going to make was simply that New York is set to. It's hard, like, genuinely hard to describe. I was in Boston early part of the 21st century, after a lot of sports futility. Some cities are just. You've never lived in a. Well, you lived in Seattle was actually.

[B]

Seattle won the Super Bowl. You might. You might remember.

[A]

Well, Seattle actually is a very intense sports city.

[B]

That's true. And I also don't live there.

[A]

Right, right. You live across the. Whatever the. That thing is.

[B]

Yeah, the town that I live in, there's. I looked up the population yesterday. There's 1700 people. There's no.

[A]

Does Port Townsend have a minor league baseball team?

[B]

No, they barely have a port.

[A]

The Port Townsend Roadies.

[B]

Yeah. The Deer. The port Town Dick Deer.

[A]

No, there. There's like this. This. There's a energy in the air. I remember From Boston in the early 2000s, when we hadn't won anything for a long time. And. And there's just like this. The air is charged, except New York is so much bigger. And.

[B]

Wait, is this the final? Final?

[A]

Yeah, this is the final. Finals are up 10 by the time the Spurs.

[B]

San Antonio.

[A]

The Knicks versus Spurs. Yeah, you got it. Do you know who the big Frenchman on the spurs is?

[B]

Pierre. Your French.

[A]

Yeah. That was a lucky poll, but you got it.

[B]

Is he black?

[A]

Well, he's. Katie, do you know that people from France can be other races than white?

[B]

No. I know they can be Algerian.

[A]

If the Knicks win, I'm not the first to point this out. It's going to be like a giant fucking explosion and riot and I might not make it out. So these could be our. It's good. Like, people are going to lose their minds for days.

[B]

That's the great thing about sports. I lived in Chapel Hill when they won the national championship.

[A]

Basketball.

[B]

Yeah. During the Tyler Hansborough years. And do you know who he is?

[A]

Yeah, he's a big white guy. They grow. They grow big down there in North Carolina.

[B]

He's. Well, he's from the Midwest, of course.

[A]

He was one of a number of big white guys who got drafted high, pretty high, I think, in the NBA and then just turns out are not very good in the NBA. NBA, which is understandable. NBA stuff.

[B]

He ended up playing in Europe for a little while, I think. And now he's really into pickleball. I follow him on Instagram. He used to come into Whole Foods all the time when I worked there. He just. He had this, like, open mouth. He looked dumb. I don't know if he was dumb, but he looked.

[A]

That's really offensive.

[B]

Well, it's also the truth, Jesse. I'm a truth seeker, a truth teller.

[A]

You're a real Dave Rubin type. Okay. Who's drafted 13th. That's pretty high. Not that high.

[B]

And he would. It was very cute. Every single time that he came into Whole Foods, some he would get these, like, you know, like, go to the hot bar and he would pile pounds and pounds of hot bar food on his plate, and he never had to pay for it. Somebody would always. Some. Some, like, small person would always come up and pay for his food. Anyway, that's my professional basketball story. I did meet Mugsy Bogues once.

[A]

I think that's technique. I think you just. Technically, he can't do that under the old NCAA rules. You might have just invalidated their national championship. Gets an in kind.

[B]

In kind payment Anyway, so good luck to the Knicks. Jesse, do you.

[A]

That would be really funny if. Let me just derail the derailment.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If it turns out that Taylor Hansbrough getting free food at Whole Foods violated his amateur status for the NCAA and they strip UNC of that title because of what you said. Unblocked and reported. I want this to happen.

[B]

And they gave it to Duke.

[A]

Just have to. Do they play Duke in the finals?

[B]

No, they can't. They're in the same.

[A]

Don't you know how they have to give it to the. No, I know the rivalry. They have to give it to the geographically closest rival. What were you about to say before I derailed the derailment of the drama.

[B]

Okay, two things. One, so I have this. This, like, I do the same thing every. I have like a routine every morning and part of my routine after I do the New York Times crossword connections. Wordle now pips and then strands. Then I go. I spend an hour on games in the morning. I'm a gamer. Then I go to my Facebook and I look at my Facebook memories and I. And I delete them or I private them because I'm slowly erasing my presence on the Internet. And I had. I saw one yesterday. That was 17 years ago. I had. I was doing an internship at the local public radio station in Chapel Hill, and they were doing. The show was called the Story with Dick Gordon, and they were doing a series on the Innocence Project. And at some point, I guess I had. This was the status update I had of the day. I had interviewed, doing like pre interviews for the show. I had interviewed or was like transcribed probably, actually. Probably transcribing interviews. I don't think they let me interview anyone. A guy who had been wrongfully convicted and he had spent his time in prison reaching out to Innocence Projects. He was. Eventually his case was taken on by the Duke Innocence Project. And he. Whoever was interviewing him. I think it's Phoebe Judge, actually. She said. But Duke was the last one that he reached out to. And Phoebe was like, why did you take so long to reach out to Duke? And he said, nobody likes Duke.

[A]

Curious how that story would tie in.

[B]

One thing about. About one more thing about sports. Good luck.

[A]

By the way, I think I said Taylor Hansberg couple. I meant to say Tyler, obviously. It's obviously.

[B]

Obviously. Obviously Taylor is a girl's name. It's Tyler.

[A]

No boys can be Taylor.

[B]

So Seattle is hosting. Is New York hosting any World cup games?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. So Seattle is hosting Crosser.

[A]

I think in. I don't know anyway. Yes. Either here or across the river in Jersey.

[B]

Okay, so Seattle is hosting a bunch of World cup games. It's during Pride month. And the teams that are playing here, they don't know all of them, but I looked it up yesterday, and the teams that will be.

[A]

That's up. That they would do it during pride. Distracting from Pride.

[B]

Here are the teams that will be playing here in Seattle during Pride. Egypt, Cotter, or Qatar. How are you saying it these days?

[A]

Qatar.

[B]

Qatar and Iran. Enduring Pride.

[A]

Can I just say, I feel. I feel. This is. This is actually not funny, but it is. Some percentage of those players from those very repressive countries are gay and they're going to have to, like, take buses through streets of just insane debauchery.

[B]

There's a naked bike ride in Seattle. I know there are. Like, public nudity is legal in Seattle. There's currently the jerk off trial at Danny Blaine. We'll have to talk about that when it wraps up. Like, this is a city where it is not. It is not impossible that you will be walking down the street, like, on the way to the World cup, and there will be a fentanyl addict jerking off on the street in front of you, wearing a Trans Pride flag in full drag.

[A]

I feel bad for the closeted gay soccer players of those three teams because I'm a empathetic guy.

[B]

Okay, Jesse, enough sports talk.

[A]

That's been Sports Talk with Jesse and Katie.

[B]

What are we talking about today?

[A]

Well, we're going to talk about a young man who travels around Asia getting the kicked out of him and sometimes getting arrested. Before we get to that, a couple updatey things.

[B]

Is this a king?

[A]

It might be at this point.

[B]

It sounds kinky.

[A]

Before we get to that, during our last episode, I made the mistake of inviting listeners to create new Bar Pod theme songs on Suno the AI app.

[B]

Did you just say primo? Primo episode. It was a primo episode.

[A]

I meant to say primo episode.

[B]

You might have. I honestly don't know. It was in and out.

[A]

I don't know either. I can't remember. I'm not. I'm not really.

[B]

There's no way to tell.

[A]

I'm doing two Rubik's Cubes, one with each hand, while I try to also do this podcast. A user named the Fine Print took us up on this. And I know listeners don't like when we really do too much AI stuff. Except they love your images. Just, they're universally beloved.

[B]

They're getting the thing. The problem with the images Is that, like. I started using the AI images through Substack's really bad AI generator, which I.

[A]

Which will. Okay, we'll continue, and then I'll yell at you about that.

[B]

They were. And I like them because they were so bad.

[A]

They're getting too good.

[B]

They're getting too good. Good. I don't like that. Subsack. If you are listening to this, go back to the older models. I want to see seven fingers. I want to see necks where legs go. Come on.

[A]

So the fine print made this one, which I. I think it represented a fair amount of effort on his or her part, prompting wise, but just listen. Like the first 30 seconds of this, Katie, and we'll bet it. This is the theme song. It was an AI's idea.

[B]

Here it is. There is a website.

[A]

People argue there.

[B]

This is so good.

[A]

I know.

[B]

I'm gonna just continue to listen to this. I could fall asleep.

[A]

Is that depressing? How good?

[B]

Like, people are gonna start making love to this song. This song is good.

[A]

Later on. There's a line. There's a part you pay for. It's called the primo. It's the regular show, but slightly worse.

[B]

Excuse me? It's better. It's actually better. And always usually longer.

[A]

I think. I think will overlook the AI crushing the human creative spirit if they. If the AI will provide small perks like cures for cancer and Alzheimer's. That seems like a fair trade for me and doesn't kill us.

[B]

It's good. It's really good.

[A]

Or it's like, it's good enough. You wouldn't know. It's not a robot. I also have not really an update, but some entertaining missing context I should have provided. During our last premium episode, I briefly talked about a New York Times culture podcast about how America has a masculinity crisis. PODC Guest was hosted, as always, by Nadia Spiegelman. The guests were Ruth Whitman. She's like, a author and journalist, and a guy named Frederick Joseph. Frederick Joseph is a New York Times bestselling author, a novelist, an essayist, and poet. He's got. Had an impressive career. He offered some really fresh insights on this podcast. Katie, will you read this one?

[B]

I think the reality is that we've always had patriarchy at the intersection of capitalism and white supremacy and how those things feast on one another and lift one another up. Okay, I'm trying to picture this. You've got an intersection. There's capitalism and supremacy, and then patriarchy.

[A]

Capitalism is a bus headed toward the intersection. White supremacy is like a trucker A tanker truck.

[B]

Okay, where does patriarchy come into it? Is that the road?

[A]

Well, the intersection of capitalism and white. Oh, sorry. Okay. Patriarchy is the vehicle.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And it hits the intersection of capitalism and white supremacy.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And it collides with toxic masculinity.

[B]

I feel like this metaphor would have been better as a pyramid.

[A]

Just continue this one other bit.

[B]

But I think right now, more times than not, the role models that these young boys and young men have are not only divisive and toxic, but insidious and heinous discussing. Okay, so not only divisive and toxic, but also insidious and heinous discussing. That's bad. Truly. I mean, the President of the United States is an alleged rapist. What does that mean? You know, the popular thing that boys are watching is largely mma, right? So I think we're in a horrible place. MMA doesn't like relationship. The boys are doing karate.

[A]

I'm so confused by that. I'm so like, this guy is like the masculinity expert or the expert at, like, how to talk to young men. And he's like, Trump. Which total, total fair point. Trump is, in fact, a toxic male and alleged rapist was like, these boys are watching, mma. It's such a weird thing. Listeners can go and check out that conversation for themselves. We'll link to it. Not all of it is as dumb as this part, but the reason I'm bringing it up is that another listener. Not that. Not the AI Song. I point out that Frederick Joseph is actually a longtime recurring Bar Pod character. I had completely forgotten about this. Do you remember this?

[B]

I did. So his. The name. I'm gonna. I'm gonna admit something sort of racist here. The name was familiar to me, but I had confused him with another sort of like, intersectional online writer black guy. I'm not remember remembering. So I was like, is it that guy that we talked about on the show, or is it that Jonathan. His name is Jonathan and it was spelled funny. You know who I'm talking about?

[A]

Vaguely. But yeah, that is pretty race racist.

[B]

Yes, I had heard of him. I was confusing him as someone else.

[A]

He's been with us basically since our founding. We're currently recording episode 311 shout out to 3:11 of the free version of the podcast. In episode 29, back in the summer of 2020, we talked about a negative experience Frederick Joseph had had recently. Katie read the top of this Vice story from close personal friend of the podcast, Anna Merlin.

[B]

Frederick T. Joseph, a marketing CEO, former national surrogate for Elizabeth Warren. And Bernie Sanders. That makes it sound like he had their baby. That would be quite the pairing. And respected commentator on race in America launched an impassioned Twitter thread on Monday night after finding himself at an Airbnb. Oh, this guy.

[A]

Keep reading.

[B]

At an Airbnb that he claimed was full of, quote, seemingly satanic items and stuff for witchcraft rituals. Joseph said that he and his family members were forced to flee the house after finding, quote, imagery, candles, books, etc for rituals and what looked like devil worship. Both the hosts of the Airbnb in question and the Church of Satan had weighed in to dispute his description of the house and its contents. This was a good one.

[A]

It was an Anna Merlin looked into this and there did not appear to be any evidence.

[B]

Yeah, and Anna Merlin is not someone who, in general, who I.

[A]

Well, she had one.

[B]

She had one giant fuck up and is also kind of a bully online. Every time we talk about Anna Merlin,

[A]

it's hard not to mention like the major fuck up was in 2014, which I think usually Grace give someone grace, but like she hasn't really, really learn from it.

[B]

Well, yeah. Okay, so that up here.

[A]

Wait, I'll just have you read the headline.

[B]

This is when she was at Jezebel. Is the UVA rape story a gigantic hoax? Asks idiot. And the story was particularly was specifically about our friend Robbie Suave from Reason. God, Robbie has been at Reason for ever.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Jesus. And Robbie was one of the first people.

[A]

It's really sad to see someone's career stagnant like Robbie's has. He's not. He's struggling.

[B]

Yeah. So this was. He was one of the first people question the Sabrina early piece in Rolling Stone about this, like, alleged gang rape at a frat party at uva. And there's this. I wonder if the comment is still there. So if you go into the.

[A]

Oh, the comment was amazing.

[B]

Yeah. Okay.

[A]

So I feel bad that we're like rehashing this. It looks like they've nuked their comment section.

[B]

Basically, it's not the comment, it's a correction at the bottom.

[A]

Oh, God.

[B]

Can you see that?

[A]

Yeah. A previous version of this post incorrectly said Richard Bradley is retired. In fact, he's the current editor in chief of Worth. I regret the erro. This is what a professional journalistic correction looks like. In the unlikely event that any editors at Worth or writers at Reason ever need to issue one. Whoops.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And of course now this has been updated significantly in the original. We don't. Okay, well, I'm gonna rehash this just because she's, she's the worst. But in the original comment section, which has since been nuked, Robbie popped up.

[B]

Oh, right.

[A]

And, and, and responded. You know, just the snarky gawker bullshit. And mentioning that she has a degree from Columbia Journalism Review. Robbie was completely in the right here. And yeah, she's just. I don't know, maybe. Maybe her other work is good. Yeah, she seems like a very unpleasant person and not someone who has learned from a massive fuck up.

[B]

I just looked up Sabrina early and she has not posted anything on social media, on, on Twitter, at least since November 30, 2014. Her last post was a link to a Washington Post article. The Washington Post wrote an article about me and how my UVA article came to be. It's the last thing that she wrote. And then, and, and then she's. And then she retweets. Apparently she was on the Brian Lehrer show. And it's just this whole thing is kind of sad. Honestly. I wonder what happened to her. Sabrina, if you're listening to this come on. Blocked and reported, I would love to speak to you.

[A]

Yeah, it's like the first line of her Wikipedia.

[B]

I'm sure this will be the first line of her obit. Like what do you do? Do you after a fuck up like that?

[A]

I didn't realize. She was found personally responsible for 3 million in damages. Damn, that'll fucking ruin you.

[B]

Her fuck the thing like her fuck up was not intentional. You have other people who super fucked up like Stephen Glass and James, James Fry who has recently come back. I heard him on a, on a podcast recently. And their fuck ups were like intentional. Hers was just sloppy and being too credulous.

[A]

It would be interest. You should. We're just giving away what I think are genuinely interesting ideas. But you should go to her website. I'm not going to. But you should go conference contact her on her website, which you can.

[B]

Do you think she. Wait, you think. Does she still have a website like Sabrina?

[A]

Yes, she still has a website that, you know, it's like it. I mean she's not going to put on the COVID of the website. I was responsible for the.

[B]

Well, I wonder if she's still, she's still like updating it if it's like this website. Okay, I'm looking at the website now. It's.

[A]

No, it stopped in 2014.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, she just disappeared. I wonder if she changed her name. That's interesting. Okay, I know you want to get back to, back to Frederick Joseph and Anna Marlin for a Second. But wait, I've got one other thing.

[A]

Fine, fine.

[B]

So Helen, Helen's excellent weekly podcast. Helen Lewis has this excellent. Not podcast. Helen Lewis has this excellent weekly newsletter called the Blue Stocking.

[A]

We'll link to it.

[B]

Yeah, and I just read it this morning in her last. In her last issue. What's it called? When it's a podcast post.

[A]

When it's a podcast. You mean newsletter?

[B]

I mean newsletter. Yeah. What's it called?

[A]

Her last newsletter.

[B]

Her last new. Her last newsletter. She wrote about a story that we also talked on the Primo this week, which was the Canadian.

[A]

Talked on the Primo. Talked about on the Primo.

[B]

Okay. She, Helen wrote about in her newsletter a story that we also mentioned on the. On the most recent Primo, which was a story about the Globa Mail, this paper in Canada that did a retrospective on the five year anniversary of the Kamloops unmarked graves scandal in which this tribe said that 215 children were like.

[A]

I don't think. I think it was, it was 215.

[B]

Yeah, we're buried in this unmarked grave. This. Which later became known as a mass grave. Anyway, so Helen pointed out something that I didn't realize. Naomi Klein, you know, she wrote that book Doppelganger. Yeah. Okay, so the book is about Naomi Wolf because Naomi Klein was frequently mistaken for Naomi Wolf, who has obviously, if you follow Naomi Wolf, she has obviously become an absolute crackpot. Maybe she always was a crackpot, but she is a like 5G chemtrails, their, you know, tinfoil hat wearing crackpot at this point. And she, she wrote this book about this. And Helen points out. I've never read the book. Helen points out that in the book Naomi Klein compares the Canadian trucker protests. Do you remember this? This was in Canada. They like drove from Alberta to the Capitol and like clogged up the streets over these vaccine mandates. And Klein compared those protests, which were bad, according to Klein.

[A]

Right.

[B]

With the protest over the residential schools, which were based. Which were based on basically nothing. And she has. So she's writing this book about this crackpot who spreads misinformation while at the same time spreading misinformation and has never apparently acknowledged the fact that she got this wrong. Yeah, I mean, I guess there's also a remote possibility that like there are 250 children in these graves. But that's never been proven. But she just like accepted this whole cloth while at the same time writing entire book about this other woman with a similar name to her who's spreading misinformation Anyway, Helen's newsletter is very good. Sorry, Jesse.

[A]

Yes, people should subscribe. We'll link to it. Back to Frederick.

[B]

Finally. I've been trying to get you to go back to Frederick.

[A]

I know. I know. This is. Yeah. There were multiple levels of derailment. Deep. But I went back and listened to some of our prior work on this, and it's wild because in addition to this witchcraft thing, there was this incident where he tried to Central Park. Karen. This woman in McCarran park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He just posted a clip of himself saying, oh, you. You said, go back to my hood. Like saying this white woman had said, go back to your hood. He didn't include the context, which was this was some sort of fight over an aggressive dog in a dog park. I think the woman falsely thought the dog was his. He says, she says this. He tagged her employer. She gets fired. This is 2021. So this was still going on.

[B]

Did she. I need to know if she said hood or neighborhood.

[A]

And we talk about. Went back and we talked about it.

[B]

Okay, did we?

[A]

And we talked about how it would have been better to say neighborhood. But the point is, what he can do is appropriate.

[B]

AAB.

[A]

What he left out was that during the. This exchange, he volunteered that he was from Long Island City, this other nearby neighborhood. Which casts it in a very different light. If he's like, I'm not from here. I'm from Long Island City. And she goes, go back to your hood.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's really different from just like telling

[B]

a black man to go back to the hood.

[A]

Yes. Or his hood. There was also another. On another. Another instance he posted. He just always did this weird race outrage bait. So he posted a photo of someone lying across three seats on an airplane he was on. And he said, like, a black person wouldn't be allowed to do that. Which is fair because this was a photo from Air Rhodesia. Katie, did you get that joke?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay, good. It was really funny. And then he did another airline photo where he said that a woman put her feet on the seat. A white woman. And do you remember how the airline. She wouldn't take her feet down from the seat. Do you remember how he said the airline resolved this conflict?

[B]

Did they give her a pair of socks and upgrade her to first class?

[A]

He said they gave her $11,000.

[B]

No.

[A]

Which has anyone who has ever been on an airplane. Plane. I mean, your airplane.

[B]

The airplane that you're on could crash. And they would not give you $1,000.

[A]

No, no. Or they would fight it tooth and

[B]

I won't even give you a second fucking ginger ale on a plane these days. That did not happen.

[A]

Excuse me, stewardess, we're about to crash. Can I have a second ginger ale? I just. I listened back to the segment the second. We had a second segment we did on him because we. The haunted house one was its own thing.

[B]

How do. Do we age well?

[A]

No.

[B]

Have our voices dropped?

[A]

You hadn't hit puberty yet, so your voice has dropped. It was. It was good. I thought it was good. Classic vintage bar pot. Willing to it. But yeah, we had basically come to the conclusion that this guy is like, not just a grifter, but sort of bad kind who, like, will really try to ruin other people's lives. So I'm just surprised that in the vast universe of people the New York Times could have reached out to. To go on this prominent podcast and talk about males and masculinity. Not sure how he got the job, but I bet he has a. Must have a really good publicist or something.

[B]

You know, it does seem as though, like, there are some people whose moment in the cancellation or moment in the social media being the character of the day makes you, like, prohibits you from being welco welcomed in polite society again for minor and oftentimes unintentional crimes. And there are some people who just sort of skate through this. Like, I'll cut this if you think I should. Okay. There's a. There's a podcast that I've been trying to book myself on for. I won't mention the name of it for, like, since my book came out, because it's a show about addiction. And I think, and I listen to it, it's an interesting podcast. The guy who's the host of it is someone who is sued for journalistic malpractice, let's put it that way. He's much, much more well known than I am. And he's much more like. His crimes were much greater, I think. And he, like, he. He went through this thing, changed his life, and now does this podcast about addiction. I do not think they would have me on this show because of the trans stuff.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, there's like a whole.

[B]

But what he. What he did is so much worse. So much worse.

[A]

The number of just objectively terrible people in certain corners of leftist media who just have the right views. I mean, it's. It's. You can't. What are you gonna do about it? These, like, it's idiotic, but. Yep.

[B]

Right. It just. I don't know, it like, continually baffles. Me. You have people like Ryan Broderick who, you know, got busted for plagiarism, who has, like, faced, who was fired from buzzfeed, who has this very successful newsletter, who is still in the good graces of like, sort of. I wouldn't say elite media, but like, he is somebody who you will hear on podcasts that would never have someone like you or I on when we haven't done anything wrong. Like, our views. I don't think our views are like. Like, our views are very mainstream, for one thing, but also like, we didn't commit any actual journalistic sins. We just reported on things that people didn't like. I don't know. It's. It.

[A]

They've also create. I mean, in like, in, in this sort of Gawker extended universe. Some, some of them, not all of them. They've created this, in my view, delusional fantasy that like, yeah, there's been this swelling wave of transphobia not in America, but in liberal media because of people like us and that. Right. All of this, these policy changes, like youth, gender, medicine and the sports stuff and the prison stuff in places like California. People would have been cool with that if not for, like, us. Like, I mean, it, It's, It's. It's deranged. But the way they talk about it, they genuinely think that. So that's why some of them view us as the end. I mean, would you. Do you honestly think you've, like. I don't know. It's just. It feels weird complaining about it because we're. We've been so lucky.

[B]

It does, it does feel.

[A]

And we've been lucky in part because of the way we're talking.

[B]

It does feel weird. But I also just. I don't know. Actually, you know, the New York Times, this podcast that they're doing, the Nadia Spiegelman podcast, You know she had Brock Collier on the show. Maybe. Who has. I don't. He hasn't been canceled, but he's certainly.

[A]

I don't think it's. He. I think it's.

[B]

Right. Apologies. You know, it. Like, I don't think the podcast. Well, whatever. We can move on. It's just.

[A]

What was your point about Collier?

[B]

He's sorry. She. They is like a little bit problematic.

[A]

Collier will talk about gender and identity in a more interesting, less doctrinaire way than other people. This goes back to when then. Then he was like the part or then they. Where the party. Like a sort of a party reporter. But not that almost doesn't give them enough credit. At New York Magazine.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And at one point they wrote a piece that was like, pretty straightforward about like, the social influence to sort of they yourself. Yeah, but like, what, but what? Like someone who doesn't like us or our podcast would be like, what the fuck are you complaining about? Like, Jesse, Jesse just wrote a Times column on the. Two Times columns on the youth gender stuff. How we're not canceled. You, you get opportunities.

[B]

No, I don't. Don't.

[A]

Yeah, you do.

[B]

Like, what?

[A]

You get to go on, like, big podcasts. You hosted stuff for, like, reflector.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

You don't think you could write if you have, you have you, like, pitched a. You don't think.

[B]

I did pitch the Time.

[A]

Blacklisted from the Time.

[B]

I know I'm definitely not blacklisted, but I did, I pitched the Times and I got like, very far through when I was writing my book stuff, and it didn't, it didn't actually get published. And then like a week later they wrote a, they had a stack staff, not they had a staffer at the Times a week later wrote a column extremely similar to the one that I pitched, which is just something that happens all the time. It does happen, but that doesn't. I, I, I don't think that Nadja Spiegelman would like, have you or me on the podcast. Well, I don't think that would happen.

[A]

This is a good opportunity for her to, she has to now, because you've said that.

[B]

My point is, is just that like, someone like Frederick Joseph, who I think has done things that are, that are actually unethical, like trying to get people fired, trying to get like an Airbnb banned from the fucking app or whatever. Like, those sins don't count, but having a slightly having like the normal opinion on.

[A]

I know, but this is all like, this is all sort of factional.

[B]

Yes, it is.

[A]

You could like, like, you can be a complete psycho online, openly calling for viol. I mean, there's like some limits, but I don't know. I'm surprised any of this surprises you. This is just how it works among, like, it doesn't surprise annoying subset of people in media, but we, we've transcended them by. We have the most popular podcast in the world now.

[B]

Okay, what are we talking about today?

[A]

Well, are we done with this? We should probably do housekeeping. You should do it.

[B]

Okay, Jesse, we are a podcast. This is blocked and reported.

[A]

A very well structured and organized podcast. Not a, not a wasted section.

[B]

Second, you can reach out to us@blocked andreportedpodcastmail.com you can send feedback, you can send tips. You can send your invoices for Moose's locks of Moose's hair or Jesse's feet pics. He's still waiting for someone.

[A]

I mean, like, honestly. Make an offer if you want. You have to pay shipping, though, for the right price. Yeah. No, make an offer, including shipping if you want Moose's hair. It's great hair. I've touched it.

[B]

His hair is.

[A]

It's beautiful hair.

[B]

Genuinely beautiful. I'm not gonna give you so much that you could like make a sweater out of it. I don't want him to be naked. He's. He actually is a nudist. He doesn't wear a collar.

[A]

Why would you not have. This is like.

[B]

If anybody wants to.

[A]

You love Moose so much, why would you not have him wear a collar?

[B]

Because how would you like to have something around your neck all the time? A choker?

[A]

I mean, would you like what I'm into?

[B]

Yeah. He wears a harness when we take him off the property. But he doesn't. With a tag on it. But he doesn't wear a collar.

[A]

All I'm saying is if you're a listener, make Katie an offer because the worst that will happen is she doesn't respond or says no, and which would be terrible. There's no harm in trying.

[B]

What else? If you would like to get more. Almost twice as much content every month, sometimes twice as much content. You can join us. You can become a premium subscriber. A primo. At blockedinreported.org we have some good stuff coming up this month. We're going to do a couple of Pride episodes. Next week I think we're going to do the Patty Gonia story. We also have a. A meltdown at a British. Like I don't even know what it fucking is. A thing. A queer thing. Later in the month, we're gonna do a definitive Marsha P. Johnson myth making episode, which I actually thought that we'd done years ago, but I can't find any trace of it, so. Apparently not. Or I've just forgotten it. We're gonna do it twice.

[A]

I do think you mention that every

[B]

other episode that we've done it, but I can't actually find it.

[A]

No, that we. That you mentioned. Marsha P. Johnson.

[B]

Do you think that we did a Marsha P. Johnson episode?

[A]

Well, how would I. How do you remember Frederick Joseph? How would I know I would have any knowledge of what we've done?

[B]

You're a blank slate.

[A]

I am.

[B]

We also do these live chats. I did one earlier this week with Lisa Sell and Davis about the Park Slope Food Co Op. But really, it's just the best way, really the only way to keep the show going. And we would like to continue to do this. And if you. Yes, you don't support us for the low, low price of $7 a month, even less if you subscribe for a full year, then the show will end. And I don't know what you would listen to radio.

[A]

There's not a lot of other options for content.

[B]

Megyn Kelly.

[A]

Yeah, that's fucked up that you would not support us and then go listen to Megyn Kelly, this hypothetical person.

[B]

I think that's it. Do we have anything else that we do on housekeeping?

[A]

Like and subscribe Email address. I did that Apple podcast raid and review us. Okay, today's episode, which we're only now getting into, is about nuisance streamers. Now, what does that term mean to you?

[B]

I assume context clues that a nuisance streamer is someone who streams while being a giant pain in the ass.

[A]

Well done. Now, I was like, trying to think of where this came from. And to my aging millennial brain, I think Jackass. I think Tom Green. Do you remember the Tom Green Show?

[B]

I loved it at the time.

[A]

That was actually, I loved the Tom Green Show. It was like high school for me.

[B]

I wonder how that's aged.

[A]

I'm sure very well.

[B]

You remember when he married Drew Barrymore?

[A]

I do you. I was like hanging out with Monica Litzy at one point. And then Eric Andre also did sort of like street pranks. But for today's main subject, we're talking about someone who's. Who's much darker, who has taken.

[B]

I don't mean Jesse.

[A]

I'm gonna redo that. Don't.

[B]

No, you're not.

[A]

For today's main subject, we're here someone whose shtick is much darker and who has taken the stereotype of the ugly American abroad to a whole new level. His name is Mr. Johnny Somali. Johnny, whose real name is Ramsay Khalid Ismail, is a 25 year old, 25ish YouTuber from Phoenix, Arizona. He says he has a Somalian father and an Ethiopian mother born in the States in 2000. Despite this, he claims to have both been a child soldier and a pirate.

[B]

What?

[A]

In the Phoenix Militia, Jessica the 80s baby could not find anything to suggest Johnny has ever actually lived in Somalia. And people like members of the diaspora do not really go there much. For obvious reasons. Johnny Somali is, as we shall see, not known for his honesty. So this is likely bullshit.

[B]

Now, maybe he was in the rotc, like at his American high school. The pirate thing. Pirate for Halloween one year or pirated MP3s. I guess if he was born in 2000, he probably wasn't doing that.

[A]

So you're saying when he said he was a Somali pirate, what he meant was either he dressed up as a pirate one year or he downloaded MP3.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay, that makes sense.

[B]

I try to take people at their word.

[A]

You have. You have to. In this day and age. In May 2023, he started streaming on both YouTube and Kick. Kick is like. I don't even know how to describe it. It's just like the worst YouTube. Yeah.

[B]

Streams on Kick.

[A]

If you watch YouTube and you're like, this is too classy and enjoyable, check out Click. Yeah, Kick. Not Click.

[B]

Kick and Cack. That would be like a. Like a. A nuisance. Like streamers, like, like Gen Z car streamers. Could be Kicking Kak.

[A]

His videos show him traveling through various countries, mostly in Asia. He's not like a travel influencer, he's just. He's a nuisance dreamer. Except he's a nuisance streamer who does this abroad. So, yeah, a nuisance streamer is someone who pisses people off. Reviews, they essentially go around trolling people in real life.

[B]

There was that one who we talked about a few times, the British kid.

[A]

Oh, who was awful. Was he the one who went to like, like Afghanistan?

[B]

No, no, he was. He was in London and he was basically. He would basically assault people.

[A]

Oh, that's cool.

[B]

Yeah, I think he got arrested.

[A]

So nuisance streamers will focus on like, just scaring people on the streets, shouting obscenities and so on. And the biggest ones do often go to places like east and Southeast Asia.

[B]

Why?

[A]

We're going to get into that. That's a good question. Perhaps the first major nuisance streamer incident took place. Or at least one of the most famous ones in 20. Remember Logan Paul in the Suicide forest?

[B]

Yeah. He went to this forest in Japan. People said it was like a suicide forest. Like people would go and kill themselves. That might completely not have been true. I don't actually know. There was. But although there was a. Was there a body or several bodies?

[A]

Yeah, I think it is true. And he, they. He and his friends encountered a hanging body and Logan asked it, why don't

[B]

they fence it off?

[A]

Fence off the Suicide Forest?

[B]

Yeah, I guess Japan encourages that sort of thing.

[A]

That's what. That's what, that's your question from this Story.

[B]

I mean, it like in San Francisco, like, people commit suicide on that bridge and then they put up some guardrail or something. Don't you want to prevent. It's Japan. I don't know.

[A]

In the original video, Logan, like, asked of this hanging body, hey, you alive, bro? That one's long gone. YouTube obviously will not let anyone re upload it. We'll include a link to a few clips of the original video that do not include the body. So that incident led to a lot of negative publicity and an extremely cringe apology. And YouTube actually briefly cut ties with Logan Paul, which is a really big sliding door in human history. Imagine if that had just been it for Logan Paul.

[B]

Yeah, definitely.

[A]

How much better off we'd be.

[B]

He'll be in politics someday.

[A]

When nuisance streaming goes wrong, as the suicide forest example indicates, it goes very wrong. One of the worst nuisance streamers I've come across is a guy named Dalton Etherle, AKA Chud the Builder. His shtick is he walks around calling black people the N word.

[B]

Oh, man.

[A]

In May.

[B]

Not smart, not cool.

[A]

That's your take. Not smart or cool?

[B]

I said not cool too.

[A]

So in May, he was arrested for causing a disturbance at a restaurant in Nashville. And just a few days later, he got.

[B]

What kind of restaurant? I don't know, because I feel like you could. There's, like, very different.

[A]

If you go to, like, standards of behavior, like at an ihop, you. It would take a lot to get arrested. You get free pancakes or like Denny's at 3am Right.

[B]

But if it's like a hot chicken place, you're getting your ass beat.

[A]

I don't. Yeah, I don't know where this was. But more importantly, a few days later, he got into a shootout with someone, guns and all, outside a courthouse. He's now facing attempted murder charges. He himself was hit and sustained minor injuries. If you've watched any clips of any of his videos, it will come as a shock to you that he wasn't murdered years ago. Like, that's who this guy was.

[B]

This seems like a good ending, actually. No one killed. He gets minor injuries and bases 15 years in prison. This is best case scenario.

[A]

Scenario guy who walks around screaming the N word. Yeah, this could have gotten way worse. Anyway, back to Johnny Somali. So just let's start with this sort of teaser. There's a moose bouche. Watch this video from Thailand and describe it, and we'll embed the audio. This is like light fare as far as Johnny Somali is concerned.

[B]

Okay. He's walking, he's like he must have like a GoPro on his head or something. It's like first person perspective. This is like not entertaining. He's just walking around, he's got food. He offers it to people, he throws it on the ground. This is terrible content.

[A]

Yeah, it's really bad content. This was, I think from earlier on when he was like. Hasn't really found his niche yet. Now watch, watch this one where he steps it up a little bit. Flat ass booty Psycho. Passing Andy.

[B]

I'm psycho once again. Throwing stuff on the ground. He's just walking down the street. He's wearing a skeleton mask with googly eyes.

[A]

You watermelon.

[B]

What?

[A]

Show the psycho. Keep moving.

[B]

This is going to be the most inwards in any episode of this show.

[A]

Which, given that you're the co host, is surprising.

[B]

Okay, he's yelling. He just like yells at this guy. He's acting like a schizophrenic. If I saw this dude acting like this, I would think he was on drugs, on meth or crazy.

[A]

Yes, you would think he was crazy.

[B]

Or a streamer.

[A]

So Japan has had like issues with streamers. In 2023, a YouTuber known as Fidius pranked a hotel in Kyoto, convincing an employee he was a guest so he could go to the buffet and have a free meal just for content.

[B]

Okay, that's. That's kind of fun.

[A]

That's kind of funny. That's at least cool. That's awesome. Last year, a couple of Twitch streamers used cherry blossom trees as pull up bars.

[B]

Not cool.

[A]

Not cool. These are considered sacred in Japan. One of the streamers eventually post posted a long apology. Nuisance streamers have caused so many problems in Japan that the police and armed forces have actually run anti terrorism drills.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Imagining scenarios about rogue YouTubers making bomb threats.

[B]

Japan is. I have so much admiration for them. They take law and order seriously.

[A]

They really do. So you asked why nuisance streamers go to Asia? There are a couple. There are a few reasons. Most basic one is just things are cheap in places like Thailand or the Philippines. I think less so in Japan and new in streaming may not. You know, it's not going to make you millions unless you're really lucky. It also allows them to work a cultural element into their content. It's like you're not just pissing people off, but you're disrespecting their culture, the language, the language barrier, in like a morbid way. Morbid way makes it like something, it adds something. They also might get more entertaining reactions than if they just stayed in the US So like a black guy like Johnny Somali pretending to be mentally ill in public at home in Arizona, he could get shot.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Is that why they go to Asia? Because their gun laws are stricter, way

[A]

less likely to happen in Thailand. And they also tend to go to countries that are just popular vacation hotspots. Presumably that just gets some more. More views.

[B]

Yeah, like, I'm like, I'm interested in going to Thailand and I want to know what it's like there. So I started streaming. I start watching Johnny Somali streams. You know where they should go? They should go to like Salt Lake City.

[A]

The Mormons are. No, it wouldn't work because Mormons would just, they would just turn the other cheeks. They'd be like, I'm sorry you feel that way. I hope you get the help you need. There's also.

[B]

You heard the good word.

[A]

There's also an element of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I didn't realize that The Brits, Jessica, the 80s baby says what happens on tour stays on tour. I guess what happens in Ibiza happens on holiday. So yeah, nuisance streamers are far from home. They don't really. They might feel like they don't have to worry about the consequences of their actions. In the same way, when you're on vacation, things just feel less real. In general, I have not spent time in these parts of the world. World. But if you've been to a place like Bali, my sense is like Australians and Europeans and Americans just like sort of go crazy there. Katie, you're a big east and Southeast Asia party girl, right?

[B]

What happens in Phuket?

[A]

I watched that season of the White Lotus, so I feel like I basically understand the dynamics.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

Unfortunately, we're on island time. Unfortunately for many of these nuisance dreamers, it turns out, surprisingly that actions do have consequences, even if they're in a foreign country.

[B]

So I think I would say perhaps especially in a foreign country especially.

[A]

So, yes. So a lot of these places, Thai, the Thai islands, Bali, Japan, they're already extremely over touristed and local people are fed up with tourists behaving badly. So describe this sign in Japan.

[B]

Okay, so the sign is in English, which tells you something. Japan is not a theme park. And then there are little graphics with text reading. Temples and shrines are not social media backgrounds. Okay, that seems a little much. Public spaces are not social media backgrounds. Tori Gates. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but it's those picture Japanese, you

[A]

know, Them, if you see them, it's just like this really pretty. It's a really cool design.

[B]

It's like the. What are those called? The things that people put on their gardens.

[A]

No. Homes.

[B]

No, not that.

[A]

Tomato plants.

[B]

No, not that either. I'm forgetting the name. Tori Gates. Tori Gates are not fitness appliances. And then there's a graphic of someone doing a pull up on one of these. Subways and buses are not performance stages. Okay? That's just anti art. Pagodas are not climbing walls. Temples and shrines are not performance stages. Have you ever seen, like, you live in New York, so have you ever been in public when you see. When influencers are like, like doing their tik tok dance? Do you see that? Really? You see that?

[A]

Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? Katie?

[B]

That's my dream is to see that. Like, I want to be in an airport where someone's doing a tik tok dance and there's no music. There's just like the sound of feet scuffing. I want to see it. I do want to see it.

[A]

Well, in time. In Times Square, you can pay to have this device that will like do a360 camera zooming around you. Or like a holder for phone.

[B]

A drone. Okay.

[A]

No, no, just like a thing with an arm. So just like the whole world is a fucking TikTok dance at this point. And when I lived in Berlin, it was really weird. The selfie. There's a really well done, dramatic Holocaust monument not far from the Brandenburg Gate.

[B]

And great content.

[A]

Well, yeah, unfortunately, yes. People would like, post. Really, whatever. It's very distasteful. Although apparently people post distasteful selfies from Auschwitz. So that's where we're at right now. So.

[B]

Well, you gotta. You gotta let your friends know that you travel, that you're getting a passport stamp.

[A]

That's so important.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So, yeah. I mean, Russian influencers getting deported from Indonesia for posing naked at Naked. This has apparently become. In Bali has apparently become a common news story. And apparently these countries are just tired of being playgrounds for influencers behaving badly and they are fighting back. So honestly.

[B]

Good.

[A]

Yeah. One example is a case of Vitali. Oh, man.

[B]

Good luck.

[A]

I'm sorry. I do often try to be better about looking these up. Katie, I'm going to have you take a stab of this.

[B]

Vorvet's.

[A]

Let's just call him Vitaly. He's a Russian American nuisance streamer who started out filming pranks in the us Then he moved overseas. We'll link to a video that gives a taste of what he got up to overseas. This includes stealing a security guard's hat, stealing a security guard's motorcycle, threatening to rob a woman, stealing a fan from a store, going into the kitchen of a McDonald's to cook his own burger. That's kind of cool. Jumping onto the roof of a moving jeepney, which is like a Filipino bus jumping onto the back of a scooter that someone was riding and telling the driver that he was going to steal the scooter. That's hilarious. To pretend to mug somebody. That's so funny.

[B]

This is criminal. These people are. Is he young? Is he Gen Z? I like this is making me. I know this isn't fair, but this is making me hate all of Gen Z.

[A]

That was a really.

[B]

Fuckers are antisocial.

[A]

That was a really astute observation when you. You said these illegal acts are criminal. In April 2025, Vitaly was arrested facing charges of unjust vexation, which is such a good name for a crime. This is a criminal offense in the Philippines.

[B]

Being really fucking annoying. Put that on the books.

[A]

Yeah, it's a criminal offense in the Philippines. That basically means being a giant dick. His team tried to get the charges dropped, citing mental health reasons.

[B]

Yeah. Does that work in the Philippines?

[A]

It does not. So Katie, click the. Click this YouTube link and describe what you're seeing. Welcome to my TV Cribs. I know you've been wondering where I've been. As most of you guys know, I got arrested on April 2, 2025. I'm currently at immigration center awarding facility. I've been here for 69 days.

[B]

So he's in a very small room and cell.

[A]

Not a room.

[B]

How did he get a phone? Take his phone away. Question actually that, you know, that would be. That would be prison enough for these guys if they can never have another phone. He honestly also maybe this is just his hairline, but he looks too old to be doing this. I mean they're all too old to be doing this, but he doesn't look like a 19 year old.

[A]

The conditions do look really awful. I would not wish this even on the most annoying streamer to be stuck in a Filipino.

[B]

He's got a phone.

[A]

He said he tried to reach out for support because he felt his human rights were being violated. Southeast Asian prisons, not. Not great. Nobody came to his rescue.

[B]

Now I don't feel bad for him at all.

[A]

I absolutely feel feel bad he was a dick.

[B]

You do?

[A]

Well, yeah, I feel bad for anyone. I feel bad for like no one like shitty prison conditions are one of the worst things humans do to other humans.

[B]

No, stealing a security guard's hat is one of the worst things.

[A]

Okay, Person a steals person B's hat.

[B]

Going into a McDonald's to cook your own burger, that is. You know how disrespectful that is to McDonald's. To Ronald. So who are you, the burger burglar?

[A]

The Filipino authorities had some problems with Vitaly's case. He's a Russian national, but a US Green card holder. And shockingly, neither Russia nor America wanted him back. No, no, you take him.

[B]

Where are they? Wait, where's Trump sending refugees? Congo. Send him to Congo.

[A]

For a time, it looked like he'd be stuck in Filipino jail. Eventually, a resolution was found, and after nine months in custody, he was deported to Russia and banned from ever entering the Philippines again. Apparently, this caused a bit of drama as a lot of YouTube commentators thought he might get conscripted and sent to the front lines in Ukraine, which I don't really see them. I think that's a. That'd be a good solution for this.

[B]

You want nuisance YouTubers fighting against Ukraine. That's actually more fudge up.

[A]

Actually, that would be. No, it's win, win, win.

[B]

Nuisance droners.

[A]

Win, win, win. It weakens the Russian front.

[B]

Oh, true.

[A]

And he has to learn some goddamn respect and discipline.

[B]

Yeah. You know that actually forcing people into the military, like young men in particular, who need some discipline. Not the worst idea. Not the worst idea.

[A]

He was eventually allowed to return to the U.S. no. And he now he continues to make videos, including accosting pedophiles who sometimes turn out not to be pedophiles. Will include a link to that.

[B]

He's a pedo hunter.

[A]

I don't understand how this guy is allowed to walk free anyway.

[B]

Well, this is usa. In usa, you can violate any form of laws, but if you are a seasoned pedo hunter, Trump will let you out of jail. He'll will pardon your ass. Unless you're connected to Epstein.

[A]

This guy's experience in the Filipino jail might have acted as a bit of a wake up call. Like a reminder that punishments in Asia can be very different from those in the West. Do you remember, remember the case of Michael Fay?

[B]

Yes. He stole a poster. Was that right?

[A]

No, that was the. That was. That poor kid.

[B]

North Korean.

[A]

That was more recent. That was a kid who, like, he died poster and died in North Korean custody.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I think because of when it occurred, there were, like, some white privilege takes about the dead kid, it was insane.

[B]

If he had been brown, he would have died faster.

[A]

Michael Fay was.

[B]

Yeah, Michael. He got cane.

[A]

He got caned.

[B]

What did he have wheels?

[A]

I thought that's how I'd remembered it, but apparently he had egged some cars in the 90s. Singapore is very hardcore about law and order stuff. And, yeah, he was. He was caned.

[B]

Yeah. I saw something, something on Twitter the other day. Someone was talking about how Japan is like. Someone had spent a couple months in Japan. Like, Japan is this very high trust society. You know, you can leave your laptop at a cafe and nobody will steal it. And it's like, okay, maybe it's a high trust society because. Because they have extremely strict law enforcement and rules and consequences for actions. And I feel sort of torn about this in a way. Like, I also, like, I think. I think nuisance. I think this is. Is this sort of antisocial behavior. I hate this shit. I really hate this shit. I also want to live in a country I think that's free, that, like, has a sense of real freedom.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I also want these people to get the death penalty, and I'm struggling with that in myself. Can you have both ways? You're saying freedom and the death penalty for nuisance streamers.

[A]

Have a society that is both free but also kills anyone who's annoying? That's your question? That's a really good question. Philosophers have. Since Plato's Republic, people have been grappling with this. I want a society where I'm allowed to be annoying, but anyone who annoys me is killed.

[B]

I don't want to be annoying. I'm not annoying. They're annoying. No, I am not a nuisance. Streamer.

[A]

Let's get back to Johnny Somali. So, yeah, he actually did start out as something of a travel vlogger. He would stream from, like, parties in Thailand. He didn't find much success, so that's what pivoted him to more outrageous content. In 2023, he traveled to Japan.

[B]

Sorry, that. That is so depressing. Like, right? Like just being a normal tourist, you can't. You get to know anywhere, nowhere. So that your pivot is to be as big an asshole as possible.

[A]

I mean, yes, this whole story is depressing as hell. He. In 2023, he traveled to Japan. He made numerous videos. I'm doing huge air quotes. Rapping or just shouting about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, about how the bombings, quote, got me lit and how he hoped the US Would do it again. Here's a video of him. We're going to embed some of the audio. But Katie, just describe the reaction from the. These Japanese salary men on the train.

[B]

He's on a subway talking to a guy. Guy takes his airpod out.

[A]

You know why we do to you? Hiroshima, Nagasaki, with the story. Because you don't know how to behave. I swear to God, you do again. We're gonna do. We're gonna do again. You understand?

[B]

Every time I've been on the subway in New York, there seems like there's someone like this. Not generally streaming. Do you think it's possible that the schizophrenic on the New York subway is actually a streamer?

[A]

Thin line, but no. Unfortunately in New York, it's gotten a little bit more worse and confrontational. So eventually Johnny and his cameraman were arrested. They were first for trespassing, then for obstructing business in a restaurant because they played loud music on the phone and refused to turn it down.

[B]

Death penalty.

[A]

He was fined the equivalent of about $1,400 and banned from Japan.

[B]

Triple that. Quadruple that.

[A]

Now, at this point in the story, like, the sources of these old clips of his streams are just small website. Like, at the time, he was just not well known. He had about a thousand subscribers. The only real coverage he got was from local Japanese news sources. This occasionally led to locals approaching him to shout the N word or punch him, but he wasn't really.

[B]

Wait, like, are they nuisance streamers too?

[A]

No, I think they're. Because he would use the. I. I assume what's going on is because he uses the N word so much in his stream.

[B]

I think that's his name.

[A]

Or it could just be. Japanese people are incredibly racist, which is not. Which is possible. Yeah. So he did eventually gain enough notoriety that he was occasionally recognized in public. We're gonna drop a little video here from a later date in Thailand. This is an Israeli man with a Japanese wife confronting him. I got a problem with you, bro. Yeah, my wife is Japanese. Okay. You go there insulting people like that. You know how many people died from Hiroshima joking about that? I know. So why are you talking about. I was drunk. Point is, he's getting more recognized, recognizable. And as a result of the Japan incidents, Johnny Somali has been banned from Twitch temporarily.

[B]

That's worse than being banned from Japan.

[A]

Temporarily banned even from Kick. This doesn't dissuade him from continuing his career, if you can call him that. In April 2024, he goes to Israel. He attaches photos of Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Jewish American streamer Aiden Ross. To the Western Wall, which is a holy site in Judaism. He's promptly arrested. Two days later, he's arrested again, this time for sexually harassing a female police officer.

[B]

Oh, you do not want to sexually harass an Israeli police officer.

[A]

Not a great idea. So his streams from Israel often involved him being punched or beaten up in public. This will not surprise you. Israelis are different cultural norms, I would say, than Japan.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He left the country fairly quickly, and in September 2024, he moved on to South Korea. Korea. By this time, he had about 18,000 subscribers. So still small by streamer standards, but he's starting to gain some notoriety. Yeah. Now, almost immediately, he was able to generate headlines in the South Korean news. He played North Korean music loudly on a bus. He played speeches by Kim Jong Un loudly on a subway. The biggest drama, though, involved the Statue of Peace. You know about the Korean comfort women? Do you know about this?

[B]

Yeah, this is. This was women who were raped by the Japanese military. Is that right?

[A]

Yeah. They're basically coerced into sex slavery during the period of Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula. So there's this famous Statue of Peace, which is a statue of one of these women, and it's seated in Seoul, directly facing the Japanese embassy. You know, confrontational bit of commemoration, understandably. And the. The specific.

[B]

That's a little bit of a fuck you. A little subtle fuck you, understandably.

[A]

So not. Not subtle. The specific issue of comfort women causes a lot of, like, ongoing problems because Japan has formally apologized and paid some compensation to victims. But the apologies draw this distinction between the acts of the Japanese military and the Japanese government, implying the government was not responsible, which, you know, Koreans don't like. And Japan has actually considers the placement of the statue illegal and has requested its removal. So it's a little bit of a diplomat contra temp. Is that a word?

[B]

Sure. I speak French.

[A]

I speak French. Contra.

[B]

That's the name of the Knicks player that's.

[A]

Is that racist? I can't tell.

[B]

The first player.

[A]

So Imperial Japan is, like, a really sensitive historical topic there.

[B]

And yet Johnny Koreans don't love the Japanese.

[A]

Johnny Somali filmed himself sitting down next to the Statue of Peace, kissing her cheek and claiming, I love Korea. And everything that I did in Japan was for Korean and Chinese people. This incident was considered most serious because it's just, like, very. It's very sacrilegious what he's doing to kiss the cheek of the statue of a woman who represents victims of sex slavery.

[B]

Right.

[A]

There's a Korean media timeline of other things he did in the country. Will link to. He threw noodles on the table of a convenience store. He harassed members of the public by showing them the flag of Imperial Japan. And on and on and on. He also lap danced on the statue of Peace. We'll include another video of that. So there's military service is still mandatory for all Korean men and they take it very seriously because of the whole situation with their neighbor. Unfriendly neighbor to the north. So within a couple of weeks of Johnny's arrival in Korea and his first controversial videos, Korean men started basically attacking him everywhere he went. Ah, so there are huge numbers of videos of Koreans.

[B]

Korea does have a racism problem.

[A]

That's what I was getting at. That's what this is. It is technically anti black eyelids, but in this case it's deserved. There are huge numbers of videos of Koreans just punching Johnny Somali. Oh, wow. And we're going to include.

[B]

So wait, are they. Are they his videos or they also.

[A]

I think other people stream them. I think sometimes he gets attacked on stream and in some cases people post their own videos. In one case.

[B]

Are they getting arrested for this?

[A]

I think it varies, but like they seem to be able to do it with complete impunity because check out this video.

[B]

Because he doesn't deserves it.

[A]

We're standing here in Gwangjuan market and I'm here with Jeong do, who infamously punched Johnny Smile in the face while he was standing right here. Are you guys enjoying the stream today? I had a few questions for him about what happened and my first question would be, why did you do it? So the reason why I did it is because he was assaulting people in my country. Just by his behavior made me feel like inferiors, maybe go like blind rage just by harassing women and children.

[B]

I like this because the guy, the Korean guy is masked. So he's like good citizen, following protocols, wearing the mask, trying to protect people. And also he's committing assault because the dude's just fucking annoying. Yeah.

[A]

Korean news story reports the identity and motive of the man who punched Ismail remains unknown. The video has since spread across online communities with netizens responding with comments like a hero. Has appeared much appreciated, Captain Korea. And he put a cocky YouTuber in his place. At one point, Johnny went to visit an acquaintance, Yu Hyun Jong, AKA Hank, who previously got some coverage in Texas as the Asian Nazi.

[B]

There's only one.

[A]

I'm sure there's more than one. A mob of vigilante South Korean YouTubers surrounded Yu's house to confront Johnny as he Emerged. Johnny Somali ran away from them, although one of them managed to kick him as he fled. One martial arts influencer offered a bounty of fifteen hundred dollars for anyone who would tell him Johnny's whereabouts.

[B]

Does he ever apologize for this shit or he's. Does he just continue?

[A]

There's a little bit, if you watch the rest of the video of the Israeli guy. He claims he's just a troll. There's also a video will link to of him apologizing for the statue of peace incident, claiming he didn't understand its significance. But by then he's already being investigated by the police for the convenience store stuff as well as allocate.

[B]

What's the convenience store stuff?

[A]

Oh, he threw through the noodles on the convenience store. Yeah. Also allegations of drug use and assault. He'd already been barred from leaving the country at this point.

[B]

So for him they should conscript him. I think this is the solution here.

[A]

Yeah. So yeah, as a result of all of this, he does face charges. In March of 2025, Johnny Somali's trial begins. He's charged with obstruction of business for throwing noodles on the table at the convenience store or for disturbing members of the public by approaching them while holding a foul smelling bag of fish and playing loud music on subways and buses. These were all considered violations of South Korea's minor crimes act.

[B]

I don't think any of these would, would be illegal in usa.

[A]

He arrived late to the trial wearing a maga hat.

[B]

Oh, was he streaming? Did he have a gopro on his maga hat?

[A]

Well, during the trial he did go online to call South Korea a u. S. Valid castle state, which super smart, very smart thing to do. More charges were added to Korean YouTube.

[B]

Is he a maga guy or is this just.

[A]

I don't think he's anything. I don't think he's anything. I think, don't think he has a soul down there. More charges were Atticus. Two Korean YouTubers accused him of using their likenesses to make deep fake pornography. Now we should be careful here because like describe, describe this image.

[B]

Okay. It's Johnny Somali with a laptop and on the screen are two people kissing.

[A]

Yeah. So these were, these were videos he did of him, him kissing streamers and like saying that's my girlfriend. So it's like, it's very creepy.

[B]

It's not he's one of the guys.

[A]

Except yeah. And it's a clothes on but it's

[B]

deep fake porn of himself.

[A]

This was really bad because Korea has had some high. South Korea has had some high Profile deep fake porn cases.

[B]

Oh my God. People, it just occurred to me people are going to be able to like make the like. If you're a virgin and you want to convince that your friends that you're not, you're going to be able just

[A]

to AI that this just occurred to you that deep fake porn could be a thing?

[B]

Well, it just occurred to me that you could put yourself in it.

[A]

Well, because that's usually how people announce they've lost their virginity to their friends. They show.

[B]

Yes, you show your friends a video of it. You didn't do that.

[A]

So.

[B]

Because you haven't.

[A]

This was particularly dumb from the do in like a particularly sensitive subject. There is been these high profile deep fake cases in South Korea and there are these huge like 30,000 member telegram groups that distribute deepfake porn videos. This has led to mass protests and a zero tolerance policy among law enforcement. So yeah, if he just wanted to be a regular nuisance streamer, he might have gotten away with just a deportation. But deepfake porn in South Korea now carries guaranteed jail time.

[B]

Oh wow.

[A]

So ultimately in April of this year he was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to six months in prison with hard labor.

[B]

It's not enough.

[A]

Actually, it's seen as mild given the whole deep fake controversy over there.

[B]

What sort of labor is hard labor in Korea?

[A]

That's a good question. I hope he's just not allowed near maybe factory making phones, but not access to them phones. Yes. Johnny and the prosecutors have both appealed the sentence. The prosecutors are seeking a harsher one. Here's an interesting legal statement translated into English from the prosecutors. Katie, please read.

[B]

The fact that a victim responded resolutely must not be interpreted as meaning that they did not suffer sexual humiliation. Such reasoning risks sending the wrong message to deep fake victims that they must actively express their suffering in order to have their harm recognized. And we believe that the, that the relatively low sentence, six months imprisonment compared to the prosecution's requests, three years, was not unrelated to this reasoning.

[A]

Well, it's just this is interesting idea though, like, just because the victims aren't like crying and screaming about having been wrong, that doesn't mean the harm was any less intense. And so they're saying they think because the victims were not. Were relatively straight face level headed about it.

[B]

Okay, yeah.

[A]

We'll link to another video that analyzes the deep fake controversy that's worth checking out. Now, ironically, the incident that got the most publicity, which was his behavior at the statue of the comfort woman, was not, not actually part of the trial. This was something outlets like the Guardian got wrong. But he was not sentenced to prison for kissing a statue. Sentenced to prison for what is technically deep fake pornography. So will this put an end to nuisance streamers? No, absolutely not.

[B]

No. This might be good for like. Like nuisance streaming from prison. That could be a whole new thing. People being more annoying just so they can get sentenced and smuggle a phone into their butts. And then. And also you probably also have to smuggle a Starlink. So you better stretch and then. Great content.

[A]

Better stretch those. Thanks for listening. No, I'm curious. The Philippine. The Philippines guy. Vitaly, I. I should have looked into how he got the phone. I'm curious if maybe.

[B]

Jesse. Obviously I'm.

[A]

It could also be that Filipino authorities. It's not the worst thing in the world from their point of view to sort of show like. This is what's waiting for you if you're a dick in our country.

[B]

Yeah. So. Yeah. So he's still straight streaming.

[A]

Johnny Somali. No, Vitali. No. He was the one who came back to the States. Yeah.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah, Johnny Somali. We will only wait and see. I would find it very. I really can't wait to see what he does next.

[B]

You're a fan.

[A]

A huge fan. He seems like a really good guy. We don't live in a hellish age. It's great.

[B]

I'm mad.

[A]

Why are you bad?

[B]

I'm mad about this. I don't know. I just.

[A]

These that he got imprisoned.

[B]

No, not at all. I think. Again, I think I'm anti death penalty. Except for.

[A]

For.

[B]

Except for nuisance streamers. I just.

[A]

Or just streamers in general streamers.

[B]

No, it's.

[A]

No, I'm saying all streamers should get the death penalty.

[B]

You know, you have good streamers.

[A]

Who's a good streamer?

[B]

Name one clavicular who is only doing things like assaulting people. ODing on camera. Shooting.

[A]

Shooting dead alligators, possibly raping an underage woman on Cape Cod. Just good stuff.

[B]

Did you see that clicular. I saw this picture today. He. He just had his leg lengthening surgery.

[A]

Dude, I can't with that guy.

[B]

You should get that. How tall can we get, Jesse?

[A]

Oh my God. We. We do a crowdfund and I'll get my legs. As long as the amount of money I get are allowed. Then I'm going up against WEMA next year's finals. Can't wait.

[B]

All right, Jesse. Thank you for that. Horrible story.

[A]

Feel dirty. Horrible story. This has been blocked reported as always. We are produced with help from Jesse of the 80s, baby. Especially this week. Thank you for listening.

[B]

Bye.

[A]

Bye.