Ken Bone, American Meme Treasure, Or Zero? Reddit Reveals Shady Comments
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Oct 14, 2016 2:20PM
Updated 9:20 a.m.: American treasure, Man who believed Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting was "justified," St. Louis native, winner of the second 2016 presidential debate and still-not-quite-decided voter Kenneth Bone graced Reddit with his very own AMA Thursday evening—and at first, it was even more glorious than we could have hoped. Unfortunately for him, it was overshadowed by Reddit users who noticed his extensive and weird Reddit comment history, which included commenting on the death of Trayvon Martin.
Bone, as GQ, Gizmodo and others have noted, tried to do an AMA a day ago but shut it down after users realized he was posting from his regular Reddit account—a.k.a., the account he has used to discuss such subjects as Jennifer Lawrence's right to privacy (“Maybe she should have been more careful with her pics, but the bad guys are still the ones who sought them out and looked at them. By which I mean guys like me. I saw her butt hole. I liked it.”), his thoughts on pregnant women (“beautiful human submarines”), and left this comment on a thread about Martin's fatal shooting in Florida at the hands of George Zimmerman:
"It doesn't have to be a one or the other view here. From what I read about the case, the shooting of Trayvon Martin was justified, but from what I've learned of Zimmerman through statements, interview, and behavior he is a big ole shit bird. Bad guy legally kills kid in self defense. Sucks for everybody, including us due to the media fuckery."
We're not the only ones who thought Bone would be the meme-making treasure that America needed at first: even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted about "impeccably dressed" Bone this week, and Bone's unique combination of red sweater, aggressive mustache, and je ne sais quoi spawned a thousand think pieces.
Ken "I mustache you a question" Bone, rose to his current status as king of memes Sunday night after he asked Clinton and Donald Trump a question about energy policy during the second debate. He went back on Reddit Thursday night to weigh in on less controversial matters, including Halloween costumes and whether he would announce how he plans to vote on Nov. 8. He also bragged about his "hot wife" (um...) got an invitation to smoke from Snoop Dogg himself, and pimped his new T-shirt campaign, which he will use in part to raise money for a St. Louis organization that helps the homeless. He curiously did not pimp his new relationship with Uber:
Hello Reddit, I’m just a normal guy, who spends his free time with his hot wife and cat in St. Louis. I didn’t see any of this coming, it’s been a crazy week. I want to make something good come out of this moment, so I’m donating a portion of the proceeds from my Represent T-Shirt campaign to the St. Patrick Center raising money to fight homelessness in St. Louis.
Reddit users were all over the most recent AMA, which started shortly after 7 p.m. Central Time, quickly identifying the 34-year-old Bone as "one of us, one of us..." for his quick-witted, instant-meme-generator replies. On the phenomenon of Sexy Ken Bone Halloween costumes, Bone replied that he was already a Sexy Ken Bone, thank you very much, and would more likely be going as "Obi Wan Kenboni" this year for Halloween:
When asked whether he would run as an Independent in the next presidential election, Bone did not rule it out. However, "I don't even go to HOA meetings," he wrote, so don't count on it. He said he is getting closer to deciding how to vote, but will not be announcing his vote because "I want you all to make up your own minds."
Bone also showed he wasn't above self-parody:
Read on to learn more about meme-master Ken Bone, why he reps '60s-era St. Louis Cardinal Mike Shannon, and how he plans to hook his dad up with Snoop Dogg in L.A.