Ken Bone's Fall From Viral Grace

Sunday night at the presidential debate, Ken Bone stole the show and emerged a viral star. The red sweater-wearing, mustache-having coal plant worker had a pleasant couple of days in the spotlight, racking up 239,000 Twitter followers and appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. But less than a week later, it all could be crashing down thanks to his Reddit account. Thursday night, Bone hosted an Ask Me Anything. Nothing from the AMA was all too damning, however, Bone used the same account that he has used to comment on topics like his illegal activities and Trayvon Martin’s death. Suddenly, Bone doesn’t seem like the hero we originally made him out to be.

That’s the thing about our viral sensations — their shine eventually goes dark. There’s a life expectancy of a person that becomes a meme, but perhaps we should’ve been more skeptical of Bone from the get-go. First of all, he went into the debate as an undecided voter for an election with the hate-mongering Donald Trump running. And while we can’t blame any person who’s been given the internet’s attention for trying to cash in on the fame, it doesn’t make him come off as any less desperate.

For the AMA, Bone identified himself as StanGibson18. He discussed some pretty innocuous things, like how he was picked for the debate and his feelings about all the memes bases off of him. The undecided voter even made a couple of stellar jokes, like the fact that for Halloween he’s dressing up as “Obi Wan Kenboni.” Then people started unearthing what else he’s talked about on Reddit.

For one thing, he admitted to a felony crime.

People have been shaming him for what he’s posted on porn subreddits. But if anything, that’s probably the lease egregious thing. We shouldn’t kinkshame him for being a dude that likes what he likes (apparently pregnancy porn).

But what we should be concerned about is the fact that he called Trayvon Martin’s shooting “justified.” And as he simply put it, the situation “sucks for everybody.”

Bone’s Reddit activity paints a fuller picture of him. He’s clearly said some horrible things in the past, but that’s the problem when all eyes are dart toward an ordinary man. He’s made mistakes, some bigger than other, but now he’s being heavily scrutinized by everybody else since he’s in the spotlight. And when somebody rises as fast as Bone did, they have to come down sooner or later.