Leave it to the mastermind behind Regretsy to once again turn concern trolls into entertainment. Helen Killer, aka voice actor April Winchell, took a leave of absence from the popular Etsy-mocking website to launch a new series. The details were held tight to her chest until a few weeks ago when the Sockpuppet Theatre homepage and YouTube account went up.
What is Sockpuppet Theatre? Sockpuppet Theatre is a new web series where April Winchell wrangled together some of the best voice actors in the business to read dramatic scenes ripped straight from the Internet. Each voice actor takes on a different character in scenarios like “YouTubers respond to video of dog eating potato chips.”
You can watch the original NSFW versions at the Sockpuppet Theatre YouTube channel.
Sockpuppet Theater reframes the actions of trolls as entertainment. There’s a good chance that if you’ve ever read the comments on a blog, news site, or video that you’ve encountered a troll. You may have even engaged them in conversation. When you feed a troll, you’re going to get burned.
In an ideal world, nothing would distract you from enjoying a friendly discussion about a subject on the Internet. This is far from an ideal world. People post homophobic rants on recaps of reality shows starring drag queens because they don’t like how you described a contestant. Some even seek out conflict for fun, taking joy in the frustration and anger they create. Trolls are part of daily life on the Internet.
So why not turn these would-be villains into the butt of the joke. Sockpuppet Theatre is spinning the script on the trolls. Everyone in the discussion comes across as ridiculous, but the troll is not allowed the last laugh. By introducing the heated discussions to the flapping maws of sockpuppets, the hot button issues become a great source of comedy.
Bonus points are duly awarded to the play on sockpuppet in the title. So far, the three editions released so far all seem to contain a new player who has the same philosophy of the original troll but a brand new voice. They’re most likely alternate accounts, or sockpuppets, or the original troll. It becomes a game of figuring out who is fighting with multiple accounts and which player will fumble first.
Sockpuppet Theatre is a web series worth following for quick bites of humor. Where else will you hear Billy West (Fry from Futurama), Pamela Adlon (Bobby Hill from King of the Hill), April Winchell (Clarabelle the Cow), and Rob Paulsen (Pinky from Pinky and the Brain) swear like sailors while reading copy straight from the Internet?
