About
David Thorne is an Australian comedian, Internet prankster and New York Times best-selling author. He was born on 23 February 1972 in Geraldton, Western Australia. He is well known on the internet for his pranks such as “Kate’s Birthday,” he also writes satire regarding popular culture and issues revolving around his life and work.
His work has been featured around the world especially in Australia, Britain and the USA. In late 2008 his work was brought to wider attention and to a wider audience when his humorous email exchanges regarding his attempt to pay a bill with a drawing of a seven legged spider was featured on the “Have I Got News For You” on the BBC and on “the Late Show with David Letterman”. This lead to a massive increase in traffic to his personal website and blog “27b/6” which features a collection of humorous emails and articles from Thorne’s life. These exchanges and other unseen exchanges were published in Thorne’s first book “The Internet is a playground” which went on to receive international success and the book debuted at number four on The New York Times Best Seller list.
27B/6 (27bslash6)
(27bslash6) is referencing the fact that George Orwell had lived in Apartment 27b on the 6th level while writing the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. The phrase “27B stroke 6” is also used by Terry Gilliam in the movie “Brazil”. Thorne stated that he was unable to secure the word stroke and changed the word slash due to domain issues. The website originally received a hundred hits a week from a small and consistent group of his fans to gaining a larger mainstream audience (a few thousand hits a day ) when the article “I Wish I Had a Monkey” was listed on the Bored At Work website. Following the 7 legged spider drawing page being posted on Digg, the 27bslash6 server crashed after taking over half a million hits in a 24-hour period. The second server crashed following Thorne’s next article, “Party in Apartment 3,” in which Thorne repeatedly RSVPs for a party he has not been invited to, before the site was moved to a third server in the US and has since continued to receive a substantial volume of traffic.
Thorne has continued to get international success with a multitude other articles from the 27b/6 website such as “Missing Missy”; a series of emails between Thorne and a secretary who asks Thorne to make a missing poster designed for her lost cat for free. Thorne’s articles “Strata Agreement” and “Party in Apartment 3,” were so well received that it was read out during a broadcast on the BBC Radio service in the United Kingdom and was reprinted in over 300 publications worldwide. Thorne’s article regarding a former client contacting him for free work titled “Simon’s Pie Charts” became such a viral hit due to being passed on by email and social networking sites that it has been described as one of the most passed on viral emails of all time and has been mentioned on social networking by many celebrities. His articles were featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Australia’s The 7PM Project and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
Publications
The Internet is a Playground.
Thorne’s first book, a collection of articles from the website titled The Internet is a Playground, sold approximately 8,000 copies in its first month of release. The book was initially published by a small Australian publisher named Fontaine Press. However Thorne ended his relationship with them due to Fontaine Press missing deliveries and not paying of author royalties.
In 2011, the rights to publish the book along with approximately 160 pages of new content were purchased by Penguin Group US. Penguin renamed the book The Internet is a Playground, Irreverent Correspondences of an Evil Online Genius and the book debuted at number four on The New York Times Best Seller list the following week.
I’ll Go Home Then, It’s Warm and Has Chairs
I’ll Go Home Then, It’s Warm and Has Chairs is a new compilation of both unpublished articles and ones from 27b/6.
It had sold twice as many copies as his first book in its first month of release. The cover of its first edition originally featured Penguin’s logo giving the finger, leading to Penguin Group claiming copyright infringement and demanding the cover be changed. The cover was eventually changed to feature a cat dressed as an astronaut, holding a snowboard.
Notable Examples
7 Legged Spider
Seven Legged Spider (a.k.a Paying Bills with Drawing of Spider) refers to the e-mail conversations that took place in October 2008 between David Thorne and Jane Gilles. More specifically, Seven Legged Spider is a comical drawing made by Thorne, who offered his stick-figure artwork as a payment for his overdue utility bills. Needless to say, his drawing was rejected by the company’s representative Jane, but the playful, cutesy e-mail exchange between them lived on to become internet famous.
Drawing Auction on eBay
In November 2008, Thorne took his joke to another level by auctioning off his drawing of the seven-legged spider. The classic eBay joke quickly caught on in the blogosphere and news media after an eBay user known as Patrick made the winning bid of US$ 10,000 for the drawing while others put up customized or accessorized versions of Thorne’s spider, such as Santa’s hat and Buddhist’s robe.
Kate’s Birthday
Kate’s Birthday was an open Facebook event organized by Kate Miller, who wished to invite some of her close friends and celebrate her birthday on May 1st, 2010. Although it was meant to be a small, intimate get-together, the number of invites quickly got out of hand after it became widely publicized by others, amassing over 60,000 attendees before getting shut down.
It was highlighted by David Thorne on Twitter which exploded the popularity of the event causing the 60,000 attendees, however after the event was shut down by facebook it was revealed that Thorne created the Facebook account and event to “entertain a few people over the weekend.”
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External Links
http://www.27bslash6.com/