In the wake of the natural disasters that hit Japan, a young woman named "tamtampamela" uploaded a video on YouTube. In it, she says that the earthquake and tsunami were God grabbing Japan by the shoulders and shaking the country, saying "Look, I'm here".
Tamtampamela goes on to say that the events that transpired in Japan were the result of a Christians praying that the eyes of atheists were opened. "It's so amazing to see how God can answer prayers like this," she continued. "I'm so overjoyed." She says there are so many atheists in America, but that Japan was a "good place to start".
In Japan, thousands are dead or missing, with many more now homeless after last Friday's quake.
Online forums and sites erupted over her comments, wondering how she could say such cruel and heartless things in the name of religion. This wouldn't be the first for tamtampamela. She's been uploading videos to YouTube for over a year — videos in which she criticizes atheists and even video games. In October 2010, she said World of Warcraft was the work of Satan. She criticized WoW for having black magic and demons. Her video set off a flurry of YouTube responses.
But what if she was just a troll? A hardcore, uber troll?
Tamtampamela is an active user on "Christian" forums, leading some to believe that she was the real deal.
As pointed out by YouTube user EliseVintage, the forums that tamtampamela was apparently posting on are satire sites.
On Christian Chat, tamtampamela wrote, "I've been posting videos on YouTube recently. For some reason people aren't taking me seriously." She goes on to say people are calling her a troll and laughing. "I'm being super honest in all of my videos," she continued. "I just posted another one a few hours ago and it's the same story."
There are also posts by a "TamTamPamela" on The Landover Baptist Church Forum, which is a Christian parody forum. As blogger Milowent points out, TamTamPamela changed her name to "Sister Pamela". The Landover Baptist Church, says Wiki, is a fictional Baptist church set in a fictional Iowa town. The site was created by Chris Harper, who has a whole slew of satirical videos, like this or this, on YouTube.
Another alarm bell is that tamtampamela was a YouTube subscriber to EdwardCurrent, who is all a well-known religious satirist. Was a subscriber, because tamtampamela's YouTube account was deleted hours ago with notes that read: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by LaughAloneTV."
Laugh Alone TV was apparently offering tamtampamela a partnership. "We were trying to monetize and offering her partnership and we were going to donate," tweeted iSlusho from Laugh Alone TV, "but then she closed her account in fear so that's why it still says removed."
Laugh Alone TV says it was not affiliated with her videos per se. "She freaked out after death threats and removed her video after we attempted to offer her a partnership on YouTube," Laugh Alone TV tells Kotaku. Laugh Alone TV gains the rights to viral videos and then shares a percentage with the makers. Laugh Alone doesn't know if her real name was Pamela or not, but added, "She was acting, though." Her real name is suddenly "Pamela" and her address is apparently floating around the internet.
In her last video she posted before deleting her account, tamtampamela came clean and admitted she'd been making troll videos for some time now. She said her last video, the one about Japan, pissed off a lot of people, adding, "Which was my intention".
[Thanks Alberto!]