Ethan: Ok, can you just test your sound for me really fast? I'm just going to test all of the equipment here.
Ken: I'm screwing with you! Test test test.
Ethan: I think that's the perfect way to start the interview right there.
Ken: I'm old and I'm not actually a sick pervert, I'm just a regular internet pervert. (cheerful music plays in background)
Today, a man comes before us, not just any man, a great man.
One who dared to do an AMA on Reddit without clearing his browsing history, without creating a throwaway!
He is, the one and only, Ken Bone.
Ethan: Hi Ken, what up? Thanks for joining us! Such a joy to have you!
Ken: I'm glad to be here! How's it going?
Ethan: It's going great!
Ethan: If you guys don't know who Ken Bone is, he asked a question at the presidential debate,
but-but everyone became so infatuated...
with this man, Ken Bone.
Why do you think that is?
Wha-what was it tha-that people just set you-set 'em off?
Ken: I think it started as the debate could not have been anymore negative.
Ken: It was a bummer to watch. Ethan: Right.
Ken: It made everybody want to put their head down.
And here's this goofy guy in the front row with a cherry red sweater and a big mustache, you know, he's kind of funny looking.
And so it kind of sparked an internet meme,
it was something light-hearted to grab a hold of in the middle of all this negativity.
Ethan: On the next day, the next day on the internet, all anyone was talking about was Ken Bone.
I think the combination of your wonderful charming looks and the name itself, I mean Bone it's quite a last name.
I commend you on having such a won--, is that your real last name?
Ken: That is my real last name, my grandfather's name was also Ken Bone, his father's name was Bentley.
His older brother's name was Oral, they had it a little worse than I did.
Ethan: ORAL BONE, NO!
Ken: I swear to ya.
Ethan: No way, you have an Oral Bone in your family Ken!?
Ken: We had 2 of them!
Ethan: 2 ORAL BONES!
Do you have any plans for your son's name? Do we have any kind of... like uh... like uh
What do you got in plans for your children; do you have children?
Ken: I have one and I'm not having any more. His name's Logan. He turned 13 a couple of days ago.
Ethan: Logan Bone.
Well congratulations to him, happy thirteenth birthday.
Is there any chance of maybe legally changing his name to something a little more entertaining,
like uh, Big - Big - Big Bone, or?
I mean Oral, I can't even imagine anything - maybe just Oral. Go back to Oral.
Fulfil the family tradition.
Ken: Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen.
Even Uncle Oral goes by his middle name: David.
Ethan: That's probably for the best.
First of all. You definitely pull - I think you pull off the moustache a little better than me.
I think you've definitely got the totes adorbs.
Kinda cuddly look that everyone loves.
But for me, I just kinda look more like a Mexican drug dealer, a Pablo Escobar character.
I- do you have any tips? What am I doing wrong?
Ken: I think you look fantastic. Ethan: Thank you.
Ken: Uh, maybe, uh trim it a little closer to the lips. Ethan: Mm!
Ken: And let it get just a bit longer. Kinda train it.
And to be honest with ya, I don't even like the mustache.
Uh, I have it because my grandfather had it, and he was one of the best human beings I ever met. Ethan: Wow.
Ken: It's kinda my nod to him. He was the original Ken Bone.
Ethan: God, the Bone family legacy, the Bone roots go deep in your family.
So you're suggesting cut it a little bit closer to the lip?
Ken: Yeah, I like to keep mine, you know, like right here in the fat creases of my face. Ethan: Follow the fat crease?
Ken: Yeah. Ethan: Well, I'll tell you what. You hold on one second.
Kay, I'm gonna clean up my 'stache, and I want to come back and I want you to grade it, okay? Just gimme- just hold on one sec.
Ken: Alright, do your best to keep all sides even.
Ethan: Just like that.
Ken: That looks fantastic. That's a big improvement already. Ethan: You know what?
You take the handlebars off and you look less like a criminal and more just like kinda the Bone Stache.
Ethan: This is the Bo- the bone stache stops at the fat rolls, right?
Ken: Yea like right at the, right at the chub crease right here, like.
Ethan: (chuckles) The chub crease. Well, I couldn't have said that myself any better!
Ethan: Oh! Who-who have we here?
Ken: This is the original Ken Bone, my grandfather
That's a mustache there folks!
Ethan: It's so white, I almost can't even see it!
Ethan: So the whole thing was- the whole setup of the debate was actually interesting to me
It looked like there was maybe 20, 40 people in the room
Iike, how did they vet you?
Ken: Well they don't ask you anything about your questions. Once one you tell them (Ethan: No!) you're an undecided voter,
That's it! They say okay come up with 2 questions and we'll see you next Sunday.
Ethan: But you had to tell them your questions ahead of time.
You could've have been like "Trump, can-can you please tell me what-what tanner do you use,
and why do you avoid the space around your eyes?"
Ken: The only people we told the question ahead of time were Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddis, the moderators.
Ethan: That's incredible! That is an incredible insight!
And it was live, so you actually–once you got the mic, you could have been like "Trump, can you please explain why your hands are so small."
Ken: Yea, I could have said anything I wanted
I mean, anything too bad and I guess the secret service guys who were hidden amongst us would have tazed me or something.
Ethan: (chuckles) Just a straight up taze? Ken: Yea!
Ethan: Just as punishment, they're like "Look you already asked the question, but you're gonna get tazed."
Ken: Yea it's live TV, and it only has like a 10 second dump.
Ethan: That's amazing! They had tremendous faith in all the question askers.
Ken: It was well warranted for the most of us.
Ethan: Did you ever consider pullin' a little...
A bit of a meme, on the mic
Ken: I've thought about it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't–didn't think about it
But it's the chance of a lifetime to ask a question to
the next president. Ethan: Yea, absolutely.
Ethan: How quickly after you got home, after that debate, did you realize that you had become a living meme?
Ken: I got back out to my car, and my phone was locked up.
I turn on my phone, and I had already missed like a thousand messages.
My voice mailbox was full, and I didn't listen to that for days.
Cause' voicemail is for old people.
Uh...
My friend called me on my phone just as it was powering up
and started reading me articles about myself from Buzzfeed.
Which I thought he was jerkin' my chain...
until I got home and saw them for myself
Ethan: So, this is immediately from the time you left the debate, to the time you got home you were already a living meme?
Ken: Yea the debate had probably been over for about 45 minutes before I had gotten in the car.
Ethan: That's. Amazing! And you were already blown up, Buzzfeed was on that shit,
of course they were.
That time it was just pure luck, it was just like pure love shower.
Like– How-how did that feel? Wha-what was your reaction to that?
Ken: I mean, it was weird because at that point
You know, I hadn't done any interviews, hadn't done any anything.
Ethan: Right. Ken: So the whole world's exposure to me is just the sweater and the mustache,
Ethan: Right. Ken: name,
and the one question, and they thought that y'know "Oh this guy is such a cuddly teddy bear!"
And there was this like-this characterization of me as some kinda
like saint, or-
Ethan: Right. Ken: or hero, or,
Ethan: And- Ken: or, whatever.
Ethan: And little-and little did they know you had looked at Jennifer Lawrence's butthole, and liked it.
Ken: Yea, i mean uh...
probably I shouldn't have done that.
Because that was a breach of her privacy
but, come on, everybody did it.
Ethan: That's, you don't need to defend yourself.
I am fully, dude, as I said,
in our previous video abut you,
Michelle Obama has looked at Jennifer Lawrence's butthole,
Ethan: you have nothing to apologize for. Ken: Yeah. Ethan: I'm waiting-
I'm waiting for the strange-like porn offers where someone–
Those always end up coming with like the $100,000- we'll pay you $100,000 to like-have sex with a midget or some shit like that
Ken: There's been one of those, and they didn't contact me directly, they just float that out there for free publicity
Ethan: What was the offer?
Ken: It was a hundred thousand bucks for, I don't remember what it was, I don't think it was anything weird
but it would have gotten me murdered in my sleep, so I didn't do it
Ethan: Well the fact that the offer is there
just makes me happy.
I'm happy you didn't take it, obviously, that would have been pretty strange
to see you in a porn to be frank.
um...
But the fact that the offer is out there?
It's nice to know.
Ethan: I'm happy. Ken: I don't want to subject the American people to that
I'm all about positivity, and
you know, a good message.
A good message is not me, not wearing any pants that's horrible.
Ethan: Well some, well.. yea, some some.
We could find you a niche.
So, as some of you may know, Ken Bone went from national treasure, to-
most despised man in America almost?
In in.. in almost overnight.
Immediately.
As Ken went on Reddit, and did an Ask Me Anything.
Doing the fatal and classic error, of not creating a separate account,
which has no post history on it,
and using his own account, so everyone was able to go through all his history,
and see all of his comments, etc.
And basically,
as my favorite headline goes, SJWs sifted through his account history,
in an attempt to ruin his life, Ken what the hell were you thinking?
Ken: Well, I was naïve enough to think that people weren't paying that close of attention
I've never been famous before, I don't know how to do it.
Ethan: So when you, when you decided to do the AMA,
you just didn't even consider making an alternate account,
you didn't even consider that people would look through your history
and just try to find anything embarrassing they could.
Ken: Never even crossed my mind.
Ethan: So that's why you're such a good, God blessed guy.
'Cause you-you assumed the world is a good place.
And people aren't there to try to fucking ruin your life over peeping out on Jennifer Lawrence's butthole.
Ken: Well, I was still answering questions, well I'm still answering questions now 11 days later
I was still doing the first session when my friend sitting next to me on his computer is like "Hey, look at this article,
it says 'It turns out Ken Bone is a awful person'."
Ethan: Oh my God, during the AMA!?
Ken: Yea like while I was still answering questions, and he's like "Ah, don't worry, it's not a big deal, it's just some jerk."
It was kind of a big deal though.
Basically, you're a baby rapist and cannibalist as far as I heard,
so I wanted to check it out.
And from what I learned was that actually,
not only was it not that bad, but you turned out to be a pretty great guy from what I saw.
Ken: I am history's greatest monster. Apparently.
Ethan: How did it feel to be all of the sudden to be like "Hey everyone loves me, I'm going to say what up to Reddit"
'Cause it seems like you're a pretty avid Redditor.
Ken: Yea, I've been on for about 2 years now
and uh...
To have someone dig through my comment history and pick 4 or 5 comments
of me making my dumbest, most off color comments,
and say that defines me as a person,
that's hurtful, honestly.
The one from Gizmodo was the first.
Ethan: Yes, that was the one that accused you of shaming a rape victim, right?
Ken: Yea, that one disgusted me.
That one was really sad because like you went over in your original video,
that's the complete opposite of what I said.
They saw a comment thread about rape and saw me use the word disgusting,
which I was actually referring to her rapist,
Ethan: Right!
Ken: And, uh..
Equated me calling- with that, with me calling a rape victim disgusting.
When bottom feeders like that do that sort of thing,
you can almost let it roll off your back because they're just trying to get clicks to their worthless Gawker style websites.
But when that gets picked up by a legitimate newspaper like the New York Post,
Ethan: Yeah.
Ken: And they don't vet it first, they just print it, Ethan: Right.
Ken: That shocked and appalled me, that was-
I mean that–
If I didn't already have a steady job, that could make me unemployable!
Ethan: Absolutely, one of my questions was
one of those...
like, the first 3 days after your Reddit AMA,
It seemed like you were all of a sudden America's greatest villian.
And it was such a great story that everyone was talking about it online
uh, news
I even saw reports of it on the television!
And like jokes about it on SNL.
Did it have a real life effect on you?
Was there anyone on the street saying "oh, it's that fucking guy, Ken Bone, who eats children."
Ken: Not a single person that has approached me on the street has been negative, not one. And there have been thousands.
The only person that's been negative to me in person was a reporter.
The very next morning about 2 hours after the AMA was over, I'm at a charity golf tournament, and I've been up all night doing the AMA.
I'm at this charity golf tournament, for, uh, it's called 3 little birds for life.
It's taking some pictures, and helping make money for the kids.
I'm not getting paid for this because it's charity, and I'm not a superstar, i don't get paid for charity events.
I don't wanna get paid for charity events.
And, this reporter approaches me, and she's like " Do you want to clarify your position on Jennifer Lawrence and Trayvon Martin?"
And I'm like "What?"
"What are you talking about?"
I had no idea what she even meant
And then she kinda, you know, ambushed me with that
and I had to come up with an answer.
I'm like "look, Trayvon Martin is dead, and he should be alive, and that sucks.
It's a terrible situation.
Uh, I wish he had not been shot, the only reason I used the word "justified" is because that's the word the jury used."
Ethan: That was one of the things that rubbed me so wrong about your whole story.
That you were just some guy, that everybody loved for one reason or another.
They all made you like obscenely famous, and then they're all like– and then they're like– trying to ruin your life in the next second.
It just seems so perverted.
Ken: Yeah, I didn't ask for any of that stuff.
I didn't ask for everybody to think that I was an "adorable cuddly saint". Ethan: Right.
Ken: And I certainly didn't ask for a bunch of people to go digging through my life t o try to disprove that.
Ethan: *chuckle* Right. Ken: I'm just a regular dude like everyone else and once they learned that, they were going for the throat.
Ethan: Right. If you could do it all over again, would you-would you do that-would you do that
new account? Would you create a throwaway?
Ken: Yeah, I probably would, just because it took away so much from like-the positive message I'm trying to put out.
I'm doing this big campaign about "Get Out and Vote" Ethan: Right.
Ken: And I'm trying to raise money for uh, the homeless shelter here in St. Louis, The St. Patrick's Center
and I lost probably 3 or 4 days worth of momentum.
Ethan: Right. Ken: You know, when I was at my most visible and that cost a lot of good that I could do
and you know it cost me personally, financially and my reputation.
Ethan: You know, have you considered suing that like Gizmodo for defamation? Because it most certainly is.
Ken: It's really hard to prove defamation because you have to have a big expensive lawyer to take the case.
Ethan: Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of...
Ken: And you have to be able to prove financial damages which would be difficult.
Ethan: You said you lost some momentum in trying to do good things in the world and I'd like to help you pick that up.
Uh, is there a place where we can donate to help out the homeless charity that you are trying to promote?
Ken: Uh if you just Google St. Patrick Center
I think they're at stpatrickcenter.com? (Link on screen and in description)
They are the charity that I partner with the most, uh, that I've given most of the money to
Ethan: Saint Patrick Center guys, I will put the link in the description.
If you want to support Ken Bone and support the homeless
and counter-act this ridiculous defamation that's gone on in this ridiculous journalism.
Help support Ken, help support the homeless. Links in the description guys.
God Bless the Bone.
How frequently do you actually wear the sweater, like for real now? Now that this happened?
Will you go to Rouses, for example, go do some grocery shopping in that sweater?
Ken: Well the original sweater is locked up in my closet right now.
Uh, protected.
Ethan: Yeah, put that behind glass. It's gonna sell on eBay some day
Ken: It's getting auctioned off for charity that– Ethan: Oh no!
Ken: People can start seeing it in the next few days.
Ethan: Nooo!
Ken: Yeah- Ethan: When's that gonna happen?
Ken: That's going 100% to charity, uh, I don't keep anything from the sweater sale.
Ethan: I wonder how much money that's gonna fetch. Do you have any hunch?
Ken: Well, I had it basically sold for $10,000.
Yeah but then those people backed out because of the uh, the nastiness from the media.
Ethan: Damn!
Ken: So congratulations uh Gizmodo, you accomplished two things.
You made my wife cry and you cost the homeless $10,000.
Ken (offscreen): I hope you feel good.
Ethan: I'm fucking staring at Gizmodo right now.
Shame on you guys, have they ever apologized, has anyone from the media apologized to you?
Ken: People like that don't apologize, they just go onto the next story and hope you forget about it.
Ethan: So if you could choose to go to that debate or not, you would still choose to go to that debate,
bring the same sweater, do it all again?
Ken: Uh, yeah, if I had to choose between not doing it and doing it all exactly the same way, I'd still do it.
Ethan: What is it you want to tell people watching this video?
Is there something you want to promote, something you want to convey to people? What is your final thought?
Ken: For the next 2 weeks, it's all about getting everybody out to vote.
Thousands of people are asking me "Who are you going to vote for?"
I've made a decision, I'm not telling anybody.
I don't want you to vote for who I think you should vote for, there's plenty of people telling you who to vote for.
You just go vote, make your voice heard.
Spark the debate about what you're passionate about.
For me, it was energy. For you, it might be healthcare, or roads, or schools, or LGBT rights.
Whatever it is, spark the debate, and when our voices come together like that, the goverment hears it
and they have to work for us.
Ethan: You're voting for Gary Johnson, aren't you? I can tell, it's Gah-Gahr-Gary Johnson's got your vote don't he?
Ken: I will vote for either Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
Ethan: That's everyone! That's all of them!
Ken: Well they are 1,972 others, Ethan: *chuckles* Ken: but those are the only 4 that can mathematically win.
Ethan: I've been urging all of our viewers to write in, uh, "Hugh Mungus Bone" for President/VP.
Have you officially accepted your role as Vice President on that ticket? Cause I think you guys may actually end up getting more votes than say Jill Stein.
Ken: Uh, I am polling ahead of Jill Stein in Florida as of today.
Ethan: Yeah
Ken: Which is ridiculous but I'm not actually old enough to be President or Vice President.
Ken: I'm only 34– Ethan: No, no, no, we will amend the Constitution to get you in office, don't worry about that.
Ken: Uh yeah, if elected, I will serve, but if you want to write my name in, if you want to write in the "Hugh Mungus Bone" ticket
and that gets you out to the polls to vote in these Congressional elections and vote for Mayor and City Council and bond issues and dogcatcher
If you're involved in all that just because you want to get out and write my name in, then do it. If that helps you get involved, do it.
Ethan: You heard it here folks, "Hugh Mungus Bone" for President-VP
That's what I've been saying. This is the most important message we can out get-get out guys. Write it in.
Ken: I'm really looking forward to tweeting out how many votes I got despite the fact that I've been begging people not to vote for me.
Ethan: "Hugh Mungus Bone" Don't listen to Ken Bone, vote for Ken Bone,
we will amend the Constitution, we will do whatever it takes to get this man in power.
Ken Bone, thank you so much, we appreciate you spending the time to come, enjoy such a pleasure
I think you're a great guy and your message is wonderful, I couldn't agree more.
Guys, follow @kenbone18 on Twitter, I'll put it right here on the screen, in the description.
Donate to the homeless shelter, his charity, it's gonna do a lot of great good.
Your net change on this world is a positive one, Ken, and we appreciate ya here at H3H3 Productions and we wish you all the best.
Ken: Thanks a lot, Ethan, the way I see it, all the negative stuff, that just affects me.
The positive stuff, that's good for everybody, so I can take a little bit of negative stuff if it helps out the community.
Ethan: God Bless, you're a great guy and I really appreciate ya, thanks again for joining us.
Ken: Well thanks for having me, you've been my most public defender, I love you and I love your show.
Ethan: Haha, thank you so much, you deserve all the support you can get.
Thank you.
*H3H3 Outro*