[HN Gopher] The funniest thing I ever did - a.k.a. "How To Make ...
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The funniest thing I ever did - a.k.a. "How To Make $100K From A
Dick Joke."
Author : imglorp
Score : 204 points
Date : 2025-01-05 09:03 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (imgur.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (imgur.com)
| defrost wrote:
| As featured in the _The Ballad of the Malheur Patriots (Song of
| the Oregon Wildlife Refuge Standoff)_ @3:25
|
| The perfect treat to storm a building surrounded by ducks . . .
| bdndndndbve wrote:
| Bundy apologists in the wild? Insane.
| myflash13 wrote:
| Sometimes I think about the years of hard work that I put into
| building a SaaS business and wondered whether I should've just
| done something silly like this instead.
| readyplayernull wrote:
| About 10 years ago it was possible to make a living from silly
| Android apps. I made several of farts, meme sounds, and even
| politicians that were funny to laugh at. One of my fondest
| memories as dev is making apps for little kids and getting back
| long strings of hearts, kisses and smiles in the reviews.
| vachina wrote:
| There's only so many low hanging fruits to exploit (by a LUCKY
| few). Keep working on your business.
| phyzix5761 wrote:
| OPs story is like winning the lottery. The rest of us have to
| get up and work 80 hour weeks building our business. The latter
| is more fulfilling and longer lived in my opinion.
| more_corn wrote:
| But there's an important lesson here. The structure is the
| same as a successful serious business. Build something people
| actually want to buy, build it so you can fulfill it cheaper
| than cost. Get a little ahead of yourself (but not a lot)
| bashmelek wrote:
| It is still inspiring for someone like me who wouldn't even
| know where to start for something like this---that is can be
| done by an individual nobody.The author knew a few important
| things, but more, did their research, asked questions, and
| pushed forward. I myself would love to move beyond web apps to
| a physical product.
| redeux wrote:
| A guy I worked with was fired for sending this to a woman we
| worked with that he had a grudge against for some reason or
| another. Apparently he sent it from his work computer, which
| wasn't the brightest idea. He sat in the next cube over from me
| and I wasn't surprised in the slightest when I heard about it.
| wiseowise wrote:
| > sending this to a woman we worked with that he had a grudge
| against for some reason or another
|
| Sometimes I wonder what the hell is going on in people's head.
| anal_reactor wrote:
| A happy person and an upset person meet. Their emotional
| statuses are wildly different, therefore drama ensues.
| walrus01 wrote:
| The profane joke in the bag of dicks made me think _which_
| head he was thinking with.
| dakiol wrote:
| Perhaps I missed it, but at what point the author sets an LLC or
| something similar? For me, that's the main blocker: in Europe it
| costs money to start a business, some paperwork and taxes is
| involved, even if you don't make a single sale. Also, for selling
| online you kinda have to show in your website your "business id"
| (or tax id or similar)... otherwise how do people know you are a
| legit business? For example, I'm not giving my credit card
| details to any random website to buy silly stuff unless they are
| properly identified
| tiffanyh wrote:
| Not everyone shares your rigor to not buying from strangers.
|
| Pieter Levels is a one-person show that has started multiple
| businesses with just a single page & a Stripe Checkout earning
| millions per year and I don't believe he's incorporated.
|
| https://x.com/levelsio
| scrollaway wrote:
| A stripe account requires a legal entity of some sort behind
| it.
|
| This can be a "physical person" (eg a freelance activity),
| depending on the country, but that still requires
| registration -- and if it's millions per year, it's usually a
| terrible idea to do it as a freelancer.
|
| The money has to go somewhere. That somewhere needs to be
| banked. That banked entity needs to be incorporated, or
| treatable as a corporation.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| > For example, I'm not giving my credit card details to any
| random website to buy silly stuff unless they are properly
| identified
|
| You might be putting more thought into this than the average
| person looking to anonymously send someone a bag of penis
| candy.
|
| More seriously though, setting up an LLC cost me well under
| $1000 each in two different states. No, I don't have some
| elaborate tax dodge going; I moved.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| It's not a random website, it's backed by Shopify!
| purple_turtle wrote:
| > in Europe it costs money to start a business, some paperwork
| and taxes is involved, even if you don't make a single sale
|
| not everywhere - in Poland it is fine to run a tiny-scale
| business without registration
|
| https://www.biznes.gov.pl/pl/portal/00115 - among requirements,
| scale must be less than 75% of a minimum wage. Enough to test
| it.
|
| > otherwise how do people know you are a legit business? For
| example, I'm not giving my credit card details to any random
| website to buy silly stuff unless they are properly identified
|
| I do not care so much, as long of amounts are tiny - in case of
| fraud it is bank's problem
| LtdJorge wrote:
| Wth? That's a great system you guys have.
| j_4 wrote:
| On paper, yeah. Sadly the threshold is very low, and you
| get hit with a brutal regressive tax immediately after you
| pass it (obligatory lump-sum social security tax).
| walrus01 wrote:
| In many US states it can cost at little as $200 to $300 to form
| an LLC. The person says they used an integrated, hosted
| shopping cart/checkout and payment system. This means they
| didn't have to go through any of the hassle of doing something
| like even setting up a "business" bank account, getting credit
| card processing services and integrating the card payment
| portal system into their own self-hosted shopping cart checkout
| workflow. Shopify is used by a bunch of very non technical arts
| and crafts people.
| OJFord wrote:
| Certainly doesn't in the UK, are you sure that's true where you
| are? Here incorporating as an ltd (limited liability) costs I
| think PS25, but you can start a business as a sole trader
| without any kind of fee or registration (just a de facto status
| requiring declaring the income on your personal tax return).
| johneth wrote:
| > Here incorporating as an ltd (limited liability) costs I
| think PS25
|
| They've increased it to (a still reasonable) PS50, I assume
| to help fund the new legal obligations that Companies House
| has been given.
| stef25 wrote:
| Not sure if it's still the case now but you could perfectly
| open a Stripe account in the EU without the need for any
| business documents.
| throw5959 wrote:
| That doesn't make it legal to operate. In every EU country
| you need to register to legally conduct business activity. It
| used to be an expensive and long hassle but nowadays it's
| simple and quick, usually online and cheap.
| chmod775 wrote:
| I had to fill in like 5 fields (who, what, bank account) in a
| 2-page form to start a basic business in Germany of all places
| - and was legally allowed to start operating the moment I
| submitted that. It cost nothing and I received a tax ID a short
| time later. Wasn't an LLC, but you don't need that for every
| little temporary thing you set up.
|
| Setting up an LLC is not a big deal either, even if the process
| could be quicker. People who think that too complicated aren't
| competent to run a lasting business anyways. If _that_ is hard,
| how are you not gonna fuck up accounting and your other legal
| obligations?
| snowwrestler wrote:
| You don't have to set up a corporate form to do business like
| this in the U.S. You can just start selling things and as long
| as you properly report your taxable income, you're fine.
| forty wrote:
| In France, for very small business with only you in it (and
| revenue cap), you can create a micro entreprise (aka micro
| entrepreneur / auto entrepreneur) and it's free.
| jcpham2 wrote:
| I feel like the origin of this joke is a Louis CK stand up
| routine IIRC but I'm unable to locate the source.
| acer4666 wrote:
| The routine is here https://youtu.be/jgcGEIfE9kE but I don't
| think that's the origin of the phrase and doesn't mention
| mailing candy ones to people
| TexanFeller wrote:
| I'm pretty sure I head that phrase sometime in the 90s, maybe
| early 2000s. It's been around a while.
| hehbot wrote:
| Isn't this the premise of Silicon Valley (the show)?
| hasbot wrote:
| Glitter, poop, and now a bag of dicks can be easily sent
| anonymously. What other similar services exist? Asking for a
| friend.
|
| Found this: https://prankpackage.com/collections/all
| walrus01 wrote:
| You can mail a message on a potato
|
| https://potatoparcel.com/
| oaththrowaway wrote:
| I sold a laptop on eBay once long, long ago. Someone did the "Buy
| it now" option but never paid. I'm trying to remember the exact
| situation (probably more than 10 years ago), but I had exchanged
| messages with him several times and he always had an excuse to
| not pay.
|
| Then I noticed he was selling the exact same model of laptop so
| it was easy for me to realize that he had just "bought" my laptop
| to remove the listing so it wouldn't compete against his. I
| messaged ebay support to accuse him but they didn't do anything
| about it.
|
| Since he had made the order, eBay did show me his shipping
| information so I ordered a "glitter bomb" which was basically
| glitter in a tube with a spring. I got a very nasty accusatory
| email from him, but it was very vague. He wouldn't specify what
| he received, but that he was smart enough to not open it. That's
| how I knew he got the full effect.
|
| I just replied something to the effect of "You never paid me. Why
| would I send something to you?"
| cozzyd wrote:
| I wonder if he was trying to resell your laptop and wasn't
| going to pay until he got an order for your laptop
| seattle_spring wrote:
| That's what I was thinking too. There are whole subreddits
| setup to work this kind of hustle. These people see nothing
| wrong with what they do, even going so far as to claim that
| they're doing a service to the world. In my eyes, they're
| bottom-feeding scum no better than scalpers, car salespeople,
| or MLM huns.
| lalalali wrote:
| ...or financial assets arbitrage! (Not /s)
| anonu wrote:
| I cant believe ebay hasnt been disrupted yet...
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| eBay is interesting. It has consistently high profit margins,
| but no upward movement in revenue or profit, which peaked
| over a decade ago, and its returns heavily lag SP500.
|
| I'm guessing investors don't see much opportunity for growth
| in the online auction business to make it worth dumping a
| bunch of money just to take market share from eBay.
| steveBK123 wrote:
| eBay I think had their growth capped once you had Etsy,
| Amazon FBA, and other options on the field.
|
| Your average normie has no interest in the hassle of
| selling their used stuff (which has, if anything, got
| harder in my 25ish years using eBay), nor of buying random
| used staff from anonymous individual sellers.
|
| Etsy covers the arts & crafts coded goods (though much is
| now China dropship).
|
| Amazon allows the big merchants to sell to normies who just
| want to click "buy" without thinking about seller rating
| risk, when something will arrive, etc. Basically most
| people have no idea they are buying from not-Amazon,
| because it says amazon.com and that's good enough. eBay
| never had the smarts to create that user experience.
| woleium wrote:
| Amazon fulfillment, That's the killer. Why bother with
| another marketplace when vertically integrated Amazon
| does it all
| alexey-salmin wrote:
| > online auction business
|
| Do they even do it nowadays? I was under impression it
| turned into an ordinary marketplace, probably with a bit
| more focus towards small/private sellers.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| Yeah of course they do. And it's still used by people
| looking to get deals.
| toast0 wrote:
| From my perspective, eBay has a solid niche of older items,
| and they tried to break into the buy new items market too,
| but the hassles of selling mean for the most part only
| scalpers sell new items on eBay. Although there's some
| niches where it's not unusual: new auto parts seem common,
| I guess it's easier for a dealer parts counter to run an
| eBay store than otherwise.
| kgilpin wrote:
| In my kids' generation (college aged) they all use Facebook
| Marketplace.
| rcpt wrote:
| Local classifieds are great if you live in a dense area.
| But I've tried using them when visiting rural family and
| there's absolutely nothing for sale.
| segmondy wrote:
| ebay is still useful for obscure stuff. if you want to buy
| used servers, GPU, electronics, car parts, etc. I don't
| think ebay and FB MP really overlapped, MP ate craigslist.
| The closest thing to eating ebay is Aliexpress.
| snowwrestler wrote:
| It's astounding how bad FB Marketplace search is, though.
| For very popular things, it's fine. For browsing and "huh,
| that's interesting," it's fine.
|
| But if I am looking for something specific, it is an
| incredible failure. It's so bad I suspect they
| intentionally don't want it to work well. That is, I think
| they only want to optimize for low-effort social buying,
| not picky people who know exactly what they want.
|
| For this reason I have bought way more stuff off eBay than
| FB Marketplace recently.
| bpye wrote:
| It seems to just ignore filters like "date listed"
| sometimes too. And people will list items at nominal
| prices and give the actual price in the description.
| Generally a poor experience.
| gosub100 wrote:
| They cleaned up their act substantially in the past 3-4
| years. There are still scammers, of course, but they seem to
| be taking action that favors buyers as well. I just don't see
| how they can protect everyone from all the various scams. If
| they accept all the risk, it will be exploited by scammers.
| steveBK123 wrote:
| It was always fairly pro-buyer, but it's moved so much more
| in that direction it's somewhat hazardous to use as a
| seller.
|
| For a lot of stuff, as a seller, I'll just trade-in or use
| random hobbyist forum buy&sell sections which ad-hoc
| reputation systems.
| gosub100 wrote:
| FWIW I don't hear of nearly any of the horror stories I
| used to. From my recollection, 2011 was about the peak of
| it, where buyers were claiming to never get their stuff,
| getting liberal refunds at the expense of the sellers.
| Sellers were getting their accounts locked by Paypal,
| sometimes with tens-of-thousands of dollars at stake,
| only to get it back 6 months later if they begged and
| screamed.
|
| I opened a seller account in about 2020 to unload some
| server gear and almost got scammed, but I googled the
| buyers name and saw he was accused of fraud by several
| other people. I re-routed the package and although I
| didn't get reimbursed for that fee, ebay made me right
| and paypal (I think) gave me a small credit. They even
| had a phone call with me which seemed like they actually
| investigated it (I dont remember many details, it was 1
| transaction 5 years ago).
|
| There's just no way that any online auction can control
| fraud. I was on ebay yesterday as a buyer, looking for a
| tape backup drive. The seller clearly had been burned and
| (bitterly) warned that the sale was final, because
| previously he had sold a working drive which was parted
| out, replaced with broken parts (heads) and returned as
| defective. there's _no way_ a third party can protect
| against it because either way the fraudster wins. 1) sell
| a bad drive, claim it was good, but accuse the buyer of
| fraud. Or 2) buy a good drive, swap it out with bad parts
| and return it. how could anyone (like ebay) solve this
| problem?
| nyjah wrote:
| eBay has had to reinvent itself. For me, I don't trust eBay
| for legit merchandise, I sorta assume it's knockoffs now,
| probably wrong. I've never used them but I was under the
| assumption that offer up and what not are popping off as eBay
| disrupters.
| stemlord wrote:
| Honestly ebay is currently a notch better than amazon, IME
| ninkendo wrote:
| I had the exact experience selling an iMac on eBay about 10
| years ago. Buyer clicked buy it now, my listing was removed,
| they never paid. They deleted their account shortly after (it
| was some .ru email address.) eBay had nothing to say other than
| "try again after X weeks". Why, so it can just happen again?
| They admitted they have zero protection against it.
|
| I deleted my account and sold it on Amazon instead. How anyone
| puts up with eBay I have no idea.
| csh0 wrote:
| FWIW, eBay no longer works like this. When you put up a
| listing there's now an option, enabled by default, to require
| payment at checkout.
|
| This situation may still occur if you are taking offers on an
| item. In that case the buyer has to pay within 48 hours of
| the offer being accepted or the listing will become eligible
| for re-posting.
| probably_wrong wrote:
| I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and
| therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing is
| about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency to the
| market".
|
| Therefore I feel vindicated when a moderately-upvoted post says
| the quiet part out loud, namely, "Yeah, we made a fake post and
| just lied to everyone on the internet. I'm not sorry, because not
| only was it popular - it became the top post of the day."
|
| Remember, kids: lying is only wrong when it's unprofitable.
| oaththrowaway wrote:
| Just makes me more cynical about everything I see posted.
| Marketers ruin everything eventually
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| You can extend that to stories people tell and images they
| portray in real life.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| Dishonesty is rampant in our world.
|
| That's why Merlin says honesty is the most important
| virtue.
| aziaziazi wrote:
| I don't see ruined value in fables telling though, usually
| the meaning and mind perspectives provides a benefit to the
| reader. Same with portray and most images shown in museum.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I am not talking about fables, I am referring to lying in
| order to sell one's self, perhaps for business, or love,
| or networking, or even just for a laugh. Maybe even
| because people are lying to themselves.
| aziaziazi wrote:
| Oh ok i didn't read your comment that way. That makes
| sense. NLP is a form of self marketing I guess. "Sell"
| yourself ideas you want to buy on!
| IAmGraydon wrote:
| >Marketers ruin everything eventually
|
| You need to follow that chain of thought a little further.
| The unfortunate weak spot in a capitalist economy is that
| it's basically a Darwinistic system where the fittest
| survive, and "fit" means willing to do anything to make a
| dollar. Morals therefore become a weakness, and those who are
| guided by morals will be stomped out by those who don't
| really care. The guardrails are made of laws, not morals, and
| those who make the laws are often benefiting from the status
| quo. Like it or not, this is the jungle we find ourselves in.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| IMO there is a tension between tolerating gray areas and
| stomping out the faintest shadow with prejudice. In the
| long term societies with no trust or accountability will
| fall to those with higher trust and cohesion because the
| latter can be more efficient.
| bloggie wrote:
| While I understand your perspective, I don't follow the
| vindication. Viral marketing is a marketing strategy, it is
| taught in marketing classes. Isn't it naive to believe
| everything you see on the internet?
| cobertos wrote:
| It is naive, yet it is still read, believed and scored (and
| score gives it more trust). The medium still seems
| trustworthy but the individuals within it are not. And as the
| internet has progressed, the percentage of trustworthiness
| has slipped, but can also not be intuited directly from the
| medium as there are no signals that have meaningfully changed
| in the medium.
|
| Only anecdotes from outside the medium can inform us to be
| less naive. Or doing an analysis which takes effort, skill,
| and time per-person
| ndriscoll wrote:
| Teaching young people to be dishonest in a school setting
| doesn't somehow make it legitimate. It makes those classes
| bad. Science classes aren't telling their students that they
| could advance their career a lot faster and with less work if
| they just make up data for their experiments. They
| acknowledge it happens, condemn it, and tell students they'll
| be failed or expelled for doing it.
| gcr wrote:
| It looks like the author was eventually able to fulfill the
| orders in the end. What does the "lying" refer to?
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| I believe they made a fake post about someone documenting
| their experience getting mailed the bag of candies.
| edanm wrote:
| > I don't have a great opinion of marketing in general and
| therefore I'm often unconvinced with arguments like "marketing
| is about fulfilling a customer's needs" or "adding efficiency
| to the market".
|
| I mean, on some level, _everything_ is marketing. People don 't
| like marketing when it's fraudulent and morally suspect, which
| of course makes sense - I don't like tech when it's morally
| suspect, either!
|
| But literally everything you know about, every product you use
| on any kind of basis, every service you use, every creator you
| follow, is something you know about because of _some_
| marketing, directly or indirectly.
|
| And I'm certainly happy about a lot of new
| products/services/etc that I use, and think my life is richer
| for it.
| aziaziazi wrote:
| > something you know about because of some marketing,
| directly or indirectly.
|
| That's a broad and vague truth. Parent critics direct
| marketing. Also as exceptions makes the rules: the best item
| I ever bought was a second hand bike on the local Craigslist.
| Super cheap (repair included) and commuted +10000km with it.
| The << marketing >> was the descriptive pictures and honest
| description, I guess.
| BeetleB wrote:
| I listen to _How I Built This_.
|
| It's not unusual to do this. Especially when they're trying to
| get a retailer to carry their items. They'll create fake buzz.
| Stuff like getting all your friends to go to a store asking "Do
| you carry X?" soon after you've pitched X to the store is a
| method that's worked for over a century.
| therealdrag0 wrote:
| Seems like a no harm no foul sort of situation.
|
| If people on an entertainment site and entertained by the viral
| marketing, and they order a product knowing what it is and get
| the product they ordered, then what is the problem exactly?
| catsma21 wrote:
| you've got to have the eye of a hawk to achieve something like
| this
| nickjj wrote:
| That reminds me of the toilet paper calculator during peak covid.
|
| He put up a site in about half an hour and it ended up getting
| coverage on TV which led to ~10 million visitors and it making
| $5,000 a day in ads for a while. The core logic of the app is 6
| lines of JavaScript to take a few inputs and do basic math on
| them.
|
| I ended up chatting with the creator on how he built and hosted
| it back in 2020:
| https://runninginproduction.com/podcast/35-determine-what-yo...
| giarc wrote:
| Thanks for sharing, just downloaded and will listen today.
| buildsjets wrote:
| I love eating a bag of Dicks on a sunny summer day.
|
| https://keyw.com/dicks-burgers-changes-french-fries/
| indigoabstract wrote:
| I must say I quite enjoyed reading up on this great business
| idea. It speaks to that 14 year old that's still inside us,
| regardless of age.
| TexanFeller wrote:
| Haliey Welch showed us there's profit to be had. VCs funding
| genitalia joke cryptocurrencies and ecommerce sites is my
| prediction for 2025.
| dr_kiszonka wrote:
| I suggest edible hats for your next project.
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