In 1999, a chain letter began to matriculate around online message boards. The goal? Get New Kids On The Block's 1989 music video "Hangin' Tough" on Total Request Live. Why? Cuz it wud b funny lmao. After weeks of would-be trolls stuffing the online ballot box, the folks at TRL were left with a decision: Succumb to the mob's mischief or risk delegitimizing the democracy of their countdown. Told from the people who were there, TR(ol)L shows a catalytic moment in Internet history that helped birth modern online trolling and still influences keyboard pranksters -- and their hilariously cheeky viral campaigns -- to this day.
TR(ol)L: New Kids on the Block, Total Request Live and the Chain Letter That Changed the Internet.
In 1999, the internet screwed with MTV's "Total Request Live" with an old New Kids music video called "Hangin' Tough." What came from the campaign - and how TRL decided to deal with it - became a pioneering moment in online trolling.
