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Encyclopedia > Richard Kyanka
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Richard Charles "Lowtax" Kyanka (pronounced [kə.ˈɪŋ.kə]) (born May 11, 1976[1]) is an Internet personality, and owner and operator of the humor website Something Awful. Image File history File links Padlock. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... A website (or Web site) is a collection of web pages, typically common to a particular domain name or subdomain on the World Wide Web on the Internet. ... Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a wide variety of content, including instant messaging pranks, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. ...

Contents

Origin of Lowtax pseudonym

The nickname "Lowtax" is a reference to Tennessee politician Byron (Low Tax) Looper, who achieved national notoriety at about the same time Something Awful was being launched. In Kyanka's own words,[2] Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Largest metro area Nashville Area  Ranked 36th  - Total 42,169 sq mi (109,247 km²)  - Width 120 miles (195 km)  - Length 440 miles (710 km)  - % water 2. ... Byron (Low Tax) Looper Booking Photo Byron (Low Tax) Looper (born 1964), a former politician, is an inmate in the Tennessee state penal system. ...

“ "Way back during my college days at Vanderbilt University, I almost ended up getting a summer job with the Putnam County Tax Assessor (because I was broke and needed to pay for college tuition). He was a very insane little man who legally changed his middle name to 'Low Tax'." ”

Vanderbilt University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in Nashville, Tennessee. ... Putnam County is a county located in the state of Tennessee, USA. As of 2000, the population is 62,315. ... Assessor as evaluator An assessor is an expert that calculates the amounts to be paid or assessed for tax or insurance purposes. ...

Something Awful

Kyanka started Something Awful several months before being forced to resign from his job at PlanetQuake for writing a derogatory website update about a fellow employee. He moved the "Cranky Steve" personality in question to the site in 1999.[3]


Originally, the site was limited mostly to personal content, in which Kyanka personally reviewed video games, movies, and comics which he felt were "something awful". However in recent years the site has grown greatly, and now features numerous writers and columnists, putting Kyanka's own writings in the minority. Kyanka is the creator of the characters Jeff K. and Cliff Yablonski, that are featured on the Something Awful site. Jeff K. is one of several fictitious update writers for the popular humor website Something Awful. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...


Other endeavors

In addition to administrating Something Awful, he also owns the movie publishing company Awful Video, which has released the first and second DVDs of the computer and video game-themed show Mega64. In addition to that, he owns and operates City Name Sports Team, a clothing line that mocks sports fanaticism and team loyalty; and has released his first CD of original music under his ARC moniker, which he derived from his email address at university.[4] He later added Moofwear to this list; a second clothing line featuring drawings by SA frontpage writer and forums member Tom "Moof" Davies. In November, 2005, Lowtax released the DVD of Doom House, a horror movie parody he and fellow SA writer and Internet personality Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen created in 2003. It has been suggested that Multiplayer game be merged into this article or section. ... Mega64 is a low-budget series of comedy skits centered around video games. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...


In mid 2005, Kyanka's musical project ARC released its first CD, Drain. The name of the project has been changed to Central ARC for future releases. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...


In October 2005, Kyanka appeared at a seminar hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery at the University of Illinois and showed a presentation on maintaining an online community.[5] In 2006 he spoke in the Master's Tea series at Yale University. [6] The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ... The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), is the largest campus in the University of Illinois system. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Yale redirects here. ...


As a writer with an audience of video game enthusiasts, Kyanka has made some mark in video game culture. One of the most obvious references to him is in the game Icewind Dale II where a tombstone bears the inscription "Richard Kyanka - Writer of Humorous Stories."[7] Icewind Dale II is a computer role-playing game developed by Black Isle Studios, and set in the Forgotten Realms Icewind Dale region. ...


A character named "Lowtax" appeared in the comic Smallville #11 (based on the show of the same name). The character was named Lowtax by a member of the Something Awful Forums as a homage to Kyanka [8].


On June 20, 2006, Kyanka announced that he had accepted Uwe Boll's challenge to a boxing match, which Boll had issued to all his online critics.[9] This boxing match took place on September 23 of the same year in Vancouver resulting in Lowtax's defeat. Kyanka subsequently claimed Boll had given assurances that neither were expected to actively compete, as it was a publicity stunt.[10] Wired magazine covered Raging Boll.[11] Uwe Boll Uwe Boll (pronounced []), born June 22, 1965 in Wermelskirchen, Germany) is a German film director and producer of movies usually adapted from video games. ... For other uses, see Vancouver (disambiguation). ...


In 2007, Kyanka joined former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson in an audio commentary mocking the film Troll 2 for Nelson's RiffTrax website.[12] Mystery Science Theater 3000, often abbreviated MST3K, is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc. ... Mystery Science Theater 3000s Mike Nelson (left) and Kevin Wagner Murphy, at Exoticon 1 convention panel in Metairie, Louisiana, November, 1998. ... Troll 2 is a 1990 horror film by Claudio Fragasso under the pseudonym Drake Floyd. ... RiffTrax main page, September 17, 2006. ...


Personal life

Kyanka dated Angela Mason; the couple split in 2001. Kyanka later met Emily "Integral" Reigel, and moved in together in an apartment in Seattle. Kyanka announced his proposal to Reigel on his website in 2002,[13]; however, the couple later split. Kyanka met Megan "crazyellow" Austin at a meeting of members of the Something Awful forums (she was a friend of a member), and on February 13, 2005, Richard married [14] Austin, [15] On June 27, 2005, Richard's wife Megan gave birth to a girl named Lauren Seoul.[16] Kyanka lives with his wife and daughter in Lee's Summit, Missouri.[17] For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lees Summit is a city in Jackson County and Cass County, Missouri. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...


Kyanka dropped out of Vanderbilt University after his junior year. Vanderbilt University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in Nashville, Tennessee. ...


Kyanka went to high school at Rockhurst University, a private Jesuit college prep school. This article is about Rockhurst University. ...


Honors and awards

In 2001, Kyanka was entered into the Entertainment Weekly Entertainer of the Year online poll, and went on to receive the most votes. Although he received "thousands" of votes, he was manually removed from the top results by EW, which claimed the many votes came from few sources. This caused an email support campaign, but EW turned a deaf ear, again claiming that "similar phrasing" in the many emails proved that only a few people were sending multiple emails. EW awarded "Entertainer of the Year" to Britney Spears.[18] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is a Grammy Award-winning American pop singer, dancer, actress, author and songwriter. ...


References

  1. ^ "I Am Immortal! I Have Inside Me Blood and Things (Yeah!)", April 26th update. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  2. ^ Fark.com forums post. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  3. ^ http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2873
  4. ^ ARC CD information page on www.somethingawful.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  5. ^ Lowtax speaks at the University of Illinois. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  6. ^ The Yale Record, Master's Teas. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  7. ^ Icewind Dale II - Lowtax reference!. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  8. ^ The Awful Forums - I have a feeling this month's Smallville comic will be popular with goons. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
  9. ^ Uwe Boll Wants Me Alone In The Dark. Retrieved on 2006-06-20.
  10. ^ Uwe Boll Pushing Lowtax's Face In. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.
  11. ^ Wired article on Raging Boll. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
  12. ^ RiffTrax Announcement
  13. ^ "The Deed is Done", May 3rd 2002 update. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  14. ^ "Congratulations Rich and Megan!", February 17, 2005 update. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  15. ^ "In This Update I Murder My Fiancee and Unborn Child", 11th January 2005 update. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  16. ^ "Lowtax Has Been Hit By a Stork", June 28th 2005 update. Retrieved on 2006-05-15.
  17. ^ "What I Learned Last Week, By Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka, Age 26", March 18th update. Retrieved on 2006-05-15. "The Awful Forums - If you are going to Vancouver for the big show, click here!". Retrieved on 2006-09-18.
  18. ^ Entertainment Weekly, "Fan Flare"

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (362nd in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... September 25 is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ...

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  Results from FactBites:
 
NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Something Awful (4963 words)
Kyanka told a particularly gullible young ICQ user, Corn_Boy, that he was building "space robots" to assist humans and protect them from the mysterious space secret (which, appropriately, was only vaguely explained).
Kyanka made a reference to an earlier incident in which a prototype robot malfunctioned and pushed his grandmother down the steps.
Kyanka soon "returned", and appeared confused and surprised when Corn_Boy insisted that the robot was the same one that had malfunctioned.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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