A Redditor known only as shittymorph, famous for his bait-and-switch trickery with comments about a late-90s wrestling match, is now accepting cash tips.
As CNet reports, the test case of shittymorph is likely to be expanded, seemingly as a way to support and encourage Reddit community members/leaders who help keep things lively on the site. A Reddit spokesperson made no promises, however, saying "Only a small number of experiments [like this] get implemented."
But just to back up, for all those of you who are not hardcore Redditors and have no idea what Hell in the Cell is: This all started about two years ago, when this guy known only to CNet as Chris launched a strange little rickroll-style meme in comments on certain Reddit threads. With the username shittymorph, he would begin what seemed like a thoughtful, well written, even literary long-form comment, only to woodwink someone into reading it to the end, where he would cap it off with a reference to a 1998 pay-per-view wrestling match known as "Hell in the Cell."
As CNet explains, the match featured "feuding fighters The Undertaker (a sort of proto-goth character) against Mankind (a deranged lunatic). The two duked it out on top of a massive cage called Hell in a Cell as more than 17,000 fans in the audience shouted and cheered." The match ended when Undertaker threw Mankind off the cage and he landed on, and broke, the announcer's table.
One example of how shittymorph's comments can swerve:
Sweden resident here: Can confirm our water is VERY pure in most places. I did a PPM (Parts per million) test of the water that comes out of my kitchen faucet and it came out around 100 - 110 ppm. I sent my Uncle who lives in New York City a testing kit and the PPM of his tap water was a lot closer to nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hеll in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table.
So, you take this in-joke among Redditors, and this geek's-geek type of jokester hero, and then you see how many people want to show their appreciation with actual dollar donations.
The move is actually an act of charity, in part, because as Chris/shittymorph told CNet back in 2017, he's been homeless at times, and lately he'd been living in a pretty spare rented room with a rescue dog named Scooby.
It's unclear how much he's made in tips today, but this original comment about the experiment shows $86 in tips so far. (The tip button shows up whenever shittymorph, and only shittymorph, comments on something.)
As he says on Reddit today, of the tipping experiment:
Hey guys... First off, a huge thank you to the Reddit administration team (u/internetmallcop and crew) for setting this up. I'm super grateful and honored that /r/shittymorph was picked for this launch. I'm really proud that we get to be involved with beta testing something new and cutting edge here on Reddit. I also want to say thank you to the /r/shittymorph moderation team and to all of you who have supported nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hеll in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table.