Like many of you, we here at The A.V. Club were never really holding our collective breath in hopes of actually meeting our most (in)famous commenter, ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER, in person. We figured that his many comments and occasional e-mails and voicemail messages would be the only evidence of his existence. Last month, he came to Chicago and supposedly stopped by our office on a Saturday, when none of us were here. (Though he tagged a mirror at the bar on the corner as proof of his existence.)
So when he e-mailed to say that he was taking a trip to the big city to see Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans and, later that night, Rob Zombie at the Aragon, I insisted he call so we could meet in person. I even gave him my cell phone number. At 9 a.m. yesterday, I was awakened by a call (caller ID read "BLOCKED") from the man himself, telling me that he was on his way to Chicago. I asked him to meet me at the office, and he agreed.
He showed up around 11 a.m., tall and surprisingly smily—maybe not surprisingly if you're a fan of his posts. We talked for about an hour about his storied history, about various commenters, etc. He was wearing a Skeletonwitch T-shirt and a black hoodie. He told me his real first name, but not his last. He expressed a real fondness for The A.V. Club, which was nice. He's a huge fan of pop culture, and he loves what he loves, which is always great to see.
Anyway, I was able to wrangle two other clubbers down to meet him: Kyle and Nathan showed up, and we all went to brunch at Garret Ripley's on Clark. (ZMF had mini burgers, and I think three tall Captain and Cokes.) We all grilled him, but he remains mysterious. I asked if I could tag along to see Bad Lieutenant with him, and he was cool with that. He wanted to sit close to the screen. While we agreed that the movie was not wall-to-wall ownage, it was still hilarious and weird and definitely worth seeing.
Just before the movie started, I got the bright idea to text AVC's other semi-celebrity, Dave Chang, and see if he'd drive down from Milwaukee for a superstar Taste Test. He agreed, and we all met back at the office, along with intrepid videographer Hassan Ali. We ate MREs (gross) and drank bottles of funky-flavored girly shots. ZMF yelled at me a lot, which you'll see in the video—sometime in January, when Taste Test returns. What you won't see much of is his face—he asked us to kinda shoot/edit around him. You might catch a glimpse. In the meantime, I took some snaps of ZMF in his favorite disguise. Check 'em out. This is a true story, but let the wild accusations and speculations begin!