Who Are These Podcasts? poked fun at Stuttering John, who reacted in the worst ways imaginable. He targeted their funding streams, made libel threats and fumed online like ageing cookware, ready to explode. Understandably, Who Are These Podcasts? poked even more fun at him, as his hapless attempts at revenge blew up in his face and inspired more content.
Soon, a whole podcasting universe flourished around the sad figure of Stuttering John. It is called “the Dabbleverse”, in a reference to Melendez taking offence at being said to have “dabbled” in comedy.
Numerous shows have been created to mock Melendez, as well as various other struggling characters, such as obscure grievance-monger Patrick Michaels, chronic noughties nostalgist Aaron Imholte and failing anger manager Chad Zumock.
“Lolcow” is online slang for a stupid or unstable person who can be “milked” for comedy. Sometimes such people are obscure eccentrics, like the unstable autistic Sonic fan Christian Weston Chandler, who has been stalked across the internet for most of his unfortunate adult life.