Voting Station

Joybubbles

Please vote to return to collections.

Oddity

The Resume

    (May 25, 1949-August 8, 2007)
    Born in Richmond, Virginia
    Birth name was Josef Carl Engressia, Jr.
    Legally changed his name to Joybubbles in 1991
    Nickname was Whistler
    Early phone phreak - telecommunication systems hacker
    Earned a degree in philosophy at the University of South Florida
    Ordained minister of his own Church of Eternal Childhood
    Reverted to his childhood (May 1988), claiming he was five years old
    Died of congestive heart failure in Minneapolis at age 58

Why he might be annoying:

    He changed his name to a single, silly one.
    His high school year book photo shows him in a phone booth.
    He charged other students at USF $1 to make free long distance phone calls for them.
    The stunt cost him a $25 fine and he was temporarily suspended from the university.
    He phreaked for three years (1968-71) until the F.B.I. busted him, charged him with malicious mischief and gave him a suspended sentence.
    He specifically moved to Minneapolis on 6-12-82 because the city's area code was 612.
    He got a job with the University of Minnesota's agriculture department as an odor panelist (he sniffed pig shit).
    In 1998 he traveled to the University of Pittsburgh and for six weeks listened to the entire archival library of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' on tape (around 800 episodes).
    He cried for days and was inconsolable when Fred Rogers died in 2003.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was born blind.
    As a child he was molested in school by a nun, a claim his mother never fully believed.
    As an adult, his IQ was 172.
    He became a counterculture hero by his ability to whistle at 2600 hertz into a telephone, the frequency needed to steal calls.
    He quit phreaking after the F.B.I. encounter, which was just as well due to the mid-70s digitalization of telephones that ended the tone-based system.
    Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he was an early inspiration during his college years.
    During his 'Mister Rogers' adventure, he endured a mugging and the Pittsburgh area's first ever recorded tornado.
    He set up phone lines for kids - one a weekly telephone story line called 'Stories and Stuff' and another to discuss the motivational organization for youth 'Up with People.'
    The latter phone line was called 'Zzzzyzzerrific Funline,' making it (by design) the last entry in the Minneapolis phone book.
    He became Joybubbles in part to help erase painful childhood memories, and when asked why Mr. Rogers mattered, he stated: 'When you’re playing and you’re just you, powerful things happen.'

Credit: Scar Tactics


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 57 Votes: 73.68% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 20 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 23 Votes: 56.52% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 25 Votes: 56.00% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 16 Votes: 62.50% Annoying