Jay Maynard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 27, 1960 |
| Other names | Tron Guy |
| Occupation(s) | Computer programmer, system administrator, project maintainer |
| Call sign | K5ZC |
Jay Maynard (born July 27, 1960) is an American computer programmer, system administrator and the volunteer project maintainer for Hercules, a free emulator of IBM mainframe hardware. He is known for his self-made electroluminescent costume based on the film Tron , which resulted in his nickname Tron Guy.
Maynard created a revealing electroluminescent costume, inspired by the film Tron , that he could wear at the science fiction convention Penguicon in 2004. He has said that he "hasn't missed a Penguicon, and doesn't intend to". [1] He created a web page of photos of the costume, and of himself wearing it. His page of photos quickly gained a lot of attention on the Internet, after it was posted on Slashdot [2] and Fark.
In 2006, Maynard appeared in a music video entitled "We Are the Web", for the website of the same name. The video advocates the concept of network neutrality. [3] In it, Maynard appears alongside several other Internet celebrities, including Leslie Hall and Randy Constan. He was also parodied in the 2008 South Park episode "Canada on Strike". His likeness appeared alongside those of such other Internet celebrities as Gary Brolsma, Star Wars Kid, Chris Crocker, and Tay Zonday. [ citation needed ]
In 2010, Maynard was banned from seeing the film Tron: Legacy in his iconic Tron suit in his local movie theater because of the illuminating lights on his suit. [4]
On June 8, 2011, Maynard appeared on America's Got Talent . [5] He received a "no" vote from all of the three judges and did not make it past the audition round. Howie Mandel had him restart his introductory speech over several times, so it was left unclear what his act was going to be.
In 2011, Maynard appeared in Duck Products' "Stuck On Duck Video Project", [6] [7] [8] a commercial for duct tape. The ad, made by Ryactive and produced by Tongal, recreates the light-cycle race from Tron using stop-motion animation, followed by Maynard's appearance in the Tron Guy outfit. [9] The video was featured in Wired Magazine as a "genius idea" [9] and like many of Maynard's previous videos went viral, becoming the tenth most viewed video of all time on Vimeo. [8]
On August 26, 2015, Maynard was interviewed by the Scene World Podcast in a live video podcast, hosted by Olympronica for the Film & Games Interactions exhibit at the Deutsches Filminstitut in Frankfurt, Germany. The interview was presented live on Twitch, and later published as both a video interview on YouTube and audio podcast. [10]
William Richard Werstine, known professionally as Billy West, is an American voice actor and radio personality. His voice roles include Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film Space Jam and several subsequent projects, the title characters of Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show, and the Futurama characters Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, and many more. In commercials, he voices the Red M&M and formerly voiced Buzz for Honey Nut Cheerios. West also voices other such established characters such as Elmer Fudd, Popeye, Shaggy Rogers, Rocket Raccoon, Muttley, and Woody Woodpecker. He was a cast member on The Howard Stern Show, during which time he was noted for his impressions of Larry Fine, Marge Schott, George Takei, and Jackie Martling.
Elwood Edwards is an American voice actor. He is best known as the voice of the Internet service provider America Online, which he first recorded in 1989.
Michael Justin "Burnie" Burns is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian, host, and director previously based in Austin, Texas. He was a co-founder, former chief executive officer, and former chief creative officer of Rooster Teeth. He is noted for his contributions in machinima, a form of film-making that uses video game technology in its production, and also works with animation and live action. Burns is also known for his work in the hosting and podcasting field.
Penguicon is a convention in southeastern Michigan designed originally to mix the communities of the science fiction fandom and Linux user groups. In addition to educational panels on science fiction in the media, attendees participate in professional and beginner-level panels on Linux and open-source software. Penguicon takes its name both from a Monty Python sketch and from Tux, the penguin mascot of Linux.
Maynard, formerly known as Maynard F# Crabbes, is an Australian entertainer, television presenter and radio announcer. He was a key figure in bringing the ABC's youth-oriented radio station Triple J to national prominence, and he worked at ABC radio and as a video presenter for many years. He appeared as himself in the Australian film The Castanet Club.
Josh Blue is an American comedian. He was voted the Last Comic Standing on NBC's reality show Last Comic Standing during its fourth season, which aired May–August 2006. Blue has cerebral palsy, and much of his self-deprecating humor is centered on this.
"A series of tubes" is a phrase used originally as an analogy by then-United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to describe the Internet in the context of opposing network neutrality. On June 28, 2006, he used this metaphor to criticize a proposed amendment to a committee bill. The amendment would have prohibited Internet service providers such as AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon Communications from charging fees to give some companies' data a higher priority in relation to other traffic. The metaphor was widely ridiculed, because Stevens was perceived to have displayed an extremely limited understanding of the Internet, despite his leading the Senate committee responsible for regulating it.
Manualism is the art of playing music by squeezing air through the hands. Because the sound produced has a distinctly flatulent tone, such music is usually presented as a form of musical comedy or parody. The musical performer is called a manualist, who may perform a cappella or with instrumental accompaniment.
ROFLCon was a biennial convention of internet memes that took place in 2008, 2010 and 2012, featuring various internet celebrities. All three events were at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ROFLCon was first organized by a group of students from Harvard University led by Tim Hwang. According to Hwang, the inspiration for the conference was the September 23, 2007 meetup of fans of xkcd with its creator, Randall Munroe, in a park in North Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tron: Legacy is a 2010 American science fiction action film directed by Joseph Kosinski from a screenplay by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, based on a story by Horowitz, Kitsis, Brian Klugman, and Lee Sternthal. It serves as a sequel to Tron (1982), whose director Steven Lisberger returned to co-produce. The cast includes Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner reprising their roles as Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley, respectively, as well as Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, James Frain, Beau Garrett, and Michael Sheen. The story follows Flynn's adult son Sam, who responds to a message from his long-lost father and is transported into a virtual reality called "the Grid", where Sam, his father, and the algorithm Quorra must stop the malevolent program Clu from invading the real world.
Jacob Penn Cooper Hurwitz is an American comedian, writer, actor, and member of the comedy duo Jake and Amir. He was hired by the comedy website CollegeHumor after becoming an intern there in 2006, and has written and appeared in original videos for the website, as well as contributing articles which have been published both online and in print. He also starred in The CollegeHumor Show, an MTV sitcom that ran for one season in 2009. Outside of CollegeHumor, Hurwitz has hosted Myspace's BFF series.
Daniel Dwight Tosh is an American comedian, writer, and producer. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in marketing, Tosh moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. His career accelerated in 2001 after a performance on the Late Show with David Letterman. He would go on to appear in other national shows, leading to his own 30-minute special on Comedy Central Presents two years later. From 2009 to 2020, Tosh was the host of Comedy Central series Tosh.0, a showcase of popular Internet video clips with the addition of Tosh's narrative comedic dialogue. Daniel Tosh also went on his own series of comedy tours from 2010 to 2015.
John Andrew Quale is an American singer, songwriter, and performer best known by the stage name and persona of Prince Poppycock. Quale, who specializes in musical theater and opera, describes Prince Poppycock on his website as a "roguish operatic dandy."
Amir Shmuel Blumenfeld is an Israeli-American comedian, actor, writer, television host, and member of the American comedy duo, Jake and Amir. Born in Israel, he moved to Los Angeles when he was two, and was hired by the New York City-based CollegeHumor in 2005. As well as contributing to its books and articles, he has written and starred in original videos for the comedy website—appearing in series such as Hardly Working and Very Mary-Kate—and was a cast member on its short-lived MTV program The CollegeHumor Show.
Tongal is a platform for content creation, used by studios, brands and talent worldwide. Founded in New York City in 2009," Tongal is now based in Santa Monica, California. The company maintains an online platform that connects businesses in need of creative work with an online community of writers, directors, and production companies.
Blake Michael is an American actor, businessman, and journalist. He played Charlie Delgado in the Disney Channel original movie Lemonade Mouth (2011) and Tyler James in the Disney Channel series Dog with a Blog (2012–2015), which won him the Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Television Series. For directing the short film Notes of Hers (2013), he won the Audience Choice Award from the Red Rock Film Festival.
Scene World Magazine is a disk magazine for the Commodore 64 home computer. The magazine has been released regularly since February 2001.
Jonathan Watts is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the Spider-Man films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU): Homecoming (2017), Far From Home (2019), and No Way Home (2021). He also directed and co-wrote the films Clown (2014), Cop Car (2015), and Wolfs (2024); as well as directing many episodes of the parody television news series Onion News Network. Watts has also directed music videos for electronic music artists such as Fatboy Slim and Swedish House Mafia.
Jonathan Aryan Jafari, better known online as JonTron, is an American YouTuber, comedian, and media reviewer. He is best known for his eponymous YouTube web series JonTron, where he reviews and parodies video games, films and other media.
Christine Bieselin Clark is an American costume designer known for her work on Tron: Legacy, Ender's Game, and Spy. She was nominated in 2022 for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes for her work on Star Trek: Picard.
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