- 3 days ago
From viral villains to internet infamy, these everyday people managed to earn worldwide scorn with their controversial actions! Join WatchMojo as we explore the most notorious non-celebrities who became universally despised. Our countdown includes revenge porn creator Hunter Moore, Central Park "Karen" Amy Cooper, lion-killing dentist Walter Palmer, and more!
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00:00Walter Palmer under fire for using a bow to kill a well-known lion in Zimbabwe.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're exploring the most notorious, everyday,
00:09non-famous people who cause the world to despise them with their controversial behavior.
00:13We won't be looking at murderers, instead focusing on other terrible acts.
00:18I mean, I love what I do.
00:21The Goblin Valley State Park vandals. It's always handy when people upload videos of
00:26themselves committing crimes. This video touched off a criminal investigation
00:31into the toppling of the Jurassic-era boulder at a Utah park.
00:35In 2013, three men recorded themselves pushing over a hoodoo at the Goblin Valley State Park
00:41in Utah. The person seen doing the pushing, Glenn Taylor, claimed they did it as the hoodoo was a
00:46danger and could have hurt someone. It's all about saving lives here at Goblin Valley.
00:50However, they didn't let a park ranger know about it before deciding to topple a protected
00:56natural structure. The men were leading a Boy Scout trip at the time. Their behavior caused the
01:01group to remove them. In 2014, Taylor and David Hall, one of the other men involved,
01:06pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, both receiving a fine and a year of probation.
01:11People will say, you guys were Boy Scout leaders, you should know better.
01:15The Rock needed to come down. With the information that we have today,
01:18of course we would do it different. Justine Sacco. As a communications director,
01:23you'd expect Sacco to be good at, well, communication. However, that was seemingly not
01:27the case in 2013. Working for IAC, she was traveling from London, England to Cape Town,
01:37South Africa. Rather than fight with her neighbor over the armrest, Sacco went onto X and tweeted about
01:43her trip, adding a racist remark. This sparked hashtag HasJustineLandedYet to trend on the platform
01:50as people saw what was coming.
01:52Her Twitter account exploding, her reputation imploding. Online critics launched the hashtag
01:58HasJustineLandedYet, anxiously awaiting the moment Sacco would get online and perhaps discover at last
02:05the severity of the response. Upon seeing herself trending, the PR executive deleted the tweet and her
02:11history. However, the damage was done and she was soon fired. She was fired Saturday from her top PR job
02:18at internet giant IAC, where she repped some of the biggest names online. During her apology,
02:23Sacco defended herself by saying she was born in South Africa and her father still lived there.
02:29In 2018, she was rehired by IAC before leaving in 2025. Rachel Dolezal. As an instructor in the African
02:37education program at Eastern Washington University, president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane,
02:44Washington, and a black woman, Dolezal seemingly had all the attributes to be a race activist.
02:50I did feel that at some point I would need to address the complexity of my identity.
02:55However, that fell apart in 2015 when the truth was uncovered. Reporters found out that while Dolezal
03:02stated she was black, she was actually white from a very white family. Many of her claims were found
03:07to be lies, such as living in South Africa as a child and even having a stepfather when her biological
03:13parents were still together. Because they went on a whole national media circuit with CNN, ABC, NBC,
03:20Fox News. They did every major network and my credibility was shot. Dolezal changed her appearance
03:27to look less white and fit in with the racial identity she believed to be. She'd later call
03:33herself trans-black. Unsurprisingly, Dolezal struggled for work afterward.
03:38Dolezal says that because of all the negative press, she's been having trouble getting a job,
03:42so a lot of her income comes from a side hustle she's had for a long time â doing black hair.
03:47Dog poop girl. Public transport can already be a dire experience, as you try not to make eye
03:52contact with anyone. Yet, for passengers on a subway in Seoul, South Korea in 2005,
03:58it was significantly worse. One woman in her twenties had a small dog with her. Unfortunately,
04:03the little pup pooped on the floor. However, while other passengers covered their noses,
04:08the woman didn't attempt to clean it up. When she was offered tissues, she used them to clean the dog,
04:13and not the mess on the floor. The woman then left at the next stop, as passengers began berating her.
04:19Photos of her and articles about the incident went viral, leading to her being identified and
04:24reportedly quitting university due to the harassment. Ken Bone. With a red sweater,
04:30a disposable camera, and an iconic mustache, Bone became a star after asking a question as an undecided
04:36voter during a presidential election debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016.
04:42Does it feel strange to sort of become an overnight sensation? It's been very strange. Soon,
04:47he was in memes and on talk shows. The fame even resulted in Bone being swatted. Yet,
04:52a few days after his viral appearance, he welcomed Redditors to the Bone Zone for an Ask Me Anything.
04:59This allowed people to search through his history on the platform and find problematic content.
05:04He is often getting prank phone calls and a lot of blackmail. It started after Reddit revealed that
05:09he made controversial internet searches and comments on certain adult websites in the past. This included
05:15calling the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin justified and blaming and objectifying celebrities
05:20who were the victims of the 2014 intimate photo leak. He also admitted to felony insurance fraud,
05:27causing Bone to fall from grace.
05:29But I look like the dude that greets you with the dumb joke about golf. You know,
05:34says hi to you at the barbecue. The uncle that everybody liked to joke around with. And I think
05:39that's why they loved me so much in the beginning. Rod Ponton. With the COVID-19 pandemic sparking
05:45many to work from home, everyone found Ponton's hilarious Zoom incident relatable in 2021.
05:51I'm here live, I'm not a cat. I can see that. The attorney went viral during a hearing when
06:01he couldn't change the kitten filter as he desperately stated he wasn't a cat to his peers. In case they
06:07thought talking felines were now a thing. Yet this incident unearthed Ponton's less charming history.
06:12Alpine's District Attorney Rod Ponton went before the Brewster County Board of Commissioners,
06:17pleading for thousands of dollars in additional funding. As documented by Reason, in 2014 he was
06:23accused of using the federal government to target Ilana Lipson, an alleged former lover,
06:28and her business in Texas with made up illegal substance claims. As District Attorney in Brewster
06:33County at the time, Ponton claimed Lipson's potpourri was secretly prohibited substances,
06:38which tests showed wasn't the case. Regardless, he had Lipson and her family arrested.
06:44I never wanted to aggravate anybody. I mean, I've just, I don't do this for fun. This isn't a hobby.
06:49This is how I make my money. This is how I support myself. Amanda Riley. In 2012,
06:54Riley announced to her family that she had cancer. It was a devastating story. A wife,
06:59mother, and devout Christian battling terminal cancer in her twenties and thirties. This sparked
07:05them to produce donation pages to raise money for the mom. Then Riley created a blog titled
07:10Lymphoma Can Suck It to detail her experience and treatment. Seemingly, every time she went
07:15into remission, she then went into relapse as the lymphoma returned. Amanda's blog had already been
07:21in existence for three years because Amanda was claiming to be diagnosed in 2012. This is almost
07:27like a medical diary that Amanda kept online, very active on it. She was posting two, three times a week.
07:34Her story touched the hearts of many, and she raised over $100,000, while others offered services
07:40or gifts to make her life easier. The blogger was even invited to meet country music star Leigh-Anne
07:46Rimes. However, in 2015, an anonymous tip led to the discovery that Riley had been faking her illness.
07:53In 2022, the disgraced Riley was sentenced to five years in prison. She has said to me that she regrets
08:01it every day. She does understand what she's done, which I think is interesting. Walter Palmer. Since 1999,
08:08the University of Oxford had been studying lions in Zimbabwe's Hwangi National Park. From 2008,
08:14they began following Cecil. Lion conservationists have dedicated their lives to studying these
08:20creatures across Africa. They've spoken out against any kind of lion poaching because of the dangerously
08:26dwindling population. However, that study came to a dramatic end in 2015 and turned Palmer into one
08:33of the world's most hated people. The U.S. dentist was a trophy hunter and took Cecil's life. To make
08:39it more uncomfortable, it was botched and the lion was injured for up to 12 hours. Authorities say
08:44Palmer and his guides illegally lured Cecil out of the national park, where he was protected,
08:50by tying a dead animal to the fender of their car. Once outside, Palmer allegedly shot Cecil with his
08:57bow and arrow, injuring him. The incident ignited mass outrage. However, it was done legally,
09:02and there were no criminal charges. Yet, that didn't stop people from protesting outside Palmer's
09:07practice, causing hunting to fall in Zimbabwe, and for regulations hindering trophy hunting to take
09:13effect in several nations. Reportedly, that didn't stop Palmer from continuing his controversial hobby.
09:19He's despicable. He's a killer. He's a murderer. Poor Cecil. I mean,
09:26how many lions do we have left? You have to kill them all. Amy Cooper. On the same day George Floyd
09:32was murdered in 2020, another racist incident took place in New York City's Central Park.
09:38If you have been on social media today, you have likely seen this. A Central Park confrontation went viral,
09:43netting more than 25 million views. Christian Cooper was birdwatching when he noticed a dog
09:49off its leash, and Amy, who, thankfully for Christian, isn't related to him. After he tried to get her to
09:55restrain her pup, which is a rule in the area, and she ignored him, Christian attempted to entice the dog
10:01to him. Amy exploded and called the cops. Cooper told News 4 he spoke out because he's cognizant of
10:06what's happened in the past when police are called on unarmed black men.
10:10We live in the age of Ahmaud Arbery, where, you know, black men are shot, gunned down because of
10:18the presumptions that people make about them. She fake cried that Christian, a black man, was threatening
10:23her life, all while harshly holding her dog's collar. Thankfully, Christian recorded this. After
10:29he uploaded the footage online, Amy morphed into one of the most infamous Karens in history.
10:34Unsurprisingly, she was fired at Franklin Templeton. Cooper was immediately fired from her
10:39job reports say Cooper has lost her suit against Franklin Templeton, which claimed she was illegally
10:44fired and portrayed as a racist.
11:03Hunter Moore. Not everyone is labeled by the media as the most hated man on the internet.
11:08The very first time I went to IsAnyoneUp.com, I was shocked that this was legal.
11:15Then again, Moore, thankfully, isn't like most. In 2010, he decided not to go with his
11:20nightlife website idea. Instead, he created IsAnyoneUp. This site allowed people to send
11:26more adult content, which he'd publish. It quickly became the place for sending revenge content.
11:32Do you feel bad about doing this to⊠I mean, you don't know these women,
11:36you don't know anything about them. Just anonymous people give you the pictures.
11:39Why are you⊠I mean, that's kind of what makes it easier, you know?
11:43Charlotte Laws was furious that Moore had published content involving her daughter,
11:47so she began investigating him. It was discovered that he'd paid Charles Evans,
11:52a hacker, to steal explicit images that the website uploaded, resulting in both being arrested.
11:58In 2015, Evans was sentenced to 25 months in prison, and Moore got 30 months.
12:03When I heard that he only received two years, I think like everyone else, I was disgusted by it.
12:08Did we miss any normal people who soon infuriated everyone with their terrible antics?
12:14Let us know in the comments.
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