Local guys get crazy famous with BA-K-47

Y’all heard of the internets? I heard they’re catching on. Big time.

Last week two guys from Fayetteville found out the power of the internets in a big way when they launched thisisfreakingridiculous.com, created a gun made of bacon, and posted the pics on their new site. Later that day, the pictures of the BA-K-47 were picked up by popular blogs geekologie.com and gizmodo.com, and an internet star was born.

The moral of this story? America loves bacon guns.

This is Freaking Ridiculous, or TIFR if you like abbreviations, is exactly what it sounds like; a collection of internet awesomeness, observations of weird stuff that people do, and even some hilarious stuff that the two guys behind the site come up with. We got in touch with Nick Hamon, one of the creators of the site and the man behind the BA-K-47 to find out what kind of a weirdo creates a 1:1 scale AK-47 made of bacon.

Fayetteville Flyer: What have you been listening to lately?
Nick Hamon: Most recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Animal Collective, The Black Keys, Kings of Leon, and Wu Tang

FF: Where’d you get the idea for thisisfreakinridiculous?
NH: I’ve been wanting to do a site like this that is a collection of funny stuff for many years now. My partner in crime, Michael Jordan (yes, his name is really Michael Jordan, and no not that one) was wanting to do the same. He was really good about pushing us into actually getting it going. He’s the one that came up with the name.

FF: How long has the site been up?
NH: Haha. We took the site live last Thursday, April 9th… so just seven days now.

FF: Where do you find all the stuff for the site? It rules.
NH: Michael and I both probably spend way too much time on the internet, so that really helps. We both run across things that we like, or think is funny and then go from there. We’re both really excited about producing more original content as the site continues to grow. We also employ a large staff of alien robots that guide our decisions. I guess technically they employ us.

FF: So, how’d you get the idea for the BA-K 47.
NH: We had our first annual bacon day last Saturday, and everyone was supposed to make some sort of dish made with bacon. Well, for whatever reason, I decided to turn that into making a “sculpture”. I tried to come up with something I had never seen or heard of before. I looked for quite some time trying to see if anyone had done anything similiar to this. Nobody that I could find had, so I decided to go ahead with it. I guess to sum that up, I would say it was a pretty freaking random idea.

FF: How much bacon did it take to make that thing anyway?
NH: Let’s just say it took quite a bit of really cheap bacon.

The Creating of the BA-K-47

FF: Are my eyes deceiving me, or did you cook the bacon on the gun with a blowtorch?
NH: First I cooked the bacon in the oven. I took it out while it was still flexible to work with. Then with the help of my highly skilled friend Jason Wright, we used a blowtorch to fully cook the bacon.

FF: Sounds delicious. This is Freaking Ridiculous has become insanely popular lately. The BA-K-47 was the picture of the day on Gizmodo? Awesome. Did that freak you out?
NH: I wouldn’t say it freaked me out, but I was definitely super excited. Earlier in the day I was posted on one of my favorite blogs; geekologie.com. Shortly after gizmodo.com (also one of my favorite blogs) picked it up, and things just really took off from there.

FF: How are you gonna top that? Do you have a new creation in the works already?
NH: Yes. There are plans for a new creation. The BA-K-47 was actually my second idea for our bacon day party. So pretty soon I’ll start working on the original idea, which turned out to be far more complex. I just didn’t have the time to get it completed before last Saturday.

FF: Who has the best taco in Fayetteville?
NH: I would say Columbia Mex. My friend Ru suggested I go there a couple of years back. Everything I have had from there has been great, including the tacos.

FF: What are you some of the other sites that you check every day?
NH: arkansasrockers.com, boingboing.net, engadget.com, geekologie.com, gizmodo.com, holytaco.com, pitchfork.com and of course fayettevilleflyer.com.

FF: Are helicopters real?
NH: Excellent question. My initial answer is yes, only because I have flown in one… that was a long time ago though. So, now I’m leaning towards no. Not sure, I guess. Final answer.

You can check out This is Freaking Ridiculous, and you can follow them on Twitter.