Phun Photos

This is amazing because I know Ricky would hate this picture and rightfully so. This was during his identity crisis that lasted a long time. This is a weird mashup of a bunch of stuff and I will help you out because it's hard to know what to do with this picture. First, we'll start with the beatdown plain grey shorts. Next, he has a not bad white boy Levi's shirt. Another thing is he has crappy Five Below-like headphones. Here's the grand finale; that thing on his head is a Popeye shirt that I gave to him to wear on his torso, but he cut up to put on his head to make his hair have waves. If you don't know, white people can't get waves, but he wore that stupid homemade du rag any and all the time he was at home for months and his hair looked exactly the same. To top it all off he raised his arm, looked down dramatically and snapped a pic of all this because he thought he was sick. smh. 

Remember I said to remember these shorts all the way back at the "Shower Florts" picture? I finally bought them! Doesn't that feel nice that loose end finally got tied together? Anyways, this is a picture that I sent to a girl named Sheen because we both love floral things. I wore all my floral things, at that time, because it looked funny and thought she would appreciate it. I never wore this particular outfit in public (unfortunately), but it does now live in infamy here on this website that no one will read. Ah.

Ricky actually put this picture on rackleson and captioned it "I get money like I get ladies #mediumrare"

To stay on the toilet topic, this is a collage of what I talked about on the "1842" picture. Again, there is no rhyme or reason why we do this other than it is funny to us.

This was in the porta potty at camp. The sign behind me reminded me of another weird/funny note that they put on videotapes. I sent this to Ricky because it seemed like our humor. This always makes me laugh when I see this picture. My hair looks extra interesting in this too because it looks frizzy, but also it's swooshy on the right there. 

This is a half-serious face with a half-serious outfit. It's a half serious outfit because it was Ricky's vest, but it was too big on him so he gave it to me. Also, it's Polo assassin (which is the crappier brand behind Ralph Lauren), so I didn't really have any stakes in it if anyone didn't like it and if anyone liked the vest it was just a bonus. I took this picture to send to Ricky and I think I wore this to go hangout with Sammy, one of my best friends from camp, and his girlfriend at the time (that's right, old Third Wheel Tommy is at it again). It actually didn't feel like I was third wheeling most of the time though, it just felt like three pals hangin out. Anyway, Ricky is wearing this vest in a previous picture "The Self-Point Principle" and keep on the lookout for this vest to pop up later *looking eye emoji*. I've noticed that sometimes I start out doing something half-kidding or sometimes even fully kidding and I do it so much that it becomes just something I do and I forgot that it was even a joke. I'm sure there are many examples of this, but the one that pops out in my mind is when I said "gracias" with a long a sound instead of the short a sound (because I forgot the real way to say it) in front of the whole class with my teacher being from hispanic descent hahaha. And he looked at me like "are you serious? I can't tell if you're serious" and apparently I didn't know either because I forgot how to say it. It was an old bit Rass and I did where we intentionally mispronounced easy foreign words like "hola" and "jalapeño" because those words are so common in our culture and it's funny that someone would be so uncultured that they wouldn't even know how to pronounce those words... and sadly I was that person in that moment. I later said "gracias" incorrectly to him on purpose this time and then he corrected me and I just said "yup" as to say "yeah that's what I said" and he gave me that look again haha. So the moral of this story is to be careful not to blur the lines between jokes and reality, kids. 

This was one of those summer nights when you just sit outside and have deep talks (if only we recorded it for a podcast). We were sitting on Ricky's driveway and I think he was mad about something stupid. I knew it was one of those "mad"s that he would get over really quickly because it wasn't actually a big deal, so I was just trying to speed up the process of him getting over it so I took this picture. I think it actually initially made him a little more mad, but then he realized how stupid it was to be mad. That's how I remember and interpret this picture. Also, that face I drew looks really funny to me. 

This is a thing we still do to this day (why? I do not know, other than it is funny to us). We usually send a snapchat of an 18th or 19th century number with a picture of our feet while we're sitting on the toilet, so you'll see a collage of that later I'm sure. Also, I think he was texting back about how I told him you could only shower once a week at Pine Valley if you're a counselor haha. 

Ricky took this picture. I don't know why really, other than it looks like I'm standing up if you glance at it and we thought that was funny. It's also a bit of a throwback to "The TÉM". 

This is a horribly blurry picture of me in the yearbook because I had to take the picture of someone else's on the bus because my mom didn't want to buy yearbooks for me for some reason. Anyways, one day Ricky and I were sitting at lunch minding our own bidness and two girls from the yearbook committee came up to us and asked what this ink blot looked like and I said "it looks like a kitten and a cyclops drowning in despair" just to say something not boring and it made it into the yearbook somehow. 

When the HV were AC and the glasses were protective. 

This is Ricky at A.W. Beattie when he was going there for HVAC because his dad owns a HVAC business, but he ended up not wanting to pursue that. I don't know about other schools, but where we went it was looked down upon if you went to a tech school because it usually indicated that you couldn't handle being a student, so you go to a "fake school". In reality, it was probably smart for those people to do that because they weren't going to college and needed that training anyway. But the type of person that went there was wack. 

This is a meme Ricky and I made. We put it up on our old rackelson page and it got a whole one favorite haha. This is a picture Ricky took of his cat Punkers. #RIPPunkers

This is when Ricky and I went to Steak 'n Shake. Steak 'n Shake is kind of a classic for us because his older brother brought us there when we were in 8th grade (I think. it was definitely before high school) and I ordered no cheese on my burger and his brother said "no cheese? so how long have you been a part of the Taliban?" hahaha so ever since then it's been a classic. Also, I love the joke format of "I'd like to____ your _____"

When the penders were sus and the black Apples were no casa. (this is a format of joke that we originated on the old rackelson account. the format is "when the ___ were ___ and the ___ were ___") Now that you understand the format, I'll breakdown the content. "penders" are short for suspenders and "sus" is short for suspect or suspicious, so I just took the "sus" in suspenders and moved it to the second slot in the format to mean something else. The second half is even more confusing if you can believe it. Ricky's dad used to point out people that had no case on their phone. He thought they were suckers because inevitably they would break it. Instead of saying "black iPhone, no case", he would say "black Apple, no casa". So that should explain the first sentence in this dissertation. Anyway, this is another great pic o' Rick. He sent this to me before a funeral and it almost made up for him leaving me to fend for myself at school. This was at a time when he was really into cigarettes, which sucked (no pun intended), but he thankfully doesn't do it anymore. 

I'm so glad I snapped a picture of this because it reminds me of a story that I completely forgot about and I bet Ricky did too. So, Ricky and I were walking together between classes and I was throwing my water bottle up and catching it for no reason other than it was something to do while we walked and talked. And then Ricky thought it was a good idea to smack it out of the air while we were walking down the stairs. Subsequently, it hit some girl right in the face in front of everyone there. Hahahahaha oh my gosh I'm reliving it and it is just as funny as it was when it happened. If I was the one who did it I would be horrified like I'm sure Ricky is if he ever reads this, but I wasn't so I'm gonna laugh at it hahaha. Anyway, I didn't pick up the bottle because I thought it would be an admission of guilt to some degree because people would have thought it was me that hit her so I went thirsty the rest of the day. I went thirsty until, that is, I returned to the scene of the crime later that day to retrieve my watered bottle. Then I sent this picture to Ricky to make him feel bad again because he really did feel bad. I don't even think he said "I'm sorry" because he was so shocked that actually happened and he just wanted to get out of there because he was so embarrassed and felt so bad. I can't imagine how that girl must have felt. Sitting there in her next class with a watermark on her face and how she just had to pretend like it didn't happen, oh my gosh that is priceless. 

This is in my old room and Ricky wanted a picture next to Chance with the same look Chance has on his face, but I made him laugh so we got this picture haha

Okay this is another thing that needs a long explanation with very little payoff haha, but I will do it anyway because this is such a staple of our relationship. So Ricky and I thought it was sooooo funny throughout middle school AND high school to point/squint at something to make the other person look the other way and when they look back at the person that pointed/squinted to have their head turned. This is another example of the Self-Point Principle from a previous picture where it's something that you don't expect and therefore is funny. Because when you look back at the person that led you to believe there was something to look at, you are expecting some closure of them laughing at you or giving you some kind of look. But if they're looking away, it's funny because you're not expecting it and not getting that closure of the "you see what I did there? I've won this round" look. Plus (to us at least I guess) the back of people's head is funny especially when they're intentionally doing it for some reason. Overanalyzing why things are funny is really interesting to me, but I can understand why it ruins the joke for some people because it ruins the "magic" of the joke in a way. 

This is on my day of birth and Ricky and I went to Quaker Steak & Lube. I remember we got BBQ and Asian Sesame boneless wings because that's our go-to. Now, looking back, this birthday is by FAR the best because I got to be with Ricky doing our favorite thing together: eat haha plus all the birthday party stuff. This is when I started to get out of my awkward looking phase with the exception of this picture because this is a candid Ricky took of me when I was fixing my glasses. Isn't it funny that if you want to see someone, sometimes you need to follow their friends on Instagram to see them because usually people take pictures of their friends and not as much of themselves (unless they're obsessed with themselves). Check the Acid Rap knock off by the way haha. I'm so sorry Chance (because I know you're reading this haha)! At the time I bought it, Chance didn't have any hoodies on chanceraps.com and it was cold at the time I bought it, so I bought something Chance related that I could wear. I think it's so funny and cool that this was my birthday outfit to school and that I wore a thing that said "Acid Rap" and I don't think any teachers or anything were pissed about it because I wore it multiple times.

This is insanely funny to me and probably not to you, but I will do my best to make you feel like you're in on the joke too. SO, Ricky and I used to sit at a circular table all by ourselves (hold your applause) and it was great, it made the most sense for us. Although, there was a period of time where this kid would sit with us. Neither of us really knew him, but he went to the same tech school, A.W. Beattie, as Ricky so I guess he thought he could sit with us because they happen to go to the same tech school.  He always sat directly next to us even though there were 3 seats in between Ricky and me. He would never say anything or eat anything, but we could never conduct business as usual for some reason. It was just a vibe change that we couldn't roll with. Also, he wore the same thing everyday (which is something I do now, but he didn't pull it off as well as I do) which was a plain white, grey or black T, jeans and work boots. 

This is a snapchat I sent to Ricky because I was bored one day and I just tried to make a weird face and it made me think of an old dog for some reason and we still reference this picture sometimes. 

Unnecessary use of the double cup, now that's just wastin' cups.

(don't feel bad if you feel like you don't get this, but I just couldn't help not putting this up. and also you probably do get it, it’s just not that funny)

This was from a classic night that I still think about from time to time. Good talks and such. This was before I could drive and when we were tired of the mall or our parents didn't want to take us all the way out to the mall, we'd go to a shopping center by my house. I used to run that place. It was actually a decent shopping center. It was a good way to kill a few hours and act as a background to talk and make stupid jokes. I guess we wanted to go home and either we wanted to walk or we didn't have a ride, but we ended up walking home. You can see in the picture that there was snow on the ground, so it was cold. Ricky didn't bring a coat or anything, so I gave him my hoodie. It was all very "cheesy '80s movie" haha. Anyways, the hood of the hoodie is big to begin with and is even big on me, but it was immensely big on him and we thought it was funny, so we hit a pic of it. 

This must have been a funny hat phase. It's funny how you don't really notice your phases until you look back on them. This is at Target as well. 

This is in Target with Ricky and we are fake ballin' on purpose. I'm holding Target brand stuff, but "trying" to look tough. This is me in my soon-to-be signature jacket. This is when it still had the fake hoodie underneath. It had a couple inches of cloth and a zipper to make it look like I had a hoodie on underneath. I very rarely wore it to school, but when I did, I chose to wear a real hoodie underneath as well because I thought it looked cool and it did, but I was super hot the whole day so that was a once-in-a-while 'fit. Also, this is the only day I wore this shirt because I thought it was too tight on me. It had these cool sleeves that had a pattern on it and you couldn't even see it because of my jacket. I bought it online and the sleeves looked way cooler on the Internet (much like everything else on the Internet, including people) because I thought the pattern was part of the shirt, but it was just printed on. 

This is in a random aisle in Walmart when we were killing time while waiting for a table at Burgatory. We found these awesome chairs, so we just sat in them and we had a fake interview (it was like a mock podcast!) for Ricky's fake mixtape. Anyway, he's pointing at himself in this picture. We kinda made the observation that nobody points at people anymore and if you do, it's super disrespectful. So we used to point at each other and it made us laugh sooo hard. And eventually it devolved into pointing at yourself and that made us laugh. And then it devolved even further into pointing at yourself with your pinky finger instead of your pointer finger just to throw the other person off and switch it up. A big part of comedy is misdirection and surprise, so when someone points with their pinky finger instead of their pointer finger it's funny because your brain has been programed to see people point with a certain finger and when that doesn't happen, something weird happens in your brain because you didn't know that could be a thing. Now, that's a really small and simple example, but it is still true for other funny things. I have another example of this principle coming up in another picture.

This is  in a Spenser's in the mall and if you can't tell that picture on the hat is from Breaking Bad. Ricky was really into it at the time, but I hadn't watched it yet. I have since seen it and love it. I'm probably going to rewatch it in the future. Ricky and I used to always go to the mall and just walk around. I spent a lot of useless money on stuff because of it I'm sure, but it was so fun. Also, every time we'd go there we'd say "who are we going to see here that we desperately know?" translation- "who are we going to see who we don't want to see?". Every time we went to the mall, we would see someone who either we didn't want to see or they didn't want to see us. Sometimes it was some beat kid from our school or some hot girl from our school, but we rarely ever interacted with either of them because we were too socially uncomfortable to talk to either one. Plus, it's never a good situation to run into someone at the mall because you never know how long to talk, maybe you don't know everyone in the group they are with (or they don't know your group, that being Ricky and I), maybe they're alone in the mall (and why are you alone?), and you'll probably run into them again because there's only so many places you can go in a mall (do you say "hi" again or do you try and act like you don't see them?). That's why mall social interactions are especially uncomfortable. Either way, we had fun and at the very least it gave us something to overanalyze for the rest of the night. 

Hahahaha he DM'd (Direct Messaged) girls this picture to try to drum up a conversation with them hahaha. He was trying to take a picture of himself to send girls so they know he's a 16 year old weirdo instead of a 60 year old weirdo (girls are a lot more into the 16 year old weirdos than the 60 year old ones, but I don't get it because they're still weirdos, just younger ones). So, being the weirdo I am, I try to ruin the picture by putting in my hand in the backgroud. He saw it and thought it was funny, so he sent it anyway. I don't think it worked. TrukFit hat worn too high on his head, worn down Jordan shirt, and clearly someone else's hand holding a can of pop is clearly the recipe to warrant a response from a female through Instagram. I don't remember if it was this specific picture, but I recall one time Ricky sent a DM to like five different girls with the same message of something along the lines of "you're just so hot and I always thought that and hopefully we can chill sometime ;)", which sometimes works when you're 16, but he accidentally sent it as a group chat so every girl saw that four other girls got the same exact message that was "just for them" hahaha classic

I don't really know what this is other than silly. We love embarrassing ourselves and then taking snapshots of each other, whether that be FT, snapchat, any platform really that can be snapshotted and used as private embarrassment. I'm sure he has super terrible pictures of me too, but when he gets a website he can put those pictures up. 

The way the lighting was and how uncharacteristically fat it looked, it didn't look like Ricky's hand and it looks really funny to us

This was towards the beginning of our Chance obsession, so we thought it would be cool to try and imitate one of his most popular pictures at the time

This is a snapshot of a FT sesh Ricky & I had. I don't remember the context of this photo, which makes it funnier to me so I'm going to leave it at that

This is in homeroom in high school 

(Buckle up because there's going to be a bunch of Ricky pics coming up)

Ricky & I snuck away during a Bball game at our high school and took one of the hand sanitizer dispensers and put it on the toilet. We thought this was the funniest thing. I like it because it's innovative, harmless and funny. Those are really the three keys to any prank (if you can call this a prank), in my opinion.

I only share this photo with you guys because we're all friends here. I had forgotten this photo even existed at this point, but the beauty and pain of life is that even if you forget about something, it still happened. Anyways, this girl put this picture on Instagram and I was shocked to see this as I scrolled down my Instagram feed. She didn't tag me or anything (thank God because I don't even want people to recognize that person on the far left of this picture as me) and she doesn't even follow me, so I was kinda confused that she didn't just crop me out of the picture because that would have been so incredibly easy to do. I'm slightly less horrified because the way everyone is standing makes it look like my date just got cut off of the picture, but in reality, I just went to the dance soloer than a red cup. I wasn't even planning on going to Homecoming because I didn't ask anyone until Connor Slomka (from the "C MoNeY" picture) told me like two days before that there was an open spot in their group blah blah blah... I don't even remember the specifics, but I went and it was weird. Ricky and I still reference this embarrassing moment/picture in my life to make us laugh in disgust haha.

This and the last picture was in our social studies class and we always just called it social. We loved to shorten things and give things our own names. We were just reminiscing about this class and how we would start laughing just because we looked at each other. Here's an excerpt from the convo: 

R-" I was thinkin about 8th-grid the other day, and the feeling we used to get in class when we were trying extremely hard not to laugh. Like I can't believe that was a thing. Hahaha. Remember the feeling? For example, being in social, Mr brown's. Getting to the point where your insides are hurting from holding back the laughter. Sweat beads dripping and rolling down your face and shirt. Face turning blood red. The anxiety. And then as soon as one heard the other laugh it was game over. Hahaha. Good times"

T-"yeah dude I often think about both of our social classes. Mr. Brawn & Mr. Deagelis. I wonder what it was about social that was a breeding ground for red faced laughing. I'm laughing just thinking about it right now and I'm in front of a bunch of people watching the game and I'm just laughing into my phone haha. I definitely miss that because that's something that we probably won't ever experience again especially with each other because when would we be in a place where we can't laugh like that again unless you wanna go to a funeral together sometime for the fun of her. Haw"

This is around the time Ricky and I started taking pictures of each other which is sad because we were friends since 6th grade, but we don't have that many pictures. By the way, don't forget the quiz next Tuesday 

I don't get why girls don't like it when guys play video ga... oh it's because we look like this when we do it? Oh okay no yeah that's fair. 

Ricky took this picture of me. This was in my room of my old house. 

This is how Ricky signed my yearbook in 6th grade. Translation: "The rick (rickavich)". That nickname was hilarious and still is to me, but it never stuck for some reason.