Making his mark in the social media/internet arts environment, is a culture jammer going by the handle Johnny Hamcheck. Through a relentless stream of on the street video pieces, Johnny approaches random subjects and creates some of the finest “WTF” moments the internet has seen. 

Instead of the usual run of the mill “prank video” pieces which are all over social media outlets and which aim to create immediate shock or instant laughs before being scrolled on and forgotten, Johnnys work is more an improvisational performance art approach, which weaves in ongoing story lines and regular characters, creating a situation which builds confusion on top of confusion, as the viewer grits their teeth in anticipation of some sort of ridicolous resolution. 

One never knows which characters will pop up in the performance or if story lines will change, interweave, or take a completely different direction based on the subjects response, especially since the subjects range from street addicts to high end businessmen, and every now and then we will be gifted with a confrontation of a real life legend in their own right. 

The absurdist story lines range from attempting to deliver mysterious “six and a half inch cables” to construction workers (which turn out to be nonsensical TV cables), trying to pitch revolutionary “footlong eggrolls” to Chinese restaurants (where the prototype is a few eggrolls duct taped together), luring individuals into going on mysterious “side quests”, reaching out to street urchins in attempts to put together “a crew” for unclear nefarious activity, trying to score the new drug “Crypto” on the street which Johnny often has to explain is essentially bitcoin somehow downloaded from your phone and extracted into a smokeable form, and many other “openers” which Johnny uses to set up the scene and carry it though the jam (usually starting with a semi obnoxious attention getter laugh, then followed with a  “Sorry I’m late!”… Hey its Johnny how’ve you been?…Who’s running this shit?”)

The lead character in the ongoing narratives is often the mysterious Steve Balboni, who is essentially the man in charge of whatever operation is going down. There is also Tommy Toughknuckles a sometimes associate of Balboni or the head of Toughknuckles construction company where the TV cables come from. Other characters re-occur, and Johnny himself always introduces his own character “I’m Johnny Hamcheck”, while never revealing his face to the camera which adds a whole ‘nother layer of “WTF” mystery as to what the hell is going on here.

Culture jamming is the art of throwing a monkey wrench into the day to day machine of life; taking people, if only momentarily, off the mundane assembly line of routine and creating absurdity, which in turn creates a unique, one of a kind style of humor, greatly appreciated by the viewer on a level that goes above and beyond the usual quck laugh prank video.  

Johnny manages to create pure absurdity in his work which is uniquely his own style and defines what true, live on-the- spot, culture jamming really is. 

A welcome treasure in these times of political correctness and conformity where “being offended” has become progressively trendy. Johnny tosses the wrench in the cog creating situations where the subject doesn’t know if they should be offended, irritated, or humorously amused when confronted with the jam, or mistaken for their “four foot one” doppelganger. 

You can see Johnny’s work on instagram updated consistently with new works as well as previous jams @johnnyhamcheck

His youtube page youtube.com/@johnnyhamcheck

He has a merchandise site at http://johnnyhamcheck.com