John Hodgman wrote the book The Areas of My Expertise, which has a list of hobo names for some bizarre reason.
Kingdom of Loathing, in making a multi-player clan hobo dungeon, used that list of names as a random hobo name generator, and then named the boss of the whole place Hodgman, the Hoboverlord.
I went to a standup show where Hodgman was supposed to do a set and he had cancelled, replaced with Brian Posehn. Brian was also awesome but I really wanted to tell John Hodgman how he inadvertently saved my life.
Now the details of how you get that specific item are even weirder but I’m done phone typing.
I had that Hodgman book, and I remember all the stuff about hobos lol… I was pretty young at the time, and couldn’t tell if the stuff he wrote about “the hobo code” and “hobo nickels” was real. I thought it was satire… But I’m pretty sure it was all true lol.
Honestly… it kind of makes me sad that there’s no real modern equivalent to hobos. There is something that makes them distinct from an unhoused person. Maybe it’s because sometimes people chose the lifestyle voluntarily?
There’s just something romantic about it all… It would be so liberating to just get rid of all of your shit, drop out of society, and just train-hop for a while.
John Hodgman wrote the book The Areas of My Expertise, which has a list of hobo names for some bizarre reason.
Kingdom of Loathing, in making a multi-player clan hobo dungeon, used that list of names as a random hobo name generator, and then named the boss of the whole place Hodgman, the Hoboverlord.
I went to a standup show where Hodgman was supposed to do a set and he had cancelled, replaced with Brian Posehn. Brian was also awesome but I really wanted to tell John Hodgman how he inadvertently saved my life.
Now the details of how you get that specific item are even weirder but I’m done phone typing.
Oh nice. Cool story.
I had that Hodgman book, and I remember all the stuff about hobos lol… I was pretty young at the time, and couldn’t tell if the stuff he wrote about “the hobo code” and “hobo nickels” was real. I thought it was satire… But I’m pretty sure it was all true lol.
The hobo code, in particular, is (was?) absolutely real.
The hobo code and hobo nickels made it into the game too. It was fairly comprehensive.
Honestly… it kind of makes me sad that there’s no real modern equivalent to hobos. There is something that makes them distinct from an unhoused person. Maybe it’s because sometimes people chose the lifestyle voluntarily?
There’s just something romantic about it all… It would be so liberating to just get rid of all of your shit, drop out of society, and just train-hop for a while.