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Inside the Gooniverse With Noelle Perdue

The writer and internet porn historian takes us behind the scenes of her new VICE documentary, The Wild Goon Chase.

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Currently up there with Ebola and AI-induced human extinction as a matter of deep global concern, people sitting at home and masturbating too much has given rise to a brand new subcultural tribe. The subject of tabloid outrage, social media derision, and award-winning journalistic investigations into chronic loneliness, the gooner has been painted as everything from an ironic jester to a horseman of the apocalypse. Which is closest to the truth?

Writer, internet porn historian, and former porn scriptwriter Noelle Perdue cuts through the noise in her documentary debut for VICE, The Wild Goon Chase. Heading to AVN—the world’s largest sex expo—for its first event since gooning exploded into the mainstream, she speaks to self-professed gooners and members of the adult industry to get to grips with the reality of the subculture, and to understand how the gooner became “a folk devil for the internet age.”

Watch The Wild Goon Chase in the player below:

Here, Noelle tells VICE about her experience of making the film, and where she thinks gooning is going next.

VICE: What would you say are the biggest misconceptions about gooning?Noelle Perdue: That gooning is a straight guy thing. Obviously even in the most heterosexual contexts there’s an element of homoeroticism, but any way you look at it, gooning started with trans women and gay guys. There are a........

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