Desert Bus for Hope, or How Insomnia Induced Insanity Can Support a Great Cause.

"Wiktor, why these people playing terrible wideo game?"
"You see, Ivan, they raising money for a charity. People donate many Rubles. Make sad, sick children in hospital less sad."
"But why play terrible wideo game? Why not just ask to give money to sick children?"
"Misery of others make people laugh, Ivan, and when people laugh, maybe make more generosity."
"But Wiktor, that is awful!"
"It all in good fun, Ivan! They play terrible game for as long as people give money, and they do best to entertain people by doing silly things in front of camera. Maybe people like silly thing so much, they wish to donate even more. Also, It more fun this way than just to be asking."
"Perhaps this is true, Wiktor. If I, too, wished to be donating to this charity, where should I go?"
"You see, Ivan, it's at www.desertbus.org"



 

Desert Bus for Hope is an annual charity marathon that's been going on for 9 years in support of Child's Play, a charity that specializes in donating toys and games to children in hospitals and domestic abuse shelters. It runs 24 hours a day for between 6-7 days, and over the last 9 years, they've raised over 2 million dollars directly in support of Child's Play, and it's one of the biggest contributors to that cause.

But it's also a lot more than that.

Five years ago, I first heard about this little internet oddity. I had been following Loading Ready Run for a little while, off and on watching their weekly comedy sketches, and then I heard that they were doing a charity thing, but I had never participated in anything like that, so I brushed it off and went about my business. A few months later, I had started going DEEP into the LRR Backlog, and one of the videos brought up this desert bus thing again, a satirical, sarcastic review for the game itself which highlighted all of the reasons why it was awful. Then, further down the playlist, I saw this video, which was made to commemorate their second year driving the bus.

 

These are my people.

This video, more than anything, is what made me want to be a part of the Desert Bus Experience. I had seen their work previous that made me think they were one of the funniest bunch of guys on the net, but this convinced me that this group of people was my tribe. Parody (check) of a weird 80s song (check) about playing a video game (check) ironically (check) while the butt monkey watches a bad movie (check) using lots of complex tech (check) that all has to run through a a dinky little VCR that they got at a thrift store (DINGDINGDINGDINGDING). I heard that line about putting blame on the VCR, and saw the piece of scotch tape with 2$ scribbled on it, and I was transported to my childhood where me and my brother would try to record ourselves, either with a camera or just us playing Halo, and hoping desperately that we had gotten the settings right on our wimpy little video machine. I was like "these people know me," even though I knew they didn't, it still felt like they had shared more experiences with me and family than any of my friends ever had. And then the ending montage showed me how much fun they were having, how much sheer mirth was being caught on camera and shared with the world. And then I saw the Thank You slide, and with that gut-punch to the feels, I knew that this was something that I had to be a part of.

The Desert Bus Experience is intense, to say the least. In the 4 years that I've participated, I've seen Game of Thrones performed on the Kazoo, heard Skeletor sing Total Eclipse of the Heart AND Holding Out for a Hero, listened to the most mercenary late night radio talk show ever produced, gone to the store, seen a can of club soda get baked into a cake, watched in horror as a jar of Marmite was brought out to be eaten, watched in awe as Notch (the creator of Minecraft) made the first winning $10,000 bid in a live auction, broke down laughing watching someone play QWOP for the first time, and broke down crying listening to a stirring rendition of Gypsy Rover, and then broke down laughing again as they sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow as a chicken.

Personally, I've donated a lot more money than I probably should have to this cause. Truth be told, it's mostly because the incentives for doing so are beyond worth it. There are Raffles where you donate a very specific amount to get an entry, and every multiple thereof gets you additional entries. They've given away things that are valued at hundreds of dollars, things that are hand made specifically for the event, and some things that are simply priceless. If you like video games, board games, card games, anime, comic books, Doctor Who, Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek, Steven Universe or anything from the fan-o-sphere, there will be something you think is awesome.

I'm running out of steam and Desert Bus starts at 12 noon, Central Time, so it's not too much longer to wait. If you want to participate, donate, or even just tune in to see what all the fuss is about, it's all at www.desertbus.org.

Hope to see you in the Chat! My username is BarcodeReader321, so if you see something clever from that name, you'll know it's from me. :)