The Phoney Figure

First of all, I am glad that I am not a real journalist because we are dealing with some very flimsy stuff today.

The name, "The Phoney Figure" or "TPF" seems to have caught on as a way to refer to the Iamaphoney actor character who first appeared around the time of Rotten Apple 39 K. I think it might have been Mikeynl1038 who coined the term originally. Mike credits himself for making me famous, but from my perspective, the opposite is true.



TPF has gone through some appearance changes since then. This guy, featured in a video from July of 2007 was shown briefly more recently in Rotten Apple 78.



The image below is from Rotten Apple 75 L.



Then we had the video called "Footage TPF 1" that threatened to expose everything. Have you ever noticed how everyone who threatens to blow the lid off the whole thing never does? I'm beginning to wonder if this thing has a lid.



Some have even claimed that the individual playing the part of Iamaphoney has changed from the original in a similar scenario to an American Television show of the 1960s that dealt with the occult.



Lately there has been some speculation on the identity of TPF based on some of the softest evidence yet. We haven't exactly been a fount of critical thinking up to this point, but now it's going to get much worse.

Apparently, for a brief period of time Iamaphoney changed the background on his channel to a picture that showed TPF with a guitar in his hand. Therefore, speculation was that if he is pictured with a guitar, he must be a musician. If he is a musician, he must be on the recordings in the Rotten Apple videos. If he is on the recordings on the Rotten Apple videos, he must sing on them too.

While we are at the Olympic Conclusion Jump trials, we might as well keep going...

On December 8, 2009 (yes strange things happen on infamous Beatle anniversaries) someone left a comment on my blog post "Curious Thing" supposedly revealing the identity of TPF. Someone using the moniker "thetruthmustout" claimed to be a former classmate and said that TPF was an actor named Richie King.

The Internet Movie Database actually has a listing for Richie King, who is alternatively known as Rich King. There is not much information on Rich King, but it does list two films in which he appeared. In 1978, he was in "Stunt Rock" and in 1984, he was in "Rocktober Blood." Despite the murky waters of this research, I did find it interesting that he portrayed a bass guitar player in both movies.

The IMDB had no pictures, but I did find this Rich King on Google.



Undaunted, I searched YouTube and actually found a clip from "Stunt Rock" with the band Sorcery. The bass player, Rich King looks like this.



Going back to the comment from "thetruthmustout," Richie King, the Phoney Figure can be found in the movie "Less Than Zero" playing an uncredited extra in the pool scene. I first should warn that "Less Than Zero" is one of those "brat" movies where almost everyone looks like TPF. But from the description in the blog comment, I believe the alleged former schoolmate is the young man with thick blond hair who walks in the background during the pool scene. You see him emerge in the picture below to the left of the principle actors.



In this second capture, he is right between the principle actors in the scene.



In this third shot, he is to the right of the actors.



In this last capture he is about to exit to the right side of the screen.



The most recent twist in the liquid tale of TPF emerged two weeks ago when a new YouTube channel called FORN00NE uploaded nine tracks credited to an artist known as "The Afterlife." Based on various anonymous comments, the lead singer of the melodic synth pop band is a previous incarnation of the The Phoney Figure. The videos contain a few low quality pictures of what is implied to be a young TPF.







I must admit, he does look like he could have been any one of about 26 extras in the movie "Less Than Zero."