This.
I knew several "performance artists" way back in the pre-Internet daze. Had I told any of them that within their lifetimes, an obnoxious and disgusting "mentally challenged" boy-man from a small Virginia town, who created a couple dozen amateurish videos of himself ranting at imaginary enemies as well as various poorly-drawn, childish comics, would have a worldwide fandom that followed his every word and move, they would have thought I was insane.
(Or else, they would have eagerly asked he how he pulled it off, which would have been hard to explain to pre-Internet people.)