A YouTube star has “purchased” the town of Hell, Michigan, re-named it “Gay Hell,” and outlawed flying any flag that is not a Pride flag as a protest of Donald Trump. Elijah Daniel, a YouTube comedian and musician, announced he had bought the town in protest of the Trump administration’s decision to ban U.S. embassies from flying the rainbow flag during Pride month.
This is, as you probably assumed, a bit. Since 2016, Hell’s “unofficial mayor” John Colone has been attempting to sell the town for just shy of $1 million. Since you can’t really own a town in practical terms, and Hell isn’t actually a town but an unincorporated community, what this means in reality is Colone is offering up 5 acres of his commercial real estate, along with merchandising rights for souvenirs and associated punny town slogans. Seeing as how Daniel only “bought” the town “temporarily,” presumably the amount of money he spent was much closer to $0.
In fact, Hell’s entire vibe is mostly being a bit. There’s a wedding chapel where you can get married in Hell, and a bar called The Hell Hole, and a Damnation University, and also mini-golf. And now, by Elijah Daniel’s decree, only the rainbow flag may be flown in Hell, except not actually because of course not. This is not even Daniel’s first trip to the Hell well. In 2017, in protest of Trump’s travel ban, Daniel paid $100 to become Mayor of Hell (again, not a real job) for a day and ban heterosexuals from the town (again, not actually.)
As far as YouTube bits go, however, this is a pretty good one. The message is straightforward, everyone involved is on board with it, and no one has to be the victim of an awful “prank” in service of the almighty YouTube like-and-subscribe. Enjoy Gay Hell while it sticks around.
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59 Comments
Look, I live in West Hollywood and have for 20 years. That town just doesn’t look very gay to me. For fuck’s sake, where is the Trader Joe’s?
Trader Joe’s isn’t gay. I go all the time.
Waiiiiiiittttt…..
That’s why it’s Gay Hell instead of Gay Heaven.
I thought it was because it was located in Michigan.
If you plot your sight-seeing tour of Michigan just right, you can take a round-trip from Hell, Michigan to Paradise, Michigan and then back to Hell, in just 666 miles.
Is Climax, Michigan on the way to Paradise?
Paradise is actually much further away from Climax than Hell is. Compared to getting to Hell, going from Climax to Paradise takes forever.
I’m from there… so fun fact time! Nobody in MI calls it Climax. The town is very small and next to another very small town of Scotts. So the school system and everybody just calls it Climax-Scotts. I lived in Scotts and still told everybody I lived in Climax-Scotts.
Yes, but in between is “Shame, MI” and “Awkward Silence, MI”.
Intercourse PA is about 8 miles away from Blue Ball PA. They are in the Pennsyltuckey region.
Actually, they’re both in Lancaster County, which is Amish Country. So while it’s a part of Pennsyltucky, it’s kind of it’s own special section of it because of the Amish and Mennonites.
Please tell be there is a shit creek/lake between the two
It’s also only 4 miles from Bird In Hand, PA, which is itself just up the road from Fertility, PA.
Praise
But you really want to make sure you take I-75 and get off on exit 69, Big Beaver Road.
I’m 37 damn years old, I’ve lived here all my life, and I have never once failed to laugh when driving past one of those signs.
So maybe I’m actually 12.
I would want to drive to Paradise at night. That way, as I got close enough to view the town, I could say, “I can see Paradise by the dashboard light.”
I dated a girl in college that lived on the outskirts of Hell.
Sounds like a keeper.
I dated a girl in college with Hell living in her skirts, if ya know what I mean.Amiright, fellas?
*checks notes* You are, in fact, not.
I drove by Purgatory once.The road to Heaven may be paved with good intentions, but the road to Purgatory wasn’t paved with anything.Just gravel.
This sounds like the opening verse to a Reel Big Fish song.
you can’t really own a town in practical termsSo you are saying the entire premise of Schitt’s Creek is fundamentally flawed?
So which highway do I have to take to get to Gay Hell?
69
Ironically I-69 does run through Michigan, although you’d have to switch over to I-96 to make it to Hell.
Perhaps “flip” over to 96 from 69.
I love how can I imagine reading most AV Club news with the voice of Ron Howard and I feel almost instantly like I’m watching any Arrested Development episode.
There is already a Gay, Michigan. Which is why he had to buy in Hell, Michigan.
There’s an annual “Run through Hell” race in that town. I hope the t-shirt is updated to reflect the name change. I’ve run through Hell twice and lived to tell the tale, but a run through Gay Hell, well, we’ll see.
Well those jeans he has on are definitely from gay hell.
They are so tight on the lower legs (cannot wait for that trend to dissipate), but are overly-baggy in the seat? Like it’s a size 28 skinny for the legs but a 34 for the waist? I don’t understand them.
Unless you have an extremely skinny build with a tiny waist or maybe extra muscled legs they don’t tend to be flattering. It gives most people the appearance of big hips and scrawny little legs.
Ugh. I cannot wait until bellbottoms come back in.
That’s a thing right now. It looks like shit. Like, if you’re going to wear skinny jeans, okay, fine, but wear a style that actually fits. This “40% baggy/60% skinny” look is not good.
Oh, girl. *z-snaps*
There’s a…bar called The Hell Hole
It’s also their gay bar.
So I’ve heard.
As someone who grew up 45 minutes from this particular town I can assure you that upon birth all Michigan children are issued a bottle of Faygo Red Pop, an ice scraper, and an ‘I Ran Thru Hell’ t-shirt.
Does this mean Minion is free?
Calling any town or city “Hell” in Michigan, is the definition of redundant.
Lakewood, Ohio has a Mars Avenue and I occasionally took a drive on it to look for a rental property so that I could tell people that I live on Mars. And, yes, there’s a tavern called the Mars Bar at the end of the street.
There was once a gay bar in Adelaide called the Mars Bar, sadly now lost to the march of time.
I misread the start of this as “There once was a gay bar in…”Imagine my surprise when no limerick followed.
If you can think of two words that rhyme with “Adelaide”, we can give it a shot.
There once was a gay bar in ‘Laide
Ex-patrons so wish it had stayedNamed after a candyIt catered to dandiesAnd was an excellent place to get laid
wow, this sure is some Content. gotta pour myself a nice cold glass of SEO juice to wash it all down!
I though Gay Hell was being forced to wear stripes with plaid.
I hadn’t actually heard about Trump’s rainbow-flag ban. Jesus Christ, does that guy just wake up each morning and say, “How can I be extra shitty for no real reason today?”
Mr Daniel can “buy” my village any time he wants.
cant sell a town?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/americas-tiniest-town-is-sold-and-renamed-phindeli-town-buford-wyoming
(Still, a more pressing question: who the fuck is this guy, and why are we talking about him?)
yeah solid bit. decent job, internet!
Fake Edgy looking youtuber pulls a dumb stunt in “protest”.
This bit is gay.
So the separation of Church and State is something that must happen in order for our society to prosper but the separation of “an individual’s sexual preference” and State is something to be fought against? “Woe unto those who call good evil and evil good, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
I thought Gay Hell was every bachelorette party that eventually made its way into a gay bar.
Why not simply go to Gay, MI and not have to worry about funding a bunch of new signage?