Benjy Egel
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Nelson Lin doesn’t think he’s all that funny. Offline, that is.
Lin became somewhat of a local Internet celebrity through his comments on the Cal Poly Confessions Facebook page, which has nearly 10,000 followers. He parlayed his online fame into a seat on next year’s Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors.
When not throwing out zingers at anonymous confessors, the mechanical engineering sophomore keeps his funny bone loose by doing stand-up comedy at local venues, including at Chumash Auditorium with Another Type of Groove.
“I’m pretty sure I’m funnier online,” he said. “I do a lot of stand-up on the side, but I’ve been getting a better reaction from online.”
Computer engineering junior Kenneth Chau met Lin through their involvement in a hip-hop dance team within the Filipino Cultural Exchange club. Lin attracts friends and makes people laugh just as much in person as he does online, Chau said.
“I feel like every time I talked to him, we’re always cracking up. We’re always laughing about something,” Chau said. “Having a conversation with him is always down to be filled with laughter. He’s pretty damn funny.”
Cal Poly Confessions’s administrator endorsed Lin at the beginning of open campaigning on April 13, after Lin messaged him a few paragraphs. The post got 315 likes, a significant number considering Lin received just 506 votes on the actual ballot — as only 23 percent of students chose to vote.
He briefly came under fire for admitting he didn’t know much about the position’s requirements besides serving other students, but voters proved his momentary ignorance didn’t really matter.
Jokes helped get him into office, including his Comic Sans and Doge-inspired advertisements, but Lin had to prove he could be serious once elected.
“I had to catch people’s attention by making my ads kind of funny. You gotta stand out from the other candidates somehow,” Lin said. “When I actually presented to different clubs and other groups like that, I stopped joking around as much.”
Lin had no intention of becoming famous online, he said. He started commenting on confessions when he had free time, and Cal Poly students ate it up.
Lin is not invested enough in social media to keep track of how many strangers like each of his posts, he said. He couldn’t name a popular comment off the top of his head, despite having several with more than 50 likes.
“I just post stuff, and then I’ll check back a while later and a ton of people have liked it,” he said. “It’s cool, I guess, but it’s not really that big of a deal to me.”
Only software engineering sophomore and Board of Directors incumbent Myra Lukens finished ahead of Lin in the election. The College of Engineering had 16 candidates for five Board of Directors seats, making it the most competitive race of any college.