David Thorne detests office life, inane emails, and cat people. Unfortunately, as a graphic designer at an Australian creative agency, he was surrounded by all three. So he channeled his rage into preposterous online exchanges. Once, he responded to a client’s request with a bunch of pie charts that measured his disinterest in the job. Another time, when a coworker asked him to design a flyer to help her find her lost cat, he sent back a series of ludicrous (and useless) movie posters. Then he posted the conversations on his popular website, 27bslash6.com. In April, Tarcher published The Internet Is a Playground, a best-of collection that also features several previously unpublished torments. If you buy a copy, Thorne says, he’ll send you a puppy.*

Wired: How can you continue working with people you’ve ridiculed publicly?

Thorne: Headphones.

Wired: You’re not worried that one of your victims might seek revenge?

Thorne: Up until recently, it had not bothered me at all. Then, after I tried exchanging defective snowboard gloves and was rudely denied, I created a newspaper ad stating that the store was giving away 4,600 snowboard packages. This resulted in the owner turning up at my premises yelling, so I have bought a gun. It is a Nerf gun, but if you stick pins into the ends of the foam darts, they can do some serious damage.

Wired: Why do you lash out at people?

Thorne: Distraction. I work in the design industry, which one might assume is a creative field but is actually like any other form of cubicle prostitution. Writing is an escape from filling out time sheets, making type larger, and explaining to clients that animated gifs will not work on business cards.

Wired: Before 27bslash6, you trolled social networking sites and were frequently kicked off for provoking people. What’s one of the meaner pranks you pulled?

Thorne: I joined a knitting forum under the guise of Edna, a 74-year- old woman with 14 grandchildren. After making friends and exchanging crosshatch tips, I declared, “I can hear someone breaking in downstairs,” and logged off, forever.

Wired: You’ve also pranked McDonald’s. Why?

Thorne: I had driven through their drive-thru that night, and for about the 10th time, they had left an item out of my order. I spent five minutes in Photoshop and posted a fake McDonald’s internal memo that outlined their procedure to leave fries out of every third order. I signed it Robert Mugabe, so any close inspection would have revealed it to be a joke. It went viral and I was arrested, had my computer equipment taken, and spent the weekend in a cell. I should probably learn to balance the battles I pick with common sense.

*No he won’t.