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Every time it happens, Jon Jones tells himself that surely – surely! – this will be the last time.

The author, game developer, and self-proclaimed “tech geek” is not, in fact, the former UFC light heavyweight champion by the same name. But he does have the Twitter handle @JonJones, which means that whenever the other Jon Jones stirs up trouble, which is often, this Jon Jones gets the misdirected hate tweets.

This has been going on for years now, with no sign of stopping any time soon. Fortunately, Jones has a sense of humor about it, which is on display in a new parody video he created (which you can watch above) in order to have a little fun with the absurdity of the mistaken identity on social media.

For some insight into how MMA, its fans and its culture look to a witty outsider who can’t help but get drawn in every so often, I spoke to Jones by phone on Tuesday. Here is that conversation, edited for length.

Fowlkes: First of all, tell me about the video. It’s funny, but also has this sort of disarmingly polite message to your accidental Twitter haters. What made you decide to do that?

I was actually approached by a guy named David Garcia from Between Pictures. He runs a video production company in New York, and he’s based in Philly. He’s an MMA fan, and he found out about me from a story online and thought it was really funny. He emailed me and said, ‘What would you think of doing a parody promo video in the same vein as those promo videos the UFC does?’ We had the whole idea of looking into the flame of the candles and running through the woods, all that melodrama, except it was me training to defend myself against people on Twitter. I thought it was funny, so why not?

I’ll admit that where you really got a laugh out of me was with the inclusion of the Yankee Candle in this shot of an otherwise serious little altar.

I deliberately turned that candle around just to amp up the cheesiness. I don’t want anyone to ever take me seriously with this. This is the height of me being a cheeky (expletive).

Do you think that’s one of the things that makes this gag work, that the other Jon Jones treats this all so seriously, people are seriously angry with him, he never even acknowledges the existence of this social media mixup that ensnares so many people, and yet you go the completely opposite direction with it?

Well, fundamentally, it’s a hobby only I can have. I know what it’s like to take your career really seriously. I have my career and my speaking and writing and blogging that I take seriously. But this is basically a wandering circus that shows up at my door by accident a couple times a year. It’s the one time I can be unreservedly silly. It’s a vehicle to play this hapless doof who’s just happy for the attention.

But in the video, there is one scene that does a good job of highlighting that sudden, relentless wave of angry incoming tweets. I could almost feel my anxiety ratcheting up a little when I watched that. Has it ever gotten to the point where, even when you know they’re not really angry at you, it seems like it might be bad for your mental health to keep exposing yourself to that kind of online vitriol?

A handful of times it’s gotten close to that, but more because of the sheer volume than the tone of the tweets. For practice, I started taking on Trump voters (on Twitter). I found them to be much, much worse than MMA fans. So by comparison, every time I feel like it gets kind of intense, I remember what it was like arguing with Trump voters, and I think, ‘Oh, this is much better.’ We’re not talking about politics or any serious issues. We’re talking about who punches gooder and who should punch better than the other guy, and we’re not even talking about the right people.

The thing that keeps it fresh for me, my core engagement with it, is the chance to take someone who’s really, really angry and get them to laugh at how silly they were being. They’re expecting this professional fighter, and they get a guy who’s confused and eating a burrito and has no idea what’s going on. If I can get them to laugh with me, that’s the ultimate goal.

Do you think it defuses them? Or do some of them just realize, ‘Oh, I was yelling at the wrong guy, so let me turn around and send that same angry tweet again, but make sure I get the right Twitter handle this time?’

Actually I think most people are defused, and they realize, ‘Oh God, what even am I doing here?’ Every once in a while I’ll get someone who continues to be angry. Or sometimes it will be some very specific fighting advice, and then I’ll redirect it, like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. The professional fighter who you’re trying to give fighting advice to is @JonnyBones. Have fun criticizing him!’

What’s interesting to me is, I’m not a sports guy, and I’ve never really gotten sports. I’m just so far into the geek end of the spectrum that I’m kind of hopeless. But it’s interesting to see how this sport has grown and changed over the years, and how the social media engagement has changed. I’ve actually had a lot of fighters follow and interact with me, and do it knowing that I am me.

That’s one of the things that’s interesting about this, is you’re not a fan of this sport, but you can’t help but be exposed to all these people who are. You’re like a visitor from Mars, observing us from the outside.

When all this started, I didn’t know what an MMA fan was. I’ve always lived in places where sports were super important, kind of to an annoying extent. I lived in Austin, and the University of Texas is huge there. One of their big rivals is Oklahoma University, the Sooners, and I had a car that was Sooner Red, and people would tell me not to park it downtown on game day because it would get set on fire.

I was also trapped in a riot in Los Angeles, because the Lakers had just won the (NBA) championship right as a major video game trade show ended across the street. I was running from riot police, seeing these burning cars everywhere, all because, basically, sports. So I’ve always had this kind of non-consensual relationship with sports.

It’s been interesting seeing how people from all different walks of life are engaged with this. I promised myself I would never learn anything about (MMA) because it would ruin my bit, but I’ve absorbed a lot just accidentally. And for the most part, I’m impressed by the people I meet through this.

I’m also surprised and impressed by how little racist stuff I see. Out of the thousands of tweets, race has only come up like two or three times, ever. The internet being the internet, and Twitter being Twitter, I expected much worse. So aside from the fact that I get torrents of hate mail intended for someone else, I’ve been pretty impressed with the MMA community.

When you see it’s happening again, like when Jon Jones is back in the news, is the feeling like, ‘Oh boy, let’s get back on this wild and crazy ride?’ Or is there some element of dread to it?

I’d say it’s 80 percent ‘oh boy’ and 20 percent dread, because I never know which thing he did. When he went on (The) Joe Rogan (Experience Podcast) and was talking about (expletive) pills, suddenly I got all these tweets saying, ‘Hey, Jon, how does your (expletive) work? What’s wrong with your (expletive)? Do you need your (expletive) pills, Jon?!’ And that was my only context. It’s like, oh no, what am I defending myself against now?

Do you think there’s a point where you’ll want to stop playing along and just ignore it, or even abandon that Twitter account entirely?

You know, I really do think that every time is going to be the last time. I’m always amazed. But if it gets to the point where it’s not funny, and it’s just sad, I’ll shut up and disappear.

Because things aren’t looking too good for ‘Bones’ right now. I really do hope the best for him, but if it gets too damn sad I’ll stop. I’ll keep the Twitter account but try to direct it to something positive, like the ASPCA or substance-abuse programs. Something topical and helpful and positive, because after every occurrence I get a couple hundred people who follow me just to see what’s happening, and if I can direct them to something positive, that’s worth it.

But I don’t want it to be something negative and exploitative. The whole point is for this to be funny and not serious. I’m the Twitter equivalent of a squirrel that can water-ski, and that’s fine. I’m happy to play a clown, but I don’t want to be some sort of misery clown, if that’s even a thing.

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