William Cottrell

publication date: Wednesday, February 7, 2018 (part of Winter 2018)

category: Crime

clue: Upon his prison release, no one dared to pick him up in a Hummer.

explanation: Cottrell was an environmental activist jailed for destroying eight SUVs and a Hummer dealership. more…

difficulty: hard

solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Samir Mehta, Chris Lemler, Matthew Preston, and Lori Lancaster

trivia: William Cottrell (2011) didn't just cost this website one of its most popular and prolific participants in Ryan Dunn, it also forced permanent rule changes. Prior to this goo, I did my best to resolve mistakes fairly, but this led to inconsistent decisions: Sometimes when I made an error in the goo such as using a photograph of the wrong person, I accepted guesses for that wrong person, and sometimes I didn't accept them because the clue clearly indicated the right person. In this case, William Cottrell the environmental terrorist was the intended answer, but I mistakenly used a photo of Travis Cottrell the Christian singer. I ruled guesses by Ryan and other players wrong, costing them a shot at a tournament victory. Their objections and my regret for the mistake led to the development of the game's Advanced Rules to prevent any such inconsistency from ever happening again. –Scott Hardie

20th Anniversary: Celebrity Goo Game has changed a lot since it began in February 1998. The twenty goos in this theme recreate the twenty most impactful and game-changing goos from the last two decades, in order of their influence. Happy anniversary, goo game!