kook
     n : someone regarded as eccentric or crazy and standing out from
         a group [syn: odd fellow, odd fish, queer bird, queer
         duck, odd man out]

	

	57 Moby Thesaurus words for "kook":
   alien, aliene, bedlamite, borderline case, case, character,
   crackbrain, crackpot, crank, cuckoo, dement, demoniac, ding-a-ling,
   eccentric, energumen, erratic, fanatic, flake, fou, freak,
   harebrain, hermit, hobo, idiot, lone wolf, loner, loon, loony,
   lunatic, madman, maniac, maverick, meshuggenah, natural, noncompos,
   nonconformist, nut, odd fellow, oddball, oddity, original,
   outsider, pariah, phrenetic, queer duck, queer fish,
   queer specimen, rara avis, raving lunatic, recluse, screwball,
   solitary, strange duck, tramp, type, weirdo, zealot

	

	kook [Usenet; originally and more formally, `net.kook'] Term used to
   describe a regular poster who continually posts messages with no
   apparent grounding in reality. Different from a troll, which implies a
   sort of sly wink on the part of a poster who knows better, kooks really
   believe what they write, to the extent that they believe anything.

   The kook trademark is paranoia and grandiosity. Kooks will often build
   up elaborate imaginary support structures, fake corporations and the
   like, and continue to act as if those things are real even after their
   falsity has been documented in public.

   While they may appear harmless, and are usually filtered out by the
   other regular participants in a newsgroup of mailing list, they can
   still cause problems because the necessity for these measures is not
   immediately apparent to newcomers; there are several instances on
   record, for example, of journalists writing stories with quotes from
   kooks who caught them unaware.

   An entertaining web page chronicaling the activities of many notable
   kooks can be found at `http://www.crank.net/usenet.html'.