SACRAMENTO–

A YouTube Channel that teaches how to get free gas in Sacramento? Finally, a use for the internet besides videos of adorable kitties and 3-year-olds explaining Star Wars.

After all, gas in post-recession America doesn’t exactly comport with my post-recession bank account. So the “Free Gas Channel,” and personality James Thompson looked like they had something to teach me.

Even if some of the lessons are a bit strange.

“Turn it upside down in between your legs and just kind of squeeze it,” Thompson demonstrates with a Coke can in one video.

I wanted to try a technique a little less… you know. And Thompson has videos demonstrating dozens of techniques. So I used a method he demonstrates where you set a toilet paper roll and a Coke can, both wrapped in rubber bands, on top of the gas pump.

I know. I know. It sounds a little goofy. But hey, we’re talking free gas here. Except it didn’t work.

What gives Gas Guy?

“It’s just all off the top of my head. It’s not written down or anything. I show-up at the gas station and whatever pops into my head, I just go with it,” Thompson confided after I tracked him down.

It turns out that what’s fueling him is clicks, views, likes and subscribers. In the brutal, high school style popularity contest that is YouTube, Thompson is putting out on heck of an appealing pitch. So appealing, that some people swear by it.

“A lot of people say in the comments that they tried it and it worked,” Thompson said.

And for him, that’s all part of the show.

“I don’t do it to try to be famous or anything like that. I’m was just trying to  be silly,” he said.