I suppose the correct answer turns on what you regard as "real." That having been said, however, there is no denying that Ted Holden made himself into not "a" big internet/usenet joke, but one of the biggest. His site, bearfabrique is still there.
Here's another link, useful in determining whether you are, in fact, Ted Holden. You'll note, it dates from 1995.
He spent quite a bit of time as "medved" on FR posting real conundrums like, “Why are there no feral chickens?” (The answer, posted to him just about every time he asked the question, “because domesticated chickens don’t last long enough in the wild to reproduce,” never seemed to stick). He was also famous — if that is the word — for his incessant posting of “Splifford the ascii bat.” It was a little graphic he thought made some point about science … much in the way GGG seems to think silly pictures of Charles Darwin make some point about science.
LOL, I actually thought it was a John Titor sort of ‘performance art’ thing, kind of like the jokes Anonymous pulls.
Because in Texas we call them Guinea Hens.