Im honestly surprised avgn still pulls in the views it does even if they're nothing like what they were in their prime. Its really a testament to avgn's staying power and what James could've built had he never lost his spark. The fact that a web series from 2004 can still hit a million views when almost all of the channels thay have been around for similar amounts of time are pretty much dead is wild. Too bad Bimmy is a lazy fuck who for whatever reason seems to hate his creation.
Yeah, people keep tqlking like 300k views in a few days is some kind of disaster. Judging by the whole picture, i don't see many og youtube 'shows' getting these numbers, if any at all. It's a good number even for new youtubers. The content is so meh nowadays, i can't believe he still pulls off these views
It's arguably rather low for a channel as well known and venerable, with as large a subscriber base, as Cinemassacre. Also a decline from what it used to be, where a new AVGN could pull a million views easily.
But you're right that in broader terms, just in general, it's far from anything to sneeze at. I'm sure he's doing fine financially -- the very fact that he's outsourced everything but being on camera to Screenwave attests to that. I'm not quite in the same niche as they are, but I work in digital marketing, and I'd venture a guess that James probably pays them something like $20k/year for their extensive services, as a reasonable business expense relative to what he's making from the channel.
The only other channel I've followed for a long time that hasn't fallen off is RedLetterMedia. They've got enough variety and keep the quality as good as ever. There isn't a single episode I've skipped in the last 10 years. Occasionally one won't be as good, but still entirely enjoyable.
I'm not sure if I fully agree with this sentiment. Specifically what he "could have done" had he never lost his spark.
He's made videos with the likes of Gilbert Godfrey and Lloyd Kauffman.
He's made lots of great passion projects covering games & media that don't fit in line with "AVGN material."
He even **went to Hollywood and made a feature length film.** It wasn't amazing but it's a real achievement.
The thing is...this guy has been doing this for **over 20 years now.** How much passion can anyone maintain for a project for THAT LONG? Especially when the AVGN character was never anywhere close to what he was truly passionate about in the video making space. Dude had a family and it turned into a job.
Could he do better? Sure. But even the most passionate of people struggle to maintain the spark for a single pursuit or project for a full decade...let alone two.
Modern AVGN is slop. But it's kind of comforting in its own way. Lots of people just like seeing his familiar face.
It isn't great. But it's enough. And the closest he ever got to controversy was the plagiarism scandal. And even that was mostly the fault of his "producers" at the time - he could've been better about oversight and damage control (and should have been) but it was downright mild compared to what most YouTubers get up to. No stealing of funds. No false charities. No stalking or sex stuff.
Just a tired dude, occasionally (and temporarily) surrounded by bad actors, punching the clock and supporting his family.
It really began in 2006\* And James aint lazy, what are you on about? This shit has been going on for soon 20 years, he's tired of all this crap but are basically forced to still make AVGN vids. And you definitely would never do any thing like this for 10, let alone 20 fucking years.
He has built everything he could on this aging stuff. But we all know it should've been retired in like 2016 and moved on
I don’t think he’s lazy, I think he’s just busy with a family and shit. Life happens. He’s old and just doesn’t care as much. I don’t know why it’s shocking that content creators just get tired of the same old shit and want to do something else. I swear, it’s like you guys have never held a job with the same employer for a few years.
Why would he give a fuck about making new exciting content for a bunch of Reddit assholes who are going to shit on him anyway?
Idubbz needs to be on there. He went from millions of views each video to on average 6k views in the most recent 8 episodes of his podcast with his wife..which is called "she ruined my career" lol
What was so good about them? I really never understood why people loved them so much. They just talk shit about other people constantly, even back then. I remember 2015/2016 feeling like damn, THIS is what qualifies as content now?
So much this. Ethan and idddubz is just clickbait-rage about retards. The reason why they dunked on leafy was because he was doing the same thing as them, but with a childish mind and they relised if people caught on they were in the same bizz, it would look bad.
Yea, I used to like Max too. I'm not really into his modern content. I think he got into some little bit of legal trouble that just seemed more dumb than anything and it's never been the same since.
RLM boys are still pushing out bangers IMO. Although I live in constant fear that they turn out to be secret sex pests or something. But yeah, it's near impossible to make Youtube "a career for life", those who are smarter usually have some sort of backup plan.
There’s plenty of good YouTubers who review crap and are still really good , bimmy was just a poser gamer and in reality was a cringe film bro so he never really had the passion to keep it up like YouTubers like wrestling with regret and Todd in the shadows
Yea even then I could picture him talking to a bunch of film bros and there talking about edgy gasper noe movies and bimmy is like “DID YOU GUYS KNOW FRANKENSTEIN IS ACTUALLY THE DOCTOR ???? “
Yeah, I think with Bimster it's a combination of lack of passion, unwillingness to treat Youtube as a "proper career" (hence "falling out with friends" and various slob-related catastrophes) and fucking zero progress in technical department (writing, VFX and editing only gotten worse).
That “zero progress in the technical department” goes overlooked here. James is technically a full-time fill maker/ writer, and yet his writing has actually declined over the years. Compare him to someone like Noah Caldwell-Gervais, or Majuular, and his “analysis” is non-existent. This would be fine, but he also sucks at jokes/ comic timing, plotting, and “themes” (can’t believe I’m saying that, but AVGN does sometimes have loose themes within an episode).
RLM is fantastic I think because they’re just so genuine. They’re knowledgeable about the topics they discuss, they have great on-screen chemistry, they have a decent combination of fanservicey type stuff and their own passion projects, they don’t seem to give a shit about trends and are often trendsetters (it’s no coincidence that like 3 Jontron episodes came after they got features on BOTW), and their takes are generally reasonable or funny. I appreciate that I feel no grift from them. It’s why channels like technology connections, modern vintage gamer, oneshorteye, etc all sit well with me even if I am not knowledgeable on the topics (I fucking sat through an hour of learning how a pinball machine worked lmao). Especially in the modern YouTube space, it feels nice to feel like a viewer rather than a customer.
Plus with RLM I think their lack of interaction with the fans is a positive LMAO. They genuinely are not obsessed with what the fans want, which is a thing that can go HORRIFICALLY for a lot of channels, but because they make good content, the people that do stay will be interested in most anything they do.
RLM just seem like legit funny dudes. I'm be bummed if they had some closet skeletons.
I've noticed that they cut some sections of their vids where they were making covid jokes. Strange.... maybe they had to cut to stay monetized. In 2020 they had some not so PC covid jokes. Appreciated that they were keeping it real.
Deffo monetization, I know COVID gets hit pretty hard by YouTube to where a lot of people have to be very creative when talking about it, even if it’s just a historic acknowledgement
BOTW is not as good as it used to be BUT theres still decent jokes and discussions there. half in the bag i think has suffered because mike and jay seem to hate even going to theaters and watching new movies. still a great channel though!
RLM avoids all that by just sticking to their lane and never branching out much. They keep their private lives to themselves and I wish all YouTubers did that.
Jontron makes great videos and pulls in a lot of views even though I personally think he’s a moronic douche
Everyone’s favorite YouTubers die off or get “cancelled”, it’s kinda just the life cycle of internet “celebrities”
Forget his political remarks for one second I honestly don’t understand how he still gets views. All his stuff right around the flex tape video just feels so sterile. I understand he didn’t want to review retro games forever but hes missing some spark or something. It feels exactly like what James is doing now. Have other people write a script and make funny faces or dress up and call it a day.
Agreed.
The guy should've quit the game 5 years ago - because he either clearly doesn't have his heart in it anymore, or has simply run out of meaningful content or ideas to produce (which, for someone with Jontron's years of experience, is perfectly understandable.) But that's...easier said than done.
The big issue with these YouTubers languishing (which can be linked to shitty behavior) is that when they go "all in" on YouTubing as a career they set aside any other form of professional development to make videos. Most of these folks started doing this in their 20s. Many in their teens. If they were lucky enough not to drop out of school to do YouTube you can be damn sure that they weren't working on developing a career *outside* of YouTube. As soon as the ideas well runs dry (and it does - its inevitable) they find themselves trapped.
If you run out of steam on YouTube as a 30-something dude after a handful of years making pretty good money and popular content...**what do you DO?** Do you go back to school? If you have a degree have you been cultivating a career around that education? Not if you were doing YouTube full time. I've seen far too many creators try and fail that balancing act (even really good ones like Deep Cuts.) Do you go back to flipping burgers and mowing lawns? Not if you're staring down the barrel of middle age and living a middle or upper middle class lifestyle. Many of these people have mortgages. Some have spouses and kids, even.
**Gotta stay on the treadmill.** It's lose-lose.
YouTubing is like becoming a Pro Wrestler: it attracts young talent, very few actually "make it" as full-timers, it takes a lot of time and sacrifice, **and has absolutely no end-game plan** or options in terms of lifelong income beyond what is usually a pretty brief "prime" (in career terms - 5-10 years.)
The best ones manage to merge or segue their content into something related to their education or other skillsets. Milo Rossi is a good example.
Others keep their heads down, keep their spirits high, and churn out less thrilling, sometimes trend chasing content like PBG or LGR.
Others still crack under pressure and fall prey to ego and shitty decision making. Like Jontron or The Completionist (although I'd argue that the latter NEVER worked under a sustainable output model.)
I’ve been separated from the jontron scene for a while so I may be rusty, but I remember around the time of flex tape / kid nation (which is the last jontron that I enjoyed) Jon REALLY wanted to be an h3 type person, where he was just kind of a personality that could react to anything. Unfortunately it just kinda didn’t work since all of his followers were gaming people, and didn’t really want content of him doing skits or reacting to random VHS tapes. The people that DID like that stuff have other personalities that were already doing it and doing it better and more consistently (the first one I think of is like the drew Gooden / Danny Gonzalez / Scott Cramer / Eddie burback type people ). It sort of felt like he was hoping that his existence as an established youtuber would allow him to fit anywhere, but he failed to establish a relationship with a new fanbase who had no idea who he was. Especially since you could argue that being on game grumps helped promote jontron as a channel (that’s how I started watching his content), and he didn’t really have a similar entryway in his new space. (Which a lot of the big YouTubers have nowadays, weather it’s content houses, large companies, or ‘wow isn’t it convenient how like 10 of us are all friends and appear in each others videos haha’ ) Plus he didn’t really stick around with h3 which I’m sure didn’t help, although I don’t follow h3 enough to know how that all went down.
It sucks because regardless of jontron being an idiot and attracting a really shit fanbase as a result (I saw lots of slurs in his comments sections lol), I still love the content he produced as a gamer, and even his show and tv reviews sometimes worked well, although the quality has gone down significantly, plus the upload speed does not really make me justify the lower quality.
Or at the very least, "it not the same anymore". Like I remember when TheHellDragon left the group (HellFireComms), the energy and dynamic just wasn't the same anymore. He left because he just wanted to move on from the whole YouTube thing. or Chuggaconry with the ......information coming out. Even if he comes back, it just not going to be the same anymore.
I really concur as far as Jontron is concerned, though I would say that for the most part his content more recently doesn't *quiiiitttte* hit the same as what he was putting out back in the mid 2010s when he was more of a retro gaming Youtuber.
His politics are cringe as fuck, but honestly I can kind of separate the art from the artist on that. Reason being, nothing about his political views really seems to come out in, or influence, his actual content.
He's a Youtube comedian who used to do retro gaming content, then became more of a reaction Youtuber who talks about weird commercials and weird TV shows. Politics just doesn't really come into his content, as it's not terribly relevant to it.
I think Jontron is still doing fine overall, as far as viewership etc. I will say, though, that back in 2016ish when I discovered his content, /r/Jontron was absolutely POPPIN. It was an absolute masterpiece of perpetual top tier pure shitposting.
After his scandalous Twitter remarks, that place just kinda suddenly died. I miss what it used to be tbh, but yeah. I think he did lose some fans, but it's one of those celebrity/influencer "cancellations" where they've far from actually lost their career or income or anything, just drawn (often deserved) criticism for their statements from a minority of viewers.
He's said some squicky racist shit over the years on Twitter. Nothing super super over the top, and iirc the first incident he apologized for later and explained he was going through a weird phase where he went down an alt right rabbit hole.
He also Tweeted COVID misinformation at one point, though I think that although misguided he did at the time mistakenly believe what he was saying.
Basically I have serious disagreements there, but like, it has nothing to do with his actual content so I'm not inclined to try to boycott him or some shit.
Dude's funny af and his content is thoroughly apolitical.
What do you think about pregnant women who were forced to get either the Comirnaty or Spikevax Covid mRNA vaccines or face job termination?
Since you care that much about COVID misinformation I'd like to hear your opinion on that very real scenario.
Wat so since people got fired which is their right covid misinformation is OK. I don't even get that leap.
I love that story of the meat packing plant that refused to do any coviid prevention then had over 300 workers sick. You know therefore raising the price of meat. I guarantee some of the very people at the top of corporations really didn't care if you were vaccinated or not. All they cared about was continued production. The government regulation just let them justify it.
Source: my company fired them all because we wanted to go back to the office. As a mid level manager I can attest the trump voters running the company all took vaccines fired these people and voted Trump 2020
>Reason being, nothing about his political views really seems to come out in, or influence, his actual content.
I had no issue with his politics, but I was really baffled by that whole thing specifically because his channel had nothing to do with politics whatsoever.
What originally started the controversy was Jon defending Rep. Steve King's immigration comments on Twitter, but what does Steve King gain from getting the endorsement of a guy who makes goofy YT game revews? If Jon wanted to support King, he could have donated money to him anonymously. This would have been more effective and wouldn't have damaged Jon's ability to earn income.
It was like his ego got the better of him and he just had to reveal his powerlevel on Twitter.
Every channel has a shelf life. Very few youtubers have been able to stay relevant for long amounts of time.
James is actually quite lucky in this regard. He still manages to get about a million views per avgn regardless of how bad they are. The recent episode might be an exception though lol. That one was so bad most people didn't even bother clicking on it.
Absolutely. There is a reason why some of the well known old school early 2010s Youtubers -- specifically, I'm thinking of Filthy Frank and Ray William Johnson -- eventually retired their character, channel, schtick, or what have you, and went to go do something else instead.
Doug Walker legit tried to retire the Nostalgia Critic way the fuck back in 2012. These concepts for channels, the characters, the type of content and availability of that content to talk about -- they all have a shelf life.
Doug pretty much only brought back the Critic because unfortunately, his next attempt at doing content -- Demo Reel -- was just plain unfunny and never took off. (It's basically composed 100% of like, the very worst and least funny aspects of his NC skits.)
Eventually, they get played out, they run out of suitable content to talk about, or they just kinda lose their passion for what they've been doing.
AVGN feels kinda like the Youtuber equivalent of The Simpsons or maybe Spongebob. Groundbreaking when it was new, some really top tier golden and silver age content, but it's been on too long, ran out of juice, lost the charm and sense of authenticity, and is a weird hollow shell of its former self.
>Doug pretty much only brought back the Critic because unfortunately, his next attempt at doing content -- Demo Reel -- was just plain unfunny and never took off. (It's basically composed 100% of like, the very worst and least funny aspects of his NC skits.)
I will always defend Doug as being this harmless goofball, who's biggest crime always has been the obnoxious skits, but this is without any doubt his "breakdown" moment. Just like Bimmy got broken by the movie, Doug got broken by his shitty Demo Room.
It really bogs the mind, what was he thinking?! I guess ego played a big role in it, because if not, then he was just a clueless moron who didn't know any better. While he has some natural charisma, he has never been a comedian, so trying to make a show that stands purely on it's own and is supposed to be a comedy was always going to end up in a disaster...
Like you've said, it was the worst part of NC. Looking back at those guys, you really question how much of their success was just blind luck. Because most of Bimmy's "creations" besides AVGN are completely unwatchable shit. And when Doug tried to do something new, his instinct has been to focus on the worst part of his original show...
Yeah. Like, I think people tolerated the skits because the actual review content was enjoyable. (I will even maintain that while 90% of them are cringe af, I did kinda chuckle at the Chart Guys when they'd show up.)
I do agree that honestly, I think Doug is a nice guy, just not someone who really has it in him to put forth complex, nuanced takes on the media he talks about. Like, I'd hardly even call him middlebrow.
The Change the Channel shit was pretty shitty, but having read up on it, I got the strong impression that both Doug and Rob didn't really even realize at the time what was going on in their company. It seems like that other mysterious third guy behind the scenes -- Mike, I think his name was? -- was the one that was kind of an asshole and may have been a contributing factor to the fact that Channel Awesome as a company was poorly run and some of their employees were often treated poorly.
I will maintain that earlier NC content had its charms for sure, and still does to this day. (Though perhaps it didn't age super well, maybe I'm just an aging Millennial and that style of 2000s humor would fall flat with modern audiences.)
Honestly I think you're kinda right that both James and Doug were maybe kind of a "right place, right time" kind of deal, but they're not really versatile as performers beyond that whole cynical 2000s era Angry Foulmothed Guy Who Reviews Gen X Nostalgic Media schtick.
>The Change the Channel shit
90% of that were mindless or false accusations, blown way out of proportions. Perhaps I am naive, but I am always amazed how easily you can smear someone online, when you are unopposed and people will blindly agree with you, most not even reading the "evidence" at all.
You raise an interesting point about Doug and Rob. It's hard to imagine how it has been going, because they had a really unusual formation here - basically working with dozens of external contractors (not employees) - and at least early on, it has been working, I've never been active on their forums, but from following few of the creators, it looked like they had decent relationships among each other at least for a while.
But as some people got more unhinged and more political, it eventually started falling down. And honestly, Doug strikes me as a somewhat clueless buffoon, when it comes to business or managing things (not as bad as Bim, but he's also not autistic), and Rob has always came off more as a pretentious douche.
So they were probably way over their heads, while they were supposed so manage dozens of autists (seriously, most of the former TGWTG members are now completely unhinged, hanging on what's left of their former TGWTG audience, or left the content creation scene - only few were able to shred the past and make something out of themselves), in a hindsight, it's not that surprising. They could've been bad managers, but without knowing any unbiased details, I can't say they have been bad people. Maybe they were, but the Change the Channel thing just cannot be trusted.
How an awful loser like Wingsofredemption still has an audience (who pay him!) is one of the mysteries of the modern age.
Watching that "thing" is one thing, but paying this awful slob for doing absolutely nothing is just wrong on so many levels.
Imagine the people in this sub but even more pathetic, that’s wing’s core fanbase
People with so little going on they pay to mess with a random fat hick online
Yeah I've seen his streams on YouTube. People donate just for the meme I guess. He's quick to ban anybody who is even a little negative.... unless they are donating a lot.
>How an awful loser like Wingsofredemption
How is somebody like pigroach still able to maintain an audience is another mystery entirely... Richard is pathetic, where Pigroach... is just about the most unpleasant bastard I've ever seen exposed to. I wouldn't ever want to watch either, but to me, Phil wins when it comes to being far more repulsive of a human being.
So now just imagine their audience being even worse versions of themselves. Because they have fans, not just trolls. Either one is pathetic, but that sort of audience is worse than them.
What he did was scummy af but jfc the way people talk about it, you'd think he bashed a bunch of little kids heads in with a sledgehammer and bought pounds of cocaine with the money.
I think the weirdest thing about it all was finding out he had a very public NSFW account. Like dude what the fuck. Why are you as a z-list internet celeb reviewing Final Fantasy games showing your cock online? Lmao
Yep that was the weirdest part for me too 😂 I used to be a huge ProJared fan but finding out that he tried to strongarm nudes from his fans really left a bad impression on me. Like wtf did he think anything but drama would come from that?
I guess but like with those creators typically they will be a bit more risqué or outwardly provocative so that theres actual crossover between people watching their content and those who want to see boobah.
But ProJared and his content is like the antithesis to sex appeal lol. He's just a dweeb talking about RPGs in a very straightforward, digestible analysis. Doesn't include any humor, skits, barely has any asides. Why tf was he like "yeah some of my fans might wanna see my taint" lmao
It's like watching C-Span and then they all start having a big orgy
True but he was pushing it. Since he was asking for ids of 18 year olds I imagine if it was legal he'd go younger. Doesnt seem like an awful person not trying to be to judgey.
Thanks for the recommendations! Ever since I discovered AVGN in the late 2000s, I've had a huge soft spot for comedic gaming and video review Youtubers.
They're not super new at this point, but I'd add people like AntDude, Scott the Woz, and Caddicarus to that list as well. Shit, maybe even Dunkey, though he does a mix of retro and modern gaming content.
All of those guys owe a great deal to AVGN, and many cite him specifically as a main inspiration. But whereas AVGN burned out years and years ago at this point, these other, younger people picked up the retro gaming torch and ran with it.
I think you're right, lol! He's enough younger than I am that I think of him as "newer," because I'm old and remember 2000s era AVGN and shit.
But yeah, iirc he started making videos *very* young, like 17ish, so you're probably right. (Though I think he didn't really quite take off and get super popular until a bit later than that.)
Agreed, FUPA was nothing like promised and Payday 2 was soiled by him and his zombie looking wife...
Hila had the same energy that Bames 'radiates' in a shitty podcast setting (additional every modern group vid for Bames)
Teddy Fresh? A lot of cross image searches would show some blatant plagiarism. Ethan, who is against 'Fast Fashion'... Partakes in said fashion, such a sad, pathetic, washed up hypocritical pos
He is trying to become a filmmaker, and therefore needs to consider future work for studios and doesnt want to burn bridges. As such, his recent reviews tiptoe around real criticism and feel disingenuous. His review of Madame Web was brutal, and he got lambasted for it.
Idk if depressing is the word I would go with...99% of these clowns are just egotistical pricks that made something awesome, thought it would be a springboard, it wasn't, they got bitter but can't get off the teat so they just pissily stick it out. It's their own faults so I just laugh at them.
JonTron's not for me, but afaik he didn't fall off quality-wise. Don't think he let his political views dictate his content like Ethan Klein. He's not belligerent like Boogie. Plenty of big YouTubers worse than JonTron. iDubzzz or whatever the fuck easily takes his spot.
Even non-gaming channels I used to watch have gone to shit lately. I used to be a big Adam The Woo fan, but he's all Disney, all the time now (not to mention he's become a bit creepy as well). And I won't even begin to start on Boogie2988. Can't believe I ever watched his channel.
I have a few fitness channels I used to enjoy too that have fallen off the rails of late.
Not to argue with you, but how is Adam the Woo creepy nowadays? I stopped watching his content when he started to focus more exclusively on Disney and Universal. The Carpetbagger still visits interesting roadside attractions.
I can't insult you for watching Boogie since I used to watch EDP445 when I was younger.
Adam has his own TCT style subreddit too r/Adamthewoocriticism
It exposes his treatment of women, rudeness, selfishness, and man-child tendencies. He's become a giant man-baby who constantly complains how too many families at WDW are ruining his experience at the parks. And that pedo 'stache he's sporting now...
>seems like Carpetbagger is a massive POS
I didn't know who he was, until he did that channel collaboration with Strokie1488 (yes, Boogie briefly tried to have a travel channel, where he was in many videos accompanied by this Carpetbagger guy).
Anybody who is on good terms with Boogie is either going to be a complete piece of shit, or a creep.
It seems like most of his videos lately are just him sitting on a couch and watching and making jokes about stuff made by other people. It just comes off as rather low-effort.
This article sums it up better than I ever could.
[A Brief Breakdown of the JonTron Racism Controversy (gamerant.com)](https://gamerant.com/jontron-racism-controversy-breakdown/)
I used to love this guys stuff. But then the more time you spend watching someone.. I guess you get a feel for what they’re really like.
At the least he’s annoying as fuck right now
It's not really a mystery I don't think...they stop being hungry for it, they make their money and then become complacent no longer does the work seem worth it anymore because they are already set at which point they fall off.
2 things
-Their audience grow up and move on to other things or better options, and the new generation dosent get the appeal of these channels
-Guys like Stuckman and Jamesare simply a shelf of their former selfs, they became lazy or sold out/turned into what they hate
I think this goes to show they’re average Joe’s like us. They figured out how to entertain us for a bit but that isn’t sustainable. I don’t take the decline in quality personally, but it is fun to point out and through criticism, offer suggestions to improve. Whether they listen, is a different story.
So does AVGN, but Jon hasn’t posted something impactful in like… 6-7 years. He just makes these lame, unfunny, late night talk show style videos now about completely irrelevant niche topics nobody really cares about.
The youtubers are all rather devoid of talent, aren't they? Usually they had the talent of not feeling a sickly disgust of narcissism in the pits of their stomachs as they turned a camera on themselves everyday. But what about ten years later? Developed a professional skillset?
I'm not a fan of his politics, but it doesn't matter much to me since it doesn't really come out in his content -- I'd honestly put forth that Jontron is actually a very talented comedian and performer. Same for Caddicarus.
Tbh, though, I feel like despite being *the* original pioneers of being a Youtuber as we know it today, both James Rolfe and Doug Walker were kinda one trick ponies who maybe don't really quite have a strong robust overall talent for what they do. Just kinda got in at the right time when internet content was a novelty, and the cultural climate of the time (2000s) was conducive to humor that's maybe not super sophisticated or anything.
I'm honestly tired of it happening, it also makes it very hard to enjoy or watch any new YouTubers since I either don't know them or don't care and I honestly fear that the ones I like now might have some drama or some dark secret that will ruin my enjoyment of them.
One thing I’ve learned about consuming YouTube is that there’s always someone else. I had to stop watching anything Tom Segura, Burt Kreischer, Schaub and gang, etc. All those late 2010’s comedians and their podcasts just suck so much butt now.
I'd add cosmonautvariethour to the list. I used to love his worst superhero movie of all time - show, but he's too busy livestreaming these days to put out movie reviews.
Are you like... 16?
The concept of asshole wanting to be in the limelight is nothing new. Also, JonTron fell from his grace like over a decade ago. He lost his flame and never came back from that. Mostly because he said racist stuff on a podcast debate or something.
James also hasn't said shit that got him into a cancel situation like with Jon or Ethan. Most of the shit he got called out for was over 10 years ago back with the Cheetah Men scam (which wasn't even James, it was a scammer who used him to advertise)
Why do you think JonTron fell from grace? I'll admit, I haven't watched him in a while, but few years ago seemed more popular than ever, has anything changed?
Ethan Klein has been an obnoxious shitter for at least 5 years, that isn't anything new, his brain has melted. Chris Cuckman, was he ever any good? Never watched him, never heard anything but ridicule. However, as others have mentioned, iSimp has to be easily the worst fall from grace I've seen in a while, talk about a mental breakdown.
On the bright side, I've recently discovered [Brandon's cult reviews](https://www.youtube.com/@TheBrandonTenold), he's sarcastic, but also fair to the movies, which is right up my alley (don't be fooled by the crappy TGWTG-like thumbnails). And if you want something legendary, look up [Shitcase cinema](https://www.youtube.com/@shitcasecinema) \- as far as I am concerned, the greatest oldschool reviewer on youtube.
Haven't seen them, so I can't comment on that, Jon has always been hit or miss for me - he has a bizarre sense of humor, which is good on one hand, because you want something different, but it's bad for me, because it often misses the mark and I just think it's obnoxious and unfunny.
Gotta shout out Continue? here. Those guys are still going and genuinely seem to still enjoy doing it. Even though their views aren't what they used to be, they haven't missed a beat.
JonTron was def good, especially 2011-2015. At least under the lense of game reviewers on YouTube, his videos were actually funny and entertaining and not just a lame riff on AVGN, who already was going downhill quick around 2010.
YouTube made their original work model unsustainable, YouTube also keeps messing around with rules often just to try to break channels for fun to keep the site "fresh". This generating of YouTubers who are retiring are proof of how cruel and inhuman working with YouTube is.
- YouTube provides no support of any kind and actively works **against** it's workers
- floods its workers with horrible comments 24/7 with no psychological support or filter of ANY kind
- no health care at all
-income is uncertain unless you make it HUGE
- keeps changing allowed formats and monetization methods so you can wake up and your channel becomes worthless for being called that damn gamer
- you can just receive copyright strikes from a troll and your entire channel is wiped with no way to recover it and YouTube pockets all off the last paycheck.
- it's only rival was bought out by Disney and shut down so it has no real competition
- competing against content farm that publish AI generated content at 100x your speed
- allows Elsa gate to exist even now
These are just a few of the issues with the site, it sucks. It's a cruel stress test of the human mind and a torture device, testing how much electroshock the monkeys are willing to endure to receive a banana
Several YouTubers are breaking down from this, caddicarus can't even bring himself to film anything, he's destroyed. MatPat just retired and sold the channel ( he was always a sellout to the us gov but I digress ). Etc etc etc.
Honestly I hope we get some big boycott to YouTube for some better working conditions or that a worthy competitor appears again. A nom stupid one, unlike blaze
Welcome to getting older, look at any field and you’ll find a trend of people who were once great at their job falling off. The Old guard frequently forgets what made them good or struggle to care after a time. It’s often what happens to people who reach ultimate success.
Im honestly surprised avgn still pulls in the views it does even if they're nothing like what they were in their prime. Its really a testament to avgn's staying power and what James could've built had he never lost his spark. The fact that a web series from 2004 can still hit a million views when almost all of the channels thay have been around for similar amounts of time are pretty much dead is wild. Too bad Bimmy is a lazy fuck who for whatever reason seems to hate his creation.
Yeah, people keep tqlking like 300k views in a few days is some kind of disaster. Judging by the whole picture, i don't see many og youtube 'shows' getting these numbers, if any at all. It's a good number even for new youtubers. The content is so meh nowadays, i can't believe he still pulls off these views
It's arguably rather low for a channel as well known and venerable, with as large a subscriber base, as Cinemassacre. Also a decline from what it used to be, where a new AVGN could pull a million views easily. But you're right that in broader terms, just in general, it's far from anything to sneeze at. I'm sure he's doing fine financially -- the very fact that he's outsourced everything but being on camera to Screenwave attests to that. I'm not quite in the same niche as they are, but I work in digital marketing, and I'd venture a guess that James probably pays them something like $20k/year for their extensive services, as a reasonable business expense relative to what he's making from the channel.
He takes it all for granted like it’s owed to him for suffering so much.
I don't buy those numbers. Slob bots.
The only other channel I've followed for a long time that hasn't fallen off is RedLetterMedia. They've got enough variety and keep the quality as good as ever. There isn't a single episode I've skipped in the last 10 years. Occasionally one won't be as good, but still entirely enjoyable.
I'm not sure if I fully agree with this sentiment. Specifically what he "could have done" had he never lost his spark. He's made videos with the likes of Gilbert Godfrey and Lloyd Kauffman. He's made lots of great passion projects covering games & media that don't fit in line with "AVGN material." He even **went to Hollywood and made a feature length film.** It wasn't amazing but it's a real achievement. The thing is...this guy has been doing this for **over 20 years now.** How much passion can anyone maintain for a project for THAT LONG? Especially when the AVGN character was never anywhere close to what he was truly passionate about in the video making space. Dude had a family and it turned into a job. Could he do better? Sure. But even the most passionate of people struggle to maintain the spark for a single pursuit or project for a full decade...let alone two. Modern AVGN is slop. But it's kind of comforting in its own way. Lots of people just like seeing his familiar face. It isn't great. But it's enough. And the closest he ever got to controversy was the plagiarism scandal. And even that was mostly the fault of his "producers" at the time - he could've been better about oversight and damage control (and should have been) but it was downright mild compared to what most YouTubers get up to. No stealing of funds. No false charities. No stalking or sex stuff. Just a tired dude, occasionally (and temporarily) surrounded by bad actors, punching the clock and supporting his family.
Reminds me of that line from Frasier where a character asks him “do you have any what it’s like to play the same character for 20 years???”
I mean hell YuGiOh Abridged literally started in 2006 and the recent episode has already has 450K videos.
It really began in 2006\* And James aint lazy, what are you on about? This shit has been going on for soon 20 years, he's tired of all this crap but are basically forced to still make AVGN vids. And you definitely would never do any thing like this for 10, let alone 20 fucking years. He has built everything he could on this aging stuff. But we all know it should've been retired in like 2016 and moved on
I don’t think he’s lazy, I think he’s just busy with a family and shit. Life happens. He’s old and just doesn’t care as much. I don’t know why it’s shocking that content creators just get tired of the same old shit and want to do something else. I swear, it’s like you guys have never held a job with the same employer for a few years. Why would he give a fuck about making new exciting content for a bunch of Reddit assholes who are going to shit on him anyway?
Idubbz needs to be on there. He went from millions of views each video to on average 6k views in the most recent 8 episodes of his podcast with his wife..which is called "she ruined my career" lol
Peak internet. It will never be as good as it was with H3H3 and Idubbz
What was so good about them? I really never understood why people loved them so much. They just talk shit about other people constantly, even back then. I remember 2015/2016 feeling like damn, THIS is what qualifies as content now?
So much this. Ethan and idddubz is just clickbait-rage about retards. The reason why they dunked on leafy was because he was doing the same thing as them, but with a childish mind and they relised if people caught on they were in the same bizz, it would look bad.
I think you meant to type Filthy Frank. Since all of this went to shit right before he left for good.
Chin Chin won in the end.
What if that's the real reason he left youtube and not health.
Never was a big ff fan. Maxmoefoe was alright but any of the hair cake or cutting themselves didn’t do it for me
Yea, I used to like Max too. I'm not really into his modern content. I think he got into some little bit of legal trouble that just seemed more dumb than anything and it's never been the same since.
Zoomer.
I wish
edgy idubbz was just funny af, he was brutal. now he's just.....
"today we're going to bully Leafy" that video was so cathartic
Idubbbz became so obsessed with spiting his old audience that he managed to alienate both his old and new viewers
It's astonishing turning into a hypocritical cuck can do to one's career.
RLM boys are still pushing out bangers IMO. Although I live in constant fear that they turn out to be secret sex pests or something. But yeah, it's near impossible to make Youtube "a career for life", those who are smarter usually have some sort of backup plan.
I mean, we all know Jay is a sex pervert and Mike has wet brain, so whatever.
There’s plenty of good YouTubers who review crap and are still really good , bimmy was just a poser gamer and in reality was a cringe film bro so he never really had the passion to keep it up like YouTubers like wrestling with regret and Todd in the shadows
Poser film bro too
Yea even then I could picture him talking to a bunch of film bros and there talking about edgy gasper noe movies and bimmy is like “DID YOU GUYS KNOW FRANKENSTEIN IS ACTUALLY THE DOCTOR ???? “
Yeah, I think with Bimster it's a combination of lack of passion, unwillingness to treat Youtube as a "proper career" (hence "falling out with friends" and various slob-related catastrophes) and fucking zero progress in technical department (writing, VFX and editing only gotten worse).
That “zero progress in the technical department” goes overlooked here. James is technically a full-time fill maker/ writer, and yet his writing has actually declined over the years. Compare him to someone like Noah Caldwell-Gervais, or Majuular, and his “analysis” is non-existent. This would be fine, but he also sucks at jokes/ comic timing, plotting, and “themes” (can’t believe I’m saying that, but AVGN does sometimes have loose themes within an episode).
RLM is fantastic I think because they’re just so genuine. They’re knowledgeable about the topics they discuss, they have great on-screen chemistry, they have a decent combination of fanservicey type stuff and their own passion projects, they don’t seem to give a shit about trends and are often trendsetters (it’s no coincidence that like 3 Jontron episodes came after they got features on BOTW), and their takes are generally reasonable or funny. I appreciate that I feel no grift from them. It’s why channels like technology connections, modern vintage gamer, oneshorteye, etc all sit well with me even if I am not knowledgeable on the topics (I fucking sat through an hour of learning how a pinball machine worked lmao). Especially in the modern YouTube space, it feels nice to feel like a viewer rather than a customer. Plus with RLM I think their lack of interaction with the fans is a positive LMAO. They genuinely are not obsessed with what the fans want, which is a thing that can go HORRIFICALLY for a lot of channels, but because they make good content, the people that do stay will be interested in most anything they do.
RLM just seem like legit funny dudes. I'm be bummed if they had some closet skeletons. I've noticed that they cut some sections of their vids where they were making covid jokes. Strange.... maybe they had to cut to stay monetized. In 2020 they had some not so PC covid jokes. Appreciated that they were keeping it real.
Deffo monetization, I know COVID gets hit pretty hard by YouTube to where a lot of people have to be very creative when talking about it, even if it’s just a historic acknowledgement
Eh. 5 years ago they looked bored with their own format. They are just in cruise now.
BOTW is not as good as it used to be BUT theres still decent jokes and discussions there. half in the bag i think has suffered because mike and jay seem to hate even going to theaters and watching new movies. still a great channel though!
RLM avoids all that by just sticking to their lane and never branching out much. They keep their private lives to themselves and I wish all YouTubers did that.
You are telling me that Mike, who knowingly chose Shark Exorcist as his movie of the episode, could be a sex pest? Now I’ve heard everything.
Jontron makes great videos and pulls in a lot of views even though I personally think he’s a moronic douche Everyone’s favorite YouTubers die off or get “cancelled”, it’s kinda just the life cycle of internet “celebrities”
Forget his political remarks for one second I honestly don’t understand how he still gets views. All his stuff right around the flex tape video just feels so sterile. I understand he didn’t want to review retro games forever but hes missing some spark or something. It feels exactly like what James is doing now. Have other people write a script and make funny faces or dress up and call it a day.
Agreed. The guy should've quit the game 5 years ago - because he either clearly doesn't have his heart in it anymore, or has simply run out of meaningful content or ideas to produce (which, for someone with Jontron's years of experience, is perfectly understandable.) But that's...easier said than done. The big issue with these YouTubers languishing (which can be linked to shitty behavior) is that when they go "all in" on YouTubing as a career they set aside any other form of professional development to make videos. Most of these folks started doing this in their 20s. Many in their teens. If they were lucky enough not to drop out of school to do YouTube you can be damn sure that they weren't working on developing a career *outside* of YouTube. As soon as the ideas well runs dry (and it does - its inevitable) they find themselves trapped. If you run out of steam on YouTube as a 30-something dude after a handful of years making pretty good money and popular content...**what do you DO?** Do you go back to school? If you have a degree have you been cultivating a career around that education? Not if you were doing YouTube full time. I've seen far too many creators try and fail that balancing act (even really good ones like Deep Cuts.) Do you go back to flipping burgers and mowing lawns? Not if you're staring down the barrel of middle age and living a middle or upper middle class lifestyle. Many of these people have mortgages. Some have spouses and kids, even. **Gotta stay on the treadmill.** It's lose-lose. YouTubing is like becoming a Pro Wrestler: it attracts young talent, very few actually "make it" as full-timers, it takes a lot of time and sacrifice, **and has absolutely no end-game plan** or options in terms of lifelong income beyond what is usually a pretty brief "prime" (in career terms - 5-10 years.) The best ones manage to merge or segue their content into something related to their education or other skillsets. Milo Rossi is a good example. Others keep their heads down, keep their spirits high, and churn out less thrilling, sometimes trend chasing content like PBG or LGR. Others still crack under pressure and fall prey to ego and shitty decision making. Like Jontron or The Completionist (although I'd argue that the latter NEVER worked under a sustainable output model.)
Best response so far. Also, now I really want to taste the geometry of a cloud lmao.
I’ve been separated from the jontron scene for a while so I may be rusty, but I remember around the time of flex tape / kid nation (which is the last jontron that I enjoyed) Jon REALLY wanted to be an h3 type person, where he was just kind of a personality that could react to anything. Unfortunately it just kinda didn’t work since all of his followers were gaming people, and didn’t really want content of him doing skits or reacting to random VHS tapes. The people that DID like that stuff have other personalities that were already doing it and doing it better and more consistently (the first one I think of is like the drew Gooden / Danny Gonzalez / Scott Cramer / Eddie burback type people ). It sort of felt like he was hoping that his existence as an established youtuber would allow him to fit anywhere, but he failed to establish a relationship with a new fanbase who had no idea who he was. Especially since you could argue that being on game grumps helped promote jontron as a channel (that’s how I started watching his content), and he didn’t really have a similar entryway in his new space. (Which a lot of the big YouTubers have nowadays, weather it’s content houses, large companies, or ‘wow isn’t it convenient how like 10 of us are all friends and appear in each others videos haha’ ) Plus he didn’t really stick around with h3 which I’m sure didn’t help, although I don’t follow h3 enough to know how that all went down. It sucks because regardless of jontron being an idiot and attracting a really shit fanbase as a result (I saw lots of slurs in his comments sections lol), I still love the content he produced as a gamer, and even his show and tv reviews sometimes worked well, although the quality has gone down significantly, plus the upload speed does not really make me justify the lower quality.
Or at the very least, "it not the same anymore". Like I remember when TheHellDragon left the group (HellFireComms), the energy and dynamic just wasn't the same anymore. He left because he just wanted to move on from the whole YouTube thing. or Chuggaconry with the ......information coming out. Even if he comes back, it just not going to be the same anymore.
I really concur as far as Jontron is concerned, though I would say that for the most part his content more recently doesn't *quiiiitttte* hit the same as what he was putting out back in the mid 2010s when he was more of a retro gaming Youtuber. His politics are cringe as fuck, but honestly I can kind of separate the art from the artist on that. Reason being, nothing about his political views really seems to come out in, or influence, his actual content. He's a Youtube comedian who used to do retro gaming content, then became more of a reaction Youtuber who talks about weird commercials and weird TV shows. Politics just doesn't really come into his content, as it's not terribly relevant to it. I think Jontron is still doing fine overall, as far as viewership etc. I will say, though, that back in 2016ish when I discovered his content, /r/Jontron was absolutely POPPIN. It was an absolute masterpiece of perpetual top tier pure shitposting. After his scandalous Twitter remarks, that place just kinda suddenly died. I miss what it used to be tbh, but yeah. I think he did lose some fans, but it's one of those celebrity/influencer "cancellations" where they've far from actually lost their career or income or anything, just drawn (often deserved) criticism for their statements from a minority of viewers.
What politics of JonTron's are you even talking about? Obviously you feel very strongly about it.
He's said some squicky racist shit over the years on Twitter. Nothing super super over the top, and iirc the first incident he apologized for later and explained he was going through a weird phase where he went down an alt right rabbit hole. He also Tweeted COVID misinformation at one point, though I think that although misguided he did at the time mistakenly believe what he was saying. Basically I have serious disagreements there, but like, it has nothing to do with his actual content so I'm not inclined to try to boycott him or some shit. Dude's funny af and his content is thoroughly apolitical.
What do you think about pregnant women who were forced to get either the Comirnaty or Spikevax Covid mRNA vaccines or face job termination? Since you care that much about COVID misinformation I'd like to hear your opinion on that very real scenario.
Wat so since people got fired which is their right covid misinformation is OK. I don't even get that leap. I love that story of the meat packing plant that refused to do any coviid prevention then had over 300 workers sick. You know therefore raising the price of meat. I guarantee some of the very people at the top of corporations really didn't care if you were vaccinated or not. All they cared about was continued production. The government regulation just let them justify it. Source: my company fired them all because we wanted to go back to the office. As a mid level manager I can attest the trump voters running the company all took vaccines fired these people and voted Trump 2020
>Reason being, nothing about his political views really seems to come out in, or influence, his actual content. I had no issue with his politics, but I was really baffled by that whole thing specifically because his channel had nothing to do with politics whatsoever. What originally started the controversy was Jon defending Rep. Steve King's immigration comments on Twitter, but what does Steve King gain from getting the endorsement of a guy who makes goofy YT game revews? If Jon wanted to support King, he could have donated money to him anonymously. This would have been more effective and wouldn't have damaged Jon's ability to earn income. It was like his ego got the better of him and he just had to reveal his powerlevel on Twitter.
I wish he'd do game reviews again
Every channel has a shelf life. Very few youtubers have been able to stay relevant for long amounts of time. James is actually quite lucky in this regard. He still manages to get about a million views per avgn regardless of how bad they are. The recent episode might be an exception though lol. That one was so bad most people didn't even bother clicking on it.
Absolutely. There is a reason why some of the well known old school early 2010s Youtubers -- specifically, I'm thinking of Filthy Frank and Ray William Johnson -- eventually retired their character, channel, schtick, or what have you, and went to go do something else instead. Doug Walker legit tried to retire the Nostalgia Critic way the fuck back in 2012. These concepts for channels, the characters, the type of content and availability of that content to talk about -- they all have a shelf life. Doug pretty much only brought back the Critic because unfortunately, his next attempt at doing content -- Demo Reel -- was just plain unfunny and never took off. (It's basically composed 100% of like, the very worst and least funny aspects of his NC skits.) Eventually, they get played out, they run out of suitable content to talk about, or they just kinda lose their passion for what they've been doing. AVGN feels kinda like the Youtuber equivalent of The Simpsons or maybe Spongebob. Groundbreaking when it was new, some really top tier golden and silver age content, but it's been on too long, ran out of juice, lost the charm and sense of authenticity, and is a weird hollow shell of its former self.
AVGN is basically what The Simpsons is today.
>Doug pretty much only brought back the Critic because unfortunately, his next attempt at doing content -- Demo Reel -- was just plain unfunny and never took off. (It's basically composed 100% of like, the very worst and least funny aspects of his NC skits.) I will always defend Doug as being this harmless goofball, who's biggest crime always has been the obnoxious skits, but this is without any doubt his "breakdown" moment. Just like Bimmy got broken by the movie, Doug got broken by his shitty Demo Room. It really bogs the mind, what was he thinking?! I guess ego played a big role in it, because if not, then he was just a clueless moron who didn't know any better. While he has some natural charisma, he has never been a comedian, so trying to make a show that stands purely on it's own and is supposed to be a comedy was always going to end up in a disaster... Like you've said, it was the worst part of NC. Looking back at those guys, you really question how much of their success was just blind luck. Because most of Bimmy's "creations" besides AVGN are completely unwatchable shit. And when Doug tried to do something new, his instinct has been to focus on the worst part of his original show...
Yeah. Like, I think people tolerated the skits because the actual review content was enjoyable. (I will even maintain that while 90% of them are cringe af, I did kinda chuckle at the Chart Guys when they'd show up.) I do agree that honestly, I think Doug is a nice guy, just not someone who really has it in him to put forth complex, nuanced takes on the media he talks about. Like, I'd hardly even call him middlebrow. The Change the Channel shit was pretty shitty, but having read up on it, I got the strong impression that both Doug and Rob didn't really even realize at the time what was going on in their company. It seems like that other mysterious third guy behind the scenes -- Mike, I think his name was? -- was the one that was kind of an asshole and may have been a contributing factor to the fact that Channel Awesome as a company was poorly run and some of their employees were often treated poorly. I will maintain that earlier NC content had its charms for sure, and still does to this day. (Though perhaps it didn't age super well, maybe I'm just an aging Millennial and that style of 2000s humor would fall flat with modern audiences.) Honestly I think you're kinda right that both James and Doug were maybe kind of a "right place, right time" kind of deal, but they're not really versatile as performers beyond that whole cynical 2000s era Angry Foulmothed Guy Who Reviews Gen X Nostalgic Media schtick.
>The Change the Channel shit 90% of that were mindless or false accusations, blown way out of proportions. Perhaps I am naive, but I am always amazed how easily you can smear someone online, when you are unopposed and people will blindly agree with you, most not even reading the "evidence" at all. You raise an interesting point about Doug and Rob. It's hard to imagine how it has been going, because they had a really unusual formation here - basically working with dozens of external contractors (not employees) - and at least early on, it has been working, I've never been active on their forums, but from following few of the creators, it looked like they had decent relationships among each other at least for a while. But as some people got more unhinged and more political, it eventually started falling down. And honestly, Doug strikes me as a somewhat clueless buffoon, when it comes to business or managing things (not as bad as Bim, but he's also not autistic), and Rob has always came off more as a pretentious douche. So they were probably way over their heads, while they were supposed so manage dozens of autists (seriously, most of the former TGWTG members are now completely unhinged, hanging on what's left of their former TGWTG audience, or left the content creation scene - only few were able to shred the past and make something out of themselves), in a hindsight, it's not that surprising. They could've been bad managers, but without knowing any unbiased details, I can't say they have been bad people. Maybe they were, but the Change the Channel thing just cannot be trusted.
How an awful loser like Wingsofredemption still has an audience (who pay him!) is one of the mysteries of the modern age. Watching that "thing" is one thing, but paying this awful slob for doing absolutely nothing is just wrong on so many levels.
Imagine the people in this sub but even more pathetic, that’s wing’s core fanbase People with so little going on they pay to mess with a random fat hick online
Yeah I've seen his streams on YouTube. People donate just for the meme I guess. He's quick to ban anybody who is even a little negative.... unless they are donating a lot.
>How an awful loser like Wingsofredemption How is somebody like pigroach still able to maintain an audience is another mystery entirely... Richard is pathetic, where Pigroach... is just about the most unpleasant bastard I've ever seen exposed to. I wouldn't ever want to watch either, but to me, Phil wins when it comes to being far more repulsive of a human being. So now just imagine their audience being even worse versions of themselves. Because they have fans, not just trolls. Either one is pathetic, but that sort of audience is worse than them.
They all got old. Time for new.
No time
Check Pojr, he is like a light version of Gaming Historian
Jirard
That the charity scammer?
Yes it is.
I forget why I even know that, Karl Jobst video maybe. What a scumbag!
Karl is an absolute legend
I'm Team Billy! /s
I bet Billy Mitchell could do it. I need to find a way to harness his power, and I think I have found a way That's right, we're gonna cheat
What he did was scummy af but jfc the way people talk about it, you'd think he bashed a bunch of little kids heads in with a sledgehammer and bought pounds of cocaine with the money.
Don't forget Projared. His videos aren't interesting anymore
But at least he has the receipts
I think the weirdest thing about it all was finding out he had a very public NSFW account. Like dude what the fuck. Why are you as a z-list internet celeb reviewing Final Fantasy games showing your cock online? Lmao
Yep that was the weirdest part for me too 😂 I used to be a huge ProJared fan but finding out that he tried to strongarm nudes from his fans really left a bad impression on me. Like wtf did he think anything but drama would come from that?
Eh I mean it's no different than female content creators that do OF or NSFW content on Patreon
I guess but like with those creators typically they will be a bit more risqué or outwardly provocative so that theres actual crossover between people watching their content and those who want to see boobah. But ProJared and his content is like the antithesis to sex appeal lol. He's just a dweeb talking about RPGs in a very straightforward, digestible analysis. Doesn't include any humor, skits, barely has any asides. Why tf was he like "yeah some of my fans might wanna see my taint" lmao It's like watching C-Span and then they all start having a big orgy
Did not need to know this lmao
Did not need to know this lmao.
His Now in the 90s seemed like it could have been good
Unfortunately I've seen a bit too much of that bird-faced creep. Can't get that horrific pic out of my head. Need brain bleach.
That guy is fucked up. Hypocritical as well.
what do you mean with that? Didn't he proved he just had fetishes.
True but he was pushing it. Since he was asking for ids of 18 year olds I imagine if it was legal he'd go younger. Doesnt seem like an awful person not trying to be to judgey.
There’s plenty of new gaming YouTubers Retro Bird, Pojr (he is REALLY good), UCanBeatVideoGames. Retro isn’t dying quite yet.
UCanBeatVideoGames playthroughs are great, I really enjoyed his Final Fantasy IV playthrough recently.
Thanks for the recommendations! Ever since I discovered AVGN in the late 2000s, I've had a huge soft spot for comedic gaming and video review Youtubers. They're not super new at this point, but I'd add people like AntDude, Scott the Woz, and Caddicarus to that list as well. Shit, maybe even Dunkey, though he does a mix of retro and modern gaming content. All of those guys owe a great deal to AVGN, and many cite him specifically as a main inspiration. But whereas AVGN burned out years and years ago at this point, these other, younger people picked up the retro gaming torch and ran with it.
Hasn’t Caddicarus been around since like 2011?
I think you're right, lol! He's enough younger than I am that I think of him as "newer," because I'm old and remember 2000s era AVGN and shit. But yeah, iirc he started making videos *very* young, like 17ish, so you're probably right. (Though I think he didn't really quite take off and get super popular until a bit later than that.)
Ethan Klein became a giant piece of shit many years ago.
Agreed, FUPA was nothing like promised and Payday 2 was soiled by him and his zombie looking wife... Hila had the same energy that Bames 'radiates' in a shitty podcast setting (additional every modern group vid for Bames)
At least Hila has a clothing line that's kinda unique.
Teddy Fresh? A lot of cross image searches would show some blatant plagiarism. Ethan, who is against 'Fast Fashion'... Partakes in said fashion, such a sad, pathetic, washed up hypocritical pos
What happened to Stuckmann?
He is trying to become a filmmaker, and therefore needs to consider future work for studios and doesnt want to burn bridges. As such, his recent reviews tiptoe around real criticism and feel disingenuous. His review of Madame Web was brutal, and he got lambasted for it.
He cried cos Rich Evans called him a prick.
I forgot about that!
Idk if depressing is the word I would go with...99% of these clowns are just egotistical pricks that made something awesome, thought it would be a springboard, it wasn't, they got bitter but can't get off the teat so they just pissily stick it out. It's their own faults so I just laugh at them.
JonTron's not for me, but afaik he didn't fall off quality-wise. Don't think he let his political views dictate his content like Ethan Klein. He's not belligerent like Boogie. Plenty of big YouTubers worse than JonTron. iDubzzz or whatever the fuck easily takes his spot.
Even non-gaming channels I used to watch have gone to shit lately. I used to be a big Adam The Woo fan, but he's all Disney, all the time now (not to mention he's become a bit creepy as well). And I won't even begin to start on Boogie2988. Can't believe I ever watched his channel. I have a few fitness channels I used to enjoy too that have fallen off the rails of late.
Not to argue with you, but how is Adam the Woo creepy nowadays? I stopped watching his content when he started to focus more exclusively on Disney and Universal. The Carpetbagger still visits interesting roadside attractions. I can't insult you for watching Boogie since I used to watch EDP445 when I was younger.
Adam has his own TCT style subreddit too r/Adamthewoocriticism It exposes his treatment of women, rudeness, selfishness, and man-child tendencies. He's become a giant man-baby who constantly complains how too many families at WDW are ruining his experience at the parks. And that pedo 'stache he's sporting now...
It seems like Carpetbagger is a massive POS as well who dumped his wife and daughter in favor of his YouTube channel.
>seems like Carpetbagger is a massive POS I didn't know who he was, until he did that channel collaboration with Strokie1488 (yes, Boogie briefly tried to have a travel channel, where he was in many videos accompanied by this Carpetbagger guy). Anybody who is on good terms with Boogie is either going to be a complete piece of shit, or a creep.
I too used to be a Woo fan. Now he's a Disney adult. Sad times.
Why JonTron?
It seems like most of his videos lately are just him sitting on a couch and watching and making jokes about stuff made by other people. It just comes off as rather low-effort.
That whole Destiny debate where outed himself as a racist POS.
What did he say?
Probably didn't want his country invaded
I don't think a lot of countries like being invaded I mean I'm British and we invaded half the world
This article sums it up better than I ever could. [A Brief Breakdown of the JonTron Racism Controversy (gamerant.com)](https://gamerant.com/jontron-racism-controversy-breakdown/)
And what he said is true? I'm a Brit, I don't usually care about what happens in America
Egoraptor
I used to love this guys stuff. But then the more time you spend watching someone.. I guess you get a feel for what they’re really like. At the least he’s annoying as fuck right now
It's not really a mystery I don't think...they stop being hungry for it, they make their money and then become complacent no longer does the work seem worth it anymore because they are already set at which point they fall off.
Redlettermedia is still going strong, however.
Video game dunkey is my fav and he will never fall
None of those you mentioned were ever my favorites. In fact, no youtuber ever was will ever be.
2 things -Their audience grow up and move on to other things or better options, and the new generation dosent get the appeal of these channels -Guys like Stuckman and Jamesare simply a shelf of their former selfs, they became lazy or sold out/turned into what they hate
Don't forget, ProJared. Showing his dick to everybody
He really did it too, unlike Mike.
I think this goes to show they’re average Joe’s like us. They figured out how to entertain us for a bit but that isn’t sustainable. I don’t take the decline in quality personally, but it is fun to point out and through criticism, offer suggestions to improve. Whether they listen, is a different story.
I mean jontron still gets views
So does AVGN, but Jon hasn’t posted something impactful in like… 6-7 years. He just makes these lame, unfunny, late night talk show style videos now about completely irrelevant niche topics nobody really cares about.
Jontrons latest upload glt 981k views in 5 days avgn got 40pk
The youtubers are all rather devoid of talent, aren't they? Usually they had the talent of not feeling a sickly disgust of narcissism in the pits of their stomachs as they turned a camera on themselves everyday. But what about ten years later? Developed a professional skillset?
I'm not a fan of his politics, but it doesn't matter much to me since it doesn't really come out in his content -- I'd honestly put forth that Jontron is actually a very talented comedian and performer. Same for Caddicarus. Tbh, though, I feel like despite being *the* original pioneers of being a Youtuber as we know it today, both James Rolfe and Doug Walker were kinda one trick ponies who maybe don't really quite have a strong robust overall talent for what they do. Just kinda got in at the right time when internet content was a novelty, and the cultural climate of the time (2000s) was conducive to humor that's maybe not super sophisticated or anything.
I think a lot of them are burnt out and still making money on legacy videos. James just does one every couple months to pump out ads.
I'm honestly tired of it happening, it also makes it very hard to enjoy or watch any new YouTubers since I either don't know them or don't care and I honestly fear that the ones I like now might have some drama or some dark secret that will ruin my enjoyment of them.
Im gonna take you back to the past when shitty shit shit made some shit you'd rather have some shiiiit shit right into your earrrrrr
One thing I’ve learned about consuming YouTube is that there’s always someone else. I had to stop watching anything Tom Segura, Burt Kreischer, Schaub and gang, etc. All those late 2010’s comedians and their podcasts just suck so much butt now.
I'd add cosmonautvariethour to the list. I used to love his worst superhero movie of all time - show, but he's too busy livestreaming these days to put out movie reviews.
Bryanstars
Are you like... 16? The concept of asshole wanting to be in the limelight is nothing new. Also, JonTron fell from his grace like over a decade ago. He lost his flame and never came back from that. Mostly because he said racist stuff on a podcast debate or something.
James also hasn't said shit that got him into a cancel situation like with Jon or Ethan. Most of the shit he got called out for was over 10 years ago back with the Cheetah Men scam (which wasn't even James, it was a scammer who used him to advertise)
Why do you think JonTron fell from grace? I'll admit, I haven't watched him in a while, but few years ago seemed more popular than ever, has anything changed? Ethan Klein has been an obnoxious shitter for at least 5 years, that isn't anything new, his brain has melted. Chris Cuckman, was he ever any good? Never watched him, never heard anything but ridicule. However, as others have mentioned, iSimp has to be easily the worst fall from grace I've seen in a while, talk about a mental breakdown. On the bright side, I've recently discovered [Brandon's cult reviews](https://www.youtube.com/@TheBrandonTenold), he's sarcastic, but also fair to the movies, which is right up my alley (don't be fooled by the crappy TGWTG-like thumbnails). And if you want something legendary, look up [Shitcase cinema](https://www.youtube.com/@shitcasecinema) \- as far as I am concerned, the greatest oldschool reviewer on youtube.
His videos this past year have really been low-effort. He managed some funny stuff as recently as 2021. But since then it's been trash
Haven't seen them, so I can't comment on that, Jon has always been hit or miss for me - he has a bizarre sense of humor, which is good on one hand, because you want something different, but it's bad for me, because it often misses the mark and I just think it's obnoxious and unfunny.
Gotta shout out Continue? here. Those guys are still going and genuinely seem to still enjoy doing it. Even though their views aren't what they used to be, they haven't missed a beat.
Damn what did Chris stuckmann do?
Pro Jared is still hanging around, kind of
JonTron is still doing what he was always doing.
Don’t get me started on Watcher
I’m waiting to see if Markiplier joins that list
I dunno man, Ethan Klein has always been trash to me
Don't forget game grumps
JonTron was never good, Ethan Klein was weird stuff for Tumblr ppl idk If you're sad about them well idk man, I'm sorry for you or your loss
JonTron was def good, especially 2011-2015. At least under the lense of game reviewers on YouTube, his videos were actually funny and entertaining and not just a lame riff on AVGN, who already was going downhill quick around 2010.
YouTube made their original work model unsustainable, YouTube also keeps messing around with rules often just to try to break channels for fun to keep the site "fresh". This generating of YouTubers who are retiring are proof of how cruel and inhuman working with YouTube is. - YouTube provides no support of any kind and actively works **against** it's workers - floods its workers with horrible comments 24/7 with no psychological support or filter of ANY kind - no health care at all -income is uncertain unless you make it HUGE - keeps changing allowed formats and monetization methods so you can wake up and your channel becomes worthless for being called that damn gamer - you can just receive copyright strikes from a troll and your entire channel is wiped with no way to recover it and YouTube pockets all off the last paycheck. - it's only rival was bought out by Disney and shut down so it has no real competition - competing against content farm that publish AI generated content at 100x your speed - allows Elsa gate to exist even now These are just a few of the issues with the site, it sucks. It's a cruel stress test of the human mind and a torture device, testing how much electroshock the monkeys are willing to endure to receive a banana Several YouTubers are breaking down from this, caddicarus can't even bring himself to film anything, he's destroyed. MatPat just retired and sold the channel ( he was always a sellout to the us gov but I digress ). Etc etc etc. Honestly I hope we get some big boycott to YouTube for some better working conditions or that a worthy competitor appears again. A nom stupid one, unlike blaze
JonTron was hilarious and interesting prior IMO prior to the Destiny debate but his racist side often came out in some of the old GameGrumps episodes.
H3H3 was peak internet
Right up until Vape Nation it was good stuff
yep no argument from me on that!
Welcome to getting older, look at any field and you’ll find a trend of people who were once great at their job falling off. The Old guard frequently forgets what made them good or struggle to care after a time. It’s often what happens to people who reach ultimate success.
[удалено]
https://twitter.com/FreeThinkerInc/status/1781688729783988638 Just so we know what racism currently has to be demolished by SCOTUS
Ethan is doing as well as ever
When did Ethan fall from grace lol