GameGrumps, Jontron and why I'm losing respect for them.

Ok, so the title's a tad melodramatic, but here's the story - actually, I had best give you an overview of who/what these Youtube channels are. Jontron (http://www.youtube.com/user/JonTronShow) is a Youtuber whose videos generally fall under the category of reviewing games, usually older games, for the sake of comedy. I've liked his work for the most part and though he's not my favourite Youtuber, I had respect for him as I do all channels I sub to.
Game Grumps (http://www.youtube.com/user/gamegrumps), on the other hand is more focussed on lets plays and is a collaborative effort between the aforementioned Jontron and another Egoraptor, again focusing on older games.

Why is this important? Well it's not really, but I get the idea some of you will be frustrated if I begin a rant about what two Youtubers have done to so irk me and not even bothered to tell you the channels in question.


So let's begin shall we. The first incident to get to me, this one involving Jontron, happened a couple of days ago... I think. I must apologise the days tend to blur together when off school, but point is; it happened recently and it started with a comment so insignificant and meaningless that the fact that it is so pointless alone agitates me. "sigh". That was all Jontron posted on Pewdiepie's video recently and it began a storm of blind hatred and petty insults. Now I'm not here to praise Pewdiepie, in my experience his content is pretty hit and miss at best but I can find enjoyment in some of his playthroughs of scary games and at the very least his heart is in the right place, as evidenced by his relentless attempts to calm his fans. No, I'm here to analyse just how moronic this comment is, especially coming from someone who generates money off of their videos.

Now perhaps I'd feel more inclined to take this comment seriously if someone such as David Mitchell were to have said it, someone with the right to feel bitter that Pewdie's channel has a ridiculous number more subscribers than his own significantly more intelligent channel. But it wasn't David, it was Jon, whose content is hardly a great deal more intelligent than Pewdiepie's. I would also like to point out how unproffessional it is of a Youtuber such as Jontron to go to another Youtuber's videos solely to express discontent. If he was really so desperate to write a single, solitary word on Pewdiepie's video simply to make it clear he didn't like the video he should have hidden that from his subscribers instead of making a scene. But the biggest issue here was that the comment was just so unnecessary. It was the furthest thing from constructive. It was barely even destructive. So why could he not just keep it to himself?


The second incident occurred earlier today - or rather, yesterday, this time revolving around GameGrumps. When watching their latest video I quickly noticed, being a perceptive individual, that UberHaxorNova was in the tags. It wasn't the first time I saw a 'famous' name in the tags of their videos, but it seemed to have stopped, at least for a while. I wasn't the only one to notice and there had already been multiple people bring it up.

That's when GameGrumps commented saying:
"Do you guys check the tags before you watch the damn video XD? OK: TO EXPLAIN: We tag similar YouTubers so we show up in the related videos. It's nothing malicious. :3! Thanks for watching!"

Ignoring the fact that they placed an exclamation mark beside an emoticon, there is a fair bit wrong in this comment alone.
Unless they're just mindlessly tagging popular Youtubers in a manner not dissimilar to Reply Girls, they would know that Nova is a very different Youtuber from GameGrumps. If he was playing the same games I might understand. If they were playing Minecraft or Happy Wheels; well I still wouldn't like it because they're taggingtheir videos as something they're not but at least it would make some sense.
But this? This, I'm afraid to say, is just mooching off of a popular Youtuber who also happens to play videogames.

I commented upon this and inevitably I was met with someone defending them. Though I cannot remember what it was they said exactly, I believe they claimed that, by tagging Nova they were not mooching off of him, but affiliating with him because viewers could travel from GameGrumps' videos to Nova's as well. I also distinctly remember being called a dolt which amused me.


Couple of things.
First off, it doesn't work that way when Youtuber A has 150,000 subs and Youtuber B has over a million.
Secondly they said "We tag similar YouTubers so we show up in the related videos." Keyword there being we. So that WE can show up on THEIR videos.
And finally they shouldn't be 'affiliating' in the first place; they have next to nothing to do with each other.


So that's it. This isn't me abandoning these channels for dead, this is merely me addressing some issues I have with them and, though they could have done worse things, I expected better from them. That being said, these Youtubers are only human and everybody makes mistakes from time to time. In fact, I believe Steve Coogan made a song based on the subject.

well thats blow out of proportion
I love game grumps im not going to stop watching them, love jon tron and egoraptor
yes these have been slightly ill advised moves on their part
but at the end of the day its just internet videos, nothing too dwell to much on

He should have predicted this though. Any Channel with a decent following is partly responsible for their subscribers. Pewdiepie knows this and has addressed the issue of his fans attacking other Channels. There were ways around flooding Pewdie's video with people. He could have used an alternative account, he could have hidden his comments from his subscribers. Alternatively he could have talked about it on one of his own videos.

I've certainly not seen it a lot with channels such as this which actually produce quality content.

How are people meant to grow as human beings if we do not acknowledge their failures?

As for the purpose of this post? To begin a discussion of course, some believe learning to be the most important aspect of our lives and though I do not agree entirely, it's certainly a enjoyable pass time.

Of course. As I said, I'm being a bit melodramatic.
I am merely taking note of their faults. Should this have been just another Youtuber I would not have been given it a second thought, but this was a Youtuber I wanted to succeed, I want to be the best they could be and that's hardly going to happen if I disregard their imperfections or blindly treat them as perfections.

Admittedly though my title could have been better conceived.

Jon isn't stupid. If his comment wasn't meant as an attack on Pewdie's video he would still realise it would be misinterpreted as such.

I'm not just talking about his comment you realise, I'm talking about the tagging as well.

Why should I inconvenience myself? And I'm not sure what you mean by "let it go".

the way to go
personally i see it as a non issue
i just wanna enjoy funny videos