Comedy and Trolling (They are not the same) - Jimmy Kimmel
I'm not a comedian. Let's get that out of the way immediately.
Recently, Jimmy Kimmel made a bit on his show about the recent expansion of youtube's live streaming services. Youtube made a separate site especially for the gaming side of it's community, gaming.youtube.com, and Jimmy Kimmel didn't seem to understand the appeal of this.
If the story stopped there, everything would be fine, but no it didn't stop there. Mr. Kimmel is a comedian, so he had to make an attempt at comedy at this situation. (Because making fun of something you don't understand always works out)
For those who aren't aware of just what this is, I will explain. There has been a growing trend in people doing what's known as a "Let's Play." People will play a game and then upload it to youtube, or live stream it on youtube and another service called twitch where people can then watch said "Let's Play."
On the surface, this does sound kind of stupid, as why would someone just watch a game being played, a game is supposed to be interactive that's part of the appeal after all (and this may be what Mr. Kimmel is thinking) but I'll explain further. In the better Let's Play videos, the ones that actually get a lot of subscribers and viewers, it's not just about the game it's also about the person playing the game.
The person playing the game becomes and entertainer in a variety of ways. In some instances, the player is a professional and people would watch them just as they would another sports player: to see the game played professionally with a high level of skill (Yes, E-Sports are a thing).
In other instances the players are on the same level as comedians and make jokes about the game and tell stories about their lives. A great example of this is Game Grumps. The hosts of Game Grumps actually take improv classes to learn comedic timing and improve the quality of their commentary. They are also interesting people. I dare anyone to watch a Game Grumps episode about Dan's father and not laugh.
The third type of entertainer I feel is one that happens across the board, but even moreso in live streaming, which is the interactive entertainer. They talk to the audience, build a connection, and because of the stories told and the window into their lives the viewers feel almost a part of the show. In a live stream setting this is even more apparent as sometimes the streamer will allow the viewers input on the game, or even get to play in online multiplayer with the streamer.
The route Mr. Kimmel chose to take for comedy was one of insulting the audience that consumes this content. He called it first the "we should all be very ashamed of ourselves for failing as parents channel" insinuating that obviously everyone who likes this type of content was raised wrong. Then it went into a bit where there were several more channels on youtube where you could watch people watching other people play video games, and the bit repeated until it was God watching. God turns to the camera and laments about how he's created a race of idiots.
Here's the video in question: https://youtu.be/Ji9KmXwrA5Y
Afterwards, needless to say people were upset and disliked the video on youtube and posted many many comments on it. A lot of the comments he received were threats and general hate, which is wrong and shouldn't have happened, but many other comments provided well thought out arguments as to why some people like watching other people play video games.
When the attention it was getting went into overload, Mr. Kimmel spoke about it again on his show, taking the comments which attacked him or made poor arguments. Mr. Kimmel set up his side of things so that he looked like the good guy in front of people that were attending his show and would probably be on his side regardless (or would be thrown out I imagine).
In this sense, I can only think that Mr. Kimmel was seeking to troll those who attacked him, and by association everyone who doesn't agree with him on the subject. The subject Mr. Kimmel believes, I will remind you, is that those who like watching a form of entertainment are idiots or delinquents.
This is not comedy, this is just attacking another group of people. Attacking for the sake of laughter, essentially schadenfreude, is the low hanging fruit of people who can't come up with something cleverer, wittier, or just plain intelligent.
Perhaps if Mr. Kimmel was better at his job he wouldn't have to rely on such tactics and could have even used the situation to admit that he was trolling and that it was fine to have such a hobby, but this didn't happen. Mr. Kimmel pulled up a comment in the second video about someone likening watching people play video games to watching sports. Mr. Kimmel stated that he watches football and also thinks it's dumb, but that watching people play video games is like watching fantasy football.
This is again a lack of understanding about the Let's Play format that, had he actually respected the people he was making fun of he would have easily found out. He could have seen the comedy of the Game Grumps, or the mastery of a professional E-Sports player, or the interaction from a live streaming with the audience. I'm sure that many people in the comments mentioned these people, and I'm sure that Mr. Kimmel ignored them and didn't try to further his understanding of the subject.
Mr. Kimmel doesn't seem to grasp that the smartest form of comedy is understanding a subject inside and out and being able to point out it's flaws in a clever way. We almost saw it with the fantasy football comment, which I did laugh at, but the rest was just trolling.
The saddest part is that the video itself was posted on youtube, and the reason all the networks want to be on youtube is because even they understand that it's growing quicker than ever. Youtube is just like Netflix. People are no longer watching cable, they watch netflix. People are no longer watching talk shows, they're watching people's blogs to connect with them personally. Mr. Kimmel is part of a medium that is shrinking daily, and perhaps he feels scared of that.
The average viewership of Jimmy Kimmel is a little less than 1 million to a little over 1 million from what I could find. The average Pewdiepie video? Between 2-3 million.
I'd be scared too.
Recently, Jimmy Kimmel made a bit on his show about the recent expansion of youtube's live streaming services. Youtube made a separate site especially for the gaming side of it's community, gaming.youtube.com, and Jimmy Kimmel didn't seem to understand the appeal of this.
If the story stopped there, everything would be fine, but no it didn't stop there. Mr. Kimmel is a comedian, so he had to make an attempt at comedy at this situation. (Because making fun of something you don't understand always works out)
For those who aren't aware of just what this is, I will explain. There has been a growing trend in people doing what's known as a "Let's Play." People will play a game and then upload it to youtube, or live stream it on youtube and another service called twitch where people can then watch said "Let's Play."
On the surface, this does sound kind of stupid, as why would someone just watch a game being played, a game is supposed to be interactive that's part of the appeal after all (and this may be what Mr. Kimmel is thinking) but I'll explain further. In the better Let's Play videos, the ones that actually get a lot of subscribers and viewers, it's not just about the game it's also about the person playing the game.
The person playing the game becomes and entertainer in a variety of ways. In some instances, the player is a professional and people would watch them just as they would another sports player: to see the game played professionally with a high level of skill (Yes, E-Sports are a thing).
In other instances the players are on the same level as comedians and make jokes about the game and tell stories about their lives. A great example of this is Game Grumps. The hosts of Game Grumps actually take improv classes to learn comedic timing and improve the quality of their commentary. They are also interesting people. I dare anyone to watch a Game Grumps episode about Dan's father and not laugh.
The third type of entertainer I feel is one that happens across the board, but even moreso in live streaming, which is the interactive entertainer. They talk to the audience, build a connection, and because of the stories told and the window into their lives the viewers feel almost a part of the show. In a live stream setting this is even more apparent as sometimes the streamer will allow the viewers input on the game, or even get to play in online multiplayer with the streamer.
The route Mr. Kimmel chose to take for comedy was one of insulting the audience that consumes this content. He called it first the "we should all be very ashamed of ourselves for failing as parents channel" insinuating that obviously everyone who likes this type of content was raised wrong. Then it went into a bit where there were several more channels on youtube where you could watch people watching other people play video games, and the bit repeated until it was God watching. God turns to the camera and laments about how he's created a race of idiots.
Here's the video in question: https://youtu.be/Ji9KmXwrA5Y
Afterwards, needless to say people were upset and disliked the video on youtube and posted many many comments on it. A lot of the comments he received were threats and general hate, which is wrong and shouldn't have happened, but many other comments provided well thought out arguments as to why some people like watching other people play video games.
When the attention it was getting went into overload, Mr. Kimmel spoke about it again on his show, taking the comments which attacked him or made poor arguments. Mr. Kimmel set up his side of things so that he looked like the good guy in front of people that were attending his show and would probably be on his side regardless (or would be thrown out I imagine).
In this sense, I can only think that Mr. Kimmel was seeking to troll those who attacked him, and by association everyone who doesn't agree with him on the subject. The subject Mr. Kimmel believes, I will remind you, is that those who like watching a form of entertainment are idiots or delinquents.
This is not comedy, this is just attacking another group of people. Attacking for the sake of laughter, essentially schadenfreude, is the low hanging fruit of people who can't come up with something cleverer, wittier, or just plain intelligent.
Perhaps if Mr. Kimmel was better at his job he wouldn't have to rely on such tactics and could have even used the situation to admit that he was trolling and that it was fine to have such a hobby, but this didn't happen. Mr. Kimmel pulled up a comment in the second video about someone likening watching people play video games to watching sports. Mr. Kimmel stated that he watches football and also thinks it's dumb, but that watching people play video games is like watching fantasy football.
This is again a lack of understanding about the Let's Play format that, had he actually respected the people he was making fun of he would have easily found out. He could have seen the comedy of the Game Grumps, or the mastery of a professional E-Sports player, or the interaction from a live streaming with the audience. I'm sure that many people in the comments mentioned these people, and I'm sure that Mr. Kimmel ignored them and didn't try to further his understanding of the subject.
Mr. Kimmel doesn't seem to grasp that the smartest form of comedy is understanding a subject inside and out and being able to point out it's flaws in a clever way. We almost saw it with the fantasy football comment, which I did laugh at, but the rest was just trolling.
The saddest part is that the video itself was posted on youtube, and the reason all the networks want to be on youtube is because even they understand that it's growing quicker than ever. Youtube is just like Netflix. People are no longer watching cable, they watch netflix. People are no longer watching talk shows, they're watching people's blogs to connect with them personally. Mr. Kimmel is part of a medium that is shrinking daily, and perhaps he feels scared of that.
The average viewership of Jimmy Kimmel is a little less than 1 million to a little over 1 million from what I could find. The average Pewdiepie video? Between 2-3 million.
I'd be scared too.
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