A Troll Sense Of Humour

Twitch is a web site that specializes in videos relating to video games.  In particular, that means videos of people playing games. It's been quite successful, with Amazon buying it for almost a billion dollars.  Of course, YouTube wanted a piece of that, so they started their own competing service, called YouTube Gaming.  Jimmy Kimmel did a few jokes about that, and then a short skit parodying it.  That video was posted on YouTube (the original YouTube) where it received a great deal of criticism.  Yes, I know, everything on YouTube gets lots of criticism, but this seemed to be more than the usual trolls, and was actually an expression of the gaming community calling Kimmel on being out of touch.

When I heard about this, it connected with something I've been noticing.  I'm amazed at how behind-the-times nightly talk show humour is.  Being on late at night, they're supposed to appeal to a younger, more adventurous viewership, yet the basis for their gags is usually tired old ideas. So I was all set to write a post about this, much of which would be criticizing Seth Meyers for his almost obsessive need to turn any news story about gaming into a all-gamers-are-virgins joke.  Of course, I don't think geeks or gamers are above ridicule, I just wish those jokes weren't so out of date.  At a time when poll after poll shows that the gender breakdown is close to 50/50, the gamers-that-haven't-met-a-woman concept just makes you sound old.

But then I watched Kimmel's video, and I found that actually, it wasn't that bad.  If you're not willing to watch it, I'll just tell you that it's about a new service in which you don't just watch other people playing games, you can watch people watching people playing games.  And then there's another site where you can watch people watching people watching... etc.  So it's mildly amusing, and a fairly reasonable thing to make fun of.  Definitely not the most insightful satire of the Zeitgeist, but it's much better than a nerdy comic making desperate clichéd attacks in a thinly-veiled expression of latent self-hatred. (Seriously Seth, call me if you need to talk.)

So I gave up on the post idea, and forgot about it for a few days.  But now I'm reminded of it again, because it turns out the anger the gaming community has for Kimmel has boiled over, to the point that he posted another video, in which he goes over some of the over-the-top insults he's received in the comment thread.  And then another.  And that brings us to the ultimate irony: Here I was ready to complain that talk shows were out of touch for stereotyping gamers, but instead it turns out that gamers went out of their way to confirm the stereotype of gamers as angry, immature boys.  At least future talk show hosts now have some easy and authentic targets.