Ummmmmm….Wow. I mean, I knew about this situation….but I guess I didn’t know just how far the rabbit hole went until right now. I think I should preface this by saying that this post is mainly going to be a mix of my history as a fan of Channel Awesome as well as a reaction to this documentary. This post will be a tad lengthy and for that, I apologize. My first Channel Awsome video was the Nostalgia Critics review of “Garbage Pail Kids”. It was back in Middle School and a friend showed it to me. From there I was hooked. At first it was primarily for the humor. Doug’s videos always had me laughing. Even some of his more recent work (before the ChangeTheChannel incident) still had me chuckling. However, over time, it became more about hearing his opinion on a film and less about the humor. A great example is the “Cat in the Hat” Nostalgia Critic review. That movie was the first movie I had seen in a cinema and, as a kid, I thought it was hilarious. As an adolescent, especially after watching Doug’s review, let’s just say I want to go back and tell my younger self “It’s not as funny as you think”. When I became aware of the whole “ChangeTheChannel” incident and read the document, I was kind of shocked at the apology giving. It felt backhanded. “We’re sorry for you, but not sorry for what we did”. Really, that’s the apology you go with? The whole “accusation, fact” thing, didn’t help much either, as it made Channel Awesome just look like they weren’t sorry at all. So I stopped watching…..for a bit. I was eventually hooked back in, especially after they started the video series “First Viewing”. So I went back to watching their content and just assumed it was the “higher ups” at “Channel Awesome” who were wrong and that Doug and Rob were not at fault. Then I watched this documentary and……boy was I wrong. After watching this, I’m appalled. It is a shame that so many content creators and others who spent years working for them had experienced the things they did and were fired for the dumbest reasons. However it’s the stuff about JewWario I find the most shocking. I didn’t watch his videos, but I did view him in cross-overs, especially with Linkara and Suede when they reviewed the Pokemon movies. He seemed like a genuinely upbeat kind of guy. When he passed, it came as a genuine shock to me. Now, after seeing this…..it’s difficult. While his passing and the way it happened is still very sad, that feeling has been greatly lessened because of the things said in this documentary. So what am I going to do now? Well, I’ve since deleted a post I made a while back about my thoughts on Doug doing a clip-less review of “The Force Awakens” (don’t worry if you didn’t see it, no one else did). As for the channel on Youtube, well, I don’t subscribe to channels. I, personally, don’t see the point of subscribing when I can just search them or look on my “Recommended” for recent videos. That said, the next time I see a Channel Awesome video on my recommended page, I’m clicking those three dots on the side, then clicking “Not Interested”. As for my reason why, it’s not because I’ve already seen the video or I don’t like it, it’s because I don’t like the channel. As for me, I’m disheartened. I was a victim of bullying for 13 years (Elementary to High School, Kindergarten to grade 12). Channel Awesome was one of the few places I could go to get a good laugh in life when life wasn’t giving me anything fun. To find out now that the place I went to for laughs is just as big a bully as the bullies I went to school with for those 13 years, it hurts…..a lot. If you are vaguely aware of what happened, watch this video. Afterwards you will be completely up to date. If you are completely aware of the situation, WATCH THIS VIDEO, because I guarantee you will learn something you didn’t already know. All in all, just watch this video. That way, you know what NOT to do when you’re company (be it a Youtube channel or something else) becomes famous.
