YouTube Renegades
The Importance of YouTube’s Counter Personalities
PewDiePie,
Smosh, nigahiga, and Jenna Marbles are
the big names most Americans associate with YouTube. Maybe throw in the more
obscure ijustine, Hannah Hart, Game Grumps or Grace Helbig.
These are names I’m sure many people between the ages of 15
and 25 will recognize but how about Jon “JonTron” Jafari
with 2.1 million subscribers or George “Filthy Frank”
Miller with 1.5 million subscribers. With their videos averaging well over 1
million views per video, why are they so obscure? The answer is relatively
simple; they go against the YouTube mainstream cultivating their own dedicated
fan base in the process.
Jon Jafari started his career as a MineCraft letsplayer
before leaving the letsplay space to imitate the style The Angry Video Game
Nerds reviews. However Jafari quickly began to create his own style aided by
his robot Jacque and snappy fast paced editing style he was easily able to
distinguish himself from the pack of similar imitators. His fame grew steadily
until it rapidly picked up with the founding of GameGrumps in July of
2012 with friend Aaron
Hanson. Jafari while enjoying the massive commercial success of his and
Hanson’s new venture, realized he had alienated many fans since his work on his
personal channel was suffering. Jafari left GameGrumps in June of 2013 to focus
on his own projects.
Jafari’s continued success is continued success is due not
only to his unique style but also his influence on the Internet. He coined the
noise “ech” which is typically associated with displeasure of discomfort.
Jafari also is credited with expanding beyond video games, taking on TV series
and reviled animated films. This year he also accepted a sponsored series from
Disney to promote Star Wars, which he accepted under the condition he
maintained creative control of the series.
Jafari’s stark adherence to his own unique style and
commitment to professionally presented content stands in sharp contrast to
PewDiePie’s mass-market letsplay presentation and has earned him a loyal and
dedicated cult fanbase because of it.
George Miller began as sketch comedian under the channel
name DizastaMusic and would not rise to any real prominence until Miller
started the Harlem Shake meme. After that his character known as Filthy Frank
who is a parody of the racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic, andbigoted attitudes often associated with YouTube and the relative anonymity ofmost users. “Frank” also parodies many of YouTube’s staples of content,
including music videos, sketches, cooking shows, prank videos, and vlogs.
The character has remained controversial with many mistaking
the parody for the character of Frank’s actual beliefs. Many of his videos
contain positive messages about acceptance, awareness and the importance
keeping informed. Though, these messages are often hidden under the graphic and
often confrontational and uncomfortable humor.
For the viewers that can stomach Miller’s unique style will
find something unlike anything else on YouTube provided they could get past the gross, disturbing and just plain weird. That uniqueness is what draws so many
fans to his content spurred by Miller’s constant need to outdo his own videos
pushes both his content and what is acceptable on YouTube to the limit.
In a modern YouTube saturated with pranks, reaction videos
and letsplays, channels like JonTron and TVFilthyFrank stand as examples of the
many channels trying to expand beyond the mainstream and give a the niche
communities content. That niche is often over a million subscribers large and
growing every day. Both Miller and Jafari recently collaborated on a video on a
video recently bringing up the more recent trend of collaboration between channels
and across YouTube networks.
The JonTron channel is part of the 6th largest
channel network by subscribers network: Makergen. The
TVFilthyFrank channel is part of the 2nd largest channel network by
subscribers: FullScreen.
These Networks operate behind the scenes, handling the business and legal side
of the business with very little influence on the creative side. This means
collaboration can be more free flowing. Despite this fact, many larger channels
typically don’t like to collaborate outside their network. Both Miller and
Jafari ignore this trend, collaborating with many individuals regardless of
network.
Jafari and Miller are some of the most respected YouTubers
in their field and are representing a larger and shift in the YouTube space,
the importance of communities over mass appeal.
Notes: Sources and Videos Linked
