• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Serious question about YouTuber Jimquisition

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lights and Waves

Member
Hi GAF,

Let me preface this by saying that I know very little about Jimquisition. What I do know is that he's (for the most part) universally praised on this website. Everyone seems to love him and considers him one of the top tier video game entertainment channels.

My question is this: can someone please explain his Nazi aesthetic and why no one seems to have a problem with it? This isn't to flamebait or instigate. I'm just having a hard time understanding how so much of GAF loves this guy, yet I've never seen the Nazi stuff addressed...
 
R

robertsan21

Member
Lights and Waves said:
Hi GAF,

Let me preface this by saying that I know very little about Jimquisition. What I do know is that he's (for the most part) universally praised on this website. Everyone seems to love him and considers him one of the top tier video game entertainment channels.

My question is this: can someone please explain his Nazi aesthetic and why no one seems to have a problem with it? This isn't to flamebait or instigate. I'm just having a hard time understanding how so much of GAF loves this guy, yet I've never seen the Nazi stuff addressed...
Click to expand...

I dont see the Nazi stuff your talking about?

More like V for Vendetta type stuff than anything else :)
 
QuantumZebra

QuantumZebra

Member
He utilizes a persona of a power-mad dictator. It contrasts spectacularly with his real life persona (that of a fairly liberal non-straight male), and blends into his harsh game / game company critiques that he is known for.

Plus it's hilarious to see someone dressed like Neo-Hitler waving a dildo and yelling about Konami.

Elven_Star said:
It's not like he's praising Nazis. If anything, he's making fun of them.
Click to expand...

^ - satire.
 
B

Brian_FETO

Banned
His whole shtick is like a cartoon supervillain

It's hard to really call it "Nazi aesthetic" when he isn't walking around with swastikas and red armbands
 
D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Jim Sterling gained some popularity originally being a journalist for website Destructoid. He went on to join Escapist, before dropping out of main media after getting a rather large following for his personality and starting his own website/YouTube channel. He has grown since then and get by 100% by Patreon, disabling ads on his videos and site so only people who want to support him financially will.

The imagery is not Nazi, it's more akin typical "Warefare"/Soviet Union/Communist imagery, in jest of dictatorship. He likes to take on the persona of a villain is the reasoning, IE, "Thank God for me!", and all of that.
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
I'm not sure enough people look up satire in the dictionary anymore or even understand what self-deprecating humour is.

It's not as if Jims subtle about it either. Not getting the joke is a superhuman effort.
 
B

bronson

Member
Coreda said:
Because there's a red background? What's the connection you're trying to make?
Click to expand...
There's obviously more going on than just a background. It looks like propaganda on purpose. It's tongue in cheek, but the parody has soured a little in the last year or so.
 
T

TyrantII

Member
par·o·dy
ˈperədē/
noun

1. an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
 
D

Dalius

Member
I've always thought he was channeling the aesthetic from Pink Floyd's The Wall (which, in turn, is referencing Nazis).
 
H

hodgy100

Member
I can assure you that jim has absolutely nothing to do with Nazism he is in fact parodying it . He is very much a "SJW" as called by his usual detractors
 
C

collige

Banned
It's a V for Vendetta parody, in particular
51f269d92e709.jpg
Click to expand...
 
G

Garrett Hawke

Member
A Dead Diehard said:
I'm guessing it's as simple as it was his schtick before things got too politically charged. :/
Click to expand...
yes, I believe it was this.

It's weird as well, because his opinions are usually very far removed from the mobbery of stuff like gamergate, the "alt-right" etc.

Pretty sure it's a remnant of a time before.
 
M

marrec

Banned
He's answered this question before and his answer was along the lines of:

It's just a general "dictator" aesthetic, not specifically Nazi iconography.

It seems he's doing more of the generic british 80s style lampooning of dictatorial authoritarianism.
 
Plumpbiscuit

Plumpbiscuit

Member
Are you serious? There is no Nazi symbolism in his videos. Red, black (and white) don't automatically mean Nazi.

0c28b5a520179e77991c1023ebdee36f.jpg


Oh shit, what's this? A German rockstar with a red band wearing black, he MUST be a Nazi!!

People need to grow up and learn that colour association does not correlate to brand or ideology association.
 
R

redcrayon

Member
Lights and Waves said:
Hi GAF,

Let me preface this by saying that I know very little about Jimquisition. What I do know is that he's (for the most part) universally praised on this website. Everyone seems to love him and considers him one of the top tier video game entertainment channels.

My question is this: can someone please explain his Nazi aesthetic and why no one seems to have a problem with it? This isn't to flamebait or instigate. I'm just having a hard time understanding how so much of GAF loves this guy, yet I've never seen the Nazi stuff addressed...
Click to expand...
I'm not really seeing where you're getting that from, it's more a general art theme taken from soviet-era propaganda posters and the persona of a cartoon dictator. Black, white and red is a popular colour scheme.
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
"Jim Sterling" as seen on the Jimquisition is a character/persona who's deliberately supposed to be over-the-top and have an inflated sense of self-importance (hence why he always says "thank god for me") and things like that.

I felt like it never struck me as being explicitly "Nazi" and more just a generic "supreme leader" type motif, like M. Bison/Shadaloo or something. When the show started obviously it was clear that he wasn't a Nazi and he chose that motif ironically for the outrageous effect it would have while being obvious such a thing clashed greatly with what he and his audience actually believed, and the dark-comedic juxtaposition of that kind of aesthetic with videos about such a mundane subject like video games. Obviously things have been changing in recent times which can make it seem more unfortunate though.

Jim himself is pretty liberal. He used to have some pretty sketchy beliefs (e.g. used to make fun of "feminazis" a lot) but he's matured greatly on that front in the past few years.
 
S

Spaghetti

Member
The aesthetic always reminded me a lot of the SS guy out of 'Allo 'Allo... but I'm pretty sure that wasn't really what Jim was going for.
 
L

Lights and Waves

Member
Coreda said:
Because there's a red background? What's the connection you're trying to make?
Click to expand...

  • Fighter jets, paratroopers and tanks at the start of his videos
  • Japanese "rising sun" flag motif in the background
  • Black red and white color scheme
  • Address his audience at a podium with a symbol very similar to this behind him
schoolflag_eagle.jpg
Click to expand...

No one thinks any of these symbols resemble Nazis...?
 
H

hobblygobbly

Member
It's a parody of late 19th and early to mid 20th century dictators (fascist) in general. It's like Charlie Chaplin and The Great Dictator but applied to gaming if one had to make a comparison in the thought process (it's not exactly the same, but the general idea).

i65JXpa.jpg
Click to expand...
 
H

hodgy100

Member
Lights and Waves said:
  • Fighter jets, paratroopers and tanks at the start of his videos
  • Japanese "rising sun" flag motif in the background
  • Black red and white color scheme
  • Address his audience at a podium with a symbol very similar to this behind him


No one thinks any of these symbols resemble Nazis...?
Click to expand...

Parody, repeat after me.

PA RO DY
 
D

DNAbro

Member
Lights and Waves said:
  • Fighter jets, paratroopers and tanks at the start of his videos
  • Japanese "rising sun" flag motif in the background
  • Black red and white color scheme
  • Address his audience at a podium with a symbol very similar to this behind him


No one thinks any of these symbols resemble Nazis...?
Click to expand...

it might as well be M. Bison.
 
S

Steeped in a Sea of Games

Member
There's no glorification in what Jim is doing. It's purely satire. Like others have said, if anything, he's making fun of the ridiculousness of such forms of authoritarianism. You'll notice that when he's making his actual points, he's usually doing it during a cutaway and most of the actual jokes happen when he's behind the podium. I figure that's intentional on his behalf to show that the background trappings are just for fun in the face of what he sees as actual issues he wants to comment on.
 
M

marrec

Banned
Lights and Waves said:
  • Fighter jets, paratroopers and tanks at the start of his videos
  • Japanese "rising sun" flag motif in the background
  • Black red and white color scheme
  • Address his audience at a podium with a symbol very similar to this behind him


No one thinks any of these symbols resemble Nazis...?
Click to expand...

Again, it's a lampoon of a lampoon.

Dictatorial parody as seen through the lens of british 80s pop culture which was lampooning authoritarian regimes of present and future.

It all has ties to nazi aesthetic, but that's because propaganda of the time all looked like that, it's not specifically referencing or influenced by it.
 
Plumpbiscuit

Plumpbiscuit

Member
Lights and Waves said:
Fighter jets, paratroopers and tanks at the start of his videos
Click to expand...
And this is Nazism, how?
Lights and Waves said:
Japanese "rising sun" flag motif in the background
Click to expand...
The Rising Sun of Japan was made long before the 20th century.
Lights and Waves said:
Black red and white color scheme
Click to expand...
Colour =/= symbolism. I've already covered this with my previous post.
Lights and Waves said:
Address his audience at a podium with a symbol very similar to this behind him
Click to expand...
He's been addressing his audience on a podium since the early days of Jimquisition, whilst he was at the Escapist, and had a bland generic background.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Games we know almost nothing about that you can't wait to play
2
80
3K
EruditeHobo replied
VGC: "Phil Spencer, for so long cast as Xbox’s saviour, may ultimately be remembered as the man who killed it.”
Opinion Business 2 3
142
9K
March Climber replied
  • Locked
FOX: Trans game developer launches first person shooter where players kill anti-trans villains, including priests. 'Terfenstein 3D'
2
70
6K
Faust replied
The Little Mermaid Live Action (no politics)
3 4 5 6 7
334
22K
GymWolf replied
[PSA] How to go on media blackout - Spoiler protection tools and youtuber blacklist
Community 2
54
4K
SlimySnake replied
Top Bottom