Jimquisition: Too Cool To Be Cool

[ProjectTrinity]

This is actually my favorite episode so far. It has the Sonic mention, the Dante mentioning, someone mentioning that Duke isn't as grand as others make him out to be (Who cares: If you're buying the game, you think he's good enough), and a complete knockout on those who take your persona/attire seriously. I thought that was the best part.

Though I still get the feeling that a "games as art" argument may very well be the place where we disagree the most.

 

[Keava]

I think it's kinda sad the way he's portrayed in DNF.I actually agree with Jim in that aspect because DN is much akin to Johnie Bravo.Except nobody takes Johnie seriously whereas Duke is taken seriously in his own world.That made Johnie so likable because he was some super satire,Duke is supposed to be the same.Getting sucked off by 2 schoolgirls is wrong in a lot of countries as well.

Unless the game is there to fulfill everyone's self desires of being a douchebag who's not only awesome but gets everything he wants.

Err. Wait, which countries exactly, except of course the ones ruled by religious doctrines, in which majority of games would actually be illegal? If i recall correctly "school girl porn"makes up big part of porn overall. Dressed like schoolgirl is not the same as underaged....

Now as for the Duke part, why wouldn't he take himself seriously in his won world? It's not like you relaly interact with many non strippers/monster sin that game. You don't have the reference point of "world treating Duke".
It's a game where over the top action hero goes to blow aliens up, throwing around cheesy one liners and acting extremely sexist towards women. If you don't see the satire on manliness, action flicks and American Way of Life there, then i'm not sure if we played the same games.

Satire, as a genre, doesn't have to be funny in "straight-forward" way at all, it often isn't even meant to be, it's all about throwing random food for thought in a very exaggerated and ludicrous form. One of most known satirical works is "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and i doubt many of people here would find it tasteful or overly 'funny'.

 

[Harry Mason]

So... A character has to be actively screaming "WHURR DURR, I'M A MACHO COOL MAN BUT NOT REALLY 'CUZ I'M REALLY LAME! MY LEGS ARE MADE OF PURE LIQUID IRONY!" or have some snarky character cutting their jokes down constantly in order for Jim to think that they're funny? The very fact that Duke is played so unrelentingly straight is what makes him funny!

A minority of people not understanding and taking things too far contributes to the comedy. Steven Cobert is funnier BECAUSE there are people who actually think he's a Republican. Having an outside voice reminding the audience of the central joke constantly MURDERS any merits something has in the first place.

It like telling any joke...

(Comedy begins)
"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
"I don't know! How many?"
"FISH."
(Comedy ends)

At this point, the comedy as ended for 90% of your audience. If someone didn't get it, they get left behind. It's too bad, but you have still gotten a laugh out of most of your consumers.

If you stand there after you finish the joke and go "Well, you see, 'surrealism' is an artistic movement where things not making sense and being out of place is kind of the point. You were expecting a number of people to be the punchline, but instead it was something random that made no sense!" People will lose interest and you've LOST 90% of your audience at that point. It's why laugh tracks have fallen so far out of style. If you need to be REMINDED why something is funny, it wasn't funny in the first place.

Once again, awful show, awful argument and central point, awful and forgettable personality, awful presentation, awful, ham-fisted attempts at irony... Just BAD.

Boo.

I do like the glasses better this week, though.

 

[camazotz]

Damnit Jim, here I was hearing about your name from sites like GJAIF and coming to the conclusion you must be all that's wrong with gaming journalism today....and then you have to go and do something so freakin' brilliant like this that I have to officially say I am a fan now. Great stuff! And right on the money too with Duke Nukem....helps to explain why I don't now, nor have I ever cared for this character.

 

[ShadowKatt]

Jim fails at funny again.

I agree whole heartedly. I believe there was even a poll that asked the escapist if they wanted to keep this feature, and the highest vote was "NO".

And here we are, so poll = petition, and no one takes internet petitions seriously.

You know, if you watch his show, you're saying to the Escapist that you want to see more... it's the same thing if you watch shitty movie, play shitty video games or go to a bad restaurant...

A petition means nothing if there's no intention behind it

So, just ignore it and it'll go away? I don't know why I didn't think of that, it works every time, right? Try ignoring me, see if I go away. The point here being that if youwant change, you have to take an active part, so I will continue to speak out against it.

So you're basically an annoying protestor that won't shut up until they get their way?

Are these videos really hurting you? Why do you want this to be taken off so badly, it's not like you are being forced to watch it every time it comes out. It's not like it's restricting your abilities to enjoy this website or anything. You personally disliking it doesn't mean that it's ruining the whole site. Please just jump off your high horse for a second.

Ah, so now having a poor opinion of something is simply having a superiority complex(the "high horse") you refered to. I dislike the Jimquisition, but you offend me with your accusations.

No, I'm not being forced to watch it, but whether you like it or not(which I'm sure is heavily the 'not') I'm just as much a part of this community as you are and I have just as much a vested interest in this site maintaining a certain standard of excellence that I feel the Jimquisition does NOT stand up to. That's why I speak out against it, because when you compare it to other columns like Extra Credits and The Big Picture, it falls very short in terms of contant and presentation.

And I'm not alone. It's not one person that isn't satisfied with this kind of content on the site.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.287959-Poll-do-you-like-jimquisition

 

[camazotz]

So... A character has to be actively screaming "WHURR DURR, I'M A MACHO COOL MAN BUT NOT REALLY 'CUZ I'M REALLY LAME! MY LEGS ARE MADE OF PURE LIQUID IRONY!" or have some snarky character cutting their jokes down constantly in order for Jim to think that they're funny? The very fact that Duke is played so unrelentingly straight is what makes him funny!

A minority of people not understanding and taking things too far contributes to the comedy. Steven Cobert is funnier BECAUSE there are people who actually think he's a Republican. Having an outside voice reminding the audience of the central joke constantly MURDERS any merits something has in the first place.

It like telling any joke...

(Comedy begins)
"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
"I don't know! How many?"
"FISH."
(Comedy ends)

At this point, the comedy as ended for 90% of your audience. If someone didn't get it, they get left behind. It's too bad, but you have still gotten a laugh out of most of your consumers.

If you stand there after you finish the joke and go "Well, you see, 'surrealism' is an artistic movement where things not making sense and being out of place is kind of the point. You were expecting a number of people to be the punchline, but instead it was something random that made no sense!" People will lose interest and you've LOST 90% of your audience at that point. It's why laugh tracks have fallen so far out of style. If you need to be REMINDED why something is funny, it wasn't funny in the first place.

Once again, awful show, awful argument and central point, awful and forgettable personality, awful presentation, awful, ham-fisted attempts at irony... Just BAD.

Boo.

I do like the glasses better this week, though.

Well if it helps any, that's what I got out of his show: that the Duke is now having to remind us of why he's funny, essentially, and it shouldn't have to do that; it's telling us the same joke that's already been done to death a thousand times since, essentially...it needs comedic irony, something....anything!....to make it notable in some way today, outside of the fact that its a vaporware game finally coming to life.

 

[Penguin_Factory]

I think you've got a point here with Duke Nukem, although I'm not entirely sure I agree with the specifics. Whether he's supposed to be an over the top parody or played straight, I just never found the whole concept funny. It's actually one of those situations where not only is it not funny, I'm not even sure what's SUPPOSED to be funny about it.

You'd totally right about Sonic though. Jesus, I can't believe there was ever a time when people thought Sonic really was cool. The 90's were a strange time.

 

[camazotz]

I don't see why everyone hates Jimquisition so much. If you don't like it then don't watch it. Seems simple.

There's a pretty loud minority online that doesn't seem to understand that the best way to protest someone is to stop talking about them, stop listening to/watching them, and stop making them relevant by virtue of ignoring the subject of their ire.

Luckily, they go right on bitching about Jim and that makes him more relevant than he ever would have been if they had simply disregarded him entirely!

Honestly, the first time I ever heard of the guy it was on some web sites that regularly held him up as the poster child for all that is evil about the internet. Now that I've seen a few of his shows, I think its pretty safe to say that those people need to chill out and maybe focus on real problems in the Real World that deserve more attention than trying to smear Jim's own ironically besmirched name. The guy is a developing talent, he's not nearly as vile as his online persona makes him out to be, and he's got some decent observations....and I fully expect him to continue to get better and more polished at the webcast thing over time.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

I think it's kinda sad the way he's portrayed in DNF.I actually agree with Jim in that aspect because DN is much akin to Johnie Bravo.Except nobody takes Johnie seriously whereas Duke is taken seriously in his own world.That made Johnie so likable because he was some super satire,Duke is supposed to be the same.Getting sucked off by 2 schoolgirls is wrong in a lot of countries as well.

Unless the game is there to fulfill everyone's self desires of being a douchebag who's not only awesome but gets everything he wants.

Err. Wait, which countries exactly, except of course the ones ruled by religious doctrines, in which majority of games would actually be illegal? If i recall correctly "school girl porn"makes up big part of porn overall. Dressed like schoolgirl is not the same as underaged....

Now as for the Duke part, why wouldn't he take himself seriously in his won world? It's not like you relaly interact with many non strippers/monster sin that game. You don't have the reference point of "world treating Duke".
It's a game where over the top action hero goes to blow aliens up, throwing around cheesy one liners and acting extremely sexist towards women. If you don't see the satire on manliness, action flicks and American Way of Life there, then i'm not sure if we played the same games.

Satire, as a genre, doesn't have to be funny in "straight-forward" way at all, it often isn't even meant to be, it's all about throwing random food for thought in a very exaggerated and ludicrous form. One of most known satirical works is "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and i doubt many of people here would find it tasteful or overly 'funny'.

Well there's a difference between schoolgirl and women dressed as schoolgirls which was something I might've missed .

The point of Jims video was that.The world treating the character.Which is most important for an over the top character.I personally don't find the intrigue in Duke being himself and people being glad about him being himself.It's a really warped reality and you lose the satire and interesting likability about the character being flawed despite perfect.It slowly turns into a wank fantasy.

 

[EchetusXe]

Jim seems to have confused cool with comic. It is the essence of comedy to have a man think he is cool/smart/charismatic when is actually uncool/dumb/uncharismatic. The tragic clown. We love them because they are tragic, we find them funny because everyone likes to laugh at the pomposity of an arrogant fool. The best example of this is Rigsby in Rising Damp.

Anyway, where was I? O yeah, Jim has a point that it is very difficult and foolhardy to say 'let us make a story about a cool character who goes around doing cool things and everyone thinks hes cool'. It is much easier to have a supporting character as the cool guy, because we see less of him. You follow someone round long enough and the lose their mystery and 'coolness'. Hobbes said every man must sleep and so therefore no man is invincible (I'm paraphrasing). It much the same way, nobody looks cool on the john (toilet).

I guess James Bond is the inspiration, forever cool and forever a murdering wiseass womanizer. But Bond has class, Nukkem has no class whatsoever. No class, no humour, no style - how can he still be cool? Actually Schwarzenegger is probably the inspiration. But at least he had a funny accent.

So make Nukkem Austrian and keep the same script? Yep.

^ I just typed a complete pile of shite but oh well.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

The humour in Duke Nukem is too dry?

It's pastiche more than it is parody anyway, so it makes sense for the delivery to be fairly straight.

Duke is fine, I definitly don't want him to be just another idiot-savant character, that's seriously been done to death in recent years.

 

[Keava]

Well there's a difference between schoolgirl and women dressed as schoolgirls which was something I might've missed .

The point of Jims video was that.The world treating the character.Which is most important for an over the top character.I personally don't find the intrigue in Duke being himself and people being glad about him being himself.It's a really warped reality and you lose the satire and interesting likability about the character being flawed despite perfect.It slowly turns into a wank fantasy.

I really have to disagree. I see it as a satire on wank fantasy actually. Whatever Mary Sue fanfics can achieve Duke just does more of, in more 'cool' ways. That's the point. To find the boundaries and push them even further.

Satire gained it's 'funny' part only in modern times, but books like Orwell's Animal Farm, 1984, Burgess's Clockwork Orange or even Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and American Psycho by Ellis are in fact satire. Neither of those books is really 'funny', some of them are disgusting, cruel, extremely violent or simply terrifying.

 

[Negatempest]

Littaly, CINN4M0N, cainx10a, WaaghPowa have already said what I was going to say about duke nukem. Now on to Sonic the Hedgehog.

I agree on the terms that sonic should not be saying certain things to be "cool". Now if we go back and play the games Sonic 1 - Sonic & Knuckles you would see that the "90's" era sonic is still timeless. It has more on how he acts in the game and the platforming over seeing a cutscene of him talk or do something we have no control of. Could you imagine playing a Mario game where Bowser, Mario, or Luigi are talking in between levels? It is such a stab at the flow of the game. So less talking and more playing the character.

 

[Balobo]

Jim fails at funny again.

I agree whole heartedly. I believe there was even a poll that asked the escapist if they wanted to keep this feature, and the highest vote was "NO".

And here we are, so poll = petition, and no one takes internet petitions seriously.

You know, if you watch his show, you're saying to the Escapist that you want to see more... it's the same thing if you watch shitty movie, play shitty video games or go to a bad restaurant...

A petition means nothing if there's no intention behind it

So, just ignore it and it'll go away? I don't know why I didn't think of that, it works every time, right? Try ignoring me, see if I go away. The point here being that if youwant change, you have to take an active part, so I will continue to speak out against it.

So you're basically an annoying protestor that won't shut up until they get their way?

Are these videos really hurting you? Why do you want this to be taken off so badly, it's not like you are being forced to watch it every time it comes out. It's not like it's restricting your abilities to enjoy this website or anything. You personally disliking it doesn't mean that it's ruining the whole site. Please just jump off your high horse for a second.

Ah, so now having a poor opinion of something is simply having a superiority complex(the "high horse") you refered to. I dislike the Jimquisition, but you offend me with your accusations.

No, I'm not being forced to watch it, but whether you like it or not(which I'm sure is heavily the 'not') I'm just as much a part of this community as you are and I have just as much a vested interest in this site maintaining a certain standard of excellence that I feel the Jimquisition does NOT stand up to. That's why I speak out against it, because when you compare it to other columns like Extra Credits and The Big Picture, it falls very short in terms of contant and presentation.

And I'm not alone. It's not one person that isn't satisfied with this kind of content on the site.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.287959-Poll-do-you-like-jimquisition

I'm aware that YOU think that it falls short in "contant" and presentation, that's pretty obvious. And yes, I know you're not alone. There are always at least two people in the world that will share the same opinion. Boo hoo, more people voted "No" than "Yes" on a poll that didn't receive much attention.

I never said weren't a part of the community, just remember that there's a part of this community that does enjoy the content Jim Sterling puts out. Look at this way: would it be better for members of the community to have the ability to watch the content on the site and the members that don't want to watch it to ignore it? Or should it just be removed entirely so only one camp is happy? The latter seems to be the way you function.

 

[Anchupom]

This is actually one of my favourite series.

 

[winter2]

I might be the crazy one, but I take DNF as complete and utter satire.

 

[carpathic]

A thoughtful and funny series. I quite enjoyed today's especially the idea with SOnic - devalue the franchise in order to increase its value and relevance. A curious and insightful idea.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

Well there's a difference between schoolgirl and women dressed as schoolgirls which was something I might've missed .

The point of Jims video was that.The world treating the character.Which is most important for an over the top character.I personally don't find the intrigue in Duke being himself and people being glad about him being himself.It's a really warped reality and you lose the satire and interesting likability about the character being flawed despite perfect.It slowly turns into a wank fantasy.

I really have to disagree. I see it as a satire on wank fantasy actually. Whatever Mary Sue fanfics can achieve Duke just does more of, in more 'cool' ways. That's the point. To find the boundaries and push them even further.

Satire gained it's 'funny' part only in modern times, but books like Orwell's Animal Farm, 1984, Burgess's Clockwork Orange or even Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and American Psycho by Ellis are in fact satire. Neither of those books is really 'funny', some of them are disgusting, cruel, extremely violent or simply terrifying.

Thanks for snipping my quote .

I guess I'm used to certain types of those overly cool characters.And they usually fail despite being so cool(already mentioned Bravo and Slater,might as well throw in Ash from Evil Dead).I find it hard to imagine a world where everyone agrees with you.If they did it would be quite boring.

You seem very learned on the subject...I've just heard about those books and watched the movie on the last one.

 

[ShadowKatt]

Jim fails at funny again.

I agree whole heartedly. I believe there was even a poll that asked the escapist if they wanted to keep this feature, and the highest vote was "NO".

And here we are, so poll = petition, and no one takes internet petitions seriously.

You know, if you watch his show, you're saying to the Escapist that you want to see more... it's the same thing if you watch shitty movie, play shitty video games or go to a bad restaurant...

A petition means nothing if there's no intention behind it

So, just ignore it and it'll go away? I don't know why I didn't think of that, it works every time, right? Try ignoring me, see if I go away. The point here being that if youwant change, you have to take an active part, so I will continue to speak out against it.

So you're basically an annoying protestor that won't shut up until they get their way?

Are these videos really hurting you? Why do you want this to be taken off so badly, it's not like you are being forced to watch it every time it comes out. It's not like it's restricting your abilities to enjoy this website or anything. You personally disliking it doesn't mean that it's ruining the whole site. Please just jump off your high horse for a second.

Ah, so now having a poor opinion of something is simply having a superiority complex(the "high horse") you refered to. I dislike the Jimquisition, but you offend me with your accusations.

No, I'm not being forced to watch it, but whether you like it or not(which I'm sure is heavily the 'not') I'm just as much a part of this community as you are and I have just as much a vested interest in this site maintaining a certain standard of excellence that I feel the Jimquisition does NOT stand up to. That's why I speak out against it, because when you compare it to other columns like Extra Credits and The Big Picture, it falls very short in terms of contant and presentation.

And I'm not alone. It's not one person that isn't satisfied with this kind of content on the site.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.287959-Poll-do-you-like-jimquisition

I'm aware that YOU think that it falls short in "contant" and presentation, that's pretty obvious. And yes, I know you're not alone. There are always at least two people in the world that will share the same opinion. Boo hoo, more people voted "No" than "Yes" on a poll that didn't receive much attention.

I never said weren't a part of the community, just remember that there's a part of this community that does enjoy the content Jim Sterling puts out. Look at this way: would it be better for members of the community to have the ability to watch the content on the site and the members that don't want to watch it to ignore it? Or should it just be removed entirely so only one camp is happy? The latter seems to be the way you function.

Yes, even when that one camp is the majority, we have to have EVERYTHING so EVERYONE is happy ALL the time. I find it amusing that you want to attack me for trying to deny a part of the escapist their Jimquisition, well the same could be said of the Jimquisition occupying the monday slot and taking up the space that could be used for something better.

You want to criticize me for having some kind of false moral high ground, my "high horse", and you're doing no better mocking the numbers of people that aren't satisfied with the content.

The escapist and its community deserve better being the best gaming site on the internet. I feel insulted that when the people that want to criticise and tear down gaming come here to look for more fuel to use against gaming as a hobby and a culture, the Jimquisition is right there on the front page to emphasise the same old arrogant, ignorant, immature stereotype.

 

[Balobo]

Jim fails at funny again.

I agree whole heartedly. I believe there was even a poll that asked the escapist if they wanted to keep this feature, and the highest vote was "NO".

And here we are, so poll = petition, and no one takes internet petitions seriously.

You know, if you watch his show, you're saying to the Escapist that you want to see more... it's the same thing if you watch shitty movie, play shitty video games or go to a bad restaurant...

A petition means nothing if there's no intention behind it

So, just ignore it and it'll go away? I don't know why I didn't think of that, it works every time, right? Try ignoring me, see if I go away. The point here being that if youwant change, you have to take an active part, so I will continue to speak out against it.

So you're basically an annoying protestor that won't shut up until they get their way?

Are these videos really hurting you? Why do you want this to be taken off so badly, it's not like you are being forced to watch it every time it comes out. It's not like it's restricting your abilities to enjoy this website or anything. You personally disliking it doesn't mean that it's ruining the whole site. Please just jump off your high horse for a second.

Ah, so now having a poor opinion of something is simply having a superiority complex(the "high horse") you refered to. I dislike the Jimquisition, but you offend me with your accusations.

No, I'm not being forced to watch it, but whether you like it or not(which I'm sure is heavily the 'not') I'm just as much a part of this community as you are and I have just as much a vested interest in this site maintaining a certain standard of excellence that I feel the Jimquisition does NOT stand up to. That's why I speak out against it, because when you compare it to other columns like Extra Credits and The Big Picture, it falls very short in terms of contant and presentation.

And I'm not alone. It's not one person that isn't satisfied with this kind of content on the site.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.287959-Poll-do-you-like-jimquisition

I'm aware that YOU think that it falls short in "contant" and presentation, that's pretty obvious. And yes, I know you're not alone. There are always at least two people in the world that will share the same opinion. Boo hoo, more people voted "No" than "Yes" on a poll that didn't receive much attention.

I never said weren't a part of the community, just remember that there's a part of this community that does enjoy the content Jim Sterling puts out. Look at this way: would it be better for members of the community to have the ability to watch the content on the site and the members that don't want to watch it to ignore it? Or should it just be removed entirely so only one camp is happy? The latter seems to be the way you function.

Yes, even when that one camp is the majority, we have to have EVERYTHING so EVERYONE is happy ALL the time. I find it amusing that you want to attack me for trying to deny a part of the escapist their Jimquisition, well the same could be said of the Jimquisition occupying the monday slot and taking up the space that could be used for something better.

You want to criticize me for having some kind of false moral high ground, my "high horse", and you're doing no better mocking the numbers of people that aren't satisfied with the content.

The escapist and its community deserve better being the best gaming site on the internet. I feel insulted that when the people that want to criticise and tear down gaming come here to look for more fuel to use against gaming as a hobby and a culture, the Jimquisition is right there on the front page to emphasise the same old arrogant, ignorant, immature stereotype.

That one camp isn't even a huge majority anymore. It's starting to get closer and closer, whether you like it or not. And whether or not something is "better" is kind of subjective, of course I wouldn't expect you to address that or anything. I haven't noticed the same amount of foaming-in-the-mouth comments in this video as the previous videos.