• Angry Video Game Nerd
• Zero Punctuation
• Nostalgia Critic

Check out these three links. What do they have in common? Angry young men, angry about stuff that's not really worth getting that worked up about. Sure, it's a bother that your favourite game series has taken a turn to the emo side, and yes, I weep too when I see cheesy kids' shows used as lame public service announcements. Is it really worth venting one's spleen and exhausting their supply of obscenities though?

These three fellows speak to a trend in counter-culture as of late though, one that those in the furry community will identify with comedians like 2, The Ranting Gryphon. Much like Drawn Together, in the face of the overwhelming torrent of schmaltz and commercially groomed mass media, sheer audacity and vulgarity are seen as the only way to stand out.

'Pure' (as pure as one can be when editing a video) rage serves as a kind of vicarious thrill for the shy, poor or otherwise unheard viewers at home. Every viewer hit you see on those sites is another person getting a hit of anger methadone so that the true heroin rush of going on their own path of destruction isn't necessary.

The problems I see?

One, for the reviewers it's an easy intellectual way out. Instead of explaining why a gameplay change is a problem, or why a plot point in a cartoon is a bad one, they just rant and say/show silly things. "Fuck this shit with a spiked dildo!" and such is so intense that it distracts a viewer from the point that nothing of value is being said.

Two, it creates a commentary vacuum, in which the loudness of the reviewers suppresses the personal opinions of their viewers. Their entertainment idols also inform their media consumption, meaning that their enjoyment and comment is limited by what they perceive as acceptable material by the standards of those idols.

Three, in that vacuum, others' ability to express better informed but less intense messages is reduced. First by the sheer volume of the angry reviewers, and secondly by the fact that the 'next generation' so to speak is being raised on a bed of invective and thin emotional gruel.

So then, do I propose that such reviewers/commentators are forcefully evicted from the net and TV at large? Of course not!

My suggestion to their fans would be that, from someone who once slavishly adored them, they leave you emptier than you started if you can't separate your own views from theirs. Critical analysis and discussion is superior to rambling as it broadens knowledge instead of tweaking preheld notions about language and mass media. Moderate you absurd rants with some introspective views, it'll make both better in contrast and make for more multi-faceted commentators/content producers in the future.