UPDATE: Arin has responded to those who pointed to his past behavior in order to imply that he was being hypocritical with his criticism of Sr Pelo.
“I used to be an angry kid, p*** and vinegar, anything goes,” he tweeted. “I know now, and have known for quite some time that certain words hurt, and I am ashamed of having used them. I’ve made jokes that aren’t okay and said words that are hateful. I have hurt folks with my sh***y words. To those I’ve hurt, I’m sorry.”
He concluded: “I am grateful that people feel empowered to speak up about things that hurt them. Holding people of influence accountable for their actions is a good thing. We are people who get to say all kinds of things and have people listen to us, I think it is a reasonable request to ask us to listen back.”
ORIGINAL STORY: Game Grumps founder Arin Hanson is under fire after criticizing a video made by a YouTube animator, which mocked the popular ‘Storytime’ videos that attract huge audiences on the platform.
Arin, also known for his own animations under the pseudonym ‘Egoraptor,’ responded to the video ‘Every StoryTime Animation’ by Sr Pelo in a series of tweets. Calling the video “mean,” Arin added that the creators of Storytime animations “are kids who are all creating, sharing themselves, and trying to find a way to belong.”
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“This video only serves to segregate two groups of individuals both primarily populated by people who desperately want to connect with one another,” he concluded.
This is mean. I got made fun of like this all the time when I made cartoons and it fucking sucked. It didn’t give me a thick skin or make me a better artist or make me think more about what I was doing, it just hurt.
— Arin Hanson (@egoraptor) August 1, 2019
Arin also went on to discuss the “old school-newgrounds types” who were praising Sr Pelo’s video.
“The fact that all the people patting you on the back for this cartoon are old school-newgrounds types with very few “STAs” commenting speaks volumes,” he tweeted. “You can use this thread to pretend it’s all in good fun, but it’s not fun, it’s mean. It hurts.”
Chris “Oney” O’Neill responded to Arin’s criticisms, telling the Game Grumps host: “Newgrounds made you, and is probably the place with the least hate you’ve ever gotten anywhere online.”
Newgrounds made you, and is probably the place with the least hate you've ever gotten anywhere online. you say you dont read comments, maybe that's why you think its better. It's the internet, you laughed hard at SF chode. Ps. pelos cartoon is funny jabs, christ almighty grow up
— Chris (@OneyNG) August 1, 2019
In a tweet to Sr Pelo, Oney added: “Dont apologise. dont let someone bully you out of your sense of humor cos they lost theirs. keep doing what you do.”
After Arin posted the tweets criticizing Sr Pelo’s video, he swiftly became a trending topic. While it may seem like he offered level-headed criticisms of an arguably mean-spirited video, his comments and the reaction to them exemplify the divide between “old” internet humor and “new” internet humor.
Under the Egoraptor name, Arin’s animations were hugely influential to up-and-coming creators. Posting to Newgrounds and DeviantArt, Arin’s brash, edgy humor was widely emulated by other animators, with him still retaining much of this personality when forming Game Grumps alongside Jon “JonTron” Jafari in 2012.
However, since then Arin and Jon have parted ways, and the Game Grumps’ current co-host Dan Avidan has helped usher in a gentler era for the popular YouTube channel and its community. The stark contrast between Arin’s Egoraptor animations and his current efforts with Game Grumps have inevitably drawn criticisms from fans of his previous work, who have begrudged his softer approach to his videos.
Sr Pelo’s ‘Every StoryTime Animation’ video can be viewed below:
