He absolutely knows about what’s been happening with Ralph. And I’m sure he’s aware of why people wanna hear him address this topic. It’s just weird because he used to be the kind of guy who would 100% laugh about stuff like that, or at least talk about it. He used to kind of go with the flow of chat, and now it’s like he’s swimming against it. It’s not a huge deal, it’s more just disappointing. And from what I can see, a lot of people feel this way.
To my recollection, Jim’s never been out of good graces with his chat (I could be wrong). But that process often starts like this. If a large amount of your audience wants a certain kind of content or topic, you should give it to them, or explain why you can’t. Otherwise, it begins to fester into a hostile dynamic. By the time it metastasizes into an antagonistic relationship, it’s too late. Nobody recovers from that.