Was in a call with a pal of mine when he shared this weird playlist that popped up in his YouTube recommended feed
This channel is
full of playlists containing hundreds or well over a thousand videos of what can uniformly be described as children's animation, YouTube Poops, and occasional miscellaneous things you might see on a children's TV network, like commercials and interstitials. But what piqued my interest are not so much the length, number, and content of these playlists, but their titles, which are often exorbitantly long and detailed. Examples include:
- I Love January February March April and May 2022
- I Hate April 13th 14th 17th May 20th June 13th July 27th 28th 29th and 30th and 31st and 1st August and September 13th 2021
- I Love December 30th 2020 Justin From The Past and Jimmy Likes Childhood Shows
You get the picture of what the standard playlist titles look like, but some of these playlist titles give us a peek into Johnson's mental state, life, and family. Here are a few examples:
- I Hate Sept 30th and Oct 2022 I don't want to be call in police I don't want to be run away & Caroline is not coming stop saying you don't Deserve it
- I Hate November 28 2023 I Don't Want to Go Respite And Stop Saying I'm Not Happy
- I Hate June 23rd 2018 Stop Saying what happened to Lee
You'll notice that playlist titles that contain snippets like these are associated with days he hates.
But who even is Johnson Igbafen?
192.com mentions the existence of other Igbafens at "NE31", a postal code prefix in the UK that is associated with Hebburn, a town just outside of Newcastle Upon Tyne. This is corroborated by the fact that Johnson mentions not wanting to go to a place called the
Alan Shearer Centre, which is a facility that offers resources for people with disabilities, including respite care, which Johnson mentions. It's also in Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Quick note is that this channel and the other that I'm about to mention both mention a few other people who I ultimately couldn't find anything on. They are:
- Lee: Something happened to him that Justin hates being brought up
- Sammy: Stated by Justin as not wanting to go to Respite. (may be a mother named Samantha)
- Jimmy (Igbafen): Explicitly stated to be a different person than Justin and doesn't want to go to Respite. Playlist title mentions he's going to Nigeria - Igbafen is a Nigerian surname
- Kate: She's just Kate.
- Caroline: Justin seems upset that she's not coming back. Possible misspelling of Coraline (as in the movie) which is also mentioned a few times in these playlist titles
- Janet: Possibly Jane Igbafen - LinkedIn and UK government site confirm she's from Hebburn
There are two Igbafens of note, one of whom I believe to be the one running Johnson's channel:
Justin. If you look at the playlists, you'll notice that they're in the same style as in Johnson's channel, except there are far more playlists and reveal more about Justin, his family, and his life than Johnson's channel ever did. Take a look at a few of this channel's playlist titles:
- I Hate June 2 3 4 5 and 6 2023 daddy's not feeling poorly daddy don't want to die stop saying it's alright it's ok
- 2000 VS 2023 I Hate July 1st 2nd 3rd and 5th 2022 mummy and Jennifer are Crying on Sunday mummy and Jennifer Are coming saying you don't deserve it
- Don't Abuse Jennifer
Justin also has a
DeviantArt account, which disappointingly features no art from him, but lists his pronouns as "they/them" lmfao. There's also A LOT of hair-related videos he's uploaded. I'm confident that this is his account since it's from the UK, the 2002 in his username is likely his birth year (more on that in a bit), and the
picture he commented on also appears in a
video he uploaded. Something else you'll notice about the playlist titles is that they're very childish, which makes it seem like Justin is probably just a kid, but isn't true.
Enter
Jennifer Igbafen, a journalist from Jarrow (mentioned in a
playlist title, it's also right next to Hebburn) who, like Justin, has autism. She runs
Our Jarrow, a community site about, well, Jarrow, UK. On this website is
an interview with Nicola, a social worker from Jarrow who is a personal assistant for autistic adults. In the interview, she mentions working with a young autistic man named Justin. I believe that this Justin is our guy since one of
Justin's playlist titles mentions a Nicola.
Nicola mentions in the interview that she was originally from Hebburn, like the Igbafens, and probably met them through the Shearer Centre. Nicola's
LinkedIn mentions she was educated at South Tyneside College, also near Hebburn and Jarrow. Funnily enough, Nicola
made the news after being fined £660 ($866.61 USD) for abandoned waste on her property.
Perhaps most interesting is an
Instagram post by Jennifer about her and Justin's experiences with autism. In short:
- Justin's autism is significantly worse than Jennifer's. However, the picture indicates that he can hold a basic, minimum wage job.
- Jennifer considers her "close family" her parents, herself, and Justin.
- No mention of "Johnson" or "Jimmy", which makes me think they don't exist. Jimmy is also a nickname for James.
- Justin goes for a centre for activities (likely the aforementioned Shearer Centre) and has personal assistants (such as Nicola)
To sum all this up, "Johnson Igbafen" may just be Justin Igbafen, an autistic adult from around Newcastle Upon Tyne who has a hard time dealing with his symptoms and is overall a childish person who is entirely obsessed with children's animation. His DeviantArt suggests he's also an enby. His sister is an autistic journalist and his social worker made the news for leaving trash out on her property. His family
doesn't seem to be doing all too well, likely downstream of Justin and Jennifer being autistic. The only thing keeping this poor fellow going is probably a minimum wage job and his inspirational level of passion for massive, encyclopedic YouTube playlists of children's animation that double as cries for help. Bleak shit.
