I listened to part of the stream last night: the tail end of the discussion before taking calls. I thought the discussion was going well and abruptly switching to calls ruined it. Still, I liked what
@Null had to say while I was listening.
Based on what little I heard, I also think Null did the right thing helping Chris through this extortion situation. I don't think it's white knighting to help someone deal with being the victim of what appears to be a criminal act. It's one thing to troll or w e e n, but committing a criminal act crosses the line.
In regards to the callers, that pissed me off to no avail. I'm not sure if Ethan is like that every stream, but it seemed he had an utter disdain for any callers until they provided him content. Suddenly once someone says or does something interesting he perks up, but largely he came across that his callers needed to carry the show and not him. Which is likely why everyone said his corrine stream was shit, because he can't be interesting unless someone gives him something interesting.
And with the Chris situation, i can see what Null is doing and why he is doing it. And its not like it's rare, everyone does it.
I'm going to take reality TV shows as an example, because they seem to be massively popular at the moment. There are 3 distinct states which i'm going to call the lulz, the straight face and the anti-lulz.
The Lulz
This usually happens when a brilliant new reality TV show comes out. You wonder how these people function on a day-to-day basis, and it gains a lot of popularity. You laugh that people are so fucking stupid and you love to see a car crash unfold, and the unique selling point is on the individuals on the show.
The Straight Face
So you laughed at everyone on your favourite reality show, but soon you realise those stupid people are doing it because of a script, and the producers are in on it. Suddenly these said dumbasses aren't entertaining anymore, because their unique selling point no longer exists.
The Anti-lulz
After growing bored of your favourite reality show, you hear news that they only acted that way because they were forced to do so. Suddenly your favourite show is of interest again, but the unique selling point has shifted from the individual to the person behind their actions.
This happens all the time with mainstream TMZ-esque shows and i don't know why people are so shocked it happens. Then again its probably why Ethan still has an active thread here, his unique selling point is being an actively edgy cringefest of a person.
My favourite part was him trying to be the big manlet who went to prison and his wife is uber badass with her tools, only to gush out because Nora went on stream to tell him she was going to work rather than walk into the same room as him. Apart from that wicked Jamaican/African dude from Australia, thats the only time i heard him perk up and give a shit about what he was suppoed to be doing.
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