while his relatively popularity is fading fast, his paypig number has stayed relatively stable (see Adam Carolla 2011 vs 2021)
one guy was talking about how bizare the numbers were (the average donation per sub changed a shitload in a few years and was way off other pods of similar content) as well as the huge boost post-simpspiracy arc. sure he missed out on the huge gain every other online medium had the last year or two thanks to quarantine; but overall things are relatively stable for our buddy, which again signals something isn't right. 90% of the people that signed up during the lolsuit is ok with cuties,digibro,and rape advocation?
As somebody who laughed my ass off at his OG chauvenism trolling and maddox bullying during the lolsuit but paid him exactly no attention outside of that, what the fuck happened? Was he always this retarded or did something cause it?
He was always retarded its just that everyone around him drowned out anyone calling him out, all the stuff people have been mocking him for the last year he was called out on but he just pulled bully tactics and his retards like ralph would join in.
"wow thats how you introduce yourself on a podcast 'hi' what a fucking loser, am i right ralph and gator?"
"nice long hair f-slur, trying to look like a lady, am i right ralph, gator, jim, shawn, and null?"
it wasn't until PPP confronted him on Nicks show, essentially isolating him from his crowd of knuckledraggers, did Dick end up being seen as the emperor without clothes we all knew he was.
This is what I'm undecided about. I'm tempted to relisten to the first episodes to see in retrospect if he was never funny and I just grew up, or if he dented his fucking brain at some point.
he was a lot more normal sounding and acting because of who he surrounded himself with, he still had all his friends in hollywood he hung around. and he had a shitload of fans and goodwill because of how maddox seemingly fucked him over, plus we were willing to believe his lies. even him imagining his wind swept girlfriend as an 80s pin-up was just accepted. plus a lot of the crazier stuff he said just was taken as obvious jokes and satire, because thats how Maddox and BPITU worked a lot of the time, plus he constantly would circle back to how angry people would get about MABTW and how it was an obvious work of satire *wink* *wink* i do remember him shitting on far-right people and people who got canceled pre-rape accusations, so the whole "me-centered morality" was always front and center, as was the blatant hypocrisy, but he did that entire "shucks i'm such a character" thing he couldn't really get away with when a high ranked defensive end was going all "neo at end of matrix" on his tactics. Dicks entire bag of tricks is there its just not formalized as it is now. plus he had way more people contributing with much better material, so it wasn't him going through the motions with the anger, he yelled when he needed to and when he didn't. it wasn't a set list.
the isolation the last year and a half both figuratively and literally definitely fucked him up. as had all the people that fell by the wayside of abandoned him, say what you will about asterios, he stuck his neck out when many wouldn't and dick fucked him over for his loyalty. also you can 100% tell how much those writers and bits clearly helped once you realize in the early episodes people dont realize he's a cheap jew that won't pay for those bits that he gets.
If you disagree then let me ask you this . Do you really think Chris's interactions with the Internet have done him any good?
Yes? at the very least Chris and we saw what it would be like if Chris actually had friends (aka wasn't such a sperg) people seem to forget that besides the outright trolls there were quite a few people who's part of christory was just talking to him and pretending to be his friends for years. and as far as he was concerned they were his friends. the problem is he still treated them like shit. a great example is how little he cared when his girlfriends died, there are people that never get over a girlfriend dying even internet ones, and he was basically forced to say some kind words over someone, as far as he was concerned, he was legitimately dating. If it weren't for internet, if he never got that PSEYE or had an internet connection, he'd just be as isolated and off the deep end as he is now. he would have been full dimensional merge in 2012, remember, Barb wasn't ever going to let him get a job. so internet or not, the major events play out the same way. (Gamestop, snyder, house burns down) only its a weird local story about a white trash grey gardens instead of an internet phenomenon.
sure the internet made sure people knew he was a loser and forced him to do demeaning things, but he also got to experience what it was like to have friends and girlfriends. plus he also got to make money too. if he was a good person, he could have been spending the last decade just making an income off of that. turn his infamy into his own win. and with the prices he was charging, if he was putting in the hours he could have been making well above what normies in his age and location was making. so he could have had the last laugh in the end. instead he was an asshole, who doxxed the first people that complained. but overall the internet gave him way more opportunities than he ever would have gotten without it.
Think about it less like Edtv and more like the truman show, were there tons of people who knowingly lied to get close to him, yes, were many of them malicious, yes. but through them Chris-chan got to experience things he never would have, love and loss, friendship and fame. any Con he went to he would be the Bacchus of the event. Everfree Northwest he would probably be more hounded for pictures and autographs than some of the artists and actors that went there. Obviously the internet is responsible for a lot of his lows, just like how truman was forced to experience the death of his father and get a traumatic fear of the ocean, but it was responsible for a lot of his highs, just like how all truman's friends, girlfriends, and jobs were all both fake and given to him. plus as history has shown us, you dont need the internet to be entrapped by some intelligence community psychopath, and considering his views back in 2012, he probably would be ripe for whatever UofV-graduating spook remembers the freaky incel who could probably be tricked into doing anything for any boyfriend-free girl.
I think the main issue with someone like Dax, who relies more on being an over-the-top, flawed character than any type of imaginative joke-telling or quick-on-the-feet cleverness, for getting laughs from his audience, is that you have to actually like him to find the stuff he says/does humorous. Once that affinity for him is gone, most of his output just seems hackish n lame at best imo
yep, this and the sunny comparison works, a great example of character done right is Zac Amico & Luis Gomez, they probably have 100% the same views as Dax, but they understand the medium, the job, have more self awareness, and most importantly didn't try and befriend the internet like Ant Cumia, Dax, and other failures do.
you can play a character all you want, its just that you can't then act the same way when its not called for and pretend its still all part of the show. at a certain point you have to drop the act for someone at some point just to show its not really you. a great example is marilyn manson or dee snyder. when they needed to they immediately became someone outside of the persona. At the very least admit to being a character or overplaying your hand, like a shitload of people did when the Jan 6th riot happened. the only ones that doubled down were the ones that clearly agreed with the riots (Dave Smith 2024)
If Dick did the same thing with the simpspiracy texts, admit he's not that great of a wingman, make some self-aware jokes about his love life, and moved on. we would all be cheering on him getting ilj on the pod. because we'd all be in on the bit. but for Dick to do that, he would have to legitimately have some self awareness. he buys into his own hype in a way he shouldn't have, like during the killstream hall of fame. he acted like he was an amazing comic and writer and threw out the shittest jokes, expecting to destroy everyone else. he should have been reciting jokes he was working on for the whole month ralph was hyping this bullshit.
instead Dax was just like Ant Cumia, too surrounded by yes men and with not enough self awareness to realize he couldn't just show up with half written bits and come up with a legendary set in a few minutes. the last 2 years has just been him showing he isn't some persona Maddox sperged at because he didn't understand the satire, he's just a piece of shit so huge none of us could believe it.
TL;DR the problem with being the clown, is that you have to show you're in on the joke or else you aren't a clown you're just you.
