Considering Ryan (of ScreenWave) is known to set up bots for fake comments on videos and censoring negative views, this wouldn't surprise me.
Justin Silverman's first creative venture was a collaborative effort dubbed
Underbelly. It focused on live event coverage (mostly at Nintendo World Store) and skits, most of which you can still find via it's Facebook page. If you grew up as a fan of ScrewAttack, Inside Gaming or G4, it's highly likely that the show would have some appeal to you. Back in 2011 that is. I think that the humour itself hasn't aged well, but not as bad as Silverman's mullet in those videos...
During it's lifespan, Underbelly was apart of Normal Boots. However the channel itself was removed from the sites feature list along with
Indie Games Spotlight and some other misc names prior to it's second rebrand. If anyone watched or followed Normal Boots at the time, I'd love to know just how many creators got memoryhole'd due to the ever-changing nature of that group since the fan-wiki fails to list a lot of details until the third reboot in the mid 2010's.
At some point in time, Justin Silverman would develop a feud with Nick Murphy of Continue? (another former Normal Boots creative joint) and would attempt to dox the group members. In turn, Silverman somehow obtained admin entry into the Continue? subreddit and bombarded it with porn, gore and other questionable elements. I do not know if this event led to his removal from Normal Boots or was done in the aftermath. Silverman's distain for them would be a trend in later projects.
Two years into Underbelly's lifespan, Justin Silverman would launch a side-project titled
Silvermania with Jarrett, Bob, Kieran and Will. These names will become important later. Creatively, the channel would product singular, self-contained content that wouldn't follow a theme or brand identity. From abstract public skits to elaborate parodies, Silvermania was much like MEGA 64. Just without the Disney Land vlogs and Cali smell. And much like MEGA 64, they have what could only be described today as a cult fan following.
After a few odd videos, Silvermania would find some success with a notable "Did You Know Gaming" parody featuring musician
Andrew WK and the now infamous "Gabe Newell" interview.
GUB GUB GUB!
It's the attention found here that saw them presented with an opportunity to appear on TheGameStation podcast (now dubbed the Co-Optional podcast). Considering this transpired during the height of the "network" era of YouTube, many aspiring and growing channels would consider such a feature a big milestone. Especially as Maker, one of the largest networks at the time owned and hosted the podcast. All Justin had to do was be polite, go along with the questions and not fuck it up.
Yeah, about that... Below is the first hour of the podcast. It's a colossal shit show, no other way to describe it.
If you seek out the official upload of this podcast, Silverman is cut out and replaced with a picture of some cats.
This podcast in my mind, was the breaking point for Justin Silverman and his group. Uploads afterward would shift focus and approach. Justin once said (and I am paraphrasing here) that they had to be the "bad guys" of gaming media, seemingly doing whatever to antagonise it's own fanbase, let alone other online creatives. Burning more bridges with notable Maker channels and doing whatever to get a rile out of people, from intentionally racist rants to full blown bigotry.
It's from this point, that my memory about them gets hazy (It's 10+ years of information) and so I shall bullet point the later events.
- At some point, former Underbelly members and active members of Silvermania attempt an LP channel called JAGS - Just Another Game Show. It does not last long
- Silvermania records a series of LP's for the main channel, themed around demo discs. Most episodes have been deleted as they featured Bob
- Bob (who played Gabe in the parody) would later be arrested and imprisoned for child-porn. I believe he has since been released
- Silvermania would start drama with OneyPlays over them covering Frozen's "Let It Go" and burn it's bridge with SleepyCabin. Original upload was pulled from YouTube
- Justin Silverman would take up a notable role in the transition of power of TooManyGames to ScreenWave media
- Jarrett would end up in various creative disagreements with Justin, leading to them falling out. Jarrett still maintains an active social media presence and works in the multimedia industry
- Jarrett's hated for notable creators saw him produce "Reprocessed" - A mini hate-watch series. I only bring this up as he did an 10+ watchalong of all the Channel Awesome films
- Kieran however has maintained a comfortable position as one of the blobs. He has attempted Twitch streams, however his best creation was FAST CAR with Will
- Will hasn't done much post Silvermania, but does work as floor staff at TooManyGames
- As for the former Underbelly names? Most of gone on to better things in the industry, which you can browse via IMDB
And do remember, that Justin and AVGN have been friends for sometime. He'll be able to filter in as many blobs as he likes.