Julian really went in on the idea of the Oneyplays fanbase being entirely literal children when he made these venting posts on his tumblr which is why I think he made more funny noises than actual jokes during that era.
how did he ever get that impression, Oney's fanbase was drawn from SleepyCabin, which appealed to Middle/High Schoolers who would be three to four years old by time DingDong and Julian are really in the Swing of things at Oney Plays (I would Consider 2017-2018 the real blast off of Oney Plays, with the Cory and Nail 2015-2016 period being a transition period). I would actually like to see the demographics, I suspect 75-80% male with the largest demographic being 20-30 year old men.
Considering that Game Grump's fanbase are literal children, and that OneyPlays uses a similar format, I can see why he thought that.
They made fun of the YouTube analytics saying they were mainly watched by 80 year old men, so no, they really were watched by a bunch of kids at one point. This was followed by a joke from Julian about how he believed that at least one of them really was an 80 year old faggot.
Calling the audience for children is just part of the bitterness that developed during their period. I really like the DD and Julian era but towards the end they had such a disdain for the audience it just became boring hearing it every other video, I guess it makes sense for what they were dealing with during that time.
Because most of YouTube traffic is children and teenagers. These are demographics that have literally all day to sit there and watch, and there's a quiet little crisis in the developed world of parents abdicating the role of parenting to a screen because it's more convenient. They're too retarded to learn how to install adblock, so they also sit through all that shit.
A personal anecdote from that same tumblr post also helps explain why he thinks this. His little brother watched let's plays and it left a bad taste in his mouth.
7 original uploads before another "best of"
The word I see most often mentioned when people talk about that era is "comfy".
I knew who the boys were before Chris started Oneyplays. Was following everybody beside Jeff and Stamper when OP and Sleepycabin started. Loved Chris's first Dark Souls play through and a few of he playthroughs he did with the boys in 2014. I was getting sick of Game Grumps at this point and unsubbed and only stuck with Achievement Hunter and they boys. I was addicted to Lyle's streams back then too. He with Kyle and Phil were so goddamn funny without a care in the world who they offended. After 2016 when sleepycast really slowed down and Chris began the DD and J era I kinda ignorded them for their whole tenure. Could never get into the DD&J era. When they left and Tomar, Zach and Lyle became regular's I started following the channel more. Witch Hunt, Croc, Civ, Worms, Sims, ( a lot of the stuff during Covid ) was great to me, and after 2020 I tossed Achievement Hunter. Lyle and Tomar remain my faves of the channel, great straight men to the autism surrounding them. Zach has always been amazing, but with Smiling Friends taking off he won't be around much. Chris has kinda lost his luster but the dude's back is fucked up so I won't blame him being mellowed out. I've enjoyed Cory since the Sleepycast days but he's playing way too into his persona, having Dave around kinda acts like a force field so he's a good addition, even though he kinda boring. Adam is Adam, yeah he has good moments but he's an autistic spaz who can complete sentances. Having Naill around brings me back to the Sleepycast days.
For me, youtube kept reccomending otto heckel's Best of Chris's obsession with boiling milk