This might be an unpopular opinion, but the concept of the Idea Guys could've been funny as hell if executed properly. Obviously, I'm not defending those assholes, but the general idea of giving Chris "managers" to help write the Sonichu story could've been hilarious. They had all the power in the world to give good entertainment, and instead they squandered it by being more pathetic than Chris himself and enabling his delusions to the point where things would've absolutely gotten worse if there wasn't intervention.
Back in the old days, I could see an Idea Guys saga playing out pretty harmlessly and fun, with a ridiculous character acting as a spokesperson for Chris and feeding him exceptional story ideas. Quite possibly the worst trolls of all time, and a sad experience overall.
Oh, my dude, I agree with you. I was thinking something similar just now actually: Why did this thing work, and why did it get fucked up? The answers are roleplaying and abnormal psychology. The thing about the IGs is that for a lot of the time, they actually were doing RP with Chris that was a mix of earnest Sonichu content and vaguely memey a-loggy shot and occasionally actually lulzy trolling that is actually fairly engaging to read about on the
CWCki, where it moves breezingly from surprisingly witty Sonichu pastiche to really deviant shit like Rosechu rape camps. Chris hadn't had that kind of face-heel rapport with anyone like that since Clyde Cash and Surfshack Tito.
Chris kept returning to the IGs like dogs to their vomit because although he knew they were trolls he was not only in some way masochistic but he also wanted to continue the good roleplay. What I mean to say is they had the dedication, perhaps even more dedication, and whatever sort of charisma they need for Chris, on a level with the best trolls, they just got into a really deranged sort of relationship with Chris, which I would imagine is due to some fucked up sort of psychological crisis on their parts when they realized how balls deep inside Chris's mind they were. They had the potential to be great, but they were sick fucks and what they did was reprehensible. Their first error was not taking things lightheartedly. The most disturbing thing of all of course is Chris's open confession, early on enough, that he still believed, despite reasons among which, and the fact that it turned out to be true.
Theirs was a really twisted sadomasocistic relationship on the part of both parties (as such relationships need to be; I'm talking about psychology, not actual sex or in this case sex rp.) In the way that cult leaders and pimps and other kinds of manipulators have with their victims. It's the same, really. It's sick, it's primal, it's frightening. It's not just a fetish I'm referring to but the interaction of two personalities in a cataclysmic way and can only happen if the two components find one another. And Chris and Wise surely were such a pair. The thing is, I'm not sure that Wise knew that when he was getting into it, especially when you read the earlier vs. later material. I think he got out of his depth psychologically and had almost a sort of break. He could have made gold like we haven't seen in years. But he couldn't handle it. Being inside Chris's head has
got to be a bit psychologically interesting introspectively (we have people here who could comment on that and probably have.) A perverse and sociopathic type of personality would absolutely make what seemed to be a potentially innocuous (at least relatively) amusement quickly degenerate.