As anyone who has even remotely followed my blog over the last year would know, I'm a big, big fan of
Game Grumps, a Let's Play series starring
Jon "Jontron" Jafari and
Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson, because of the chemistry between the two internet stars. I was a big fan of Egorator since he made a big splash with the Awesome series of animated video game parodies and a big fan of Jontron since his review of the Star Fox Adventure Gamecube game. The result of combining these two unique flavors was a Let's Play series that I listened to, for the comedic commentary, every day while I do my dishes and eat my meals.
The drawback of the Game Grumps series was that the two entertainer's main channels, especially Jontron, were neglected. To be fair, if you could make a living off of playing video games with your best friends... wouldn't you do that? And yet, many fans and other entertainers seem to sour against the channel for stealing away these two wunderkids. Thus, according to the video above, Jontron is leaving Game Grumps, shortly after hitting a million subscribers, to create "a second season of Jontron" while Egoraptor stays on with a new co-star, Dan of
Ninja Sex Party. You can watch Ego & Dan's first episode
HERE.
We also got a new series, Steam Train, starring animator and Grumps friend
Rubber Ross and Dan, that you can watch the first episode of
HERE. My opinion on Dan's addition to Game Grumps is that the first two episodes have been okay, so far, and Steam Train, which is a neat idea since it focuses primarily on PC games, has unfortunately not really won me over yet. Now, as for my feelings on the change as a whole...
Don't get me wrong. I was excited to hear Jontron would be making more of the Jontron Show. I love the Jontron show. But.... Game Grumps without Jontron? To steal something I saw earlier, replacing Jontron with Dan would be like replacing Abbot from Abbot & Costello with a guy named Tony. Tony could be funny, but it wouldn't be the same. Furthermore, and this is the biggest reason I think the fans are turning against the Grumps so vehemently (besides a sense of entitlement) is the way that the Grumps went about Jontron leaving, the introduction of a new host, and a new show; they made these big announcements, several which they should've known the fans would resist, without any time for the audience to be ready for it. If Jontron had announced he would be leaving a few weeks ago, if they had Dan as a guest third host a few times first, and if they had already added Steam Train BEFORE taking away our Jontron then the fans might not have reacted so poorly. I'm pretty upset about the way it has been an announced. Furthermore, with evidence that the real reason Jontron is leaving is to move to New York to live with a girlfriend, this could've been handled in a much better way (the fans would understand if Jontron was leaving for personal reason too).
In the end, I hope that Dan can fill Jontron's shoes, Jontron posts a new episode of Jontron Show soon, and this new Steam Train show turns out to be something we didn't know we wanted. I hope, but for now...I'm grump...
P.S. Barry, the show's "third Grump" (think Fifth Beetle), would've been a better choice then some random guy the fans don't know/care about it.
