Spoony announces retirement from live streaming

This really sucks to see. Spoony was one of the last vestiges of the old gods. His live streams consistently pulled in audiences. I feel bad for the guy. 

 

 

I don't really follow livestreaming, but it sucks to hear about it. Hopefully he can find help to feel better.

Not thought about the guy for years and only saw him in crossovers with guys like The Nostalgia Critic. I vaguely remember something about him pissing people off doing not very much while still pulling in mega bucks from Patreon or something like that? Possibly remembering wrong. Skimming his Twitter, it sounds like he seriously needs some help. Hope he gets it.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Murdoch

6 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

Not thought about the guy for years and only saw him in crossovers with guys like The Nostalgia Critic. I vaguely remember something about him pissing people off doing not very much while still pulling in mega bucks from Patreon or something like that? Possibly remembering wrong. Skimming his Twitter, it sounds like he seriously needs some help. Hope he gets it.

 

He's stated numerous times that there isn't anything that could possibly help him and has staunchly declined the suggestion that he should seek it out. 

1 minute ago, Ajora said:

 

He's stated numerous times that there isn't anything that could possibly help him and has staunchly declined the suggestion that he should seek it out. 

 

Lovely. I guess if someone is hell bent on destroying themselves there really is nothing anyone can do about it.

Bummer. First @Austinado , and now Spoony. Hope he finds some happiness and maybe he'll come back?

His reddit fans generally seem to be disgusted with the fact that he's apparently still receiving a lot of Patreon funds but hasn't put out much recent content. 

 

If you're somehow interested on this guy. Fredrik Knudsen has a good video explaining Spoony's journey from his glorious days and to his downfall.

 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Dranyan

 

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, Dranyan said:

If you somehow interested on this guy. Fredrik Knudsen has a good video explaining Spoony's journey from his glorious days and to his downfall.

 

 

 

Ah yes that's where I got that info from. Honestly it seems he does not care and does not want to even try to get better. No one can give that will to him. He has to find it in himself. Hard to know what the right call is here. Sometimes people need to hit rock bottom before they bounce back and people currently enabling his current cycle of behavior may be doing more harm than good. On the other hand some hit the bottom and don't bounce.

This is sad news indeed. I hope all ends well for this guy and we get to see him again.

I followed him back in the day and rewatch his old movie and game playthrough videos (Highlander series, Ultima series, Ripper, Phantasmagoria II,...) from time to time. I never watch streams or follow twitter or reddit drama.

 

Many of his older videos are no longer on youtube but can be found here.

I also found some of his old MST3K style videos here and here.

 

I wish him the best and hope "Old Spoony" makes a glorious comeback one day.

 

 

edit: Some Justin.tv videos have resurfaced

Edited February 21, 2021 by Slipgate Tourist

Yeah, I’ve followed Spoony on Twitter for several years now.

 

All I can really say that it’s all too easy to just brand him “too far gone” or “an emotionally abusive monster”, even after the fact that he was literally diagnosed with Bipolar II several years ago (and yes, he even joked about it, calling it “Bipolar II: The Quickening”). And it’s very likely that he’s suffering from some form of trauma (most likely undiagnosed PTSD or even cPTSD due to the endless abuse he’s received on the internet over the years).
This definitely explains why his tweets alternative between commentary/geeking out/comedy threads that are very reminiscent of “vintage Spoony” (to the point where most of the replies are “you should make a video”), and what I call “depressionposting”.

It’s too easy to just dunk on him, call him just another has-been who deserves to be a laughingstock, and call it a day.

Hell, even Civvie’s done this in his Pro Blood videos (more specifically, that infamous stream of Alien Isolation that landed in Episode 3 of Pro Blood). And over on TVTropes, people have been calling Civvie “the new vintage Spoony”.

Which is all the more depressing considering that it’s more than just “apathy” that led Spoony to where he is, that it’s less “apathy” and more “unfortunate and fucked-up circumstances that are not his fault at all, even if he’s made a multitude of mistakes that he’s since owned up to”.

 

Especially when he’s very much suffering from a deep form of depression that’s rendered him borderline catatonic.

For everyone he’s lashed out at: it’s obvious that it’s not him talking, it’s his depression.

 

And if anything, it’s not some stubborn sense of pride that’s causing him to “refuse help”, it’s that he’s afraid of being ridiculed for trying to do exactly that.

 

And then we have the very real possibility that his last relationship didn’t just turn sour, but outright abusive. Spoony himself had brought up coming to terms with something like this.

There is no way you fall that deep into depression without an external voice constantly reinforcing the negative thoughts in your head.

And there’s no way that the deep depression and trauma came from just the countless Internet trolls he’s brushed off just like that. Hell, it seems like most of his reactions to trolls nowadays are either indifference or some kind of witty rebuttal.

And looking back at his non-livestream videos, it’s very clear that his girlfriend never seemed all that interested in the skits he had in his videos.

 

I mean, check out this video on life after abusive relationships and how it leaves us to pick up the pieces:

 

And yes, I have been in his shoes for quite some time now.

I feel afraid to work on whatever I’m supposed to work on. I feel that trying to accept whatever help is offered is just going to lead to ridicule. I’ve made the exact same kinds of mistakes he made, burned bridges in the exact same fashion.
 

But there have been some surprisingly positive developments as of this year.
 

He has seriously entertained the notion of moving back to Arizona, possibly with his older brother Miles (to the point where he’s even trying to figure out moving costs with what little money he has).

 

Even as far back as last year, he’s actually been responding to fans and his tweets have gotten slightly more positive (compare to late 2016/2017 where about 90% of his tweets were “depressionposting” to the point where his account got outright suspended for much of 2018).

 

And even during his more recent “depressionposting”, his tweets have an air of anger instead of just abject despair.

And here’s the rub: despair is paralyzing while anger is motivating.

 

And most importantly, he’s been actually talking with his old friends instead of just shutting them out completely or just ignoring them.

 

All in all, it’s very clear that he’s fighting a combination of Bipolar II, depression, and some very nasty thoughts that were put into his head.

He may say that the “old Spoony” is gone, but it’s painfully obvious that the old Spoony is still very much there.

It’s clear that he’s trying to figure things out in the fallout of several different incidents, not just one big cataclysm.

 

More importantly, it’s not really up to us on how to tell him to do this or that because it’s not our place to do so. You don’t tell someone with depression to “just cheer up because of starving kids in the world and you have it better lol”.

 

Even if he has to retire The Spoony Experiment entirely just to get better, then so be it.

 

I’d like to conclude with this video on mental illness and why a surprising amount of people don’t seem to take it all that seriously, which is relevant because so many people are just endlessly telling him “you actually can achieve anything but you simply are just too lazy to believe in yourself”:

 

 

Quote

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

― J. Krishnamurti

 

 

TL;DR- it’s easy to just see the Spoony situation as just “he’s just a lazy and super-sad bum lol” when that’s far from the case. And I 100% sympathize and empathize with him.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Man of Doom

The only thing I can really add to this is it's true that if Spoony is in the full grasp of depression, words don't mean much there. I have some understanding of that. And I would say I'm lucky in that I had probably much better access to support than it sounds like he does, but if his family will support him I'd say that's a good starting point. 

 

I enjoyed a lot of his work, he was a quality comedian, but its clear he has many, many things to work through before he could go back to doing that. 

One thing I've never been able to figure out is how Angry Joe was able to get as big as he is. It confounds me to think that someone could sit down and watch one of his overlong, angsty diatribes and think: "This is entertaining. This man has valuable things to say." I just don't get it. 

33 minutes ago, Ajora said:

One thing I've never been able to figure out is how Angry Joe was able to get as big as he is. It confounds me to think that someone could sit down and watch one of his overlong, angsty diatribes and think: "This is entertaining. This man has valuable things to say." I just don't get it. 

The thing is, the whole “super-angry critic” was very much in vogue back during the early new tens, mainly due to AVGN and the Nostalgia Critic.

That, and it seems like Angry Joe stood out from most of them since he pretty much embodies the “fed-up gamer who’s tired of all the corporate BS like microtransactions or something”.

But then both creators and the fans of the “angry internet nerd” archetype pretty much grew up and grew past said archetype, though there are a few exceptions (and that’s where you get examples like Joe and NC).

Hell, even the OG Nerd grew up with his creator, the latter opting for a more nuanced and informative take on his flagship franchise.

 

 

Oh yeah, and Joe apparently got MeToo’d a few months back but that’s a whole different can of worms.

Double post, but… well, Spoony just did a stream on Death Stranding (close to 12 hours ago as of this writing):

And if you can tell from his more recent tweets, he’s very much on his way moving back to Arizona where he originally lived. And he’s very much trying to figure things out on his own afterwards.

 

EDIT: And for the first time in a long while, his comment section is open and it’s been nothing but positivity all around.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Man of Doom

It was inevitable

Context: he was unable to pick up or receive medication due to being snowed in for over a week, and because of the withdrawal symptoms from that particular medication, someone decided to call the cops on him against his wishes citing a “wellness check”.

 

Side note: that subreddit is probably one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever witnessed; it’s basically just nothing but Encyclopedia Dramatica users likening someone who’s obviously been in a hole for years to Onision.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by Man of Doom

I don't fault people for being ticked off with him in general for a multitude of reasons, but joking about his withdrawal symptoms and attacking people who are trying to help him right now? Fucking scum. 

Honestly sadden that he'll never cover the rest of the spinoff Ultima games cause his retrospective videos were my favorites from him :(

 

 

 

I've never even played any Ultima games and I quite enjoyed that series retrospective he did, as well as playthroughs like Ripper, Phantasmagoria 2, etc.  Also this compilation of the AI teammates in SWAT 4 was hilarious.

 

 

He's tweeting up a storm right now. 

The dude needs to lay off social media for a while, seriously. He's hooked on it like a bad crack addiction.

damn dude this makes me sad

i dont follow the guy and i think he was intetionally scamming people on patreon BUT he was having some severe mental diseases and i dont think he is just bipolar as he claimed in the past theres something way worse going on in his head

i feel bad for him he was on a dark place for years and years and never seemed to get better poor dude he is slowly getting off the internet and i think thats for the best for his mental health

He claimed that he has bipolar 2 (among a few other things) which seems to fit his behavioral pattern of alternating between manically tweeting about comic books and riffing on politicians and then sinking into despair and self-pity. 

1 hour ago, [McD]James said:

He claimed that he has bipolar 2 (among a few other things) which seems to fit his behavioral pattern of alternating between manically tweeting about comic books and riffing on politicians and then sinking into despair and self-pity. 

Regarding that Bipolar II diagnosis, it was several years ago when he was diagnosed with the real thing by an actual psychiatrist (he even joked about it by calling it Bipolar II: The Quickening).

Hell, the kinds of emotional episodes that are normally associated with Bipolar II extended far beyond the spell of his more recent years; remember the times when he ended up saying things at his own friends that he later came to deeply regret?

 

And I’m not gonna even get into how he’s been constantly tormented and abused by his own fanbase as well as the kinds of people that would have been kicked out of 4chan or even Kiwi Farms.

 

Not to mention the more recent developments like the cops being called on him because of medication withdrawals that stemmed from him being completely unable to get his medication at all (plus the side effects of said withdrawal mainly consisting of “brain zaps” which is extremely devastating on a psychological level).
 

And I’m not going to be one to play armchair psychologist, but I wouldn’t even be remotely surprised if PTSD or even cPTSD turned out to be a factor as well.

 

Additionally, I imagine there’s a deep and dangerous combination of both depression and anxiety that’s been a major contributor as to why he’s been in a hole for years now; hell, he stated that he’s become too scared to interact with other human beings let alone get in front of the camera to do some kind of a review.

Plus there’s the matter of the physical ailments like being prone to fainting, a recent spell of bronchitis that severely damaged his vocal cords, etc.

 

From what it looks like, he’s actively trying to make the most out of his situation and trying to get better; it’s not blatantly there in his tweets, but if you read between the lines, he’s trying what he can to get better.

 

On a related note, that one time Civvie roasted Spoony over the latter’s playthrough of Alien Isolation was, well… it just didn’t sit right with me. (In case you were wondering, it was the third episode of the Pro Blood series.)

I miss the guy, by far a greater talent than anyone else of the TGWTG group (most who were honestly hacks), insightful, creative, and incredibly funny.

 

Bipolar is a unique kind of personal hell to live with, and it really makes me sad to see him like this these days.