I Don't Know James Rolfe

[@KawaiiKoalaBear]

As compared to the kind of controversies that have befallen a lot of the big creators from that time, a guy whose fans are upset he loves his wife and kids more than he loves his fans is honestly so charming

[@Bipolar.Baddie]

While it's very different, the entitlement and dehumanization of James by his "fans" reminds me of Danny Brown's song "Ain't it Funny." It's about how fans are so entitled that they expect artists to turn their own suffering, addictions, and cries for help into entertainment and that they'll ignore the suffering of artists if it means that they still get to be entertained. While comparing missing out on making consistent videos to raise a family isn't comparable to having people ignore your suffering and addiction aren't comparable, the entitlement and of the audience and commodofication of human beings into automatons that exist to entertain them is.

[@dm121984]

@@Bipolar.Baddie Yeah, like James Rolf does have his issues, but by god, he doesn't deserve the waves of hate his 'fans' give him and his wife.

[@KaelWrit]

😅i😊😊lls 1:06:42 ppppppppppppppppppp

[@ikagura]

His "biggest" controversy was not wanting to review the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot.

[@user-qz5yi8qx9r]

very insightfull... @Bipolar.Baddie

[@jenndoesstuff]

I really love that conclusion, honestly. To spend hours upon hours painfully dissecting why it is that you feel so critical of someone only to finally come to the conclusion that you just hate that they remind you of your own insecurities is honestly one of the more real human experiences out there.

[@L3benslage]

Ah. Thank you for that. I feel I don’t get most metaphors in films. And I had trouble understanding what it is Dan‘s trying to say whilst looking like a deranged Santa Claus. That’s sort of a weird insecure Filmmaker version of himself?

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

“I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BOY, BECAUSE YOU’RE ME”

[@Politoed89]

i think if you need a perfect example of that, just look at the people who spend so much time documenting chris-chan. so many nerds (i say that as an objective descriptor rather than an insult) who are afraid that they're socially inept, or creepy towards women, or entitled towards their parents, or - in the past few years - trans people who are afraid they're "not really trans", or any other flaw they document and interpret. chris-chan was the one who openly represented the insecurities of so many people online, and so many of the things that had been socially conditioned out of us (sometimes rightfully so) were expressed right through our screen with no inhibition maybe there's a bit of chris-chan in all of us internet losers.

[@medsellr]

getting chased by a doll just like James's recent films is such a perfect touch

[@AoiLucine]

​@Politoed89, theres a video Rebecca Watson put out called the science of cringe. According to research, cringe comes from almost a projection of ourselves onto what the other person is doing, and thinking how it would affect our social standing. Its basically disgust based projection onto anothet persons actions. This sort of helped me start to reframe my understanding of cringe. To both be kinder to others and myself.

[@hbomberguy]

I hate Wavelength. All it does is make you want to confess to your wife's murder

[@rawanalahmed8086]

Hey, is Dr. Harrison splimpy

[@serene1172]

Oh hey. Funny seeing you here. Hope things are going smoothly for you.

[@patriciogarciadamiano7469]

And where is your wife, banana man?

[@Sorrelhas]

CEO of F*cking Aquaman Real Estate LLC

[@PotionSmeller]

No way it's the small indie game youtuber who played Tactical Breach Wizard!

[@TheProblem2025]

As small a chance as it is, there is A chance that someone clicks on this video and is smacked in the face with a flashback to that time they didn’t get to touch the camera once during a film class in college….

[@clementinedanger]

Somewhere in the world, some very offline person is still telling the story of that one annoying kid in film school who always showed up with Party City costumes and dino toys when they were just trying to learn where the on button on the camera was, secure in the knowledge that kid probably became a manager at a Wendy's. This is incredibly funny to me.

[@Bipolar.Baddie]

@@clementinedangerit'd be even funnier if it was someone like an indie filmmaker who is about to get their big break with an A24 movie right as they're about to give up on their dreams.

[@caret_shell]

23:54 "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get mad on camera?" Dan _still_ sounds too polite while doing this bit, proving that no matter how hard it is to get mad on camera, it's even harder for a Canadian.

[@valeriacaissa4552]

That was my thought as well "he isn't angry enough!".

[@sagecolvard9644]

I think the point of that is to exemplify exactly how good James is at it: Dan can't be nearly as convincing as the Nerd, even with the Nerd projected onto his face.

[@simongredal7577]

A little embarrassed to say it took me until that moment to realize this wasn't the usual video essay but so much more. With their faces melding together and Dan doing the same thing he describes James doing.

[@lyndonwesthaven6623]

The dad vibes are simply too strong in him. He's never angry, just disappointed

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

Dan doesn’t get “mad” on camera, but he is quite regularly _angry._ That boiling, seething kind of anger that is honestly way more intimidating then yelling and shouting. Usually for good reasons, though.

[@Renacier]

"Remember that guy who used to make videos about editing and storytelling?" "Yeah, I think so. He made a bunch of videos about financial scams, right? What's he up to now?" "....He just keeps drilling holes in wood and bolting camera heads to them...."

[@diestormlie]

"Also, he stands around the local home depot yelling 'ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER!'"

[@evilshrimpy]

@@diestormlie no, that's just the usual Home Depot ambiance

[@DeRedBaronCT]

@@evilshrimpy I once had a job there, you are not wrong

[@Busto]

I had this very realization 10 minutes into the video. Dan went from teacher to artist over the course of this channel

[@bad1080]

yeah but he's doing it like a normal person would, so no worries

[@IamSpacedad]

I learned James Rolfe really loves his children/family more than anything in the world, and he shouldn't have to apologize for it.

[@jackkingsby116]

I went down a rabbit hole on cinemassacre truth trying to figure out where the hate is coming from and they banned me for "trolling" after I argued that they were acting like entitled babies for wanting him to divorce his wife.

[@ThePotatoMan04]

The trolls clearly dont have family they truly love so they dont understand it.

[@How_Is_This_A_Name]

​@@jackkingsby116 the reault of years of irony poisoning

[@themachine5647]

To those wondering out there what "toxic masculinity" means, one aspect of it is this sarcastic, disaffected, "never show emotions other than sardonic humor and anger" attitude largely held by young men on the internet. I can guarantee the people attacking James for loving his family do not have families of their own, they do not have wives or girlfriends or people in their life that they love or even respect. And I just always feel like if we could see the hateful people for what they are, pitiful and sad and young and scared, we would all feel a lot less hurt when they spit their nihilistic, entitled venom on the internet and undeserving people.

[@joearnold6881]

But… but… one of the people working for the kinda shitty company he teamed up with… was _fat!_ so there!

[@ShagrotsCave]

If someone deconstructed me to this degree I don't know how I could ever live a normal day of human life again

[@sarahbischoff2375]

If this video is any indication, I think the only person who could do that to you is yourself

[@waywardmind]

@@sarahbischoff2375 Bingo

[@BOBINDUN]

It'd def fuck with me too lol. Things we don't comprehend that James has to deal with.

[@scar4driver]

he didnt deconstruct him tho, he tried to unravel a problem that was not there, like in wavelength, since there was no problem there but the problems he bringed with him, it began to unravel those and deconstruct himself in the process, "i feel a certain amount of kinship with james rolfe", it was there from the very beginning

[@absolutfreak5012]

"That gets frustrating really fast, and when you get frustrated you get impulsive, and those impulses lead to half measure solutions, and those half measure solutions accumulate into a whole network of bespoke inefficiencies that you just live with because the process of unravelling them feels just so... big." This hit pretty hard.

[@Texelion]

Somehow this applies to the whole world, our whole civilization is built like this. A mess built over a mess over another mess, and now it's too hard to fix things so we just roll for it until it crashes and burns.

[@mathaeis]

Yeah, this was the moment that I truly related to and man have I been trying to hard to overcome these things for so long.

[@TheRedCap30]

Programming in a nutshell lol

[@SuperGGnoRE]

@@TheRedCap30Speak for yourself...

[@hausdorffspace]

@@TheRedCap30 When I got to the bit where Dan was talking about that, I definitely did think of tech debt.

[@ZimMan2]

There's a profound beauty to the way James Rolfe appears to inspire existential crises in people while knowing that he himself, most likely, is just a guy living his life.

[@MasterOphSky]

I saw someone describe James Rolfe as complex, which was funny when you consider he's a pretty straightforward guy whose motives and priorities aren't disguised in the slightest, which is why conspiracy theories are simultaneously so easy to fabricate yet also make the fabricator look insane to an outsider.

[@thebadshave503]

I feel like that's kinda why he was chosen for the subject here, like Rolfe is so chill and lowkey despite his historical importance to the craft on KZbin that attempting to stare down his material for deep meaning is just going to dredge up more of yourself than him, hence the ending.

[@danmiltenberger5616]

@@thebadshave503 So Rolfe is like wavelength? It reveals more about us than the material itself

[@lancesmith8298]

@@danmiltenberger5616James Rolfe is also, coincidentally with the last big old god of KZbin on the channel, also The Wall

[@lancesmith8298]

He is the inverse of Tommy Tallarico, and that somehow makes investigating him even more of a koan

[@TheCrumbum]

Just a weird footnote. The university James attended The University of the Arts, closed last week after just a weeks notice. Students, staff, and faculty all left out to dry. James did a nice tribute video in front of the steps of the main building. It’s not that relevant. But as an alumni of uarts as well I felt the need to share.

[@jamiepianist]

Did you enjoy the classes there, or did you find them dull like Rolfe did?

[@TheStanishStudios]

Oh shit, I’m in Philly and it’s definitely the talk of the town right now-such a uniquely weird shitshow!

[@Pundit07]

@@jamiepianist I mean, given that he was willing to do a tribute video for the university building, he clearly must have matured and found *some* sort of appreciation for what he learned there.

[@dangerousdays2052]

I have no sympathy for America's for-profit university system or anyone who gets hit with the rug pull.

[@TheCrumbum]

​@@jamiepianist I did a different program, I enjoyed it immensely, it was a unique wonderful place. Had its flaws for sure, lots of rough edges, Its philly its gritty, but the education I got there was great. James types are pretty common in an art school. It's art, egos are common. The most important thing you learn at a school like that is the fundamentals of visual art etc. It builds a foundation that will plug into everything you work on later, wither its film, design or painting. But if you find those tasks a waste of time, well, it will color your whole perspective of it, makes things seem dull and dumb. The rest of that type of education it is you getting back what you put into it. The Wavelength comparison probably works there.

[@BPMusic06]

I composed some music for some of James’ early AVGN videos 2007 era. We only corresponded through e-mail but he was very nice to me and made sure to credit me at the end of the videos with a link to my then website. I was a big fan back then so it was a very huge deal for me and a personal accomplishment to potentially have millions of people hear my music (not that’d they notice it was me, but still cool nonetheless). Thank you for making this video.

[@Bokatisha1234]

I used to live in the same town as James, and worked at a popular café. He'd come by occasionally in the middle of biking by and get a breakfast burrito and a drip coffee and I never got up the courage to tell him I liked his work before I moved. It always felt so weird seeing this guy my siblings and I were obsessed with, years later, sweaty in the middle of exercise, just trying to get a burrito. I never wanted to bother him. In that moment he was just a guy and I think he deserved that moment to just be some guy buying a burrito.

[@GraphiteShores]

You are both a hero for letting him be and also I am kind of glad that he was working out. Good for him.

[@catwithorb]

Thanks for sharing this story, it made me smile.

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

This illustrates why his very uncommon decision to stay “offline” was such a good one. He can just… exist. His existence has not been tied up in a constant need to perform and entertain others.

[@SleepingLionsProductions]

I love this story. I read it last night and came back to reread it.

[@TheReliquarian]

I think that's something that a lot of people don't consider about fame and mundanity - at some time or another we're all just some guy buying a burrito. With our modern world of social media, parasocial relationships and hero worship, we forget that this other person we look up to or idolize, or maybe even hate-watch, isn't some paragon child of the Muses or a bilious, hateful villain who makes things you dislike just to slight you personally; sometimes you take on a project that you really feel stands out and Says Something - sometimes you do a job because the light bill's due. I hope for both James and Dan that they create and produce more projects that they can be proud of than not, and that they can buy a burrito now and again.

[@josepadilla-dv3ld]

My favorite part so far is definitely dan having to state the "controversial" opinion that a man loving his wife and kids and caring about them more than his KZbin channel is a normal rational human behavior.

[@bretsheeley4034]

It’s like having a toxic boss who doesn’t give a shit about your home life and thinks that your only point in existence is to work for them.

[@Gingrnut]

It’s an interesting dichotomy that’s going to keep happening as more first-gen KZbinrs essentially move on from the platform for good. Look at all the creators who announced they were quitting this year. Generationally, KZbin is beyond them now, and they’ve made the work they wanted to make, and had careers, and now they want to do something else, but to hungry internet audiences the idea of things ending or changing is completely anathema.

[@MPostma72]

I had a boss who disapproved of the fact that for me, my son came before my work. She had kids herself.

[@Mari-rg9ov]

As an outsider who doesn't know about this subject, I've seen comments blaming James for "not prioritizing his work" or "using his wife and kids as an excuse" like... isn't moving on in life because you have a family now and other things to think about the most natural thing in the world?

[@MiroslavMydlo]

No man, he owes you! He owes you the free entertainment we were getting from him for more than a decade. He owes us!!!

[@mario7886]

Little-known American indie band Metalica playing for a crowd of 1.6 million people in Soviet Russia

[@RoboBoddicker]

I once saw a youtube comment on a Billy Joel video that was like 'Man, this guy is so underrated.'

[@MegaZeta]

@@RoboBoddicker the sweet spot you want to hit on KZbin is the triple space-warp overlap of "iconic", "underrated" and "am i the only one who"

[@crushycrawfishy1765]

@@RoboBoddicker Some people just have a "unique" sense of reality. Like, I once heard someone seriously argue that Pokemon, the global franchise, was underrated.

[@justawatchin2]

@@MegaZeta "who's still listening in 2024 with me" on a video with half a billion views

[@justcallmekai1554]

​@@MegaZetaDon't forget "who was here before Tiktok?"

[@NoticeAssemble]

I keep thinking about this, but... James Rolfe is Wavelength. The film is what you bring to it. It shows you what you think, who you are. I think Dan Olson agrees, because when he's talking about Wavelength, it slowly zooms out to first reveal that you're not just watching him talking to the camera, you're watching an ipad taped to the wall, playing a video of him talking to the camera. But it keeps zooming out, and reveals that you're actually watching an ipad taped to the wall, playing a video of Dan Olson talking to the camera, reflected in a mirror. "If the movie could have a core theme, it would be reflection." Wavelength is shown as a film that holds a mirror up to yourself. But... James Rolfe does the same thing to Dan Olson. His behind the scenes tour is what you bring to it. And at the end of this, it's shown how Dan Olson's idea of James Rolfe isn't bad inherently... that idea is bad for reasons he created. He looks in the mirror, sees himself as james rolfe. He sees all of James's influences and inconveniences in his own life. James Rolfe is Wavelength.

[@deerkaiser9983]

This is unironically the best comment I read under this video. At first I just thought it was an interesting choice of a shot, but it makes perfect sense with the subject matter of the video

[@blazinglazers69]

Well said.

[@jorgematavillalobos8475]

and by extension, the title "I dont know James Rolfe" implies "I don't know myself"

[@bostonmarketfeministbookclub]

I love how Dan shows us directly how hard it is to act mad. I don't mean that as an insult, I totally agree and think it's clever

[@GuyNamedSean]

Yeah, you could really feel the moment where he hit that wall and wasn't comfortable with going further into the emotion.

[@AngelMercury]

This was an amazing section of the essay

[@simonvetter2420]

I don't know, I found it a bit unconvicing because what he was talking about wasn't really something I would ever imagine someone being *actually* angry about, while you can asolutely get angry about video games.

[@AstridFrost_UwU]

@@simonvetter2420 nah, I can understand someone becoming frustrated with their role in a relationship between audience and creator

[@billhicks8]

@@simonvetter2420 Maybe that's part of why it's good though. Getting mad about something on demand takes preparation. Dan doesn't quite get there with the topic, again showing why he isn't saying that what Rolfe does is easy, despite his criticism.

[@hughmilner7013]

"Is this the fruit of obsession? Is this where compulsion takes us? Are the damned and damnable all doomed to wander to Home Depot?" Truly, the madness that befalls us all.

[@Tonbizzle]

If I can find the right fixture I can make all my dreams come true... or at least let this nightmare end. Is it aisle 7?

[@PaulRudd1941]

​@Tonbizzle, sir, we please ask that mental breakdowns occur in the parking lot after the purchase. Buyers remorse?

[@snubnosedolphin]

as a contractor who works for home depot i definitely consider myself both damned and damnable

[@dudere]

@@snubnosedolphinYour do the lords work. Oof I am painting my house right now. I brought in a paint chip got get a match. The paint lady said the paint was not shiny at all. I had to wanted around the doors section for a while.

[@Neuvost]

the danned and dannedable

[@rgs8970]

"Do you think a depressed person could make this?" *pans to reveal 1/12 scale diorama of James Rolfe's nerd room

[@AnimatedTerror]

STAND IN THE PLACE THAT YOU L-

[@Lollero200q]

BIMMY 🅿️OWER

[@Leftistattheparty]

[@LeeJDo]

Ha! I saw this comment before the video got to that part…I still can’t believe that he actually made that diorama

[@snackerfork]

@@LeeJDo Same, I thought it was a joke and when the video panned to the literal, actual diorama I laughed so hard

[@Paotato69]

It always gives me great joy to remember that people have DESPERATELY tried to hate on james, to turn him into a lolcow, and none of it has worked. They're begging for that one controversy they can use against him, and James is too level-headed and normal to give it to them. At the end of the day, he's doing what he loves. He has a family, his life sounds pretty good. Its no wonder he doesnt waste his time with trolls.

[@Mockthenerd]

End of the day he's just a dude making stuff. He's not a warlord, not a politician and not a corporation ceo. Ultimately, we can like him or hate him but does it matter?

[@CH-uk1il]

Now if only outlets like Dead Cow and CinemassacreTruth would just shut the f**k up about him!

[@donaldhysa4836]

Yeah but you seen his hairline lately? Loool xD

[@Paotato69]

@@donaldhysa4836 who cares lol

[@kudzuman]

loved AVGN since he first debuted, but you gotta read this dude's book where he overshares all the bizarre things he's done. he's really weird but is good at hiding it and/or has had great handlers in Mike, April and Screenwave. he's very fortunate to have debuted before "lolcow" culture, and double-fortunate to have not revealed all the stuff he did in his book until long after he solidified himself as a legend. "lolcow hunters" are sociopathic gangstalkers and i'm very glad he's never been affected by it

[@ginar2339]

I won’t lie, I came into this fully prepared to dislike/pity James Rolfe, but having finished it, there’s something comforting in this story about a guy who did have some big screw ups, didn’t achieve his huge artistic dreams, and has had to make compromises but still seems to be finding meaning and satisfaction in his life in other ways.

[@PoolNoodleGundam]

Legit. Yeah, he never reached the heights, and yet he seems content and fulfilled in spite of that. Reassuring is the word I'd use.

[@flockofdrones]

That's life

[@SpaceGhost1984]

That's certainly one takeaway. However, after having watched other videos on him, James Rolfe doesn't seem like he wants to do this character anymore, but must in order to keep his KZbin channel/livelihood afloat. Like an internet celebrity version of Alan Rickman's character in Galaxy Quest.

[@SanctuaryADO]

I don't know, I came away with the feeling that in a way he did achieve his dreams in a way. He had the opportunity to infinitely remake the pieces of contentt he created from his past that he loved and present it to an audience. Thats a luxury that very few people will ever get. It isn't everything that he probably wanted, but its something.

[@terminallyonline5296]

@@SanctuaryADO Exactly, his dreams changed. Dreams change with the people who dream them.

[@nicholaswoollhead6830]

I'm on my way to a funeral. My friend who died, Kim Damgaard, was a video editor for the evening news here in Denmark throughout the 90s and early 00s. He drank and smoked himself to death when he became jobless. The reason for his joblessness was largely that he had refused to follow his field into the digital age, and while he had rudimentary editing skills in digital, he could not compete with the new editors coming out of the film schools. In some ways the version of AVGN you present here reminds me of the shortcomings of Kim. He refused to grow with the field that he himself had been such an integral part of. Kim meant a lot to me. He rented me my first room when I moved away from home, and let me find my legs as an adult in the big city in my own time and without punishing me when I still acted like a child. Last night as I was writing my goodbye letter for him I put his name into youtube on the off chance something might appear. And lo and behold someone has uploaded two of his concerts from some dingy bar to KZbin 10 years ago. Now he comes to me as wavelengths and photons on a screen. He isn't a humonculous though. He's my friend singing songs about life and death and playing the harmonica. I miss my friend. Thanks, dan, for giving me something to distract myself with.

[@eatatjoes6751]

Aw, sorry, man. I’ve felt that way too about my art and it hasn’t even found its legs yet.

[@elif6908]

May your friend be at peace now and my condolences to you, your friend’s family and all those who care about him.

[@AnnieRegret]

❤❤❤

[@LovecraftianToenail]

Thank you for sharing this story with us.

[@artdiaries2260]

May his memory be a blessing. My condolences

[@skylerclyne6542]

“This thing ruined my life in the way that only the inexplicable decisions of strangers can” not even five minutes in and we’re already bearing witness to some all time bangers. Thanks, Dan.

[@NaimHrustanovic]

It's crazy because I had a conversation with two friends about this exact phenomenon tonight, where a strangers behavior bewildered me to the point of momentary obsession (not of the stranger but of the act itself). And then I get a new quote from Dan with which to perfectly summarize it.

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

It's like walking through the door into a philosophy lecture only to run into the entirely glass door two metres past it

[@tinywhale3954]

1:52 for anyone wondering

[@Minihood31770]

I mean, that's all internet popularity isn't it? It's not all ruining your life, obviously. But the inexplicable decisions of strangers to watch your stuff on the internet does also cause issues that ruin your life in only that way that it does.

[@ajbakercmsu]

"If it hadn't been for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."

[@haroldsandahl6408]

I love how you went from a parasocial relationship based on assumed shared experience to ask more and more questions to end up learning more about yourself. And then blessed us with the process so we can think about it ourselves.

[@startingfromlevelone9510]

The insight about how a camera man acts as an instigator is something people really should reflect on more.

[@RevolutionaryLoser]

Worldstar!

[@theelectricant98]

A Rather Complicated Girl (1969)

[@theelectricant98]

Also Model Shop

[@Posiman]

It's a main concept behind Nathan Fielder's entire career.

[@EmeraldLavigne]

It's literally fucking physics.

[@mac4974]

Dan's straddling the look between "answer me my questions three" and "publish my manifesto or else"

[@ultrawhitebread]

The unholy fusion of Jack Black and Karl Marx.

[@Zr0Bites]

​@@ultrawhitebread*Dostoyevski

[@magnusengeseth5060]

@@Zr0Bites *Kaczynski

[@magicrainbowkitties1023]

​@@Zr0Bites Dostoyblinski?

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

He looks like David Letterman lol

[@Strawberry92fs]

From the moment I saw the camera rig, I understood intuitively why he did it. He had screws and wood on hand. to do it properly he'd have to waste a shooting day going to home depot, buying a bolt, making sure he had the right bits to drill the hole, and the counter sink. take it all home, and then do the fix. vs doing the fix in like 15 minutes and then it's "good enough:" forever

[@doctorwholover1012]

Yep. It's the same understanding I have of my dad's desk setup where he drops pens behind his monitor, which then roll down and back to the keyboard due to the way his desk is built into the wall and his massive monitor with no space for a pen pot anywhere within sight 😂 hes 70+ years old and doesn't give a shit anymore, if he needs a pen, he wants to grab it immediately and drop it without thought, so we end up with the monitor-based Pen-alanche 🤷‍♀️ it works for him and he's the only one who uses the desk, and it's not like you can't find a pen if you need one so 😂

[@Tomyb15]

But it still leaves that strange taste in your mouth. It feels like a perpetual afterthought despite it being his main "job" and primary way of actually making content as a film maker (at least, content that will get a decent audience). Why won't he make time in his schedule for a mostly one-time thing that has importance to his life. Even if he prioritizes his family and other activities, it's hard to argue that he can't just dedicate a bit of time to what's basically his only job that pays for his bills and his family's. It feels as if he hates or dreads even thinking about it and avgn related things. It's sad.

[@ricardoalbertoguevarapozos4550]

it would prob take him 1 or 2 hours to do everything, and i'm adding more time just for the trip to home depot. it's one hole u know it's not rocket science

[@HellecticMojo]

@@Tomyb15It's basically what happens when you do a multi team project on your own. None of his associates are actually proficient in ANY element of film making and none of them critically think enough on a project to form a tight control. He's in a perpetual DIY cycle because at no point did anyone enforce a need for strict planning.

[@AllisterCaine]

​@@ricardoalbertoguevarapozos4550yeah, in my head the projects all fall together in ten minutes but reality taught me different. If an improvised solution does the job, i wont leave my house for the gold plated version that takes the whole day. In the end my workshop is a mashup and doesnt even have a proper cozy wood floor so screw it.

[@nicedraeger2794]

>become internet famous >get married and have kids >don't fall off or touch kids like other internet famous people >use your fame and wealth to relive your best childhood memories over and over and over I think Role won guys

[@katlynklassen809]

Yes I agree. He has done all this stuff and kept his soul. The character did not consume him. The "fans" expect the material that they love so much to have at minimum the same impact on him and are deeply hurt that it does not.

[@MF-fd2ug]

you wouldnt think that the third is the hardest point for people but somehow it is

[@ChristopherAndersonPirate]

Role?

[@SarahC-by4cs]

Agree with the first 3, but I kind of hope he's finding more purpose in the present/future and less in the past.

[@bradydavis5791]

​@@ChristopherAndersonPirateHe meant Rolfe. Don't be purposely obtuse.

[@joshuachesney7552]

I resonate a lot with the idea of self conceptualizing as the failed version of what you aspired to be instead of the successful version of what you are.

[@megyskermike]

Why not have both?

[@shitehead]

you mean a loser?

[@allisona.6605]

​@@megyskermike Makes sense. But even when someone is able to acknowledge their "successful" self, their overall self-perception might still skew towards the more negative self-image (ie the "failed" version). Being able to accept and make peace with both versions of one's self would probably be ideal. It's just that focusing more on the positive means focusing less on the negative.

[@targaghjj]

@@megyskermike That's a compelling idea. That would be the healthiest thing to do.

[@rakseiify]

To conceptualize yourself as the failed version of what you aspired to be gives you awareness, constant awareness; while the successful version numbs you, it's like being on hero*** all the time.

[@eruu]

You thought we wouldn't notice, but the intro is being recorded on the shotgun mic just barely out of frame, despite Dan holding a mic the entire time. Just like James' studio tour.

[@billygoatguy3960]

Why do people even use those boom mics anymore? Doesn't that all have to be rerecorded in post on most professional film productions anyways?

[@thesidneychan]

​@@billygoatguy3960rerecording is expensive and takes time. It also takes away from live performance. Next would be that it's a backup audio source, a reference audio (to sync audio that was recorded separately, or as reference when it needs to be rerecorded). Or a dedicated sound mix guy could use the raw texture and detail from the boom to enhance the richness or bass. Something like that. I've never done proper audio mixing, but I'm sure having as much audio sources as possible is better than having only one.

[@hp67c]

@@thesidneychan I think he may have invented... two track recording? What's next, 24 tracks? www.preservationsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/LarryScully_BertWhyte_Interview_AUDIO_1169.pdf

[@adamsteelproducer]

@@billygoatguy3960quite simply, no. Those mics are good and wherever possible they want to keep that audio because re-recording is expensive and time consuming, and might never have the same vocal inflections / emotions as the original

[@lagg1e]

I had to restart the video to confirm that.

[@austinfletchermusic]

Let he who is without cringe throw the first stone indeed, Dan. This might be your most brutally honest video, about both James and yourself.

[@sylviapage61]

I agree, it gave me actual chills

[@culwin]

Everyone should embrace their cringe. Just not too much.

[@kingmanic]

They're both KZbin essayist with an audience.

[@sdgdhpmbp]

​@@culwinWhat's too much? Cause I'm basically one with my cringe.

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

@@sdgdhpmbpI am one with the cringe and the cringe is with me. I am one with the cringe and the cringe is with me. I am o

[@wh4teley]

I just read some of the reactions to this essay on the cinemassacretruth subreddit and came away impressed with how hard the average Redditor is willing to divorce themselves from reality to be mad on the Internet. Not once did I read a refutation or critique of the content that didn't amount to "lol, smug homeless communist makes video essay". Keep doing what you're doing.

[@bulb9970]

This guy didn't even mention the plagiarism scandal, which was the most infamous incident in Cinemassacre in years. But no, surely TCT are just "mindless haters" to you

[@DZYshitdart]

​@bulb9970 lmao he really didnt talk about it??

[@wh4teley]

@@bulb9970 Yeah, TCT is pretty mindless. All you do is hold up the plagiarism shit like it's evidence of something when it wasn't even James that plagiarized. It's petty and inconsequential. Y'all just have a stick up your ass about Screenwave allegedly "ruining" AVGN when the signs of it losing steam have been their for years. Dude has a wife an kids and less time to make doo-doo diarrhea monkey cheese jokes to entertain people who haven't grown past 2008.

[@Churono]

@@bulb9970 He didn't even talk about the hardware specs of the consoles whose games the AVGN plays! What the hell??

[@Churono]

@@bulb9970 He didn't so much as utter a syllable about Mrs. Nerd's cheese steak recipe! Is he even TRYING?

[@kixaru4747]

The fact that you ended the video the same way Rolfe ends all his movies (running from a cursed doll) was peak poetry, another fantastic video

[@bitnev]

Also like This is America video (in the beggining you can spot the name on the mixtape).

[@tentativegazer]

@@bitnev I also thought of that music video, wish I caught that detail in the beginning though lol

[@voltcorp]

@@bitnev what I loved the most about the conclusion is how it ties up nicely with all the evidence throughout that Dan is indeed a great filmmaker

[@monkmichel9477]

I thought the last scene was a karma police reference, but maybe I'm overthinking it lul

[@Iinneus]

It's great because the introduction of the doll is so insanely subtle. I wasn't thinking about it at all, but once the conclusion was there, I felt like a fool for not realizing that all the pieces had been in place for a while. It's like being got by a chess master's play.

[@josephgouthro3932]

Dan lining himself up with a projection of James while describing James, is my favorite part.

[@DirkMcThermot]

That part is a great demonstration of utilizing a unique aspect of the medium to enhance the point the essay is making. I listened to most of this video but I’m glad that I caught it.

[@SmartSmears]

I need to rewatch the video because once you get it the whole thing gets recontextualised. I just know there was a point where I went "come to think of it, I don't really know Dan Olsen either."

[@TheRogueWolf]

I paused during that section to go get something to drink, and when I came back I just stared at the frame for half a minute because my brain just couldn't quite parse it.

[@MxChloeB42]

@@SmartSmears Yeah, even the first time watching it I couldn't help but notice the moments when the glasses of Dan and the glasses of James in the projection kept blending together. Even before I knew the thesis of the video I could tell that that scene was conveying the similarities between the two, I just didn't know how much so.

[@mercilpb]

Dan was on some absolutely sicko shit in this one

[@animosity9197]

One of the worst things about getting older, growing up, or just changing as a person through the passage of time and events, is that inevitably some things you used to really like and find very important turn out to be kind of bad. This is a classically common experience with children's media, but honestly, it happens with everything. You're just no longer the target audience for that thing, sometimes because you have more experience with what it was ripping off, sometimes because there are better versions of it, and sometimes because you learn enough about the world that you don't relate to that thing in the same way. I'm glad James Rolfe really enjoys being a father. Good for him and good for his kids.

[@astcastle]

Y’know what’s crazy? That is the literal impetus for Rolfe’s best-known contemporary, The Nostalgia Critic; an adult confronting the fact that the things they loved as a child don’t mean the same things to them anymore, and just being furious about it. Time is a circle without a beginning.

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

@@astcastle With apologies if this is a lampshade I'm misinterpreting,, friend I have good and / or bad news for you about Folding Ideas and the Nostalgia Critic

[@InfectedEnnui]

that's one of the reasons good childhood media is so important. chronicles of narnia have aged like fine wine for me

[@jewthulhu]

@@InfectedEnnuiThis is hilarious to me not because I think you're, like, *wrong*, or should feel differently, but Chronicles of Narnia is one of those things I remember from childhood that has aged, for me, particularly poorly

[@Kane0123]

Yep. The content you loved doesn’t change over time as you do… it’s an mp4 already uploaded. Saw Kali Muscle and Twinmuscleworkout recently… I liked their content back in the day, no reason for me to judge it with my current personality. It will remain good content - for the me of 15years ago.

[@demetergrasseater]

I'm not quite sure what it is, but Dan's particular way of deconstructing art always makes me feel really motivated to get up and go make some art, even if it's just for myself and close friends. It's like, not necessarily "inspiring" but more... driving, if that makes sense. It's like a stranger just came up to me and slapped me in the chest with a sticker that says "The things you create are worth thinking about."

[@knowmebetterman.]

Man. I’m sure you’re proud of it, but the angry rant about angry rants with James’s face projected over yours is just incredible work. I don’t have the words to describe it. I’m just sitting here in silence.

[@lingricen8077]

Why did you start your comment by saying ‘Man’? Do you typically subconsciously think of men like that? Come out of the closet.

[@EricGranata]

Bro- I just saw that part and immediately came to the comments.

[@PenStab]

It. Was. Chilling. Such a stunning piece!

[@Noaartetc]

It was pretty as well. Like, aestheticially pleasing.

[@danieltidey5599]

James's face as mask, protecting Dan's ego but also making it clear that he is performing a bit. Amazing camerawork.

[@MeeraReads]

Did…. Did Dan just create a James Rolfe movie about James Rolfe? Centered around a cursed object?

[@hectormontecino7777]

ohhhhhh... You are so right, even finish with the doll. That's just masterful, is a critic, an episode of AVGN, a Rolfe's movie, an analysis, a introspection, a cautionary tale, and sometimes even a defense of Rolfe.

[@SSJFro]

🤯How to say "I'm a better filmmaker than you" without saying it

[@ekki1993]

@@SSJFro He tends to do the same thing he's talking about, like reviewing The Wall for Doug's video or a self-interview for the geocentrist video. And he generally does it better than the people he's talking about because... well, he's your favourite video essayist's favourite video essayist. I doubt he did it with ill intent here, though. The ending seems to find value in the style, even if the video is very critical of James Rolfe as a filmmaker. Dan probably saw something of himself in there.

[@mattcroft]

...goddamn it

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

The whole descent into madness vibe really didn't sink in until the end. But, it gives it re watch value. The second watch gives you insight into all of the foreshadowing work that was glossed over or taken for granted the first time. He hasn't stopped teaching. This is just the MasterClass.

[@clb734]

Surely this video is exclusively a video essay on AVGN and not at all a masterfully done commentary on the nature of internet content and Dan's relationship with his own craft. That would be crazy.

[@jst56strong]

You win my favorite comment 🎉 +2 internet points

[@ChrisKChandler]

Nah, Dan hates metaphors.

[@mattcelder]

I don't know Dan Olson

[@BassLiberators]

Hahaha unless.......

[@Tw0DrunkGuys]

Don't be silly, metaphors aren't real, subtext isn't real, all the beautifully framed shots and theming were just coincidence.

[@theslimbin]

The idea of filmmaking as extension of play is such a groundbreaking concept for me. I’ve never considered it and I’m bringing it up with other people on Film sets and talking about the certain directors we know work and so many of them think it’s such an eye-opening idea

[@alist0]

Projecting James' face as you rant about being an actor of convenience is... *Chefs kiss*

[@weepingbelle4528]

as a visual metaphor it was perhaps a tad blunt, but wow the actual effect of it was unsettling in all the right ways

[@AB0BA_69]

That shot felt insulting. Like people who follow James don't realize that he's doing this for over 20 years because he needs a paycheck?? 😂

[@1RandomToaster]

@@weepingbelle4528Blunt? Almost as if James himself wrote it perhaps? *strokes Dan’s beard*

[@urbobne2254]

I took that to be a visual metaphor for this entire video: a film-student turned youtuber being unnecessarily harsh towards a film-student turned youtuber who's more successful. I like both James and Folding Ideas but this isn't the latter's best work imo

[@ulture]

@@urbobne2254 did you watch the whole thing

[@writinggoose6059]

"im a filmmaker! a filmmaker!!", i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a popular youtuber

[@i.b.640]

We had a secretary who did a bit of editorial Work once a week. She insisted she was an Editor and not a secretary. I thought it was so sad, because all of us were Editors , and she was just mid at it, but was an exceptional secretary and made the whole flee circus of an office actually functional. But as long as society will attatch social Status to the Job title and not just to how good at it you are, this will continue. Why not say I am BOTH a filmmaker and a youtuber, BOTH a secretary and an Editor.

[@i.b.640]

@@pocket83squared I take it as a compliment, that you would think I am an editor in English, even though this is not my native tongue and not the one I am working in :) Also: in my native tongue editing and correcting are two different things. Editing needs a sense of language and correcting a perfect grasp on grammar and orthography.

[@lancesmith8298]

Doug Walker, off in his own world, thinking he’s the next big thing on the platform and not Neil Breen

[@undeadMonk]

@@pocket83squared Speaking only for myself, I liked i.b.640's comments because they came across as humble and charismatic - sharing an anecdote from their personal life that didn't read as self-aggrandisement, and had true relevance to both the original comment and the video.Your first reply I would have liked after I scanned back up and noticed I hadn't - it was genuinely amusing - but after I read your second, in which you accuse another person of bot farming likes on their youtube comments (of all things to spend money buying bots for! Hilarious if true), it left a _slightly_ bad taste in my mouth. This is not to say your comments are heinous or in the wrong - they just don't read as genuinely as the other person's. From my limited perspective, it's only natural that they got as many likes as they did.

[@ProtomanButCallMeBlues]

@@i.b.640 the reminds me of my older brother, whom everyone calls "the lawyer" because he graduated from Law School, but he has never gone to court and admits he's terrified because he would always lose his mock trials (think Lionel Hutz from the Simpsons). He does legal stuff for some tech company, but he's never been straightforward other than when family bring it up he's like "I'm not THAT kind of Lawyer". But I think my parents just throw it around for themselves to brag on other parents like when their kids join the Marines.

[@sorenkair]

"Let he who is without cringe throw the first stone." Amen.

[@espurr6107]

My English is bad, could you explain it?

[@sorenkair]

@@espurr6107 it means that everyone does cringe things (just not on the internet for all to see), thus to make fun of him for being cringe is hypocritical.

[@pretzel1313]

​@@espurr6107it's a play on a well-known verse from the Bible. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". The word "sin" is replaced with the word "cringe" and the idea is "everyone is cringey, so you can't attack other people for being cringey without being a hypocrite".

[@Dr.W.Krueger]

Just using THAT word should get anyone a public flogging.

[@GraphiteShores]

@@pretzel1313 It is used in particular to where Jesus is protecting a 'sinful' woman from being stoned to death; 'We are all born with natural sin and commit sinful thoughts and deeds everyday, yet you declare yourself holier than this woman? If one of you is without any sin, go ahead and throw the first stone.'

[@DrMcFly28]

James Rolfe is like a guy who owns a successful burger stand for decades. He considers himself a chef, but his talents are limited. Yet the burgers he makes are consistent in quality, reasonably priced, there if you need them, perfectly ignorable if you want something more substantial. That should be enough for most normal people.

[@clavius5734]

You’re right, and it would make most people happier to accept that, but our generation was taught we could be 🤩 anything we want 🤩

[@squidgirl0413]

@@clavius5734 i feel like 'have ambitions and be true to yourself' and 'sometimes you wont get everything you want and thats fine' are actually mutually coexisting statements. also not to be a killjoy but i think its ok if our generation is a bit demanding given that the price of housing and food is going up while paychecks are staying stagnant.

[@sneepsnoop9547]

@@clavius5734 The point OP was making was that James is a decent guy who's just making a living and isn't hurting anyone, so there's no good reason to lay into him. Nothing to do with... zoomers being too aspirational? Having dreams? Luckily for you, I can tell you from experience that this sort of overly jaded pick-me attitude goes away with age.

[@Pimploaf_YTP]

And then some of the less personable but equally important staff left and were replaced. The lead is still mostly the same guy, but his heart's with his family and less with the successful venture that continues to pay the bills -- which is where it should be.

[@squidgirl0413]

@@Pimploaf_YTP why should his business be more important than his family

[@knowmatter5503]

To quote noted musical historian Todd in the Shadows: “Metallica wasn’t just ‘big for a metal band’ they were BIG - I remember hearing ‘enter sandman’ playing at WALMART”

[@travisjordan3853]

The fact that 'Weird Al' Yankovic incorporated lyrics from their song "Enter Sandman" into his 1992 polka medley "Polka Your Eyes Out" shows that Metallica was definitely not an obscure band.

[@deparinge]

Yeah I also thought back to the St. Anger Trainwreckord. If you weren't there at the time you might be forgiven for thinking Metallica weren't that big back in the day and it's only because of a dedicated fanbase and sheer musical prowess that you'll hear songs like Nothing Else Matters on the radio nowadays but like...Enter Sandman reached number 16 on the Hot 100 and went platinum back when that actually meant something

[@pinkcupcake4717]

The little flash in my mind to Todd's video in the middle of this one was probably an unintended experience, but a great one nonetheless.

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

I thought of the same thing!

[@marocat4749]

I mean unforgiven is great. and personally nothing else matters their masterpiece.

[@hotwheelsdeepstate]

I keep thinking about the “AVGN truthers” and that they have an in joke reference lore to something as mind meltingly mundane as “leaving due to having other plans”

[@nicholasbuffone175]

Another truther in-joke that went unmentioned, "mowdens", is entirely founded upon a video where James didn't enunciate the "t" in "mountain" hard enough for their liking. Admittedly, the video itself can be pretty awkward - James documents himself trying to climb the mountain from the training montage in Rocky 4, is obviously woefully unprepared despite the presumably not-insignificant expense of the trip out to it, and ultimately throws in the towel - but even then, it speaks to their insistence on flying completely past legitimate points of critique and straight into play-by-play nullifications of his entire being.

[@cassnate6259]

I always found it incredibly strange that people found it worthy of their time to hate on a KZbinr for... having a family? Another solution for a channel you don't fare care for anymore is... *gasp*... Not watching.

[@GraphiteShores]

@@cassnate6259 Because they do not consider anything more important than to justify the sense of 'betrayal' James has done to them for not being the Nerd they remember from their past. It gives them an ego-boost to feel like they are involved in uncovering a truth for others, that 'they' know something 'others' don't.

[@sublime3784]

I was recommended the AVGN truther subreddit and I thought it was a joke. Like instead of being about objectively historic events like 9/11 and Covid, it’s a truther movement about most inconsequential thing possible, a decades old KZbin channel. Then a realized they weren’t joking.

[@paprikayes]

@@GraphiteShoresNot to give any credit to those people, but I don’t think it’s anything as serious as that. I think they just had a misguided knee jerk reaction to a perceived change in the content of a creator they used to like, and found a community of likeminded people that just devolve into a cesspool of bigoted hate like any other online hate groups. I think they spend so much time doing it because they get to be part of a community this way, one that is accepting of their hate-fueled views they hold elsewhere in their life. It’s like Dan said, just an excuse for chan-types to say the same shit they do everywhere.

[@robinbirb]

"It ruined my life in the way that only the inexplicable decisions of strangers can." I felt that.

[@sca8217]

Is it weird that I chanced upon this comment at the exact same time as that exact line was being spoken by Dan while playing the video?

[@robinbirb]

@@sca8217 Amazing.

[@el_fucko]

@@sca8217 The longer the video, the weirder it is. This one's 76 minutes, not too shabby imo.

[@QualityCandor]

I'll just say it for the record, I find it hilarious that he posts this in June, and then two months later, James posts his review of the NES version of Déjà Vu where we goes full John Alton on the cinematography, and rough patches aside, produced one of the best looking videos of his career. His love of film (and film noir in that video's case) shines thru and it's clear that, when he puts his back into it, James can do something legit cinematic. Just something I wanted to throw out there.

[@Kalmera6238]

AVGN may make him a living, but I feel it holds back his art. Board James for example is way better shot than AVGN

[@PRODEMOCRACYNEWS]

Watching this as 37 years old should carry a warning label

[@CoffeeCynic]

Try at 43. Existential dread.

[@Moonbeam143]

I'm 38. This does feel like a punch in the gut, doesn't it? You have so many dreams of who you might be when you're younger, and what your life might be when you're older, but it turns out that you're already in a dream, because you're asleep to who you are as a person right now, and sometimes a wake up is good for you.

[@XanthinZarda]

In the choir of millions, only a few voices rise above the noise. As long as we do the best for ourselves and to those we care for, we shall at the very least, be remembered by someone.

[@lydiai.3658]

I just turned 36 so it was close but it missed me

[@JetstreamGW]

I'm 40. Aging is better than the alternative, cowards! :P Accept it! Accept your life, warts and all!

[@mothersbasement]

“It’s like, what was he thinking?” *one hour and several wooden boards later* “Oh, It’s like… what was **I** thinking?”

[@Gaia_BentosZX5]

"How did I get stuck with this username?", an existential horror story of reviewers that owe a lot to the AVGN and Nostalgia Critic.

[@zeframmann1641]

@@Gaia_BentosZX5 Not gonna lie I sometimes miss the paper bag.

[@SlickJohnnysHouse]

Do you also make stands compulsively Geoff

[@draexian530]

I see what it's like, then.

[@ozoraidani]

When your fave anime youtuber watches your fave essay youtuber, you know he’s good! Where you gonna pop up next Geoff? Wendigoon? 👀

[@ohno5559]

A truly Lovecraftian video. Dan sees a wretched artifact so vile, so entrancing in its obvious wrongness, that he is compelled to recreate it. The great work consumes him, he loses sleep, his beard grows long and unkempt, but still he maintains a single-minded devotion to his goal: create a replica of the artifact so perfect that it is capable of conferring the dark knowledge within.

[@ArbitraryConstant]

amazing comment

[@swiftlymurmurs]

Ironically a more interesting take on the story James keeps coming back to inexplicably about haunted objects trying to kill him. Hey James, maybe you weren't the main character but the haunted object all along.

[@BarackLesnar]

Avgn as information hazard

[@alistairbuckle3450]

@@swiftlymurmurs For he is... Bimmy. (The evil, morose, twin who replaced James in AVGN lore).

[@The5lacker]

@@swiftlymurmurs It's like poetry, it rhymes.

[@hotcoldman]

I work in the film/tv industry, I went to film school, I work with cables, batteries, gaff tape and pelican cases all day. Your rant about stepping over shit to change out other shit was so relatable. Getting in the headspace of James doing that all day, BY HIMSELF in such a small space honestly makes me understand him more. I've been watching him for years, I read his book, but you breaking it down like that cracked the James Rolfe code for me

[@Stathol]

Dan boggling at why Kyle would build a mere 8-foot wide replica of the AVGN set while hovering over his 8-inch wide replica of the replica of the AVGN set is just *chef's kiss*

[@krlosz1996]

A replica of a replica, reaching concerning levels of simulacra

[@SchneiderHB]

well but he didn't build it as a _room_, so he can actually do all the filiming inside

[@Zycyzyx]

Seeing that kitbashed camera setup made me feel a new kinship with James in a specific way. You have a problem to solve, you don't know the "right" solution to it; but you have tons of energy to just hack one out of nothing on the spot. Your crappy solution is still your own solution, a fruitful act of creation.

[@turtleofpride4572]

Yes! Yes! Jerry rigging, adapting. Using something in a completely different context or way than it's intended use. It's not pretty and may just be up to snuff but you're damn proud to have thought of it.

[@AB0BA_69]

Yeah, but if I can mock your solutions as "not good enough" then I set you up to look like an idiot for my "review" video essay. 😂

[@GorblinRat]

​@@AB0BA_69 yeah it's a really lame complaint.

[@cyjanek7818]

There is no way he didnt know the right solution, you dont have to be filmmaker to know about screw in base of camera and heads. He knew the right solution and he decided to use the wrong one. Answer to "why" is way bigger than solution itself.

[@tomatopaste799]

I immediately had the thought that he has ADHD because that’s some shit I’d do

[@barbararobertson9505]

It's okay Dan. In 15 years someone else will be having an existential crisis over Keemstar. This is completely respectable by comparison.

[@aaronborok8398]

AVGN is infinitely better than Keemstar by any filmmaking metric.

[@HellecticMojo]

Keemstar is reprehensible garbage

[@Pundit07]

@@aaronborok8398 Make that any metric in general, not just filmmaking

[@lachlank.8270]

Ugh

[@Kiwi_J]

Nah

I'm here on a rewatch, and while this was a fun video essay, I genuinely think it's one of my favourite indie films. I feel like each time I've watched it I've noticed something new and clever you're doing with the framing. The AVGN's angry face projected over your own while you talk about how hard it is to be performatively be angry, that anyone watching you is watching an echo of yourself ... It's a superb visual metaphor.

[@m.streicher8286]

Glad to see my favorite bit from the wall video return "you can't critique this media without leaving some of yourself in that critique"

[@MelonTarge123]

This is amazing. A story of Dan using Wavelength to condemn the man only to realize that AVGN is Wavelength and that what he hates isn't the man but the reminder of his own insecurities. It is a hard and painful thing to realize that your anger comes from within and not without, to grapple with this realization like this is moving. Dan is the best doing it.

[@Lollero200q]

This 👆

[@sybo59]

@@Lollero200qCould this be cutesy, pretentious nonsense?

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

i don't get a sense from the section of the video where we see the original intent, the 'narrative of AVGN' video that was originally being shot, that Dan ever set out to condemn Rolfe. i think it was the opposite, given that that part of the video at no point offers a harsh critique of Rolfe's work (unlike the rest of the video) - that Dan intended to defend AVGN and Rolfe, particularly against the hate watchers / reddit fascists we can only guess at why that video didn't make the cut to get published (my own guess is it just wasn't that interesting; didn't have much to say beyond, 'the internet has been mean to AVGN and i don't like it'), but it seems clear enough that Dan took that work and, rather than discarding it outright (probably because there IS value in saying out loud, 'it is okay to choose the life you want to lead instead of leading the one strangers think you should'), probed the matter of why he felt compelled to offer a defense why the sense of kinship with a homunculus made of wavelengths and photons?

[@shimemiller5952]

Genuinely thank you for wording it, I kinda struggle interpreting stuff like this sometimes

[@Lollero200q]

@@sybo59 your mom is

[@Lunar0Strain]

blown away by this to be honest. I can relate to that feeling of being almost obsessively critical of people superficially similar to myself and then immediately thinking "am I really that much better?" and spiralling from there. The whole video tied to together so well, I was wondering why the hell you brought up "wavelength" literally until the last sequence where everything clicked for me.

[@LimeyLassen]

I think about Contrapoints' "Cringe" video a lot, it never stops being relevant.

[@dudere]

I did not relate at all until he talked about the camera bags on sofas. I have a box of crap from work 6 inches behind me I cannot look at.

[@synth-wave_steve]

Even by rejecting the gamer, a little bit of yourself will bleed out.

[@northernstepperz]

​@@synth-wave_stevei read your statement, then shrieked and melted into the sands of time

[@Antonicane]

"Wavelength, like many avant-garde films, is what you bring to it", said Dan, while making an avant-garde film.

[@cannondebris]

I've watched this multiple times and it's still mind blowing that you need to explain how James does in fact love his family more than his channel.

[@Roiworld21]

If there's one thing I got out of this video, it's that James Rolfe has 100% percent turned into a Dad. Anybody who says, "Fuck it" and just haphazardly backyard construct in a way that's easy and works for him has transformed himself into Dad mode. If anything, that just concludes that he might do this to other things around the house too which makes me happy for some reason lol. I'm sure his daughters will remember that fondly about him.

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

Man my dad built some truly mindboggling stuff. We had to deconstruct one of his monstrocities (a bookshelve/tv stand he'd been adding iterative weird upgrades to for two decades) when moving house, it was positively non-Euclidian. An Escher print of a cupboard, magnificent, imaginative, completely w r o n g in a Lovecraftian way...

[@desertels5119]

​@@jaspervanheycop9722 This is wonderfully vivid

[@pravkdey]

​@@jaspervanheycop9722 may God have mercy on us all

[@agraham9099]

i love that for him SO MUCH

[@kyleleehufnagel]

As a dad who has dug giant bulbs of decorative grasses out of landscaping beds with nothing but a breaking bar because my shovel handle broke; sometimes you do a task the “wrong way”because the real challenge is working up the motivation to even start a task. If I stopped because I didn’t have the right tool on hand there is no saying when I’d get around to getting the right tool, let alone circle back around to the project I was trying to accomplish to begin with.

[@ABuffWizard]

Folding Ideas has visually come full circle from the Suicide Squad review. The long hair and cough syrup drinking was replaced with a cleaner cut image and a certain outdoorsyness. Now we’re back with an untamed beard and sitting in the floor reminiscing about AVGN. What a ride!

[@maxmfpayne]

The hero returns from his journey, having changed but also finding himself once more

[@Eagledude131]

​@@maxmfpayneand the cycle turns anew

[@glitchedoom]

Dan chugging cough syrup while talking about Suicide Squad was my introduction to this channel. I feel like I've finally come home.

[@bookshelfhoney]

That was Gandalf the Grey, this is Gandalf the white! Oh wait, that's just his majestic beard

[@TheTrueMerrio]

What a lovely day!

[@potatolord6853]

I appreciate the contributions of the grainy voice effects to the tone and subject matter of the video, but I’m chuckling at the mental image of someone picking up an audio diary in Bioshock and having the speaker eloquently confess their confusion over James Rolfe for an hour and change.

[@B-019]

I need this Bioshock mod ASAP.

[@LimeyLassen]

Better yet, in Control

[@wasprider7239]

I went from earnest self reflection to cackling laughter from the last comment to yours. Shit that's a funny mental picture 🤣

[@michaeldunkerton3805]

I used to have this earworm where I imagined AVGN delivering the "I want to take the ears off" monologue. Give it a try in your head...it fits perfectly.

[@EnvyOmicron]

@@michaeldunkerton3805 I hate that you're right, I can totally imagine it

[@aesthetichoarder8248]

A lot of people felt that Dan was being mean and judgemental in this video but I viewed it as him telling a story about learning to empathize with James

[@Knifedog212]

The problem is that many people cannot rationalize that. It’s either hating on him or praising

[@johnkennedy3403]

I understand that he was telling a story about seeing himself in James and so on, but I still think he went about it in a pretty mean way. It just seems like a mean spirited video to me.

[@TheStoenk]

@@johnkennedy3403 i came away from this video respecting James Rolfe and his decisions more than I did before

[@MangusMangoman]

I have never seen criticism this harsh feel so deeply respectful.

[@Felipemelazzi]

Just finished the video and you spoke the words that were echoing inside my mind

[@BadgerOfTheSea]

video game nerd trolls struggling to understand the basic concept that a man can be in love with his wife and have a happy family seems to be something that comes up a lot

[@mmfood3004]

That inability to connect would be sad if they weren't so abhorrent

[@redgreen2453]

@@mmfood3004 I always wonder if their abhorrent behavior is what leads to them being unable to connect with anyone or if them being unable to connect with anyone leads to their abhorrent behavior. In my experience I feel like it tends to be 50/50 with people but my experience is limited because I don’t tend to be able to connect with anyone

[@YukiDemonOfHell]

@@redgreen2453 it's probably a mixture of both, or a spiral of not really connecting to people leading to shitty behavior leading to not being able to connect with anyone leading to shitty behavior, and on and on and on. And sometimes people can find someone or something to connect with before it gets bad, or they maybe come to terms with not connecting with people, while others just become the worst shits imaginable.

[@SomeBlokeOrWhatever]

@@redgreen2453 One thing feeds the other which feeds the one which feeds the other in an endless spiral.

[@KosmosUzuki999]

​@redgreen2453 I feel like How to Radicalize a Normie by Innuendo Studios had a good perspective on the cyclical cause and effect

[@TheGrayMysterious]

James nailing two scraps of wood over the stand like a plank sandwich instead of drilling a hole into the base for the bolt-hole the stand was built with is genuinely beautiful in its bass-ackwardness. I genuinely don't think he knew the hole was there, he just needed a way to keep the camera stable and was either short on time or short on patience. The fact he either simultaneously strapped the level to it or added the level after the fact is the cherry on top. Describing James' filmmaking style as a kid as "filmmaking as a form of play" made so much click in my mind about how to describe his work adequately. The dude sees making movies the same way a person would see, like, a D&D session. He's doing something he loves, but the core of why he loves it is just the fun of fucking around with friends, writing a script you think is funny, throwing in whatever insane bullshit comes to mind and then chuckling at the chaos that results. It also explains perfectly why AVGN: The Movie was such a near-breaking experience for him, because "real" filmmaking is rigid, professional, stressful, difficult, and absolutely unforgiving. If I were in his position, it probably would have affected me the same way. It'd be crass to say this means I "know" James on some level when the whole video is a Beginner's Guide-like treatise on why assuming you "know" how other people function is fundamentally wrongheaded, but I feel like it's given me not only a framework to try and understand the work of a guy I respect, but also a way of seeing art I might make in a way that might lessen the pressure of its existence on me.

[@clementinedanger]

I was also thinking of The Beginner's Guide the whole way through and that's as high a compliment as I'll ever give

[@atlassolid5946]

i don't think people inherently have a problem with that in and of itself, i think they have a problem with James using words like "films" and "filmmaking" to describe what he does, since they ascribe a lot more weight and importance to those words than "youtube videos" or "home movies". not that i inherently agree with them, but that might be partly where the disconnect is coming from.

[@Zeathian]

The TTRPG analogy hit me as well. James is a forever GM who has been running games in the world he created when he was a child.

[@Pandor18]

or he didnt have a drill at hand?

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

@@Pandor18 I mean, that was my thought too. But like... without a drill, how did he get those screws through the planks? Do I even want to know? Probably not. But yeah. As someone who DIY'd together enough abominations for various things because of a lack of resources, plenty of which served as lessons after being critiqued by people that knew how to do the thing I was trying to do WITHOUT making an abomination, I can see why Rolfe kept around that rig. it's as Dan said: the act of creation itself makes the thing take on a character of importance to you. Reminds you of a time you solved a problem with limited available material; even if by most standards you 'did it wrong', you still solved the problem and did it with just your own hands and brain.

[@dopaminetrigger]

judging by the comments section, you just made wavelength (2024)

[@throbert8244]

People have tried really hard to force James into lolcow-status but he’s just an exceedingly normal guy so it doesn’t work. His descent into mediocrity is relatable on a human level.

[@tharfagreinir]

He's a guy who made a wildly successful thing and has managed to keep it going for almost 20 years, while struggling to expand his repertoire with what can indeed be described as very mediocre results. The biggest scandal of his career was when some of the Screenwave writers cut corners by plagiarizing some of the scripts that were written for him. There's just so little to work with here that it's kind of astounding that people bother with hating on him.

[@cannon9009]

The most you could describe James as is "That guy who likes pretending to hate video games". And unlike some other people like Arin Hanson who do it despite being fucking awful at video games, James actually gives valid criticism of the games he plays, things that would aggravate people even if they were good at the game. Most scandals he gets into are of no fault of his own, just some people who thought he could trust that ended up biting him in the rear for no good reason. He's just a normal guy who's living in the KZbin space with the rest of us. And I feel like people take that for granted.

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

@@cannon9009 In Arin’s defense he deliberately leans into that perception and knows it’s a bit

[@penelopesa]

Not hating on the guy at all. I loved him when I was young as the writing and humor definitely skews to what an 11 or 12 year old might find funny. But that was a long time ago. I don't think he's descended into mediocrity. I think when we were young we simple enjoyed mediocrity and you age out of it. I mean, was dressing up in a cheap bugs bunny costume and pouring fake liquid shit on an NES cart ever good? No. He's just an honest dude who found his niche. Is it a particularly noble niche? No. But neither is mine. That's kind of the point of this video I think. We won't all be nobel laureates. So when we see someone making something that's "Just kind of okay." and being successful it breeds resentment, and that says more about us than him.

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

@@penelopesa Ehh, I think you can dismiss any form of “lowbrow” comedy the way you are right now. It doesn’t make it bad.

[@MicahBuzanANIMATION]

I always find it odd that a vocal minority of the AVGN fan base is so offended at how non-offensive James is. If being normal and average is a sin, then that's a sin more youtube celebrities should aspire to commit.

[@Pundit07]

Hmm, I wonder if that’s exactly why a lot of those people view Doug as superior to James 🤔 Because they are stuck in the past of angry reviewers and knowing that James is a completely separate entity in real life from the Nerd makes them view him as a “fraud” whereas Doug is really not that different from his Nostalgia Critic persona, and they find that favorable. Not that I agree with it at all, for the record. I’ve always found that mentality to be bullshit. Just putting it out there is all.

[@MicahBuzanANIMATION]

@@Pundit07 That's actually really interesting. The Nostalgia Critic is kinda of like Doug's persona turned up to 11, whereas the Nerd feels like a totally separate character from James. That being said, I think the hate Doug get's is also really silly, although I can understand more easily why Nostalgia Critic might get on people's nerves.

[@xaphon89]

It's like every time some friend told me they met So-And-So from some extreme metal band and they always have to say "he's actually really nice." Like they are surprised that successful entertainers are capable of being polite an sociable.

[@FernieCanto]

"I always find it odd that a vocal minority of the AVGN fan base is so offended at how non-offensive James is." This actually made me ponder for a little bit. I think characters like the Nerd and the Critic were catalysts of an entire movement of assholish movement on the internet, in which it was funny, or even appropriate, to be a completely obnoxious person on the internet and bitterly complain and get angry at everything. And I mean, like, 10 years ago, that *was* funny to me. The internet served as an escape valve for a lot of my own frustrations and disappointments. But, after a certain point, there was nothing else to vent. This "anger as a lifestyle" had no meaning anymore, and there was no point in feigning it, so I just moved on to other stuff. I still think AVGN is entertaining, but I don't resonate with it as much as 10 or 15 years ago. It's a fun little show and I'm glad it's still around. But what about the people who were *unable* to move on? I think those people were shocked to realise that James himself is NOT an "angry" person like the Nerd is, that that felt like high treason. James as a person (and yes, I mean "as a person"--i don't think those "fans" can even recognise James as an artist, as a worker, and just see him as a guy) is not a validation for those people to act angry and frustrated after so many years, and they need some kind of narrative to justify that James, the father, the husband and just regular person, is not the "real" James, i.e. the Nerd. They *need* James to actually be offensive, so they can feel validated in being, themselves, offensive. - As for Doug Walker, I also find the hate silly. Any "hate" is inherently silly up to a certain degree. One thing I believe distinguishes James from Doug, though, is how much they take themselves seriously. I believe Dan Olson is quite accurate in seeing James as a "backyard filmmaker", an artist who does what he loves, and still thinks he's inviting his friends over to make some movies as a form of play. It's not that he doesn't take the craft of filmmaking seriously, but he doesn't think of himself as a "serious artist". He's a craftsman, and he's just blessed for being able to make a living out of his work. Doug, however, paints himself as a serious artist, a legitimate comedian, and an influential personality in internet comedy. He has enjoyed his reputation as a leading pioneer in creating internet videos as a form of art, and tries to use that to justify his creative choices. Doug tries hard to shove himself as an artist who has grown, evolved and transcended his humble beginnings, but, well, Dan himself has already described exactly who Doug is. James is just doing his thing. Again, he's a craftsman.

[@MicahBuzanANIMATION]

@@FernieCanto That is really well put, thank you for sharing all that! I definitely agree and I think more people should be aware of the points you made in this comment.

[@The5lacker]

If there's one lesson I've taken away from this video, it's this: There's a difference between "Wanting to be a filmmaker" and "Wanting to make a film", or more generally, "Wanting to be an artist" and "Wanting to make art." If you want to *be* an Artist, then the art is just a means to an end. And if you don't feel like you've made it to where you want to be, if you don't feel like an "artist", it'll get stuck. You'll focus on making your "art" until it's perfect, until *it* makes *you* an *artist.* But if you want to make art, then once the art is done, you can go and... make more art. Or not. You can go do non-art things, and it won't matter, because the art you wanted to make... was made. I think, too often, we get hung up on what we want to "Be" as opposed to what we want to "Do", and not just about art. It's the difference between "Being a good person" and "Doing good things." The difference between "Being smart" and "Learning." I dunno, it's just something that got caught in my craw at the end there. "You aren't a filmmaker either." Like, I get it, but that voice isn't really ever... productive, at least it hasn't been in my life. There's nothing wrong with not being a filmmaker.

[@ZoetropeTony]

This is really well said, and I appreciate it as someone who often wonders whether I want to be an artist more so than I want to make art

[@yksoba]

Now this has me asking myself: Do i make art because i want to make art, or because I want it to make me?

[@plootyluvsturtle9843]

Totally agree

[@pocket83squared]

Great point. Idealization. There are hats we covet from an early age: for child me, there was _LEGO_ Space, because I was going to be a scientist. Once I finally landed in a Lab job, I quickly realized I hated it. I wanted to be, not do. Sci-fi is just that. I'll add on the side that much of our politics ends up being less about what we really think, and more about what we want to think we think. Also, our appearance is _so_ much affectation! It's hard to keep a top-down view of one's own life; we end up getting stuck staring into some barely-important corner. For perspective, means and ends are so important to consider weighed against one another, and sometimes together. In a genre that's personally closer to this Carpenter from birth, there are lots of 'Woodworker' videographers out here who have pretty tools, and who love to proselytize about safety & procedure, but I think they want to _be_ the thing far more than they really want to _do_ the thing. Ever notice how many how-to videos will demonstrate, in real-time, a presenter's first time with the subject matter? The path ends up being much different from a distant perspective.

[@alexbistagne1713]

I love this contrast of being vs doing. Thanks for the comment.

[@helterskelter9670]

I watched this whole video while assembling a cheap plastic closet that I bought to replace an even cheaper plastic closet that collapsed five months ago and I left there all this time, stacking my clothes on top of its remains that kept breaking. It hurt.

[@numbdigger9552]

Maybe just buy a SLIGHTLY more expensive wooden closet?

[@biscuitygudness]

i'm seeing folks commenting on how this "isn't new information about avgn", but my takeaway from this video was that this is a video about dan's relationship with avgn and how it reflects his own worst fears and insecurities about himself and his decisions right back at him as a ghost of electrons. which is exactly how i feel about doug walker - becoming someone like him is my worst fear. so this video really hit home for me.

[@Badbufon]

James Rolfe is like the wall in Wavelength

[@Jo.j.13-l9v]

To me, im slightly sleep deprived, its about how stupid overcritical video Essays can be, unnessarly mean, pointless not self reflektive, Critism as entertainment in a lot of its worst forms, seeing a camera fictire that annoys you and spending an hour talking about how bad a Film maker some guy you don't know is. Making a Model of his home all that

[@GorblinRat]

​@@Jo.j.13-l9vagreed

[@tentativegazer]

I think you're exactly right! I left a mini essay saying as much lmao

[@gladspooky9455]

But he doesn't have a relationship with the AVGN. He says so in the video. He is just a fan who has come to massively dislike the thing he's a fan of. This happens so often, it's unremarkable.

[@disgruntledcashier503]

The thumbnail for the Nostalgia Critic video is a picture of Doug. Because that's who the video is about. The thumbnail for I Don't Know James Rolfe is a picture of Dan Olson. Because that's who the video is about.

[@thegnarledpirate9198]

It sounds like you're calling him a loser.

[@LostSnowdrift]

indeed -- this video isn't called "james rolfe and the nerd", it is specifically **i** don't know james rolfe. the title is as much about olson as it is about rolfe.

[@Derek-kj9mt]

Weird how many aren't getting it. I suspect it has to do with the fact that, as Dan makes clear, James has become a mirror in which we see what we want to see - good, bad, competence, incompetence, brilliance, ignorance, diligence, laziness - and if we look closely enough, we'll see the judgments are just about ourselves.

[@DB-ku7vu]

@@thegnarledpirate9198 ... Did you watch the video?

[@heatherlee2047]

+++

[@Scudboy17]

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from an art teacher in college. I honestly can not recall his name, but he was a teacher at San Antonio College, Design 1 class. We were discussing critiquing each others works and how a lot of it can just come down to personal preference when he made a suggestion I totally did not agree with at the time. He said that when we encounter someone's work we don't like, don't dosmiss it. Recreate it. Try to live inside the mind that created it that way. Maybe you will still think its garbage, but now you will know WHY it's garbage and what other things they could have tried to do differently or better. Or, you might learn the trason why that idea or approach works. There's always the chance your original impulse was wrong or uninformed. While I at first outright rejected this idea, oh the irony, in later years, I have come to understand the wisdom in it. None of us should never assume our own ideas or better or more informed than someone else's without first trying to understand the other person or their work first. You don't have to like it or agree with it, but like Einstein said, "One of the halmarks of intelligence is the ability to consider an idea even if you do not entertain it."

[@jeraldjoyce2995]

as someone who claims to hate jackson pollock & noise music. ive found something incredibly freeing in trying recreate the work/style. there are different ways for someone to construct a piece, whether its starting with the cacophony & madness or the slow descent to that point. noise isnt something i would traditionally listen to, but its fascinating from the perspective of performance art- how far can the artist push the audience in attendence. seeing four different noise artists back to back placed spotlights on the individuals' methodologies, the tools they used, & how they used them to craft that vision. something about sensory overload & overstimulation *is* interesting to me, i just had to try it.

[@harrygreenfeld4964]

So...empathy then. Or rather, artistic empathy.

[@fable23]

I think that's also part of the reason why stuff like The Room is so compelling to people. It's such a baffling end result that trying to reverse engineer the mind that made it is a Herculean exercise in its own right, the Ultra Hard European Extreme Dante Must Die difficulty level of the artistic process you described.

[@aarondavis8943]

I've been in the habit of doing that ever since I realized that I was just whining about stuff. I always think of a better way to do something if I think that something isn't being done well. This is one of my few talents.

[@DOSdaze]

It took years for me to realize, but this is also exactly how I have to treat the code I work on as a programmer. My knee jerk reaction was always “why would they do it this way? I can do it better…” usually finding out why it was done that way after attempting to recreate it in my “better” way. I now approach things differently, considering that perhaps there’s something I’m not seeing rather than just presuming the previous coder was wrong. There’s so much more to learn this way.

[@taakotuesday]

Dan, if you're reading this, it doesn't matter if you're not a filmmaker. You've crafted your own art form here, and you are a master of it.

[@goldstarsupreme]

The sock puppet guy was cute but missed opportunity to bring back Foldy who is DEFINITELY still in one piece and hasn't rotten away after years of unuse because he's a puppet made of paper.

[@scottwatrous]

The Rerturn of Foldy will be a day of triumph.

[@marocat4749]

Its foldys angry father :(

[@BenBebbington]

Foldy lies asleep neath the hill. He will awaken when the channel's need is at its highest.

[@joewaid]

I find it kind of ironic that someone would make a request for Foldy when this video is about examining a creator whose entire career has been a stagnant rehash of the same artistic visions they've had since childhood. While Foldy isn't that old, and the channel is still Folding Ideas, to me the character of Foldy is a relic of an era where for his own reasons, Dan didn't shoot the essay narration with himself speaking. It is scrappy and cute, but a far cry from the artistic direction and attention to filmmaking his newer videos have. Sorry I don't know what came over me, but I guess I really appreciate how far this channel has come from the work of Dan and the crew.

[@joewaid]

​@@AhnkitomiI didn't mean for my comment to imply they didn't get the point of the video. I didn't take it as a genuine request, but as a fun nod to the history of this channel and tying a piece of Dan's old videos to the theme of Dan seeing himself in James. I didn't even tag the person in the reply because I didn't want it to be seen as directed at them. The point is though that they brought up Foldy, and I found it "ironic", which I now see was a poor choice of words. The whole thing was a steam of consciousness ramble and I even apologized at the end for it being such. Genuinely didn't mean any harm and I'm really sorry if it offended.

[@thatfunkadeus]

Your haters arent there to be persuaded, theyre there to see you suffer. Its an obvious point but it changed the way I view public creativity.

[@Mockthenerd]

It must be soul crushing. You almost, paradoxically, keep trying because you fear your failure will feed the gate but by keeping going you only make failure inevitable.

[@massgunner4152]

It also shows how important it is to be able to tell the difference between people critical of you and mentally ill goblins desperate for proof that they exist.

[@StepanTrvaj]

​@@MockthenerdWell in that case you must confront yourself about whether you still have the correct motivations to continue in what you're doing, perhaps you've continued in a project because it was or is popular and it is the only thing that motivates you, in which case it's best to stop if you can.

[@StrazdasLT]

A lot of what gets labeled as "Haters" are actually just people who want you to improve. We dont criticize things we hate. We criticize things we love. Because we want them to get better. We dont care about things we hate.

[@StepanTrvaj]

@@StrazdasLT What you say doesn't reflect basic reality at all. Do you think parents should hate their children because they want them to improve? Have you ever mentored anybody? If so then you would know what makes people want to do better and it's anything but hate. For a lot of people, hate comes from a place of shame. Putting others down is a way to prop yourself up. It's pathology but some feel hurt or wronged enough to engage in hateful behavior to cope.

[@Packbat]

I think maybe I understand this now. Dan Olson thought he was like James Rolfe: a filmmaker - like, trained in film school filmmaker - who found himself making videos on KZbin for a living. Then, as he learned more about James Rolfe, he abruptly realized that the assumptions he made about what they shared, the film-industry and film-theory knowledge at the foundation of his own self-image as a filmmaker-KZbinr, were things he did not share with James Rolfe - that Rolfe's relationship to this body of knowledge was not his own. That James Rolfe was not what he thought a filmmaker was. And then, as Dan moved into the ending of the video, he began to find this connection again, find this commonality again, find the ways that he is like James Rolfe again. He could no longer see James Rolfe as a filmmaker-KZbinr, but he could see himself in James Rolfe... ...leading to the puppet-Rolfe reveal: if Rolfe is not a filmmaker, neither is Dan Olson. At the beginning, Folding Ideas and the Angry Videogame Nerd are the same. At the end, Folding Ideas and the Angry Videogame Nerd are the same.

[@kotzpenner]

I’ve never seen them together in a room

[@tharfagreinir]

"Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; After one gains insight through the teachings of a master, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; After enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters are waters."

[@SwordmaidenGwen]

@@tharfagreinir In a way it's similar to ideas of good and evil. As a child it's simple and clear, black and white. As a teen to young adult it's grey because there's so much complexities and nuances and information that we need to learn and understand before we can even wonder if it's good or bad, As a mature adult, it goes right back to black and white. For all the nuances of life, experience, wisdom and knowledge return us to that clear and hard line between good and evil.

[@ProCrastiVisionJRD]

I adore this comment, really nicely put! Thank you!

[@ruekurei88]

@@SwordmaidenGwen No, it's still grey, just more sharply defined areas of where your own priorities lay in your causes, goals, needs and fights. The moment you start to only see black and white and lose sight of all nuance and greys is when you've gone off the deep end imo. But seeing the greys, doesn't mean you still don't know where on the spectrum you stand on the issue.

[@williamaitken7533]

5 minutes in and seeing the talk about cobbled together solutions (that have easier and more professional alternatives) is just so HUMAN. I have done that with my hobby projects before. I've had it done in my job. Sometimes you need something RIGHT NOW so you cobble together a solution, and since it works, there's no need to fix it until it breaks. Even if it isn't elegant.

[@swedishjazz9546]

This one was really beautifully shot and edited. As for the conclusion of reaching middle age and realizing your childhood passions didn't blossom into an outstanding career but stagnated or morphed into the more convenient, shallower version of itself that doesn't hold the candle to your hopes from years ago, and having to reconcile with the fact: hey. >:(

[@Arkayruz]

HEY, indeed.

[@gwennorthcutt421]

its an interesting perspective for sure. personally im very happy about my oncoming middle age bc honestly i didnt have much plans past 25. so even if my previous dreams didnt happen, that im here at all and happier than i was is enough for me. and even im not immune from that feeling of "oh god i accomplished nothing", just rarer than the average bear, i think.

[@art-eroflore]

feeling personally attacked by this comment

[@QuintaFeira12]

​@@gwennorthcutt421 I similarly never had much going on in the way of wants or dreams. Well, not realistic ones, I'd love super powers. But I do feel rather empty about it rather than optimistic. It's like. Something is missing. Something has always been missing.

[@gwennorthcutt421]

@@QuintaFeira12 im sorry to hear that. i think ambitions can be small and still important. i think if you're a kind person and are happy and content thats more than enough. but when i said i didnt have plans i meant like. i was suicidal so i didnt think id make it to 25. thereforee being able to live past that feels like an accomplishment.

[@jddelphin]

"And if you gaze for long into James Rolfe, James Rolfe gazes also into you".

[@thesinfultictac5704]

Please god no

[@Azmodeus87]

"And he who critiques the Nerd, must take care to not also become the Nerd."

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

Game into the abyss, the abyss games back

[@GrazCore]

This was an emotional journey I didn't expect to take when I randomly clicked it on my recommendations. This is a great reflection of what it is like to become an adult who continues to pursue a childhood hobby or special interest. Learning the distinction between making things for yourself and loving the creative process versus doing it as a job that can be monetized.

[@Sootielove]

The mythos around being a "filmmaker" is honestly fascinating. There's so much creative passion but ego that goes into wanting to share your vision and make art, but it often makes the art you do make fall short of expectations when it isn't *your vision*. So many artists want to... disregard what they make if it doesn't serve that higher purpose regardless of what impact it has on others

[@CaptainFram]

I don't have much else to add other than this is really well said.

[@oscaranderson5719]

there’s something to be said about human behavior, that we could be doing all the things a filmmaker does but publish it on youtube so we don’t feel like we are because we aren’t getting the same accolades. it’s silly though, I don’t think about “my favorite director” I think “man, the funny puppet man hasn’t posted in a while I wonder when he’s gonna release another deep dive think-piece”

[@Sootielove]

@@oscaranderson5719 There's definitely a lot less prestige that comes from a self-published, widely accessible platform like youtube, regardless of quality. "KZbinr" still isn't a real job to a lot of the public

[@termitreter6545]

I remember reading a few times that that kinda stuff is the artists curse', that they by nature are driven to make better stuff, but also never are truly happy about where they are. Tho maybe thats also just a tired stereotype and some artists just need to get more zen.

[@Sootielove]

@@termitreter6545 I mean, as an artist myself, I am indeed driven to make better stuff, but I do consider myself fairly content in making things I enjoy

[@ZergrushEddie]

Rolfe did an interview with Doug Walker. It wasn’t particularly interesting but one moment stuck out to me: when Rolfe was discussing his daughter. “We made a monkey, and now it talks to me.” Silly words, yes, but the look of completeness on the man’s face screamed depth. Yeah, the man is happy bein’ a father. The corporate nature of what was once a ‘kid’ making videos hurts as a fan, but if it means that Rolfe gets to chat with his talking monkey it is a small price to pay.

[@Deenyoro]

I met him at Too Many Games and told him I appreciated him prioritizing his family and he gave me a hug. Love this man, his old videos are still there. Not every new video is amazing but they still bring me joy.

[@temucargocult]

Also I get the feeling that he is someone who will encourage & make time for his kids' creativity and imagination. Best kind of parent

[@real1mem3s]

​@ProfessorBoswell For sure. Who knows, maybe his kids will enjoy filming videos too and we'll get the AVGKid with cameos from AVGN as a cranky old man showing his teenage kid all the bad games he's played before

[@chef541]

How about my horse prince ​@@Deenyoro

[@dangerousdays2052]

Wrong. James sold out. He didn't have to do the fans dirty just to have a daughter, he could have got a real job. End of story.

[@seth5362]

I love how casually he drops in that james couldnt use the basement as the basement set because he needed the fake video rental store in the basement like its a structurally important part of a house.

[@ThatDangDad]

the way i guffawed when he just moved past that fact without explanation

[@user50]

Is this a reference to an earlier folding ideas?

[@LonkinPork]

​@@user50 no, one of the Screenwave-era podcasts - which has since ended - was called Rental Reviews, and the set they filmed it in was dressed up to look like an old movie rental store circa the mid-90s

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

@@LonkinPork Not really a podcast. A shameless RedLetterMedia ripoff is more accurate.

[@Terribadguy.]

@@randomjunkohyeah1 By that logic anyone that talks about movies in front of a camera is a RLM ripoff. It's intellectually dishonest to suggest nobody did that before them, because people certainly did. What a weird glaze. Though if you aren't glazing them while also being insufferable, are you really a true RLM stan after all? I watch both, and I have never once compared the two projects because at the end of the day their personalities are what separate them. Same as every other channel I watch that has reviewed any kind of media. You are there for THEIR specific takes. That's what makes the concept of reviewing literally anything viable. I really feel like I shouldn't have to explain this, it won't do any good anyways. You'll either ignore this or pop off at the mouth with something equally as dumb as the comment I'm replying to currently... Edit: Pov you're 100% right, but man-children can't handle anyone that's even slightly abrasive because they are terrified of any kind of confrontation. Replying with nothing but insults then expecting kindness in return is crazy btw. Thanks everyone, I was very entertained and none of you disappointed!

[@MHDebidour]

Around 20 years ago Mr Rolfe video helped me to cheer up in a lonely difficult time of my life, I still watch his video with pleasure.

[@TheJmax04]

The story of James getting his opportunity to make "real films" only to realise that it was never what he loved about filmmaking is a terrifying warning to all of us who hold in our hearts an idea of something we could have been. Do I really want to be a game developer? Or do I just like the idea of making games? Maybe I'm just holding onto the juvenile fantasy of myself as someone who makes games. To be honest, I've usually resolved this internal conflict in the past not by revaunting this fantasy, but by bringing it down to earth. Film making, game development, and writing arent things that can only be done by professionals. They are things that can be done by anyone for any reason. They don't have to conform to any standard of quality, and they don't have to be shared with any particular group or crowd. I realised that I can make a game for my friends to play. I can write a short story that I share with no one. Whenever I pull out my phone to film a bird, I've become a film maker. In light of that, the decision to make one of these things a core part of my identity seems absurd. Holding on to the thought that maybe, if the stars had aligned differently, I could have been "one of the great" game devs (or film makers or authors) is frankly pathological.

[@js6772]

Wow you've spoken into words thoughts I've had about game development for months now. I don't know why we all want to create masterpieces, but detest learning how to paint inside the lines.

[@ariwl1]

Indeed. On the one hand, working in the games industry is something my child self would have thought as a dream job. Today, I strongly suspect if I did work anywhere in games I'd probably end up hating them eventually.

[@sjfs231]

@@ariwl1 especially because if someone did decide to work in the games industry today they would almost certainly end up working for one of the big game companies on whatever the company decided and not their dream game.

[@RyanKaufman]

It's a warning for higher budget hobby pursuits, not necessarily the creation of art itself. You don't have to stick to filming birds or writing shorts you don't share. You can film a movie that can be digested and critiqued against other film. You can contribute to the canon of cinema from your backyard. You can write a novel that expresses the sentiment of your generation, that captures the zeitgeist of the world around you. And you can do it while working your day job, and never expecting it to do much, but it becomes a sleeper hit and now everyone wants to know who Jmax is, the newest writer to watch. WILL you if you commit the time to make your project? Honestly? Probably not. The odds are stacked against you, and I don't mean that you compete against everyone else wanting to do these things. No, arguably if you make something great, it will likely find purchase. The issue is most cannot make something great. James is unfortunately the latter. He can't handle high budget film, and low budget film escapes him too. And he knows he'd rather be a dad than invest hours and hours and hours of time that he currently spends loving his family, and will instead be progressing his art. But if you do choose to invest that time to your craft, if you don't have a family to love, or you find a way to do both, then you can have your cake and eat it too. If you're great. You may never be, and that's a very good reason to follow James' path of family first. There's a gradient between never tried, tried enough to fail, and tried too hard. And in the sweet spot in between the latter two options lays a razor thin margin of "Possible to be great" So no, don't just shrug and say you'll only make small games for friends or shorts no one cares about. If you truly want to write a full novel that is published and on a shelf, you can. You can make a full game that is on steam. Unless you're content to never do those things. If you want to stay small, that is also totally admirable. But as someone currently making a game with a group of buddies who also are developers, it's not impossible. It just takes a lot of work, and we all have day jobs and lives outside of game dev, so that work is gonna translate to a passion project that takes like 10 years. But I'd rather spend 10 years doing that work instead of wondering if I ever could do it.

[@TheJmax04]

@@RyanKaufman Thanks for taking the time to write this out. I agree and disagree. I think it's a great thing for someone to aspire to create any of these things. The warning I wrote of is against holding a belief in your heart that you could have been a great artist, even when that belief or desire is based on false premises, and especially when you do nothing towards achieving that dream. I have more to say about the idea of greatness in art, and to what degree that is something that should actually be aspired to, or can even be ascribed to works of art or especially artists, but I think it's better to leave it at that.

[@BaBaBaBenny]

"If you build it out of malice you inject it with your own prejudices and it ends up bad for reasons you created, it tells you *nothing*" is such a banger quote, and it could just as easily have been pulled from the Doug Walker Wall video as it could this one.

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

I also think this applies just as much to the model of a work of art- film, tv show, video game- that you construct in your own head as you observe and interact with it. When you sit down and write a movie review after watching it, what you are _directly_ reviewing is not the movie itself, but rather that imaginary copy that you hold within your mind. And if you sat down for your viewing already thinking “I will not like this”, that can ABSOLUTELY “end up bad for reasons you created”, as the preexisting bias ends up influencing the “pieces” of the original you end up selecting to “build” your mental construct. …wait. Is that exactly what Dan was trying to say??

[@matthewsuttinger4179]

It's a literal description of these hit pieces he's been making couched as "filmmaking." But at least he has pretentious faux self reflection as a last minute copout.

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

@@matthewsuttinger4179 It’s a literal description of what you literally just did.

[@samlastname1252]

@@randomjunkohyeah1 You don't know that.

[@randomjunkohyeah1]

@@samlastname1252 Don’t know what?

[@Evilgenius122]

The shiver that ran down my spine when i realized that the, quite frankly impressive recreation of an avgn episode, was going to transition into Dan being chased by a creepy doll. Poetry.

[@nsnow92]

This was easily the best recreation of The Nerd by someone that isn't James. Any other attempt is either too crass or too afraid to be crass in the same way.

[@DrunkenHotei]

The whole thing was a masterpiece. Dan's finest work yet, by far. I didn't think it was possible, but he's leveled up. I wish I could say the same for James.

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

I've never seen AVGN except for that one very specific cut about football fsr, so this went mostly over my head in all honest. But I appreciate the context!

[@Ubertrash]

My brain immediately settled in like I was watching a real episode.

[@abefaerber7994]

hey, spoilers!

[@jennifergriel861]

When I saw this in my recommended feed I thought it was just gonna be an hour of a man disproving accusations that he did in fact, know James Rolf personally.

[@Demiglitch]

And he never did. What a rip off!

[@TalkingVidya]

The title of this video is scarier than when he titlted one section just "Doug"

[@Joshinken]

Doug?

[@acledfloyd]

@@JoshinkenI’m guessing it’s from the video about the Nostalgic Critics video about The Wall

[@manuelmaa8196]

No lo había pensado Danny, pero tienes razón.

[@zainmudassir2964]

Doug?

[@Joshinken]

Doug.

[@thatfrickenweeb]

Clickbait title: The Angry Angry Video Game Nerd Nerd

[@buzhichun]

this is perfect

[@WangleLine]

lmao

[@WetRatGaming]

pinned comment worthy

[@nymphmythic454]

✨Smart style✨

[@intensesqualor2268]

This was actually a joke that was done for the 200th episode

[@MoosieSingh]

I'm not a wouldbe film maker-turned-youtuber, bur a wouldbe game maker-turned-teacher, now in my late 30s. The obsessive drive in the back of my mind to create games is always there, but the inspiration, passion, and ideas that gushed from my brain as a child, teen, and early adult just isn't there anymore. I've never had adequate time to make anything notable, prioritizing paying the bills and surviving. I don't even know what I would want to make at this point, I'm not in love with any ideas. And maybe other creatives into their thirties feel this way, too. A drive to create, but... So burnt out. For the time being I've made peace with allowing myself to create "shitty games", bite sized games, nothing particularly good or polished or cool. But it is nice to be able to make something and let it be rough. So much is so polished these days and I can't keep up as a very part-time maker. Anyway, thanks for all your films. I don't feel articulate enough to really express how i feel about this one, but it resonated with me.

[@magicrainbowkitties1023]

One creative to another; there is something to be said for the joy of creation itself. Just because something isn't shared or exploitable or even good doesn't mean making it wasn't valuable. People make things.

[@Michael-rk9ru]

@@magicrainbowkitties1023 As someone who's just started making things again after more than a decade of burnout, I'll never tire of seeing comments like these. Comparison is a natural instinct, especially when the most impressive comparisons can be marketed to you more easily than ever; but it still remains the thief of joy. There's an immense satisfaction to be had in self-expression, no matter your grasp on the medium, so it's always heartening when others affirm this.

[@jimhaverlock9784]

This is the most relateable thing I have read in…hells, maybe forever. I always wanted to make comics, and as a kid I cranked them out two or three a week. Brain on fire with terrible ideas, and the sheer joy of creating something. It’s still back there, after forty years of struggling to pay the bills and raise the kiddos and keep THIS marriage together (never managed that last one). Now, when I can find the time to draw, and ply the muse with promises and treats, it’s STILL absolutely magic…but it is never like it was. I’ve mostly made peace with it… Mostly. Thank you for sharing this.

[@Castrimaris]

Relatable...I always wanted to be a game dev, ever since I was a child playing pong, and have been for a short 4 years. Games for kids, nothing notable, but pretty damn fun. Alas, my poor south Italy land doesn't offer many work opportunities, let alone any work that is in game development. So I had to change...ended up doing VR business applications. Not bad, but not what I wanted. It's difficult for me to put this into words...I always, always, always wanted to do game dev, I always wanted to develop a game. But the energy isn't there anymore. Work, kids, wife, family at large, bills, health, dead friends...so much, so so much happens, and when sometimes I sit, decided to make something...the mind goes blank. I can't think of anything. And when I force myself to think of something to make, I get dwarfed by the immense amount of work I should put in what will likely be a game just for myself, just so that I can believe myself a game maker, a designer, a man with ideas, just so that I can lie to myself, to say that I'm a great dev that could've done so much even if I am not and no one can or will acknowledge it. So I sit there and think "why, why am I doing this? What am I seeking by making this? Approval? By whom? Money? Fame?". And with these questions I turn off the machine.

[@SanctuaryADO]

I've always wanted to be a creative, but market forces being what they are, I've pursued a decidedly uncreative field and allowed my creative skills to stagnate while the desire to create remains. But yeah, I find that there is still something inherently satisfying to creation, even when it isn't displayed, or good, or even written down? What is daydreaming but the mind trying to escape into creation?

[@Fever2113]

IDK if you're still reading comments Dan, but I think this is your finest work yet.

[@johnchristopher0music]

What i love most about this video is that like an onion, it has layers. We arent watching Dan perform his script, we look into a viewfinder attached to the camera that is actually watching Dan. We arent hearing Dan talk, we listen to the cassette recording of his words. We hear about James as he himself is superimposed onto Dan via projector. I'm reminded of someone sitting down to paint a landscape of a valley, but then realises that the painting is incomplete without the inclusion of themselves sitting at the canvas, brush in hand. Nothing exists wholly within its own context, but at minimum coloured by the lens of the perspective of the viewer. What resonates more than Dans wit and curiousity is his ultimate empathy. Is it kind? Not particularly, but better than being kind, he finds an honesty. Otherwise, he'd have produced nothing more than a dramatic hit piece, dunking on an earnest but otherwise tacky youtube filmaker.

[@draexian530]

This one felt more kind. He's tore into people before with malice, but this felt, I don't know, gentler? That line about kinship sells it. So does the title. He admitted he didn't have a strong read with this one.

[@libaf5471]

@@draexian530 I didn't get the sense this is critique. It's more of a self reflection through someone elses life's work with a question superimposed over it. If you really love making movies a specific way, does it matter if they age poorly or you don't really develop as a creator? I'm not qualified enough to say anything about how Dan has developed, but the end results I like to watch I think have. I guess it's about being self aware enough to be able to be afraid, that you're stuck and not developing. Or the fear of having "primed" and now just staring down a barrel of slow decline. I don't know. I just know I loved the vibe of this one.

[@Duiker36]

What is this piece, "Leaf by Niggle"? :P

[@MarcusFigueras]

Something poetic about how the game chosen for the Nerd parody in the end, Flashback, there isn't a softlock in the part where he got stuck at. It's just a jump where you have to start a running u-turn to build height and speed. It's something that you would only get stuck on if you were only really playing the game quickly for a review and not trying to actually complete it. And yet this metaphor speaks a lot in several perspectives. Maybe James Rolfe could've taken off with filmmaking if he hadn't only learned the shallow lessons. Maybe the haters wouldn't look like complete lunatics if they actually found other things to critique and not a surface level mocking of a man and his wife. And maybe it's a metaphor for the video in general. And I mean that in a nice way. I can hardly be the judge of who is and isn't a gamer, but I don't know enough about Mr. Folding Ideas to figure out whether or not he has really enjoyed a random video game released in the 90s fully. But this segment is almost a lens to view the level of obfuscation in which we understand the film maker. I don't know Dan Olson as a person to know if he actually got stuck in that part as a bit or for real. I only know him from the commentary videos he makes and the parts he reveals. And again we see this in this very video, in which we know that we do not actually know James Rolfe as a person, we only know what he reveals through his character and videos, and not the whole man himself.

[@bigjohnsbreakfastlog5819]

I like to believe that Flashback annoyed the hell out of Dan when he was a kid and is just vicariously living the Nerd to let off some steam while at the same time fundamentally pointing out the flaws of not giving enough time for your source material because there's 4 more videos to make that afternoon.

[@Mstcartman]

I didn't know that about Flashback! You also wrote this beautifully

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

it's also a callback to a number of Rolfe's videos where he basically claims a game he is playing is impossible at a given point in order to wrap-up the video. it's a constant bit that is plainly a bit, but not every viewer cottoned on to that fact in particular his castlevania marathon, which was so influential that a bunch of his shitty viewer went on to harass castlevania speedrunners, claiming that they couldn't possibly be beating the impossible game that AVGN couldn't beat, and ergo they were cheating another element really resonant with wavelength, IMHO

[@AntonMochalin]

I think the point is more about Rolfe or Olson not knowing themselves in the first place being just like all of us doomed to cover this impossibility of knowledge with all kinds of discourses, symbols and memes.

[@lookatdemijipers]

"Conrad has two different running jumps, a long jump and a high jump. The high jump is done automatically if you're running towards an elevated floor and press nothing. If you try and jump you'll long jump instead. Very weird game." - Dan's response to someone asking about that section of the game on Twitter

[@Packbat]

I think the part that haunts me is the anecdote about the 16mm Bolex camera assignment. Being an adult trying to learn skills without an entire school system to support me, I can deeply appreciate the value of the bare basic "make literally the smallest thing" task as a starting point. Its very simplicity means that there are fewer distractions and fewer things to go wrong, means that you can concentrate on learning just one foundational skill so you can employ it from then on.

[@BarginsGalore]

the whole section about his experience of school is the biggest dunk i’ve ever seen. the parts about being board of drawing colour wheels and bullshitting essays with no reflection later in life is insane. imagine if karate kid ended with daniel being like “i love karate but my dumbass teacher kept making me wax his car”

[@Dogedoge337]

I had seen a couple of videos from this channel in the past, when they showed up in my recommendations by mere chance. And even though I tried to be invested in their subjects, I didn't get to watch them closely to the end. That is until I saw this video. James Rolfe is a person from earlier days in my life thanks to his character, the AVGN. So I had to watch this. Even though it addresses some of his flaws, it doesn't do so as any other video about him I've seen before. The amount of thought and detail that went into this video is astounding, I can feel that the author really cares about the multifaceted person that is James Rolfe. It was a very interesting video to watch. Good work.

[@NewbieStarTrek]

I've watched this video three times now. This might be the most emotional thing Dan has made so far. To analyze James so thoroughly from his external perspective and then realizing that some of what he is finding, at LEAST some, is also a part of him as well. And then clearly, after he has finished the script, he has realized he needed to do this video essay in the most creative way he has ever done before, just to prove, maybe at least to himself, that he can still be a filmmaker. That he's better than what he's found. He's more than just a formulaic, stagnant workflow of content creation. It's an exercise to himself. He doesn't know James Rolfe. No one will. But he's not sure he knows himself, either. And maybe that's why it became an obsession.

[@icedlava7063]

it really is beautiful

[@sarsmask]

Halfway through I was worried Dan was being a little too pretentious and haughty himself only to have a shot like the projection onto his face win me back.

[@wingding27]

Excellently said. Brilliant convergence of the informative and the cinematic/creative from Dan. One of the best video essays (?) on KZbin.