Nidal "MamaImDatMan" Nasser / Kassem G

I've been sucked in. It's probably the boredom, whether it was following the NBA two K tournament, rooting on CrOx enthusiast Gavin Lux playing MLB the Show League, or somehow falling down the mainstream rabbit hole of YouTube drama. I am hooked. We're all gravitating towards our computers and phones during the pandemic, and I'm just thankful I have good WiFi. But can E sports and streaming actually maintain the attention

it's grabbed during this low and actual sports? Will we all just live in that one Fred Savage movie The Wizard, where he competes to win a video game and people all over the world actually care about it. Or is this just another fleeting online craze like MySpace or Jeeves or Tila Tequila, and what the hell is going on with these band YouTubers. This episode, we dive in head first into a very shallow pool. First, I'll speak with

the incredibly impressive Nadal Mama. I'm that man Nasser, the reigning m v P of the NBA two K League and its first individual player to sign an endorsement deal. We talk about why he's better than me at video games, the community of e sports, and he helps me pick

a unique candle for my future online. Then, in a new installment of Pandemic, I talked to early YouTube pioneer Cassim g in hopes he can decipher the current controversies and questionable content costing creators millions of dollars in revenue. He also explains how he has a podcast with both kids from the Sopranos that has nothing to do with the Sopranos. It's an Internet focused episode discussing one of the many outlets we've clung to during this very weird time.

It's time to spark up your modem in the sports bubble. So I wanted to start off by asking you where you've been during this crazy time, especially during quarantine and with who. Um. So the last three months actually more like four months, I've been in Portland around February, and um, this is actually my first time being home. So I currently in San Bralo, California for the last couple of days.

I'm going back to Portland tomorrow, quarantining for however long than even a quarantine for, and then getting back into finny things. Yeah. I guess that's the crazy part too. Like I before I did research on the two K League and talking to you, I would have never thought you'd actually have to move to the city that you're playing in. It's crazy. It's wild. Like when it all came to Fruition and I got drafted to Portland, I was shocked. I was like, I'm going to Portland. I'm

from California, so it was just like mine. I was like, I was completely shocked. So um, But as you get customs to Portland and like the different cities that everyone goes to, it gets better as the time goes on. Sure, and you can technically play your game online anywhere. You

could have stayed in California. But I think it's actually kind of cool that the NBA two K League has all the teams meet up in the city for which they play in, just like they're on an NBA team, and you guys all live together, right, Yeah, so we live in apartments of two, so will be me and

my roommate, and there's three apartments. We all live basically on top of each other, so the fourth floor fifth forces for um see each other every day, which could get annoying after a while, but yeah, it's all good. And then you guys practice like in the morning. It's the same thing as like an NBA team that was put in like a hotel for a night. Yeah, I mean we practice probably from eleven to five almost every day, except like Sundays or game days, whatever the case may be.

So how much of your professional life changes because of quarantine, Like what what actually differs during the pandemic. I would say the biggest thing that differentiates throughout the whole season is that we can't fly to New York. So flying New York kind of gives you that two K League feeling, where like, I'm in the league and this is my profession.

We fly every week, So we're flying from Portland to New York every week to play a forty five to fifty minute game in front of fans and stuff like that. And that's really where we thrive is in part of people entertaining while playing, and that's kind of where our

market is. So even though the teams are in each of the cities for which you guys play with, the games take place once a week in New York, once a week, well multiple days throughout the week, but in New York, so Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, but we all come in at different times to go play that game.

That is pretty intense that they have. You moved to the same city just to fly to New York, which is not your hometown, and now you're living not in your hometown, but if you want to see your family, you have to go to your hometown exactly. And then also on top of everything, just the flights, like we we fly six hours, so imagine flying on Monday, we have a game on Wednesday, we fly on Monday six hour in New York. We fly back on Thursdays another

six hours back Portland. So it's kind of head every single week. But you've got to get used to it. I would have never thought that it's like you guys play online, you would think you'd reap the benefits. Yeah, not at all. Well, playing in person is more beneficial than playing online because it's just like it's that intense eye to I feeling compared to online where your comb in your own house. Well, especially for you, who you kind of trash talk, you're a little more animated than

the rest of the league. Let's get into how you got into video games. When did it start? Um? It started when I was probably in third fourth grade. I asked my dad for PS two and he was all about school, school, school, you know, as long as you have this sort of g p A or whether it'd be all get it for you. So I'm playing that GP. I got to PS two and it was Love of First Sight. From then I was playing Call of Duty, Madden, all sports games. Um. I didn't get into two K

until two thousand and eleven. Two thousand and ten, Kobe was on the cover. I was around public thirteen fourteen and I got that three point five, I got the Xbox, I got the game, and from there it was over. So how did you know you were good? Like? Because I feel like I was good at a couple of games back in the NS days, but I didn't know if I would compete nationally, Like how does it go from just being a dude who got into k like basketball in real life and now you're competitively in the top.

So funny story. I was just it was in high school and all my friends would want to play, you know, and my close friends knew how much I loved the game, and they knew that through my whole life, I've always played the GA and I was good at it, but I never really played in front of them. So it was the first time I played in front of them, and I was knocking each person down twenty thirty five and people are like, oh no, now we want to start gambling because they thought that it was all flutes.

So these people threw about my school my close friends just twenty bucks, thirty bucks, and every game wouldn't be close. And I got to a certain point where I felt like I'm not gonna play anymore because I know that you know I'm gonna win. And there was one weekend we went to Tahoe and we played for like seven hundred dollars and I swept through everybody in Tahoe. It was like five six people and they were all like stunned.

And at that point I was like, Okay, I know I'm good at this, and I say I started playing competitively online, dying and day out, met everybody in the community and from there on. Yeah, and like your dad, who had a bit of an issue even buying you the Xbox, now you have to explain to him it's what you want to do for a living, because I know you went to like San Francisco State or something, right, and this was the decision you were going to make. Yeah,

my dad was never really big on it. You know, if I got a bad grade in school with the Xbox, would be out of my room that night. Yeah, for good reason, for a good reason. And at the time I understand it, right. Yeah, So when it all came together and I got drafted up on and it was kind of like I told you so, like I knew this is gonna happen, even though I really didn't. But it was always kind of like a sixth sense. And so now he loves that. He supports all time shows,

all his friends and all that good stuff. So it's awesome. Well do you want to talk about that drafting? So you are the reigning m v P of the NBA two K League. We'll get into the history you've made during this pandemic as well. But first, you were drafted in the second round. What am I missing? Did you get better? Did people underestimate you? I think it was more underestimated me. So I came into the community and

I used to play a different mode than proem. So the poem is the mode that we play in the league build. That's what the mode is called retail version. So I would play team up, which is a whole different side of the game, and so many people knew me, but people didn't really know me like this when I came into community. Of course, you're gonna have dollters and people that say, oh, he's not good enough, he's just

doing this, he's just doing that. And I wasn't playing my original position, point guard when I came into that mode where everyone had their eyes on and so I was playing power forward small forward, just jumping around, just trying to fit in BUI. The goal was to get in and so it was crazy that when the combine

came around, I had to make a decision. It was either I stuck with what got me here, which was power forward small forward, or I went with my gut, which was point guard, and I took that risk, and I told myself, if I'm gonna gets the big stage, if I'm gonna be who I am and have my game attacking all that good stuff, I want to play point guard. And that's that's who I've always been. I've always liked to be a leader on and off the floor, and so this is what I was destined to do.

And so I showed up in the combine dominated throughout. And so since I played point guard instead of my other positions, I felt like I kind of slipped about the draft, and so I ended up on Portland's. And what is explained to me the difference between retail and what you play in the league. So if I buy the game, which I did, and I played at home, what is the difference is I'm looking at that the one you do professionally, the one professionally. So on retail

you can get you my player to nine. It doesn't matter. What is overall is you can go ahead and play um. So the mechanics on retail, or the sliders are on All Star, or I believe on retail, so it's easier to make shots. It's easier to make passes, it's easier to make retos. Everything is easier on the retailer version. When you get into the league, the league build is much harder to score, much harder to defend, much harder to move, much harder to shoot. And all our players

are captured at ninety two overall. So instead of you having all these moves that you would have in retailer, you wouldn't. You'd have a set of moves because you're ninety two and you have to differentiate yourself throughout the pack. Wow, that's crazy. Where did you get this online handle? Mama, I'm that man. So, you know, watching the Warriors and all that good stuff. Living in Sancisco. Mark Jackson came to our team. He was our head coach for a

year or two, whatever the case may be. And I love Mark Jackson just the way he commentates and all that good stuff. And he has so many cash phrases, and one of them was, Mama, there goes then man when it's a big time fourth quarter shot or big time shots in general. And so I would always look at that and just kind of click like, Mama, I'm that man. And I've always loved like fourth quarter moments like give me the ball, move on my way, and let me do my thing. And so that's where I

kind of came into where that's what happened. Listen, that's that's a big country usion by Mark Jackson and Golden State, considering wasn't there long, okay quarantine During it, approximately one point seven million new players flocked to NBA two K, bringing the total players up to ten point three million. Without sports in our lives. Clearly people got into PlayStation and NBA two K in general. Did you expect so many people to pick up a controller because sports was missing?

I did, but I didn't. I feel like there's always been a stigma where video games just kind of just pushed the side, and the sports in general, especially at sports, kind of pushed this side. So I never thought it would give us a real chance. But I feel like once we got on ESPN two, we're going on YouTube, Twitch, all those platforms, and this was happening. Unfortunately, everyone had nothing to do but watch us, and so when they started to watch us, I feel like we've gained more

fans than we've gained the last two years. Um. I feel like the league is growing and it's only out from here. Yeah. And and during it, NBA stars competed against each other. Did you get to watch the Players League at all? I get to Well, I watched a little bit of it, not too much because I was focused on my season, But I did watch a little bit of it. Could Devin Booker hang? He won the whole tournament? Could he be an e sports bro? We

talked to Ronnie Took about it. He wasn't sure. What do you think, man, To be honest, I think there's no chance. I think just think he's too busy. Well, no, I mean skills wise. Let's say let's say he let's say the league doesn't come together. Everyone's nervous about what's going on right now. Let's say he's not busy, he's just sitting at home. Could he join the sports League? He would have to show me before I give him that pass. I can't just give him the past because

I've worked too hard to get that pass. I can't call back. Yeah, you'd make it so as of right now, in no way, no chance. But you were surprised. You were surprised by how good he was. I was definitely surprised. He played really well. Yeah, all right, you scored. I have to get this straight because I tried to figure it out by research. You scored seventies seven points against the Bucks team in NBA two K in a league play. I read that there's a controversy about this game because

they played kind of cheap. Back in my day, if you played Street Fighter two and someone was Blanca and just repeatedly kept doing the electricity move, that was like cheap play. That's what I'm getting out of what the

Bucks did you in the fourth quarter. Yeah, So what happened was the first quarter I scored thirty one, and it was just and I'm Blinka and I I didn't realize it, and by half my had like fifty and I was like sixteen for seventeen and I was only the only reason I even slowed down my pace in the second quarter was just because I wanted to shoot a perfect percentage of the whole game. And so my teammates were like, no, no no, go for the record, go

for the record and the records. But like it's like early eighties, right, the records eight four, the records eighty four, and it was the first season and it was in double overtime, so you know, he had much more time in me, and so when that third quarter came, I was like, Okay, I'm going for the record. And at the end of the third I had like seventy points, and going into the fourth the Bucks didn't break the record. For whatever reason, I felt like it would have benefited

both of us. Not only do I get the record, but the league grows because everyone's gonna get eyes that I broke the record. But that's near here or there. And we get into the full quarter and they hold the ball for the whole four seconds when you get the ball, and then when I get on offense, they were putting all five guys on me not alignment to score. So I tried. And I could have prolonged the game and gave myself every opportunity, but I didn't want to

drain my teammate. Looking back on it, I kind of wish I did pull along the game, but it was the best three and it was the first game, so I didn't want to lose the series. The win was more important to me. Um, but yeah it was. It was cheap played for sure. So explain to me why you're better than me. Okay, so you you clearly know when to shoot the ball in the game, you your your release of the button. All of those things play into it, right, Like what else can I chalk up

to you being this much better than me. My biggest advice to people just trying to get into it and get better at the game is mindset going into each game out smarting your opponent. A lot of two K is easy to master. And I say easy as in the controls are right in front of you. I mean, it's not rocket science. They're gonna give you exactly what you can do. But the point is just to put it together and outplay your opponent. So if he goes left,

I'm going right. If he's shading me right, I'm going left. You know. If I'm going to paint, I'm pump taking the first time, but the second time coming down, I'm going straight up. Kind of playing my games throughout the whole game. And that way people can't read what you're gonna do. You're not predictable and you can go from there. Do you ever jump on the retail just to screw people over? Sometimes I get in the plug just to play with people or just to dominate them, and they

send a message like you're not even that good? Or who are you all that? Even though I'll be I'll be front and center on the park like they have like an advertisement right now. I'll be front and center and they'll be like, oh, who are you not that? Yeah? That's I love that all right. So you became the first NBA two K player in the league to get an endorsement, signing with Point three. Did you ever imagine this could happen in college convincing your father this is

a job, and now you have an endorsement? No chance, no chance? What is it? So tell people what point three is? So point three is a sports clothing brand. It's more for basketball, and so we have this technology dry technology, and so it's on our shorts mainly. And so what happens there is that if your hands get sweaty, or your garden somebody that's sweaty, you don't wanna you don't want to mess up with the ball in your hand. For the most point, where does this real life basketball here?

Its not video games? And so the patent and technology on the hip of the shorts allows you to swipe down. It's kind of like some sort of a towel in a sense. You can swipe down and release all that swept in hand and get right back into game. So for me, it's after those long competitive hours, you know, sometimes my hands get a little bit moist or just people's hands get moist throughout the day. And so they're

my new shorts. I wear them everywhere and anywhere. Um And so that technology is awesome and as time goes on, they're gonna be rolling out more and more and it's only up. It's great man, all right. Question and this is a new be kind of question. Can you sell an endorsement for your player in the game, Like can your player have a certain shirt on? Can they have

a certain shoe? Could you sign with Nike? But you know what I mean, like are they ever thinking about that stuff about your kind of like your avatar per se within the two K league or on the version I mean either one really, So right now we have endorsement with Champion as a whole the whole league has endorsement champions. The Champion has all their clothing when it

comes to the two K League. But outside of the two K League, like my personal um endorsement, I wear a point three almost everywhere I go, But in two K weeks itself as champion got it very cool. So obviously things have been easy, uh in this world, whether it's the pandemic or the racial injustices that we're seeing. I wanted to talk to you about how NBA two K for some reason, NBA in general, but NBA two K has a very strange pulse on society right like

even within kind of like the hype beast world. Whenever something happens in NBA two K, it's front page. Maybe Madden gets front cover, you know, oh who's on the front cover whatever, But NBA two K had I remember they had signs that said, you know, wash your hands things during the pandemic that they added in the game. On top of that, players recently were given the chance to wear Black Lives Matter shirts and there was a

protest set up in the playground. Why does it seem that this game has their ear to the street or finger on the pulse or whatever it is more than other video games. I think it's because it's global. I think that our audience ranges from the United States, China, everywhere in between. Um and also our community is really different. You know, sometimes you'll get the part of the community that's toxic and you don't want to be a part of it, and you kind of want to stay away

from it. But then the other part, like you said, when it comes to the Black Lives Matter movement or and all that good stuff, you want to be a part of it. You're you're proud to be a part of it, and you want to get involved. So it's it's just weird blacking too. Good is a good job at attacking what's in front of us and attacking what's going on in the world and always addressing just like when Kobe unfortunately passed, it was automatically r I P. Kobe.

They put up, paid their condoles, is all that good stuff, and that makes you appreciate the game more than they can actually imagine. Absolutely. With sports slowly returning, there's a rumor going around that a lot of the leagues are going to use video game noise in the television broadcast. And then there's some people saying that even in the stadium, you're gonna hear like NBA two K kind of style yelling, and that's how you're gonna get sort of the energy

of the crowd. You are always around that when you're at least not in front of people in New York City? Is this going to make people excited? Do you get excited when you're playing and you hear fake applause when there's a big play or a big moment, the crowd in your ears saying my heads it It actually gets you Ajnaline pumping a little bit. And it's weird because you'd be like using a lot of a lot of players in the league turn it off, turning the audience.

All the crowd moise off because they want to focus in on the game. But for me, I leave it on just for the shot clock. And when I started to get going, like when I was scoring seventy seven, the crowd would not stop cheering in my ear. And so at that point it's kind of just like I gotta keep going. This feeling is like I gotta keep going. So um, hopefully, hopefully it comes out to where we wanted to be and when the NBA picks backup will be awesome. Who do you Who do you play with?

If you're on retail, you know, on quick Match, I'll play with the Warriors, uh of course. But if I'm playing you're talking about problem or just in quick matches. So I mean, if it's not you, if you're not playing as yourself. Oh, if I'm not playing myself, it just it ranges. It actually matters what team my opponent picks. I usually let them pick first because I'll give them the advance like they picked the Bucks. I can't pick

the Warriors without Steph Clay and all those guys. But if Stephen Clay only getting on picking the Warriors every time? All right, all right, I need to handle. Okay, no one knows the game of NBA two k better than you. I have never picked my own handle. You have arguably the best, maybe in video game history. You are that he hate me of NBA two k uh. So I wanted to throw some possibilities at you. You help me choose from these, uh four possibles. Let's do it, all right? First,

your handle is a nod to the Bay Area. Clearly, people have to know Mark Jackson was the coach, and he announces and he's a warrior kind of at heart. I want to stay in the region. I want to give a nod to the sitcom full house, and I want my name to be cut it out, big letters, see ut it out? Okay, all right. That's the first one. Not great, Okay, second one. I wanted to reflect that I'm a forty year old man playing this game that's mostly reserved for teens in early twenties. I want my

name to be I am a narc Okaya. That one might that one might be controversial. Just imagine me walking through the playground, but above me, it says, I am a nark. Okay. I want people to start playing against me, and I want them to assume that I'm bad. I want them to a lower expectation so that even if I score two in a game, they're like, wow, he was better than I thought. So I thought about the name James Dolan, the owner of the Knicks. That's an interesting one. Are you from New York? I mean no,

but I'm I'm a Knicks. I mean we're all Knicks fans in a sense that we like have to watch what's going on, like you have to see. I mean I was gonna say his band name, but I don't even know his band name. All right, Okay, so James Dolan cut it out and I'm an arm all right. Last one to play on one of my favorite NBA stars, Right, it's just off his name from the New York New Orleans Pelicans. I want to be jew Holiday instead of Drew Holiday. Okay, that's a good one. Jew Holiday. That

kind of speaks to yourself. Yes, it gives your perspective of who you like. Well, you said you're a Knicks fan. The Clippers die hard, but I'm a Knicks fan in the same way that I like watch Jerry Springer as a kid, like you can't look away. Yeah, okay, so the only well, the only problem is that Drews and the Pelicans, right, and so you kind of like be like, okay, you know, Pelicans fan. But the name you speak to yourself, I think the most important thing in the game. Take it,

speak to yourself. So I like cut it out, because cut it out. It's like just a basketball, Like just cut it out, Like just stop it so you can take it. It's like, you can't guard me, You're not better than me. There's a lot of things there that I like about it. But the jew Holiday speaks to yourself. It kind of gives you one of your favorite players if he is hopefully yeah, and you can go from there. So I would go from one of those two. I'm

an arc it's not okay. It it might speak most to my actual personality, but yes, I agree with you, it's probably too much. Well, dude, thank you for talking to me. I'm excited to see you to take over the league in a sense that I can't watch real basketball yet. So i'm i'm, i'm, I've listened. I've watched more NBA two Kids than I've ever watched. I'm happy to be there and happy to have spoken to you. I appreciate it, man, Thank you so much for having

me after this. In our latest pandemic installment, I check in with Cass MG, comedian and co host of Pajama Pants podcast to hear all about the drama happening with the biggest twitch gamers and stars on YouTube right now. Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to have access to food and other needed resources during the

COVID nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is committed to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, and their greatest need is donations and support of local food banks. This podcast is committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the show to Feeding America, and we hope that you can join us in this effort to find out how you can help. But Feeding America dot org backslash covid nineteen. Now here's my pandemic chat

with cass MG from to accept Press one. Cassim, I feel like you are a bit of a translated for me in this case, if that's okay. I feel like a very old in this situation, very unhip narc trying to figure out the drama that is twitch and YouTube in the past few weeks. Yeah. Look, I take no joy in being this translator. I'm gonna be thirty seven this year, so um, I'm doing this purely just to

help another old man out. Thank you. Um. I feel like we've got to look out for each other, but I don't take any pride knowing what I know and what I'm about to share. Well, your grandfather, then that's fine. W When did you start with your own YouTube channel? You were part of the early adopters. Yeah, I was early. I started in like two thousand and seven, and you know,

I was like twenty three at the time. So YouTube is a very different places, you know, not a lot of people on it, and it was kind of I'd say, it was easier to make a name for yourself back then. And um, essentially could be you know, partly my fault of why why all these people are on there now and all the drama and and the logan and Jake Paul's of the world, could could be my doing that

I think about it. Here's the thing, like, in my opinion, I remember the early rush of YouTubers, right, so I remember a handful of you guys, and I remember sort of being told that people like Hannah Heart you were the actual talented ones. It was like almost like someone had sort of like siphon and I had to figure out which ones were good. And then I saw you

when I worked at Josh. You did the famous Norm McDonald pregame interview which should go into the Recording Hall of Fame where Norm McDonald shows up to interview YouTubers with you guys, and you understood the joke. Jenny Slate understood the joke. But that made me a cassum Gee fan immediately. Oh well, I appreciate that, you know, it was, um, you know, and I appreciate all the kind words you said.

I think getting to the point where I was able to work with Norm and like Norm was so great that day as well as the day I'll never forget because we were all told to dress up. Norm shows up in sweatpants and like, I think it was like a U C L A sweatshirt and a six sneakers on and uh, he didn't give a fuck. And I thought it was so great. And to have somebody at his caliber roasting YouTubers people that I knew was such

a joy. I don't know why. Um, you know, people would would ask me if I was offended or I was like no, what a what a what a true honor it was to have a legend like Norm McDonald um saying the names of people that were famous on the internet but nowhere else. I think that was it was a real treat. Well, you know, I say this to to move forward in a sense that I put you in sort of the upper echelon, able to decipher

what's going on. What has happened to YouTube and streaming since those early days, since those pioneering days, just explained to me how we've gotten stupider. Yeah. Um, well, it's a great question, and it's one I you know, I try and think about. And it seems to me that it seemed so easy to do what we did. And I'm not saying it was hard hard work. It was.

It was a lot of hard work. But I think when people saw because let's face it, on early YouTube, there was it wasn't necessarily quality that rose to the top. It was consistency. And if you were consistent, people, um were attached and they developed a sort of relationship with people on YouTube, and that's what allowed people to rise. And I think people that were savvy were able to see that and it was one of those things where

you go, oh, I could do that. And so you had this influx of thousands and thousands of people who saw how much money people were making on YouTube and decided they would do it for themselves. And with that influx comes a lot of talented people, and then it comes there comes some untalented people, and um, you're gonna get the good with the bad. But that's what happened.

There was a huge surge of people now doing what you know, we thought we were kind of just like screwing around with the daily vlogging and sketches on YouTube and just talking to camera. Now there's all these different types of formats, and you also saw a development of like live streaming become a huge part of this too, and sites like Twitch, which we're taking advantage of an area of the market that YouTube wasn't paying attention to, which was people going live. In the moment, talking to

a chat and online engagement is everything. If you talk to your viewers, and as a viewer, you're being talked to by somebody that you you enjoy, that makes everything different. It's it's it's a different relationship you have than if you were, UM watching Breaking Bad and you know, I love Brian Cranston, but I don't get to talk to Brian Cranston in a chat while I'm watching Brian Cranston. And I think people um develop a much stronger connection

to the personalities that they watched. And so it's like YouTube and Twitch and since mixer have have have come and gone, but that's been a big um. That's just been what happens when everyone decides to do what a few people did, you know ten twelve years ago. So I wanted to get you on the show because without sports it has been difficult to follow something drama filled. I mean, normally i'd be watching the NBA Finals, I'd be trying to figure out these inside stories. I'd I'd

be rooting for my team, whatever it is. And so much of the world has taken that energy and focused it in on what's going on on YouTube and twitch and really cancel culture in general. But boy, has YouTube and streaming been really front and center for it. And I wanted to start by talking about Doctor Disrespect, which is a name I didn't even know until last week when I'm just searching for anything on the internet to follow. Can you explain to me how uh this is what

I think I just saw him two weeks ago. This is like if Joe Dirt won an Oscar. It's like, this is like if Ali G was actually an incredible rapper. This dude's in character. He's doing sort of like this mullet and mustache vibe thing going on, kind of like an ol Uncerta NASCAR look. But he's also very good at video gaming and streaming it on Twitch. So so

tell me about him and then why we hate him? Yes? So, um, look, so Dr Disrespect is uh you know, if you've signed on to the internet within the last couple of weeks, you were created with with a very menacing face. And this is a guy who has a mullet, um very you know, Nolan Ryan esque, reflective sunglasses, a headset, and um,

no one knows who he is. I have friends asking me and you know, again, a man my age, I actually know who he is, and I'm I'm not proud of it, but I will do my best to explain. Thank you. Dr Disrespect is a Twitch streaming personality. He's actually among what I consider to be one of the higher tier quality content creators on the site. He is a very interesting mix of persona a character with um

a skill in playing video games. Oftentimes on Twitch you have people that are just a persona or personality and then they just talked to their audience, and then you have people that are just kind of skill based. UM. In my opinion, that would be somebody like a Shroud who was very good at the game. Maybe on the personality side, not as vibrant, but still attracts a viewership because people want to see how people play games at a high level. He's the Kauhi Leonard of of of Twitch. Yes,

um baseball right and uh so so. Dr Disrespect is a perfect mix of a high quality game player with an incredible persona with an incredible production value to kind of tie it all together. And he's been doing it for the last five or six years, and he's amassed millions of followers on the site. At four point four million. He is repped by CIA. He has a two a large two year deal with Twitch Mountain Dew sponsorship, supposedly the largest ever by an individual gaming personality, Monstrous for

the platform, even for the business of Twitch. He is a a big earner. Yes, he's so big um that he can anytime he streams, you know, he's automatically uh at the top of the topless of streamers, and and and he can move audiences and and there's been a lot of talk about him getting haid money to potentially move off site. And that's what streamers like Shroud and Ninja, the Fortnite player who Drake ended up kind of promoting and he ended up blowing up. But these guys have

such a power to move audience. It's now I should probably tell people how much these guys make, just so you can kind of see why it's important and why people care. I mean, on Twitch, there are four ways to make money. There's donations, so your viewers that are watching can directly donate money to you. That money is just it comes in the form of, like, hey, this person donated, here's a message they said in hopes that doctor disrespect or somebody says it on their stream, so

you get that sort of acknowledgement. It's a tip, absolutely, it's a tip. The other form is through subscriptions. Subscriptions are kind of where you get the bulk of it. Now, every month, somebody can subscribe to your Twitch channel and at the very minimum, it's five dollars a month, and it goes up to a month. Somebody like doctor Disrespect has around fifty thou Twitch subscribers, so that times at least five. And then you have ad revenue through Twitch.

So advertisers pay Twitch to advertise thirty second pre roll ads or whatever, and then they share that revenue with the creators. And then you also have sponsorships. These guys will get paid money from the developers and the video game companies to play their games per hour, and that per hour can be anywhere from a thousand dollars to

ten thousand dollars just to play a game. So on the on the high end, like somebody like a Ninja could make potentially half a million dollars a month or more, right, and somebody like Doctor Disrespect probably makes somewhere between a hundred two hundred thousand dollars a month. That's why when Mixer poached Ninja and Shroud, these deals were worth up to thirty million dollars for like a three year deal, because these guys had to be incentivized to move and

completely take their audience with them. Otherwise they're doing just fine where they're at. So that's important to keep in mind because to get someone off of Twitch that is that caliber, that is that high on the tier would cost a lot of money. Normally, losing that audience, losing that base, losing that ability would cost a lot of money.

So when Doctor Disrespect a toxic gamer personality that is kind of what he's known for, being over the top and rambunctious and kind of almost making fun of troll culture a bit from what I've seen. So when he gets probably permanently banned from Twitch out of nowhere, out of nowhere, people who went to go watch him, noticed that his account was taken off the site. He is he is reporting and telling people he doesn't know why.

That's the drama. I was brought into that a guy could lose millions and millions of dollars overnight and not know why. Right, So there's not a lot of clarity, there's just a lot of speculation. Now, Doctor Disrespect in the past was suspended from Twitch because he was live streaming at E three and happened to walk into a public bathroom, which is a no, no, we don't stream pp and uh. They banned him for I think, um

a couple of weeks. There was also a personal moment for him before that where he was kind of caught um cheating on his spouse with a viewer, and that turned into a thing where he took a leave of absence and then ended up coming back bigger than ever. His audiences, they are so into the fact that he plays into the this actual persona that when the real guy his name's guy being, when the real guy does things that fit into the persona, it only like amplifies

in snowballs his viewership. So when he came back from the accusations of cheating on his wife. His viewership had like doubled the first week, and then when he came back from the Twitch band from uh uh Streaming PP, he came back even stronger. So now the reason this is different is it's supposedly a permanent band. There's no reasons why Twitch has banned people in the past before UM permanently without telling them exactly why. They'll just refer

to their terms of service and their guidelines. Is being violated. The rumors are and I don't know how, you know, people that actually know what's going on are the people on the inside that work at Twitch. Everyone else is just assuming. There are some rumors that Spotify wants to open up their own UM live streaming site. There's talk that maybe Doctor Disrespect was trying to recruit other streamers

to go off platform to another site. I don't know how valid that is, but Spotify has been making deals with people like Joe Rogan in the podcast world, so it would make sense that they would try and cover the live streaming side of this as well and gaming UM. There's also just it could be some rumors about charity. There's a lot of times these guys do charity streams

where they raise money for charities. A couple of times I've heard that, um, there's been some back end money that's been kept, or um, not all the money was donated, as kind of kind of that gray area there. No one knows. At this point, his entire subreddit is going crazy. No one seems to be upset in any way. They just want to know when he's coming back. Yeah, so I looked into it a little. Those are the rumors that I saw as well. But then also, you know,

not at all saying this is what it is. But Twitch also has started a new kind of attack on streamers, much like the rest of the world who was facing sexual assault and predator accusations in their industries. So that is something that they have been acting on recently for streamers, and so people are thinking that's also another possibility for this banning. Yeah, the timing that that once once they kind of um came out with there we're going to be we have a no tolerance policy when it comes

to sexual assault. It was like the day after the doctor disrespect thing happened. So to make the sports related, I mean, the reason why I'm so connected to it is this is like if out of nowhere, just Kyrie Irving couldn't play in the NBA anymore, and they were like, you go play in the D League or c BA or whatever, but you have nothing to do with the place that you make millions in. And we're not going to tell you why that is a And maybe it's

for a good reason, maybe it's not. Whatever it is, but what a crazy turn of events for a dude who was making more than a living, was making a fortune playing video games in a mullet wig. Absolutely, I mean that's going to be the worst part is that he's got to be in this way the whole time, so maybe he takes his time to take it off

and scratch his head. Uh. You know, this is uh one of those things where when you you put all your eggs in a basket, and you know, in this case, Twitches owned by Amazon, it's it's a company, and these companies can change the rules of the game at any moment. Same thing with YouTube, same thing with you know, caffeine

and all these other places. They are all owned by UM, an investment group, and they at the end of the day, only care about money and they don't care about the um livelihood of people that use their site for their own personal game. Let's get into YouTube for a little bit, so I would call it you're graduating class. I would say, the group of people who all came up together. You were involved in maker studios, and you knew all these people. These were your peers at the time. The Internet and

YouTube in the early days. You know, the Wild West comparison is cliche and stupid. You heard it all the time, but comedy was lowbrow for YouTube when it first started. The nation seems to be changing, and a lot of the names who came up UH in those early days are now facing criticism for the videos they posted early in their careers, the ones that have hit mainstream that I've been following again with no baseball to follow. Jenna Marble's as a name I knew sort of from from

your groups back in the day. She was one of the other people who UH was sort of claimed to be better than her medium. She was, you know, kind of smarter and funnier by a lot of people's gauges. She removes herself off YouTube after past videos go under

fire for racist comments UH and and homophobic stuff. And then Shane Dawson, one of the premier names not only on YouTube from its start, but now a massive millionaire, apologizes for past racist jokes, blackface, pedophilia jokes, gets called out by Will Smith's family for making a Will Smith Joe his YouTube channel. Similar to Dr Disrespect. They have demonetized Shane Dawson's YouTube channel, meaning he can't make money

from any of the videos he posts. And that also loops in a guy named Jeffrey Starr, who I unfortunately know about, who is a guy who was a makeup empire, so much of an empire. I while researching, I figured out he has a fourteen point six million dollar house. These people have made tons of money off YouTube and they all have to basically run away as a group, it appears, because all their comedy is now under fire

from from that early beginning they went through. What do you know as someone who was involved in that growth, You know, I think you touched on it there. I think growth is important. There are as you said, it was pretty low brow and um, you had a lot of people that were doing comedy online that we're also

cutting their teeth online. But it was very visible. Like when I started in comedy, I spent about eighteen months doing stand up and us trying to do stand up and I was bad at it, and you kind of have to be bad at it. But luckily, when you're doing stand up, it's in a club, hopefully it's not in a major city, and you're just kind of bombing

in front of a few people. The unfortunate thing with YouTube is that timing is everything, and you had a lot of these people who were cutting their teeth, but they were very visible in front of their entire audience. And so instead of finding out what jokes didn't work or um worked and work shopping them privately, all that stuff was out in the open, and there was a

lot I mean, specifically, I think from Shane Dawson. He really experimented if I'm going to use that word, you know, even back then though I don't think any of us were really okay with the fact that he was using black face. There's not a lot of people from that

era I think that did he um. He had a character named Sane that uh and again I'm sorry I know all this, but uh, you know, when I when I saw that character, I remember Martin Lawrence's show Martin and he had a character named Sanine and I was just like, well, it seemed like Shane really borrowed heavily from that character. Um, with one big difference, with one big difference that he he was African American, and um, Shane didn't seem to make that connection and was kind

of just thought everything was fair game. Comedy is comedy. Don't tell me what I can and can't do. And he did it a lot. And um, there's a lot of stuff that has come out in regards to sort of like his conversations and you know with underage sort of like inappropriate underage stuff was which is also there's a there's a video of him, you know, gesturing like he's gratifying himself to like a poster of Willow Smith. And that's the thing that kind of, um that got

the Smiths involved. Jaden, you don't want Jaden, you don't want. Yeah, you don't want a top tier a list Hollywood family coming after you. And um and and for a gross clip, I mean he's having his books removed from the shelves of Target because of it. He is makeup is being pulled off of shelves. How how much money do people like Shane Dawson, Jenna Marble's, what do they lose? These people are all millionaires. We should not feel that bad.

These people are making millions and millions of dollars a year and YouTube demonetizing Shane's channels, and it's not a permanent demonetization. It's it's a temporary thing and he will be back. And these sort of things honestly end up working in the favor because like you and other people that just log on the Twitter one day, all of a sudden see a face of somebody who've never heard of, and then there's a million articles describing what this person

has done. And eventually people will start to forget what they've done, but they'll remember the name in the face. And then these people just carry on, I mean, for your for your for YouTube and streaming and all these things. It seems like this is content part part of part of the process of knowing someone and learning about them and growing up with them is also seeing their huge fails.

And you know, not not to defend Jenna Marble's and Shane Dawson, because I never thought i'd even say that sentence, but I will say that both had apologized before. Both both had come clean about what they had done in the past and said it's shameful and etcetera. And and uh, you know they're paying for it now and and and and you know it seems like for a good reason. Um, but it is a very slippery slope and a strange

time in America. And it does seem like streaming and YouTube is is taking a lot of the brunt um look and I and I'm totally with it. I think we're going in the right direction. Um. I think we need to be able to allow people to grow and understand that what was maybe okay then, um is not okay now and we should. You know, Jenna took a big step and removed herself from YouTube now, Okay, that's that's great. Nobody asked her to do that. She kind

of took the initiative to do that. She also has a very big I mean I would say most of her presence, not most, but she has a big presence on twitch U. She also live streams, and there's no talk about her leaving Twitch. It's kind of just on YouTube. So there's there's progress made. She I think dealt would be apology a little bit better with Shane's. It seems like there's a lot of I used to be that guy. I'm not that guy. Can't even look at that guy anymore.

There was less ownership over him, and he seemed to be distancing himself from himself. But he's gone through this several times and he will be back and it's up to people to decide whether they watch him or not. You guys get to decide with who you click on and who you watch, and UM, for a lot of you, it's your kids now, And UM, what's good is that now you know the type of content that potentially your

kids have access to. Because we used to think YouTube was just okay and whatever was on YouTube was okay. But now we know there's a lot of stuff on YouTube that's not all right, and they have a whole section of it just four kids now. And if you're a parent, when we were young, he used to have uh, you know, parental controls on your TV and you didn't have access to certain things that were rated a certain way.

Should be the same way with YouTube. You should have complete transparency with what your kids are watching on YouTube because there's a lot of stuff agreed out there that shouldn't be watching. Well, I'm just happy we didn't get into make Upgate. I'm proud that we didn't have enough time. I am too. I can't. There's there's some stuff that I can read through, like the Twitch drama, but when it comes to other things like um beauty gurus and

stuff like that, I I can't do it. Well. I wanted to at least get a pitch in there for your podcast called Pajama Pants Only, because you you have all things you've done. You have reunited Robert Iller and Jamie Lynds Szigler from The Sopranos to do a podcast with you. And by the way, it has nothing to do with the Sopranos. It is just hang out lifestyle talk podcast that just coincidentally has the two kids from

the most iconic television show of all time. What is your connection to the children of the Sopranos, Um, Yeah, thanks so much for the plug. Me and Robert we we met, uh, I don't know, six seven years ago. We shot a pilot together and um we got to be fast friends. And you know he I met Jamie through Robert. UM. I take pride in the fact that

there's uh, it's it's not a Sopranos rewatch podcasts. There are three or four other rewatch podcasts which are all good, but to be honest, none of us have watched the entire series. Though for us to talk about the Sopranos would be, um, it wouldn't be authentic. And I think what's good is that when it comes up, they talk about their experience. But we all it was just three people talking about their lives, I think, which is um

the best part. But uh yes, if you're looking for a Sopranos podcast, even though we have Meadow and a j soprano, probably not the best podcast for you to Roberts like this mysterious cloak of a human being. He didn't want to act anymore. He's like this enigma of a human who's just all we know is he loves slipknot. It is a great It is a great personality to have out in public. So I'm happy that you're digging deeper.

I appreciate it. Thanks so much well, cass MG. Everybody go check out pajama Pants and also let's let's let's both loosen up on checking out YouTube and twitch trauma. Yeah, we should also take a break. Thank's Caliday. Thanks than The Sports Bubble is produced and distributed by tree Fort Media. The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman,

Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Cart. Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor, with production and editing by Jasper Leak additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Hayley Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed by Spilkis.

If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please subscribe, rate us and review us on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and please visit Feeding America dot org if you're able to make a donation, Any amount makes a difference, and you can learn more about other ways you can help on their website. For more information on the Sports Bubble, links to the socials, and for show transcripts for our hearing impaired listeners, go

to tree Fort dot fm. Be safe and be Well. The Sports Bubble is a production of I Heart Radio and tree Fort Media. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.