By: Ezra Shanto



I recently had the opportunity to talk with the sure to be famous YouTuber NakeyJakey. NJ makes some fantastic content on his YouTube channel including a series called GAMES THAT SHOULD BANG, where he takes two games that don’t really seem like they’d work together and fuses them through logic and comedy in a way that is entirely charming and very new. We chat about his videos, vidja games, hot boys, YouTube and my dog, Pepper! It’s a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy the full podcast interview embedded below.

Ezra: How did you think of the concept of GAMES THAT SHOULD BANG? Because not only do I love the name, but the concept of that mashup … everyone always has the versus idea or the ‘what’s better’ idea, but nobody does a thing where they take two games and put them together.

Jacob: After high school I went to college for like two weeks and then I dropped out because my financial aid wasn’t coming through and also I was just tired of school and knew I didn’t want to do it, so I used that as an excuse to drop out. But really it was like, “no I’m gonna work a job and make rap beats.” For the past two to three years I was planning on making music. I don’t even know if I was trying to become famous but I just liked it and was doing it, but I didn’t know if I wanted to sing or rap or do a combo which is something I’m still figuring out…basically what I’m saying is for the past couple years I’ve just been working on that along with working in a movie theatre and having other random jobs in Denver.

So I had just been playing GTA V a lot and I really liked it – who doesn’t like playing GTA? – and then I played MGS V and then the idea just occurred to me that these games would be fuckin’ sick together because GTA V, you know it has that giant city and all the cars and environment, but there’s not a lot of interesting missions or objectives to do in that game. And then MGS V is the exact opposite: it gives you all the tools and missions but that map is just super boring …and so I thought, what if I just try writing something and trying to be at least kind of funny and present these ideas?

And then I spent like a month working on that first episode and kept changing it. And it’s so long and there’s no cuts and I can’t go back and watch it now, like it makes me cringe a little bit even though it was only like five months ago it feels like years. But yeah, I made it and put it on Facebook and all of my friends and family were like, “holy shit, you were doing this? Where did this come from?”

E: I wanted to ask you who your biggest influences are, because I’ve heard that Egoraptor is one of your biggest ones.

J: Yeah I was kind of hoping you’d bring it up because it’s an honour to be compared to him or even for someone to say you’re ripping off his delivery or ideas. He is a big inspiration. The Sequelitis series I love and I do take a lot of that format of “it’s funny but it’s also insightful,” at least I hope my stuff is insightful. But I also feel like my jokes – or I hope my jokes and editing – are different enough to be my own thing. But because I’m not very known, whenever something is unknown the first thing someone wants to do is compare it to something that they do know. And I feel like for me, it’s instantly Egoraptor, which is huge to me because he’s one of my biggest influences, but at the same time I’m having a hard time trying to show that “hey this is who I actually am, I’m not putting on a show or anything. This is just me and I probably am formed from watching other people like Louis C.K. and Dave Chapelle. It’s an honour but it’s also kind of frustrating.

E: I find Sequelitis is about taking the imagination out of things in some ways and making it analytical, yours is about adding imagination and being analytical of those ideas. Which I thought was very unique.

E: But when it comes to your picking process, do you pick games that aren’t talked about? How do you pick who should bang?

J: I don’t really choose based on popularity. Although if I think of a game and its more popular I might be more influenced to make a video about that in hopes that maybe a few more people would watch it. I mainly just think of all the games I’ve ever played or know about and that have some trait to them I really like or that is unique, or at least one aspect of them. I guess my selection is just what mechanics from a game are cool and how could you apply them to another game? I do feel that the more that I’m making them, especially with the last two that I am starting to think more outside of the box to the point where now I’m even thinking about like, “how could you combine Dance Dance Revolution with Gears of War?” You know, just crazy shit like that.

E: Are there any other YouTube creators you would hope to work with?

J: This is really funny but after I only made a couple videos I emailed the people associated with DidYouKnowGaming? because they just feature all of these different YouTubers that talk about games they’re experts in. I do really like that channel and just like learning the random history and facts so I emailed them a while ago like, “Hey just want to let you know I exist and I love your channel, if you guys ever need anyone to do voice work” which obviously they don’t because they have so many, and of course they didn’t respond. But for me in my mind me “making it” would be being featured on that show, even know that might not ever happen. Even If I hit like 100,000 subscribers and I still haven’t been on that show I’ll be like, “God dammit I’m a failure.”

But I would be open to collaborating with probably anyone, unless it’s just some shitty Let’s Player.

Listen to the full interview below:

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit



Like this: Like Loading...