With 95 million views and almost half a million subscribers in 5 months; the Game Grumps have blown up spectacularly across the Youtube community, accumulating an avid fan base and recognition amongst some of the gaming community’s most popular content creators. It seems that for a couple of guys playing video games and uploading their escapades, this dashing duo can do no wrong. For those of you not familiar with the concept of “Let’s Play” and the “Let’s Play” community; the general idea is that someone plays a game, records this, and talks their way through the experience, sharing it with their viewers. There are plenty of these guys on Youtube, all varying in style and intention. Some are playing games simply to derive some form of comedic hilarity from poor games design, others are more instructional, many of them achieving massive success. Say what you like about these guys, people want to watch them playing games. The Game Grumps (Arin Hanson and Jon Jafari) however, seem to have something different going on. The pair are well aware that this form of internet-fun is a well traversed venture; and so they set out to not only stand out, but provide what may be the most entertaining gaming channel to date.

There are a couple of reasons Game Grumps rocks your socks. One of them is its cast. In the eyes of many people who are familiar with popular internet shows (in particular the animation/gaming scene); Game Grumps are an internet super-group. Jon (JonTron) and Arin (Egoraptor) were already massive names in their trade before the birth of Game Grumps. The Jontron Show provides surrealistic video analyses of vintage video games, Jon putting his brash and lovable obnoxiousness at the forefront of the show is its real strength, along with a brilliant sense of comedic timing and editing ability. Egoraptor on the other hand is much more reserved [than Jon] and has made his name as a prolific and exciting animator and voice actor. His cartoons focusing mainly on video games and anime. The two when combined are not only two names to be reckoned with, but genuinely entertaining and likeable. The pair often allude to the fact that Let’s Play channels can (without effort) become stale fast, and are aware that they are producing content for a massive audience (because that’s what they are: ‘Content Creators’). Because of this audience awareness, Game Grumps creates a fantastic sense of performance without seeming disingenuous. The Grumps are aware that they have to “act up” in order to provide a show for their fans, but for them this comes naturally because they are entertainers. Along with the faceless “Barry” and his editing input, the Game Grumps team are some of the best gamers to watch on the internet.

Facelessness appropriately brings me onto the very best thing about Game Grumps: The Game Grumps fan community. Because Game Grumps (unlike so many other let’s players) do not use “Facecam”, and choose not to project an image of themselves actually physically reacting to the games we see, fans have taken it upon themselves to begin producing “Game Grumps Animated” episodes. Taking the Grumps’ reactions to (usually terrible) games design, and producing a visual representation of the event is proving to be a huge aspect of the Game Grumps community’s appeal. Varying in quality, these animations add a whole new level of dialogue between content creators and content viewers that, as far as internet celebrity goes, is unrivalled in terms of popularity. The Game Grumps very own Reddit page is the best place to find these animations, and occasionally, a fan will produce a masterpiece such as this video by thatscoutisaspy, a surreal animation depicting the boys’ reaction to Sonic 06, which is quite frankly, a mess of a game:



Game Grumps may not be the first channel of its kind, but it is easily the best. One final reason (which Jon and Arin would never forgive me for missing out) that Game Grumps is as good a show as it is: the games. If it weren’t for games like Sonic 06, and its “unique” approach to games design, viewers could never have been blessed with that beautiful little moment in which Arin Hanson lost his mind a little bit. All of these things, in combination with the fact that these two brave souls are willing to sit through games like Spice World, make Game Grumps the best Let’s Play show out there right now. Keep it up gentlemen. TENOUTTATEN!