Food For Thought/Thought For Food No. 13: #ChangeTheChannel (1 Year Later)

I remember it like it was yesterday: In November of 2011 I was invited over by a then brand new friend's place to hang out for the weekend (He ended up being one of my best friends of all time), and we did a bunch of fun stuff. Ate food that probably shortened out lifespan, played games, and watched a movie or two. However, it was watching my first ever episode of the Nostalgia Critic that somehow stuck in my head from that day. Now I had known about AVGN for a few years by this point, but I never heard of the man I would later learn to be Doug Walker, nor did I ever hear of the group of reviewers he was with, Channel Awesome. I tore through all of NC's videos, found myself baffled by the bad comics reviewed by Linkara, laughed at the absurdity of Spoony, and overall enjoyed the content the site provided. But then, something happened......

Doug Walker offed the Nostalgia Critic in 2012, only to bring him back after a few months due to the show that replaced him (Demo Reel) sucking so bad. However, his return seemed to bring a wave of.....something. Whatever this something was, it made all of the content creators I watched feel.....not as good. Everybody seemed to be trying a little more harder than they had too, and things didn't feel quite as free-spirited as they did when I first started watching (Maybe even before). It got worse as rumors started coming out about some behind the scenes stuff, and people began leaving. It was a trickle at first, then it became a flood. Eventually, it seemed as if Channel Awesome became the most desolate of internet deserts.

Why am I talking about this? Well, today marks the 1-year anniversary of the release of the Change The Channel google document, not to mention the briefly popular Change The Channel hashtag. It was a lot to absorb back in 2018, and still is kind of a shock to be honest. In the time since then, not a single positive thing has happened. The apology they issued was condescending & horrendous, their fact refuting post about the google doc was filled with holes, and due to a mixup of info (Accidental or Purposeful, you be the judge), Channel Awesome outed a rapist no-one saw coming (Still shocks me to this day)! By staying silent and doing nothing, the site somehow managed to avoid doing anything, got off scott-free, and are somehow still around!

Like it says in the meme at the start of this, you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Although, I wonder at this point of Channel Awesome was the villain all along, and nobody noticed until it was too late. Makes me sad, and a part of me kind of regrets liking the once awesome bastion of internet creators. Wish it doesn't though. Luckily I'm here, and I'll do the best I can to provide quality reviews & posts, so see you about mid next week with my annual Wrestlemania (Raw & Smackdown) review. Until then, if the channel sucks.....you might want to think about changing it.

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Right below are some great video that speak about #ChangeTheChannel. The 1st is a fantastic documentary about the site's rather (In hindsight) sordid history, a morbid birthday of the hashtag, and a quick video about how maybe we should move on because nothing will get changed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL3hOA0XgPc&t=444s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX-HKiM7bAQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_lt35NyLYc

(Updated on May 16th 2019, 7:41 PM Eastern Standard Time) 

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If you're curious about the google doc & all of the sordid details within, check out the link below:

Change The Channel (Google Doc)