As the title says, I live in New Zealand so I’m having to seriously fight the urge to not just buy a ticket to one of the North American shows and fly halfway across the world, which if I hadn’t just quit my lame corporate job I probably would’ve 😅😅
As the title says 😄 I’m the only Knicks fan among the few friends I have that follow the NBA, and also been dealing with aggressive sciatica meaning I’ve been revelling in this run in my own little world whilst bed rotting away; how are you guys gonna be watching Games 3/4?
I didn’t actually consider Mo’s role in JJ leaving, but with a few older tweets from him and JJ surfacing about channel growth, view counts etc. lately, I’m in the camp that he’s played a major part in JJ deciding to leave the group.
JJ’s always been super vocal about how Mo’s been one of his day ones, and probably has as much, maybe even more loyalty towards him than the Sidemen fellas. And with JJ’s channel rebrand, that would obviously mean Mo’s influence/voice becomes louder and louder the more committed JJ is towards his own channel, and Mo has no reason to consider the Sidemen aspect of this decision as his only priority is to grow the KSI brand/channel.
This is also more of a personal observation, but in virtually all of Mo’s on-screen appearances (mainly in the BTS videos on JJ’s channels), he’s extremely monotonous and gives off zero personality (unlike say Kon, or John with the Sidemen) and is super focused on process/results, which don’t get me wrong is a strength in itself, but reeks of the corporate standardisation that a lot of us who watch Sidemen/KSI content are trying to escape.
Without trying to slag the guy off any more, cause for all intents and purposes he might be a perfectly pleasant human being, but there’s a clip from one of the BTS videos where JJ and Mo are ordering from a food truck while on-set, and Mo gives the guy zero acknowledgement, no thank-you etc., and it was just one of those lasting impressions that gives you the ick about a person.
Ultimately, this was a cold-blooded, ruthless business decision, in the way that NBA players get suddenly traded or people get made redundant so if you look at it from that perspective, JJ and Mo have probably made the right decision considering how big his channels blowing up now, and Mo has no reason to put the Sidemen before JJ.
But I guess that’s why everyone’s so up in arms about this decision, the Sidemen have been so great for 10+ years because they made us forget about all the corporate slop that we get fed daily, have extremely relatable personalities and have been able to (for the most part), tip toe the line between chasing views and producing content that’s enjoyable for themselves and the viewer. And I’m pretty sure they’ll still be able to do that, but it’s just a shame that we’re not gonna get any more “specific ocean” or Ethan creasing over his dead hamster moments, since any on screen KSI content now is gonna be all this “high production” Try Not To Laugh, Try Not To Cringe, Try Not To Laugh USA, Try Not To Laugh France, Try Not To Laugh India, Try Not Laugh Botswana and on and on.
This probably went on for too long, but just my two cents! Open to thoughts/debate though 😄