Nerdrotic Talks Video Games, Comic Books, Sports, and Jerry Seinfeld with Will Cain

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Nerdrotic is giving the mainstream media the 411 on the 199. Gary appeared on today’s episode of the Fox News podcast The Will Cain Show, where he talked about the woke infestation of entertainment, Gamergate 2, journalism and its war with fans, and Jerry Seinfeld. This follows Gary’s appearances on Piers Morgan Uncensored with the Critical Drinker and is another stepping stone towards the geek counterculture breaking into the mainstream; it’s already happened with the IPs like Marvel, but now, it’s the fan aspects that are breaking through. You can see the episode below:

This is perhaps a better example of breaking through to the mainstream than the Piers Morgan interviews because Will Cain doesn’t talk much here; he mostly listens as Gary lays out what’s going on in these different fandoms. That’s the kind of interview I like: one where the interviewer doesn’t make himself the focus. Cain admits he’s not very tuned into geek stuff, and he lets Gary tell him and his audience about something they’ve largely been separated from, particularly outside of movies and TV. And Cain then likening it to things he sees in sports is important because it frames the woke intrusion and takeover as a cultural problem rather than just one focused on a particular niche; no matter what you like, they’re coming for it. That’s how you reach a wider audience.

Speaking of wider audiences, Gary just appeared on the Fox News YouTube channel, which has 11.3 million subscribers, considerably more than Piers Morgan Uncensored (which is no slouch with 2.57 million). I don’t know how many of them regularly watch The Will Cain Show, but plenty of people who visit Fox News’ channel are going to see that video. That’s a lot of exposure for the Fellowship, and Gary – who is a great guy – mentioned plenty of other channels and figures, like Jeremy and Geeks + Gamers, the Critical Drinker, Az, RazörFist, and Friday Night Tights. That’s more people who probably barely thought about gaming or comic books or some of the more specific fandoms like Doctor Who hearing those names; I wonder if they’ll get curious and search for one or two.

The discussion itself is more focused than the ones on Piers Morgan Uncensored, with Gary and Will Cain specifically talking about wokeness in entertainment and the fans’ reaction to it. I think Gary is right about the battle for gaming feeling different than the ones that came before, even the one over The Rings of Power. Despite having become, as many have pointed out, a bigger and more lucrative industry than even movies, gaming still feels like a niche hobby, something that doesn’t involve a wider audience the way movies and TV do, and that’s partly due to the devotion one has to have to be into it. You don’t turn on the TV and flip to a video game; you have to buy an expensive gaming system, buy expensive games, and play them for many hours. You have to really be into it, and that kind of devotion does not suffer attacks and intrusions. Moviegoers are leaving theaters when told to move on because what they love is not theirs anymore, but gamers are pulling a Captain America and saying, “No, you move.”

Cain brings up an interesting point about the fracturing of entertainment outlets and how that can ultimately be a good thing. Sooner or later, someone will allow entertainment that’s actually entertaining because the demand is there for anyone willing to embrace it. And right now, that mostly seems like it’s Netflix; for all its faults, Netflix is distributing stand-up shows from “problematic” (my least favorite word) comedians like Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais, and they’ve been massive hits for the streamer because they’re funny and irreverent. Netflix also bought Shane Gillis’ new sitcom Tires in February, giving a platform to another politically incorrect comedian that, wouldn’t you believe it, people like. A while back, Adam Devine talked about how Netflix is the only place where comedies can be made anymore because it’s the only one that will let comedies exist to be funny rather than to push some social message. And, not coincidentally, Netflix is the only streaming service that actually turns a profit.

Given that, it’s not a surprise that Jerry Seinfeld found his way to Netflix for his first movie as a director, Unfrosted (which looks hilarious, despite Amy Schumer’s hopefully minimal presence). This follows Seinfeld jumping to the streamer from Hulu a few years ago; now, Jerry Seinfeld is stretching himself creatively, and of course, his landmark sitcom’s new home is his platform. Gary and Cain discussed how Seinfeld recently said that wokeness was killing the sitcom, and while a bunch of social media zombies who don’t know what “sitcom” is a contraction of are pretending to be offended (and, as usual, not realizing that they’re proving the point they’re trying to refute), does anyone really think he’s wrong? Every time Friends is mentioned, we have to hear about how there aren’t enough gay people and Monica in a fat suit is racist or something. People always use shows like All in the Family as an example, but you don’t even have to go back that far; Modern Family wouldn’t be allowed on network TV today. (If you haven’t seen Modern Family, give it a try and marvel at how it demolishes woke bullshit under the guise of progressivism; it’s brilliant.) And again, this is just another front of the culture war, as Gary and Will Cain demonstrate in their discussion.

And that’s what’s so great about seeing these interviews: it lets a broader audience know that we’re not as different as they may think. A conversation between a guy who knows sports and a guy who knows comic books revealed a shared concern for the direction of society. That’s how a movement grows.