Over 20 years, YouTube has become the premier destination for video entertainment. Built upon user submitted material and bodying commercial television, it barely goes a week without stirring new controversies. For younger generations, their nostalgia for bygone streamers holds a special place. Warts and all. YouTuber and reporter Steven Asarch has taken a close examination at the fans who want to follow in the footsteps of their heroes, regardless of well known stumbles.
“Children born after the year 2000 got their content through YouTube, where there were little to no guardrails for what they could watch,” says Asarch in his latest video. “A decade is a long time on the internet. And as a creator, you either evolve or you die.”
A new, inherently niche trend has been cropping up on YouTube. Asarch puts a microscope over the scene known as “LARPtubers.” These are content makers who are not merely replicating the style of videos they grew up with, but outright impersonating them like an Elvis reading wedding vows. What you end up with is something beyond charmingly anachronistic, but surreal spectacle. Dredging up memories that some streamers were hoping to avoid.
YouTube and all social media encourages bigger, more dramatic and often more startling. Such a model is a trouble factory, and the platform has endlessly struggled to balance what users indulge in and what advertisers are willing to associate with. PewDiePie paying others to praise Hitler. Logan Paul simultaneously chased off YouTube and Japan. Parents torturing their kids with “pranks.” The depravity hasn’t exactly culled itself from the culture, but corporate is always trying to add new guidelines to discourage it. Stretching from good faith to overreach, YouTube routinely modifies its algorithms and payment scheme. You only have to watch a few popular uploads to glean a sense of what trends are shimmering and which words will penalize creators.
The problem, for LARPtubers, is they miss the old Bedlam. One of Asarch’s subjects is ILarpzTV, a teenager who idolizes the videos Ian Kane Jomha used to make. Jomha, better known as iDubbbz, initially peddled in politically incorrect comedy and button pushing, but ultimately grew out of it. Inevitably it has left behind fans who hunger for more. The fact that vacuum is generating outright copycats has left Jomha, who struggles to sit through an entire ILarpzTV video, conflicted.
“I think my feelings are a little bit complicated,” Jomha tells Asarch. “I’ve kind of been fighting against that myself for so long and to so many people like it’s it’s kind of a joke now. If people don’t want to leave that time, I can’t really force them. I’ve tried to do it in all the ways that I can. So if they’re able to get it in, just kind of like a watered down, I would say hopefully less slurs version of iDubbbz then cool.”
Many YouTubers of that era have either reinvented themselves or migrate to spaces that will put up with them. As Asarch points out, even the mighty Mr. Beast cut his nails clawing at younger creators. But the hurt isn’t entirely exhuming past sins. One troubling case study is TechnoLarp, a young creator who wanted to pay homage to Minecraft streamer Technoblade, using a similar voice and avatar. While seemingly wholesome enough, the obvious issue is that Technoblade passed away in 2022 from cancer. While some fans liked rekindling that old feeling, others found the whole performance in poor taste. Including Technoblade’s family, who demanded the mimicry to stop.
“I did something I really shouldn’t have,” the streamer, who now goes by StrikerMC, tells Asarch. “I’m not a super emotionally adept person.”
Since pivoting to an original streaming personality, StrikerMC has found a fanbase that continues to grow. In a best case scenario, these young LARPers can use these videos like training wheels. A coloring book to fill in before figuring out how to draw their own lines. But these streaming affairs never seem to trend towards a healthier place.