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I know, you shouldn't use YouTube as an indicator for the popularity of ANYTHING.
Still, I was appalled to see how many mean and simply horrible comments John's stuff gets on there.
Most of them are along the lines of "He's an arrogant git and he's not funny."
Now, funny.
That's certainly a matter of taste and I understand if people don't like his style.
But the "arrogant git" part kinda baffled me because all I could ever think when I saw him, even during the "author" games on WLiiA was "Goddammit, why does this guy have to be so bloody adorable?"
I mean, gosh. In the beginning of the show, he just sits there in his chair or stands on the stage step, hands in pockets. And then, you give him a prompt, and he goes "Boom".
He's a fantastic performer and his ability to switch from one character, accent or whatever to the next is simply breathtaking.
Also, as we all know, he's horribly smart and can quote stuff most people have never even heard about, all the while being sickeningly, painfully cute.
Granted, he's not the best person to do group-performing with, but that's fine. Not everyone has to be.
On the other hand, he does have his great cooperative moments during the pair games and the musicals. And the props games.
Oh, the props games. Riding Stephen Fry must have been fun *cough COUGH*
Some people keep moaning about the fact that WLiiA, or at least the first season, was centered around John.
What's everyone's problem? The others obviously agreed to whatever way the show was to be done, or else they wouldn't have been on it.
Also, if there's one thing John certainly does not lack, it's self-awareness.
The way he called his ability to memorize artists' birth and death dates "a horrible sickness" on Qi nearly breaks my heart every time.
An "arrogant git" certainly wouldn't refer to themselves in such a self-deprecating way.
So why call him that?!
At some point, it occurred to me why I simply couldn't relate to people attributing the way John behaves to smugness, self-centeredness or whatever you may call it.
Let's face it: He's incredibly shy.
This sounds like a totally weird character trait for an actor to have, but just look at him in WLiiA!
The moment he doesn't have a character or impression to comfortably slip into, he has no idea in hell how to behave.
He looks down instead of at the people around him (let alone the camera) and puts on this strange grin you can also see in this entry's icon (and some others I adopted because I think it's quite adorable).
Nerdy? Socially awkward? Probably. But sure as hell not arrogant or conceited.
The problem is that people who don't have shyness issues themselves don't understand this and so they mistake his being awkward and insecure for self-importance or even hubris.
I can totally understand John here since I've been accused of the same ting: Being an arrogant bitch who is too full of herself to bother with others.
Which, as anyone who knows me personally, should hopefully be able to testify, is as far from the truth as you could possibly get.
Maybe I'm a born artist after all? [/stupid joke]
Anyway, the overwhelming shallowness of those people sickens me and I should probably just stop reading YouTube comments once and for all.
But then, you also find some that look more like this:
... which sorta made my day ^_^
Still, I was appalled to see how many mean and simply horrible comments John's stuff gets on there.
Most of them are along the lines of "He's an arrogant git and he's not funny."
Now, funny.
That's certainly a matter of taste and I understand if people don't like his style.
But the "arrogant git" part kinda baffled me because all I could ever think when I saw him, even during the "author" games on WLiiA was "Goddammit, why does this guy have to be so bloody adorable?"
I mean, gosh. In the beginning of the show, he just sits there in his chair or stands on the stage step, hands in pockets. And then, you give him a prompt, and he goes "Boom".
He's a fantastic performer and his ability to switch from one character, accent or whatever to the next is simply breathtaking.
Also, as we all know, he's horribly smart and can quote stuff most people have never even heard about, all the while being sickeningly, painfully cute.
Granted, he's not the best person to do group-performing with, but that's fine. Not everyone has to be.
On the other hand, he does have his great cooperative moments during the pair games and the musicals. And the props games.
Oh, the props games. Riding Stephen Fry must have been fun *cough COUGH*
Some people keep moaning about the fact that WLiiA, or at least the first season, was centered around John.
What's everyone's problem? The others obviously agreed to whatever way the show was to be done, or else they wouldn't have been on it.
Also, if there's one thing John certainly does not lack, it's self-awareness.
The way he called his ability to memorize artists' birth and death dates "a horrible sickness" on Qi nearly breaks my heart every time.
An "arrogant git" certainly wouldn't refer to themselves in such a self-deprecating way.
So why call him that?!
At some point, it occurred to me why I simply couldn't relate to people attributing the way John behaves to smugness, self-centeredness or whatever you may call it.
Let's face it: He's incredibly shy.
This sounds like a totally weird character trait for an actor to have, but just look at him in WLiiA!
The moment he doesn't have a character or impression to comfortably slip into, he has no idea in hell how to behave.
He looks down instead of at the people around him (let alone the camera) and puts on this strange grin you can also see in this entry's icon (and some others I adopted because I think it's quite adorable).
Nerdy? Socially awkward? Probably. But sure as hell not arrogant or conceited.
The problem is that people who don't have shyness issues themselves don't understand this and so they mistake his being awkward and insecure for self-importance or even hubris.
I can totally understand John here since I've been accused of the same ting: Being an arrogant bitch who is too full of herself to bother with others.
Which, as anyone who knows me personally, should hopefully be able to testify, is as far from the truth as you could possibly get.
Maybe I'm a born artist after all? [/stupid joke]
Anyway, the overwhelming shallowness of those people sickens me and I should probably just stop reading YouTube comments once and for all.
But then, you also find some that look more like this:
... which sorta made my day ^_^
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