Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 01:40:51 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Disturbance at Digitiser Live show [split topic]

Started by Utter Shit, July 23, 2019, 02:22:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Utter Shit

Does anyone know what happened at the show on the weekend? My twitter has been awash with allusions to someone being an almighty cunt, but nobody seems willing to say who, or what exactly happened. It seems to have been a known pain in the arse, but I'm not sure if they are 'known' in the celebrity sense, or just that they always turn up to these events and cause everybody arseache.

RicoMNKN

As far as I can tell, it was a YouTube vlogger who went along and started saying alt-right shit and getting in people's personal space.

I saw someone link to his channel, and he's no one well known, so I won't link here.

Autism explains some of the behaviour, perhaps, but doesn't excuse being a dick.

j_u_d_a_s

Quote from: Utter Shit on July 23, 2019, 02:22:21 PM
Does anyone know what happened at the show on the weekend? My twitter has been awash with allusions to someone being an almighty cunt, but nobody seems willing to say who, or what exactly happened. It seems to have been a known pain in the arse, but I'm not sure if they are 'known' in the celebrity sense, or just that they always turn up to these events and cause everybody arseache.

I was there but didn't hear anything until after the event. Turns out that there was some bloke who when talking to a trans woman called her 'he', interrupted folks constantly and complained about diversity and PC culture. On top of that apparently he cornered Octavius (for those who don't know, she's a retro youtuber and attractive) and chatted to her constantly, he's a pretty big guy so you can see how this could be pretty intimidating.

Found out on Twitter that the same guy posted an open letter to the last leg complaining about left wing bias and why don't they invite Theresa May and Jacob Rees-Mogg. So yeah, he's one of 'those types'. You can excuse the social awkwardness due to him being autistic but the rest? Nah mate.

Poobum

From the clips people have been uploading this looked the usual bunch of entertaining chaos. I always enjoy Derek Acorah getting absolutely shat on. I'm sure fake tributes to made up people must be a comedic thing other people have done, but roping in a bunch of z listers and John Challis to do cringey vids added a nice mix of embarrassed delight. I hope they managed to record some decent footage so they're able to upload it, I wanna see the "I love horses" nonsense in its full glory. Looks like whoever the plonkacunt was has been banned from all future events.

peteprodge

Quote from: j_u_d_a_s on July 23, 2019, 02:49:55 PM
I was there but didn't hear anything until after the event. Turns out that there was some bloke who when talking to a trans woman called her 'he', interrupted folks constantly and complained about diversity and PC culture. On top of that apparently he cornered Octavius (for those who don't know, she's a retro youtuber and attractive) and chatted to her constantly, he's a pretty big guy so you can see how this could be pretty intimidating.

I can shed some light on this. After all, I am the guy who drove him home, a move I somewhat regret now.

TL;DR: I unwittingly gave a lift to a belligerent Trump worshipper who had made himself about as welcome as a fact at a Leave campaign rally.

I had backed the Digitiser Live show a long time ago, and despite the presence of that Trump-supporting megaphone, it was absolutely amazing, a thing of utterly life-affirming joy.

Gaming, and indeed, retrogaming does tend to attract the, er, shall we say, neuro-atypical type of people. I say that with some slight authority, I'm diagnosed with Asperger's. Digitiser, being a bundle of leftfield humour that sprang out of a 1990s teletext service, has a lot of support from retrogaming YouTubers with creative leanings. Some of whom are quite shy and tend to stick with their own.

I drove 70 miles down to Harrow - on my own - pretty early to check out Chunky Fringe, the auxillary 'pre-show' celebration of teletext put on by a Digitiser fan. A sizeable number of Digi-fans had gathered in the car park, quite a few recognisable folk from gaming YouTube too.

Anyway, I was filming a few odds and sods for my own retrogaming channel (Reheated Pixels, it's not actually launched just yet, should be live Friday with a documentary-style feature on Out Run). I had chatted to a few people, and struck up a conversation with a fairly self-confident chap, who said he was a stand-up comedian and that he's autistic - so that's something in common with me. And he was actually fairly affable if a little odd. I'm high functioning, so usually come across as neurotypical and I'm aware of the traits seen from the deeper ends of the spectrum. I was expecting this kind of thing, so was making a conscious effort to include those whose social behaviours differ from the norm. Oh, and there were a few transpeople in attendance (this is relevant to the story).

And I suppose things were alright at that point, this large-framed chap didn't really show signs of unpleasantness before the show. The sun was shining, a load of us sitting around drinking free cans of beer out of an ice bucket that a few people had set up and people were videoing each other. Definitely had the vibe of a comic con about it. You could say it was like a Saturday-afternoon gathering of teens outside your local CEX. (Although the age range was a lot broader, I'm middle-aged as were quite a few others.)

In our conversation, I learnt that he was an open spot comic with just over a year of experience. He'd played The Lion's Den, which is, well, the only pay-to-play comedy gig in the UK, so that's massively naive. And his autism was something he was very proud of. In fact, he makes it part of his 'personal brand'. He did get rather overbearing in a few conversations (like when I was trying to film with DJ Slopes), but nothing that caused me concern at that time...

We got talking about comedy, and at some point he was on the subject of The Last Leg, a show he was clearly a fan of. I mentioned that I know one of the writers, who is also a stand-up yet he doesn't appear on the show, but does gigs locally to me (and has done a few of the comedy nights I put on). Clearly enthused by this, the Charisma Vaccum then pleads with me to have him get in touch. "I have some ideas!" I politely nodded and smiled, but, you know... I mentally ruled out any chance of that happening. He banged on about appearing on the show, which is great, because if there's one thing prime-time TV needs, it's socially inept open spots from the London circuit.

And then... well, a prolific transwoman YouTuber turned up and approached me (knowing me from a past event), and while chatting, my new-found 'friend' butted in and asked "excuse me, are you a boy or a girl?". I instantly put my face in my hands and wailed "oh noooo" and I reckoned about a dozen people's toes curled in unison. But the YouTuber wasn't offended, saying "a girl, don't worry about it" and I still genuinely think this was a sincere mistake, there wasn't a tone of malice, and the YouTuber goes for a fairly androgynous look rather than overtly feminine.

My stomach was rumbling at one point, having survived on a few crisps, and the Proud Autist suggested we order in a pizza. He pointed out he was fairly local to Harrow. I went with the idea, but then, remembering I was trying to lose weight, I thought better to just grab a meal deal from the local supermarket. I did agree to giving the guy a lift home if he needed it, he lived just five miles away.

At one point in another conversation, this autistic chap managed to crowbar in the fact that he's pro-Brexit. "Oh dear, and we were getting along so well too" I said with a rather pantomime-like face of despair. He underlined the point, as I eye-rolled, but, I wasn't going to just shun him for that. After all, I've worked for people who support Brexit, still work alongside Leave voters and hey, why burn bridges when there's a chance of pointing out the follies of the Farage brigade? Not that I could really get a word in edgeways most of the time.

I did a couple more supermarket runs with other folk, to stock up on more drinks for the ice bucket and frankly, to get away from the Conversation Monopoliser. At this point, I'm sure he meant well, but I didn't want to be some kind of bridesmaid to this joy-ruining mouth-trap, so I spent a lot more time with the others.

As the show was about to begin. I made my way into the show queue, and thankfully, I was sat - by coincidence - to a few people I know who are on this forum, as well as a few people I know from the retrogaming YouTube... I want to say 'community', but it's a little naff, shall we say, scene?

As for the Loudhailer In Human Form, he had managed to get into a seat in the row in front of me, but hadn't noticed me.

The show - I cannot state enough - was an utter triumph. It was a shambles, both deliberately and accidentally, and that worked beautifully. It was great to see Octavius and Larry Bundy completely own that venue for their own bits. I was also really pleased Sooz Kempner took part, I've been a fan of her since seeing her Sonic-the-Hedgehog-themed show at a festival last year.

There was a couple of vocal interjections from the Brexit Bore, which didn't gain traction but didn't derail the show.

After the show, the plan was that Mr Biffo and his crew would be available in the bar to chat with, but with the main event having overrun by 50 minutes, it was all hands on deck to tidy up the stage and load up the van with all the props. Quite a lot of us helped out here. The bar was almost drunk dry by the time we finished.

I got in a few minutes conversation with Mr Biffo, outside in the car park I chatted to a fairly nervous Octavius to compliment her work and also caught up with Larry Bundy Jnr and various other folk in the Digitiser 'sphere' - Nikki And Bunty; Bex from Trista Bytes, etc. I got a few words in to Sooz, but she was being cornered by You Know Who.

At some point in a chat with someone, the guy was going off on about 'social justice warriors' and how he was annoyed about 'no platforming'. Well, I felt the warning lights go off in my head. And then there was some diatribe about how millenials don't bother to research things. That was it, I just couldn't keep it in, and loudly exclaimed "for f--ks sake, people of all ages don't research things, that's why this country's in the shit right now".

And Brexit Boy was shocked, and silenced for once. He was visibly upset but all I could think about was the rather loud sigh of relief I heard from everyone around me.

It didn't last, a few minutes later he was piping up about the "injustice" dished out that C(o)unt Dankula prick. I pointed out that the UKIP-rosette-sporting comedy vacuum was quite clearly a racist, but it wasn't hitting home with Captain Belligerent. Predictably, he insisted that Nazi pug thing was all a really funny 100% ironic gag. I brought up Dankula's history of racist connections, and he said he'd look into it. Finally, some hope that, maybe, just maybe, he could get out of that rut of alt-right-bell-end worship.

He was somewhat subdued after my put-downs and cautiously whispered "I'm still okay for the lift yeah?". I reluctantly nodded. I felt a lot of pity for him. He's far from the first person on the spectrum I've come across who has made an utter embarrassment of himself and it was clear he struggled to read social cues.

But I did get away from him again, chatted with quite a few other people (Mr Biffo's wife is amazing), it was about midnight and we were the last of the stragglers to leave.

Jumping in my car, Professor Pariah told me his home address and we set off. And he was far more quiet in the car journey. And I learnt a few things. He's Jewish and lives with his parents - which baffles me as to why he's praising the far right, the kind of people who would definitely look down on those things.

He tried to have a moan about social justice, but I wasn't having it - "What is your problem with 'social justice'? Actual social justice? I don't get you. I don't get this world where people use terms like 'do-gooder' and 'liberal' as an insult. We need social justice, we need it more than ever."

At another point, he was moaning about Facebook and Twitter's censorship. I pointed out that as private companies, they were free to bar who they like. "No, they're not," insisted my passenger. "You see, Facebook is like a public square."

"It really f--king is not. It's a website. I own a website. I don't want everyone posting shit on my website and I think Mark Zuckerberg feels the same way."

(There have been calls from the far right to have social media platforms regulated so that the 'anti-conservative bias' is removed. Which is pretty ironic, a bunch of hardened right-wingers calling for rich independent private businesses to be nationalised and state regulated?)

Anyway, my nanowit of a passenger asks me to pull over so we can at least get a late night meal at McDonald's. I'm rather reluctant as their food tastes like cardboard and I'm trying to trim down, but, I could do with some fries. Which he bought for me, so, that's the very minor 'win' I can take away from all this.

I couldn't help remark that his choice of meal - a bacon cheeseburger - was somewhat out-of-step with the Torah's menu. "Oh, please don't tell my mum and dad. I've been eating this for years, they don't know."

Dropped him off eventually, made my up the M1 and got home...

...and it was only by Sunday that - through Twitter friends - I learnt of the full horror he had put others through. It's grim reading.

And if you have been reading this in full (which I admit is quite a feat of endurance), you'll remember he wanted to be on The Last Leg and believed I could be some sort of saviour for that - frankly wildly optimistic - idea.

Well, going down a rabbit hole of his social media, I'm really really pleased I made the sensible choice. See if you can make it through all 11 minutes of this illogical rant...

Oh, and going back through the stuff I got on camcorder, it's clear that he wasn't exactly there for Digitiser, as he was more a fan of Ashens, much to Stuart's dismay. In the background, I've got the part where Stuart arrives, and his unwanted fanboy is lapping up right behind him, like a lovesick puppy. It's really creepy. Apparently shit has also been caused at CheapShow Live by this creepy individual.

And he's caused trouble at much bigger events...

peteprodge

Quote from: Poobum on July 23, 2019, 07:49:23 PM
From the clips people have been uploading this looked the usual bunch of entertaining chaos. I always enjoy Derek Acorah getting absolutely shat on. I'm sure fake tributes to made up people must be a comedic thing other people have done, but roping in a bunch of z listers and John Challis to do cringey vids added a nice mix of embarrassed delight. I hope they managed to record some decent footage so they're able to upload it, I wanna see the "I love horses" nonsense in its full glory. Looks like whoever the plonkacunt was has been banned from all future events.

Oh yes, the show opened up with that scene, and I was crying with laughter. The best part of the show for me.

Mr Biffo has got the show recorded, I presume it'll come out online at some point. I did film a few bits and pieces from the audience on my camcorder (as well as tweet out a few 30-second bits you can find in the #DigitiserLive hashtag). I'll make a montage of the day at some point on my channel. Not putting whole sketches out there, but a few bits, intertwined with some pre-and-post-show stuff where I chatted with other fans and Mr Biffo himself. (The Alt-Right Shite will be totally edited out of it, unsurprisingly.)

Really pleased they're planning more live shows for the future.

St_Eddie

#6
I wish somebody would post some links to the footage.  I want to form my own opinion.

EDIT: I've just read peteprodge's post and yeah, this guy sounds like a dick.

Shaky

The 11-min rant Pete posted seems to be a good indication of what the guy is like. The kind of thing which makes me a bit ashamed and frightened to be a nerd.

mippy

Having watched that video, I can well understand how people felt he ruined the event.

peteprodge

Quote from: mippy on July 24, 2019, 07:10:45 AM
Having watched that video, I can well understand how people felt he ruined the event.

Well, the show itself wasn't wrecked by him, he really ramped up being a dick when he was outside after the show, trying to forge connections to his YouTube heroes. Majority of people left by then and wouldn't have noticed him. But yes, from other people's observations, he was deliberately making transphobic 'jokes', getting in people's personal space (apparently he full-on cornered Octavius in a 'virtually pinned by the wall' scenario) and doing extended rants against his perceived evils of political correctness.

Surprisingly, he hasn't kicked off yet. Mr Biffo announced the banning of him yesterday from all future events and there's been no reaction from the Rubicon-supping conversation-monopolising Rees-Mogg fanboy. Normally, nerds can be very 'keyboard warrior' and then when it comes to real-life meets, they're all shy and quiet. Seems to be the 'vice versa' of all that (Last Leg rant aside).



I dunno if this'll leave the 'aut-right' guy to be more entrenched in his world of Hopkins/PrisonPlanet/facts-don't-care-about-your-feelings horse shit, or if he'll have a reflective moment of self-awareness - 'oh maybe I should really review where I am in life?'. There's not been a big torrent of abuse aimed at him, apart from that rather cheeky missive I've depicted above. He's gone very quiet on the matter and has resumed to the usual nerd things.

Anyway, here's to more Digitiser Live...

bgmnts

Surely if any group of people can be given a bit of leeway when it comes to inappropriate behaviour its autistic people.


madhair60


Sin Agog

This is what happens when you don't introduce your autistic child to trains early on in life.

Some comments on twitter there saying being autistic is no excuse for being a bell-end, but from all the myriad autistic people in my family, I've never known one of them who hasn't gotten obsessed with something or other.  Pedestrian crossings, Harry Potter, Dinky toy cars.  Sounds to me like he's unfortunately cast his autistic cross-hairs on alt-right shite.  Props for still showing the dude the humanity you did.  Looks like there might still be a kernel of vulnerability underneath all the acquired rhetoric that might come to the light one day.  Do autistic people change obsessions often? 
I can't remember, which means they probably don't.

petril

Quote from: Sin Agog on July 24, 2019, 08:51:47 AM
This is what happens when you don't introduce your autistic child to trains early on in life.

Some comments on twitter there saying being autistic is no excuse for being a bell-end, but from all the myriad autistic people in my family, I've never known one of them who hasn't gotten obsessed with something or other.  Pedestrian crossings, Harry Potter, Dinky toy cars.  Sounds to me like he's unfortunately cast his autistic cross-hairs on alt-right shite.  Props for still showing the dude the humanity you did.  Looks like there might still be a kernel of vulnerability underneath all the acquired rhetoric that might come to the light one day.  Do autistic people change obsessions often? 
I can't remember, which means they probably don't.

yeah. it depends on a lot though. we tend to go for narrower and deeper with interests, but things can and do fade. It usually depends a lot on comfort with life in general. the more comfort we can get from the rest of life, the easier it becomes to move from an interest - the ones we stick to to amazing depths become a bit of routine safety otherwise.

autism is no excuse for being a bell end, and the people who say it is, well *extremely Iannucci voice* they write songs for Princess Anne's birthday. they are the biggest bell ends

Mister Six

Quote from: Sin Agog on July 24, 2019, 08:51:47 AM
This is what happens when you don't introduce your autistic child to trains early on in life.

Or trans.


checkoutgirl

Quote from: RicoMNKN on July 23, 2019, 02:47:54 PM
As far as I can tell, it was a YouTube vlogger who went along and started saying alt-right shit and getting in people's personal space.

I saw someone link to his channel, and he's no one well known, so I won't link here.

Autism explains some of the behaviour, perhaps, but doesn't excuse being a dick.

Do all youtube vloggers have autism? Logan Paul is one of the biggest ones out there and the guy clearly has problems. In fact, narcissism and autism seem to be a real asset in the profession of youtube vlogging.


Twed

I am so glad I can just remember the 90s for myself instead of having to deal with Ashens, Larry Bundy Jr's voice and this mad alt-righter.

madhair60

Quote from: Twed on July 24, 2019, 02:27:02 PM
Larry Bundy Jr's voice

'ALLO, YOU!!

Did Larry seem well? He looks very, very unwell.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: peteprodge on July 24, 2019, 07:48:02 AM
Rubicon-supping conversation-monopolising Rees-Mogg fanboy

Fuck me, he REALLY does love his Rubicon too doesn't he!!!!  That's cash n' carry packs behind him, stacked up!


Also, Jacunt Rees-Mogg is my local MP, so I can very quickly and easily show this chap the errors of his ways in that respect.

Not that I'm volunteering to do so...

imitationleather

Quote from: checkoutgirl on July 24, 2019, 01:34:59 PM
Logan Paul is one of the biggest ones out there and the guy clearly has problems.

Isn't his problem that he's a psychopath?

I seriously would not be at all surprised if it turned out that he and his brother are serial killers.

bgmnts

Are they psychopaths or just insensitive cunts?

mjwilson

Quote from: peteprodge on July 23, 2019, 08:30:30 PM
My stomach was rumbling at one point, having survived on a few crisps, and the Proud Autist suggested we order in a pizza. He pointed out he was fairly local to Harrow. I went with the idea, but then, remembering I was trying to lose weight, I thought better to just grab a meal deal from the local supermarket. I did agree to giving the guy a lift home if he needed it, he lived just five miles away.

OK but what happened to the pizza? I feel like you left us hanging there.