I’ve been considering extra about one peculiar high quality I see within the VTuber group: the extraordinarily insular humor from the followers.
Generally, humor is supposed to be broadly accessible, equivalent to how a great slapstick comedian will ship a joke with correct setup in order that even a first-time viewers can perceive it. Plenty of precise VTubers are additionally expert on this regard as a result of a part of their objective is to develop their group by interesting to new viewers. Nevertheless, from the fandom aspect, many issues thought-about humorous start with what’s the frequent chorus of the in-joke: “You needed to be there.”
As a hypothetical instance, a VTuber may need a four-hour stream, the place midway in, they mispronounce a phrase in a humorous method. This would possibly then get clipped right into a concise type. From there, it turns into the topic of a swiftly photoshopped picture, after which one other, till it’s so abstracted from the unique that it’s practically inconceivable to know for anybody who isn’t within the know.
That’s to not say that this makes such humor objectively dangerous—there are many VTuber memes that I personally discover hilarious. However I additionally perceive that I needed to have been watching sufficient to attune myself to the wavelength of that humor. Until one thing is normal sufficient, it’s onerous to create new followers when every part appears unusual and obtuse.
The fascinating factor about all that is the truth that it’s like a wedding between two in style types of nerd humor—references and picture memes—with out totally possessing the traits of both. References are sometimes virtually reverent to the unique supply, both some mixture of a understanding nod to a quotable line or maybe a present nudging and winking whereas basically saying, “Hey! Keep in mind THIS?” Picture memes are sometimes so divorced from their unique sources that they tackle a lifetime of their very own far faraway from nonetheless it started. However VTuber fan humor is each reverent and transformative, combining one of the best and worst of each worlds. It’s like Simpsons “steamed ham” memes, solely restrained in particular methods to make it develop again in on itself and create an insulated shell.
Take all this as a really gentle criticism of the fandom. Humor is subjective, in any case, and there’s nothing inherently unsuitable with jokes solely understood by those that have the correct context. In the end, I believe it simply implies that the VTubers themselves are those to carry folks down the rabbit gap. Possibly that’s not such a foul factor.
