About
Retsupurae is a web show dedicated to lampooning mediocre-to-lackluster Let’s Play videos. Though Retsupurae was initially started by slowbeef (one of the first creators of Something Awful LPs), a number of other channels have begun their own Retsupurae videos, notable among them ChipCheezumSA, LesBeardly, LargeMentalBlock, and The StrawhatNO! The logo for the original channel includes the Japanese characters for “Failure”, and the name of the series itself is written in Engrish.
History
As it was mentioned previously, slowbeef had created Let’s Plays on the Something Awful forum, including theveryfirst Video LPs. Initially, the concept of recording video for a Let’s Play was met with some ridicule by Something Awful users, but it was gradually accepted over time. When YouTube was created, a number of Goons began uploading some of their own Let’s Plays on that site, introducing dozens of people to the concept of recording videos of themselves playing video games for the internet.
One day, slowbeef came across a YouTube LP of Super Mario All-Stars: Super Mario Bros. 3 that he felt was so bad that making fun of it was an opportunity that simply couldn’t be passed up. He teamed up with fellow Goon Sinix to perform an MST of the video while they watched it, and posted the video in the “Sandcastle” sub-board of the Something Awful Forums. The video was met with some acclaim, leading to slowbeef’s creation of an actual thread entitled “Let’s Play With Youtube”, creating the “Retsupray” channel in the process. The channel would later be suspended due to controversy (see “Spread”), but eventually slowbeef and company would make a “Retsupurae” channel.
Since Sinix wasn’t available, slowbeef began working with other Goons who were prominent in Let’s Play, including proteus4994, Dave_O, and Psychedelic Eyeball. The most important Goon that would guest-star on the channel would be Diabetus, who has since co-starred in nearly every video, and has even taken over for slowbeef on some occasions.
Aside from their entertainment value, Retsupuraes tend to point out some of the problems that are plaguing Let’s Plays. Some of the problems that irk the Retsupuraers include bad video and audio quality, singing along with the video game’s music, deliberately exaggerated commentary, playing games immediately after release with little-to-no-experience at the game, spouting memes for no reason, and not editing out repetitive gameplay or long pauses for things like phone calls.
Spread
Though Retsupurae was something of a hit on Something Awful, a number of YouTube users initially expressed disdain for the group. Many of these users were fans of the people who were riffed on, with some incorrectly stating that the Goons never made LPs of their own, and others going as far as making (admittedly ineffectual) death threats. Sometimes, the creators themselves attack the videos. Early on, enough people flagged the parodied videos to get the “Retsupray” account suspended. To counter this, slowbeef made an account called “Retsupurae”, that had mirrors of the original videos.
Over time, a number of YouTube users have come to embrace the parodies. As of January 2013, Retsupurae has over 57,000 subscribers and over 29,000,000 views. A number of Retsupurae’s targets have outright said that they were glad to have been spoofed, such as SSoHPKC.
Furthermore, some of Retsupurae’s fanbase have swarmed the videos that have been riffed on, posting comments such as “This just got Retsupuraed!” to comments that condemn the creator of the original video. Interestingly, slowbeef does not encourage the latter.
Retsupurae has repeatedly run into trouble when Let’s Play users put their faces into the videos. In fact, a spoof of Christopher “The Irate Gamer” Bores’s ghost-hunting show is what earned them a temporary suspension. The suspension was stopped only by an appeal by a Goon to the Youtube staff that lead to the restoration of the account. Diabetus and slowbeef have found ways to get around this by uploading the offending videos elsewhere and even partially censoring videos.
Spin-Offs
NAViGtR/George Wood/Gaming In The Clinton Years/Flights Of Fantasy
Some time in 2008, proteus4994, slowbeef, and Diabetus came across a video that purportedly aired in the 1990’s on a video game show , reviewing Mega Man 8. The group frequently made fun of the narrator’s false enthusiasm and outlandish statements, eventually deciding to riff on thirteen more of his videos.
Two comments of his have become somewhat memetic among the Retsupurae fanbase. The first is the following:
“Donkey Kong Country is truly perfect. If you do not get this amazing new generation of Donkey Kong Country madness, you are stupid. Yes, I know it’s insulting, but that’s also the truth. If you’re a true video game fan, you will not hesitate in the slightest bit to buy this piece of gaming history.”
The second is described in more detail below, under “Related Memes”.
Retsufrash
Eventually, slowbeef decided to expand on the channel’s horizons and start spoofing various Flash Games and Movies found on Newgrounds, dubbing this practice as Retsufrash. The Arise tetralogy is among one of the more popular series in Retsufrash, along with the Trapped series.
Wrongpuraes
Wrongpuraes are riffs on longplays, which are extended playthroughs of various games. In short, they are more-or-less Let’s Plays where someone else is playing the game. The first one, Last Alert, was made when Diabetus ran into slowbeef while on a business trip without anything to riff on. The most popular among these is the Wrongpurae of Darkseed 2, which has spawned a considerable amount of in-jokes and fanart.
Occasionally, some of these Wrongpuraes mock games that the duo actually like, such as the original Darkseed and I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream. They claim that the former suffers from overly-complicated puzzles, and the latter for its glitches.
Retsutalk
Diabetus had the idea to record conversations with him and slowbeef concerning matters regarding their work, video games, . Thus, Retsutalk was created, featuring a wide variety of guests and a number of theme songs. Some of the podcasts can be found on the channel, but all of them can be found on this mirror channel.
Related Memes
BillyMC
Before the original channel was shut down by YouTube, the RP crew came across an enthusiastic LPer known as BillyMC. Though they frequently mentioned that he had some serious self-esteem issues, they eventually decided that they actually liked him for his determined and largely optimistic personality. Since then, the Goons have made several jokes describing BillyMC as a total badass. Fans have even made statements about BillyMC that resemble Chuck Norris Facts. Billy has been the subject of over a dozen videos, and has been discussed in others.
George Wood’s Challenge
In his review of Tomb Raider 2, George Wood had the nerve to post a challenge for the developers of the series:
“We have a challenge to EIDOS. In Tomb Raider 3, create a storyline in which Lara gets breast cancer. Imagine the drama of a vulnerable Lara Croft still persisting on her wordly adventures despite her illness. It needs fleshing out, no pun intended, but we guarantee the gaming world would be shocked, stunned, and moved by the effort to make Lara’s character more meaningful.”
Diabetus and slowbeef reacted with shocked laughter at Wood’s proposal, repeatedly pointing out that he really thought that this was a good idea. Fans would later alter the suggestion into a snowclone, featuring outlandish scenarios where video game characters are afflicted with terrible diseases, such as Minecraft’s Steve developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
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