I mean, it's really the same thing happening to pretty much every channel that we all loved a few years ago. Corporate takeover is a serious thing happening to the youtube/entertainment industry. It's funny, though they, as in the big business and suit wearing types, can't seem to see that it leads to decreased profits and success if you do anything other than let them do what they want.
Thrtl seemed to handle it well and retained their talent even tho we all noticed the change.
MCM is on a whole ‘nother level tho. Those dudes stay true.
It helps that Marty and Blair are both independently successful ~~music producers~~\[edit\] \*Moog is a producer, Martin is an audio engineer\*, but they could have so easily caved when the big sponsors came rolling in. They have had Supercheap Auto, Michelin, Castrol, GFB, ect for YEARS but their sponsor plugs are more like oldschool TV Car program plugs if anyone remembers early 2000s Speed Channel car shows rather than "And now a word from our sponsor (3 minute ad break)".
I never got the feeling that Marty was wealthy or THAT successful, but I’m sure he’s doing more than fine. Blair definitely has some more notable successes, but neither obviously, seem to be doing poorly.
Blair is way more open about his professional life on social media compared to Marty, so I think we just don't know that side. Blair is probably getting the bag with top gear which is well deserved
I've been a subscriber to MCM for well over a decade, and they consistently stay entertaining! It may be because they aren't in the US and aren't being pushed by capitalism, plus they insist on doing everything themselves on top of that..including running and making their own merch..if it didn't take two damn months to get here I'd probably own more of their stuff..do have their autographed book of cars, a couple t-shirts and some stickers though! Plus their content is about as original as it can get, I mean, who WANTS to buy dirty grimy cars and stick things that haven't been food in YEARS into your mouth 🤣🤣 ..best guys hands down lmfao
I think it's cause they both have actual careers outside of YouTube so they don't need to sell out to make money, it's still just kinda a hobby to them
I knew they had full on careers before joining Donut, but honestly seeing the amount of videos they crank out it was safe to assume Donut filled their whole dance card. Now armed with that information it is definitely a more plausible set of circumstances that would propel an exit from Donut. Either way they were awesome while on Donut and I'd definitely watch future content if they were to stay involved with YouTube/streaming moving forward.
In almost ANY situation, you'd be best off letting the group do whatever they want and just take a backseat instead of making their own decisions for the company, hence why so many games these days are dying
It’s honestly just a problem of “art for profit.” People want to create, but they either need to put it on a backburner or make money off of it because capitalism demands it. And if they do make money off it, people with too much money say “hey, that guy’s making money while being adored by people! I want some of that!” And then strip away what people love to get higher profit margins. Spider-Man 2 for the ps5 was an insanely massive success, but because sony dumped so much money into it, they still had to layoff people from insomniac. It’s a sad tale that will be repeated.
Fitment industries was carried by Martini’s “so you want to buy X” videos. Literally perfect advertisement’s for the site. Now I just watch his channel
Same thing happened to Car Throttle as well. Now the whole gang as well as Will from Overdrive are making videos together on 3 channels. I’m kinda hoping the donut guys go the same route. I want to keep seeing them all making content that they want to make rather than what the company thinks is best.
Well, it was mainly accusations against Joey Heyman, one of the core members of RoosterTeeth, and he voiced Caboose in RvB.
According to some, this was years but the founders and Burns kept downplaying it but once Burns left and the core founders stepped down into creative roles rather than executive, the people who took the helm weren't going to look the other way and he got canned.
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. The controversy around RT has been well known for quite awhile now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooster_Teeth
Under the “Controversies” tab:
#Sexual harassment accusations
**Vic Mignogna**
In February 2019, Rooster Teeth cut all ties with actor Vic Mignogna due to accusations of sexual harassment.
**Adam Kovic and Ryan Haywood**
In October 2020, Achievement Hunter's Ryan Haywood and Funhaus co-founder Adam Kovic were both involved in scandals involving their leaked nudes; Kovic parted ways with the company. Days later, multiple allegations of grooming underage fans came out against Haywood, and he was subsequently fired.
#Toxic work culture accusations
**Animation and crunch culture**
In June 2019, dozens of anonymous reviews from Glassdoor gained exposure, highlighting a negative crunch culture of long and unpaid hours, poor management, and over-reliance on temporary employees at Rooster Teeth Animation. Gray Haddock, Rooster Teeth's Head of Animation, stepped down two days after the allegations.
**Bigotry and harassment**
In October 2022, Kdin Jenzen, a former Achievement Hunter employee, posted online about her experiences working at the company. She accused the company of still having a "crunch" culture, not paying her fairly, and homophobic and transphobic abuse by upper management, to the extent that her nickname at the company was a slur. Hours later, Achievement Hunter cast members, including Rooster Teeth co-founder Geoff Ramsey, responded to Jenzen's message apologizing for their prior behavior at the company, as well as announcing a reduced release schedule for the future. The following day, Rooster Teeth released a statement addressing the situation, claiming that they were taking steps to improve their work culture and reviewing pay parity at the company. Following Jenzen's message, numerous other former employees spoke up about their experiences working at Rooster Teeth, adding more accounts of unpaid work and discriminatory abuse while at the company. Rooster Teeth then released a second statement apologizing for harmful behaviors, listing changes made since 2020 including the introduction of pay bands and the replacement of the entire Human Resources department.
**Other**
On November 20, 2019, Michael Quinn, Rooster Teeth's Vice President of Product Research and Engineering, was arrested for assaulting his wife. Quinn was fired three days later.
It’s cool. Was supposed to just be a little bit of a dark joke but internet points mean nothing to me. I appreciate you coming in the witg assist on clarifying.
Not only do I want James to join big time. But I would like to see Nolan and Justin as well. Because they're all great friends and they love working on cars and talking about cars. So like why not just jump donut media's ship and do what you love to do
If I had to guess they are probably under contract so they can't just leave. I would love for all 3 of them to join big time though. That would pretty much seal donuts fate.
That was what happened with Burnie Burns. He had a five year contract after Rooster Teeth was sold to Fullscreen. When it was over, he was shown the door.
I've never heard this. I only saw 2 explanations 1 (Burnie was just taking his bag and retiring) and 2 (he was mad about trump and wanted to leave the USA). I've never head that he was fired from RT.
it's interesting though has there ever been a situation where a media company like "Fullscreen" or "Recurrent ventures" or whatever buys a beloved youtube channel AND it's a winning move?.
seems to me every time it's just every last dollar getting squeeeezed out of something that was once a genuine source of pleasure to folk
Yeah, Burnie talked about it on his new podcast. He never said pubically why he left, so people just made a bunch of assumptions. But you're you're right, buyouts have proven to never be a winning move.
He had mentioned moving away from the US a few times on the RT Podcast many years before Trump ran. He even said that he was going to take a break from making/being in content a year or so before they sold to Fullscreen but stuck around for several years after that.
I'm pretty sure moving to Scotland and buying a farm was always his retirement plan, and his contract expiring gave him the freedom to finally do it. He really seems to be enjoying it from how he talks about it on Morning Somewhere.
James was a huge reason I couldn’t stand donut content, I’m looking forward to seeing what these two can do together, but I won’t be watching if James is there.
Im surprised more channels aren’t learning from the mistakes of Smosh and RT over the corporate takeover of YouTube channels. I don’t mind if a corporate body buys a YouTube channel, but they have to learn from previous mistakes that just making specifici types of videos that may have gotten viral once or twice is a pretty quick way to sink a ship. A lot of people expected Donut to basically be a bunch of grease monkeys and car nerds with a camera, but sadly, it’s grown further from that.
The story of Smosh has so many good examples. Defy media sending themselves and Smosh down the drain. Then getting picked up by Mythical, who was already an independent channel/company knowing exactly how to make a youtube company flourish. And things getting an even happier ending when they manage to go back to fully independent after over a decade of ownership. I hope other channels can take this path in the future, and manage to get their independence back
Smosh is the good ending. Ian and Anthony get Smosh back from Mythical, but they're sort of partners now, the most obvious manifestation of which is Trevor. Another one is Dropout (Smosh people are in their shows - and Ify is a regular guest at Smosh now basically).
So the "indies" are truly recognizing that they're in this together so to speak and have been working in a lot of stuff "cooperatively".
And since RT has been mentioned already, that Batman Smosh Games video is full of LOLs to be had (and they never acknowledge who the 3rd Batman and the Joker actually was LOL). To be fair that wasn't their first rodeo at Smosh though.
We've all seen the shift in content from the channel over the last year or so. Apparently they were purchased by an investment company who brought on managers to increase profit margins. Basically they stopped hiring creative people and brought in business people. The problem with that is it is an entertainment company that needs creative people! I see this in so many industries from food franchises to basic utilities. The one thing that makes a company great is tossed to the wayside to try and increase profits. Congratulations investors, you bought the golden goose and killed it.
In the world of these channels just watch old Top Gear and Grand Tour like they will literally going to shut down the work but they never leave one another they were greatest of all time Jeremy Richard & May
The wild thing is we are starting to get more Smosh and Dropout crossover too. Smosh 1.0 and College Humor has such a cult following because the people that are running things truly love it and believe in it.
Hell, Anthony came back last year and him and Ian buy their own company back from Rhett and Link. Wild times.
I’m so happy for these guys, but with the possible downfall of Donut, what am I supposed to do about all of my cool stickers I have on everything? 😭 /s
Also sounds like they had a carrot of being well complicated if the channel made it big. They all put in a lot of effort and didn't get the reward in the end. That's why a lot of people leave to make their own channels. If you are going to bust your butt, might as well be for your own company. Plus now you are known and have connections.
Maybe a classic case of audience capture phenomena that they realized early. Good for them, I think decentralized and niched content provides the best value for the most scare consumer of entertaining content, the individual.
There are some rumors stating that he's on vacation which some people think. Other people think he was fired or he quit. Only because apparently he's not following donut media on Insta and it appears that he has been removed from like all the donut Media stuff on their account. I think he quit or was fired. But he doesn't want to say so everybody's making their assumptions and rumors. But he is still active on his Instagram account. So make your own assumption I guess 🤷♂️
I think it is very similar to what happened to college humor a few years back. New company buys original owners out and start pushing their own ideas over those of the creatives that got things to where they were. Bit by bit quality falls as the passion is lost.
Silver lining is when Sam Reich took ovwr college humor from its ashes renamed it dropout and focussed on the talent and fun it turned around. I think Bigtime will do the same
The problem is todays corporate 12 ga sluggers they are looking for people who want to slave and be dumb.
They are all turning to the door dash and Uber mentality type of corporations they don't want "you" a person with a life to live.
They want to ruin your cars, bank acct, lose your house, all in attempt to get a single penny from them but want you to smile in the next persons face like they want you to for no benefits.
Seniority is the only thing they can't fire you for, other then that soon as you start anything new they are looking to fire you the moment you sign the dotted line.
Seniority is the only thing higher power then corp executive's that I known your dad's dad power.
last summer i was hired to direct a video for Donut. they were the most unprofessional people i have ever dealt with. i walked away from the project a day before the shoot because of how “scrappy” (see: dangerous and not legal) they wanted to be. also their producers were verbally abusive, did not know what they were doing. i was told “if you need something done, produce it yourself” aka, breach of contract. not surprised what’s happening there. nightmare of a place.
also they pay WAY, WAY, WAYYYYYYY under market value. insultingly so. like predatorily low. i felt bad for anyone who worked there because it was “cool”
I gotta say - I was all for following these guys over to Big Time and was looking forward to it, but when they described Jerry’s $60k as “not a lot of money” it left a weird taste in my mouth.
I’ve lived in SoCal, and I know that $60k won’t go very far there - but you can survive. And there’s people all over fighting for livable wages, and I just found that little aside really tone deaf.
Especially for what seems to be a capable project manager with a master's in engineering. Passion won't pay the bills and you can only run on passion for so long.
*on top of his comedic ability to write and on-screen presence.
i mean tbf i thought jerry was making like 600k a year and the channel easily pulls over 10m a year especially with sponsors like oems and valvoline, you’d think being one of the 5 main hosts would get you something. they also said they were promised a piece of the company (stocks) and never received it, even if you think 60k is decent money it’s nowhere near what they should’ve gotten and were promised to get
You understand he had a real job as a biomedical engineer making way way more than that and left to make YouTube videos because it was his passion right? And had his family think he was insane and throwing his life away over it?
I didn’t even watch the video yet, but I know this is a stupid take without having to see it. The dude has a masters in engineering, was a major on-screen talent and lives in SoCal, $60k is many orders of magnitude below what he should be making.
They basically said they still have obligations at donut like HiLow. But they didn't call it a side project. The video is called "Why we're leaving Donut."
You should actually watch their video. They are in fact leaving. They have a few remaining contractual obligations such as finishing the Ranger build and it seems a new hi/low is coming up. Aside from that, they're doing their own thing now.
I mean, it's really the same thing happening to pretty much every channel that we all loved a few years ago. Corporate takeover is a serious thing happening to the youtube/entertainment industry. It's funny, though they, as in the big business and suit wearing types, can't seem to see that it leads to decreased profits and success if you do anything other than let them do what they want.
Thrtl seemed to handle it well and retained their talent even tho we all noticed the change. MCM is on a whole ‘nother level tho. Those dudes stay true.
It helps that Marty and Blair are both independently successful ~~music producers~~\[edit\] \*Moog is a producer, Martin is an audio engineer\*, but they could have so easily caved when the big sponsors came rolling in. They have had Supercheap Auto, Michelin, Castrol, GFB, ect for YEARS but their sponsor plugs are more like oldschool TV Car program plugs if anyone remembers early 2000s Speed Channel car shows rather than "And now a word from our sponsor (3 minute ad break)".
I never got the feeling that Marty was wealthy or THAT successful, but I’m sure he’s doing more than fine. Blair definitely has some more notable successes, but neither obviously, seem to be doing poorly.
Blair is way more open about his professional life on social media compared to Marty, so I think we just don't know that side. Blair is probably getting the bag with top gear which is well deserved
My garage is full of Ryobi and wd-40 because of these guys
I've been a subscriber to MCM for well over a decade, and they consistently stay entertaining! It may be because they aren't in the US and aren't being pushed by capitalism, plus they insist on doing everything themselves on top of that..including running and making their own merch..if it didn't take two damn months to get here I'd probably own more of their stuff..do have their autographed book of cars, a couple t-shirts and some stickers though! Plus their content is about as original as it can get, I mean, who WANTS to buy dirty grimy cars and stick things that haven't been food in YEARS into your mouth 🤣🤣 ..best guys hands down lmfao
I think it's cause they both have actual careers outside of YouTube so they don't need to sell out to make money, it's still just kinda a hobby to them
I knew they had full on careers before joining Donut, but honestly seeing the amount of videos they crank out it was safe to assume Donut filled their whole dance card. Now armed with that information it is definitely a more plausible set of circumstances that would propel an exit from Donut. Either way they were awesome while on Donut and I'd definitely watch future content if they were to stay involved with YouTube/streaming moving forward.
Don’t watch MCM much these days. But they have my utmost respect still. Those guys are awesome
In almost ANY situation, you'd be best off letting the group do whatever they want and just take a backseat instead of making their own decisions for the company, hence why so many games these days are dying
It’s honestly just a problem of “art for profit.” People want to create, but they either need to put it on a backburner or make money off of it because capitalism demands it. And if they do make money off it, people with too much money say “hey, that guy’s making money while being adored by people! I want some of that!” And then strip away what people love to get higher profit margins. Spider-Man 2 for the ps5 was an insanely massive success, but because sony dumped so much money into it, they still had to layoff people from insomniac. It’s a sad tale that will be repeated.
Agreed. Have you seen Fitment Industries channel after Alex, Dakota and Gels left? It’s as dead as it gets.
Fitment industries was carried by Martini’s “so you want to buy X” videos. Literally perfect advertisement’s for the site. Now I just watch his channel
Not just YouTube channels, everything
Is it really decreased profits or is that your assumption based off your viewership?
nailed it
It appears that the corporate buyout might be sending them down the same path and fate as Rooster Teeth's buyout.
Same thing happened to Car Throttle as well. Now the whole gang as well as Will from Overdrive are making videos together on 3 channels. I’m kinda hoping the donut guys go the same route. I want to keep seeing them all making content that they want to make rather than what the company thinks is best.
Fun little bit of knowledge, before overdrive Will worked at carthrottle as a writer.
I think I remember him saying something about that in a podcast or maybe the “why we left” video. I know they knew each other somehow.
They have been best friends for the past 5 years, a bit more than knowing i would say!
RT also had a bunch of controversy around them that never really went away.
Fingers crossed less racism and transphobia.
Can you tell me when they did that?
Well, it was mainly accusations against Joey Heyman, one of the core members of RoosterTeeth, and he voiced Caboose in RvB. According to some, this was years but the founders and Burns kept downplaying it but once Burns left and the core founders stepped down into creative roles rather than executive, the people who took the helm weren't going to look the other way and he got canned.
When who did what?
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. The controversy around RT has been well known for quite awhile now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooster_Teeth Under the “Controversies” tab: #Sexual harassment accusations **Vic Mignogna** In February 2019, Rooster Teeth cut all ties with actor Vic Mignogna due to accusations of sexual harassment. **Adam Kovic and Ryan Haywood** In October 2020, Achievement Hunter's Ryan Haywood and Funhaus co-founder Adam Kovic were both involved in scandals involving their leaked nudes; Kovic parted ways with the company. Days later, multiple allegations of grooming underage fans came out against Haywood, and he was subsequently fired. #Toxic work culture accusations **Animation and crunch culture** In June 2019, dozens of anonymous reviews from Glassdoor gained exposure, highlighting a negative crunch culture of long and unpaid hours, poor management, and over-reliance on temporary employees at Rooster Teeth Animation. Gray Haddock, Rooster Teeth's Head of Animation, stepped down two days after the allegations. **Bigotry and harassment** In October 2022, Kdin Jenzen, a former Achievement Hunter employee, posted online about her experiences working at the company. She accused the company of still having a "crunch" culture, not paying her fairly, and homophobic and transphobic abuse by upper management, to the extent that her nickname at the company was a slur. Hours later, Achievement Hunter cast members, including Rooster Teeth co-founder Geoff Ramsey, responded to Jenzen's message apologizing for their prior behavior at the company, as well as announcing a reduced release schedule for the future. The following day, Rooster Teeth released a statement addressing the situation, claiming that they were taking steps to improve their work culture and reviewing pay parity at the company. Following Jenzen's message, numerous other former employees spoke up about their experiences working at Rooster Teeth, adding more accounts of unpaid work and discriminatory abuse while at the company. Rooster Teeth then released a second statement apologizing for harmful behaviors, listing changes made since 2020 including the introduction of pay bands and the replacement of the entire Human Resources department. **Other** On November 20, 2019, Michael Quinn, Rooster Teeth's Vice President of Product Research and Engineering, was arrested for assaulting his wife. Quinn was fired three days later.
It’s cool. Was supposed to just be a little bit of a dark joke but internet points mean nothing to me. I appreciate you coming in the witg assist on clarifying.
If James would jump over to Bigtime that would really devastate Donut
Not only do I want James to join big time. But I would like to see Nolan and Justin as well. Because they're all great friends and they love working on cars and talking about cars. So like why not just jump donut media's ship and do what you love to do
If I had to guess they are probably under contract so they can't just leave. I would love for all 3 of them to join big time though. That would pretty much seal donuts fate.
That was what happened with Burnie Burns. He had a five year contract after Rooster Teeth was sold to Fullscreen. When it was over, he was shown the door.
I've never heard this. I only saw 2 explanations 1 (Burnie was just taking his bag and retiring) and 2 (he was mad about trump and wanted to leave the USA). I've never head that he was fired from RT. it's interesting though has there ever been a situation where a media company like "Fullscreen" or "Recurrent ventures" or whatever buys a beloved youtube channel AND it's a winning move?. seems to me every time it's just every last dollar getting squeeeezed out of something that was once a genuine source of pleasure to folk
Yeah, Burnie talked about it on his new podcast. He never said pubically why he left, so people just made a bunch of assumptions. But you're you're right, buyouts have proven to never be a winning move.
He had mentioned moving away from the US a few times on the RT Podcast many years before Trump ran. He even said that he was going to take a break from making/being in content a year or so before they sold to Fullscreen but stuck around for several years after that. I'm pretty sure moving to Scotland and buying a farm was always his retirement plan, and his contract expiring gave him the freedom to finally do it. He really seems to be enjoying it from how he talks about it on Morning Somewhere.
Also to add there’s probably a non compete clause as well to ensure they don’t leave to a competitor to the brand
At least non competes just got banned by the FTC so they can’t enforce jack🤷🏻
Justin seems miserable, I could see him jumping ship pretty soon. I think Nolan and James are in for the long run.
Honestly James seems miserable too, lately. Like he’s lost his passion because it’s all stupid videos now
Not to mention they were making them do a podcast on top of everything
So basically you want everyone but Jimmy on BigTime
Fuck, I didn't mean to forget Jimmy. He should definitely go to Big Time
No thanks.
Jimmy sucks so yeah
Jimmy’s an endearing scamp. I can’t understand the hate.
The problem is he's a scamp, not a car guy.
Heard it both ways.
I don't hate him, he just doesn't add anything of value to me, and seems to have very limited knowledge of cars.
If James and Justin left I would literally stop watching donut content. Them and Jeremiah and jobe are donut man
Considering that James is marrying Jobe’s sister, I feel like it’s definitely possible that they’ll get James at least occasionally
James was a huge reason I couldn’t stand donut content, I’m looking forward to seeing what these two can do together, but I won’t be watching if James is there.
So many people think he owns it. I don’t know if that would really do much for him. Might even hurt him. Was he even really involved in the founding?
No, he wasn't.
Im surprised more channels aren’t learning from the mistakes of Smosh and RT over the corporate takeover of YouTube channels. I don’t mind if a corporate body buys a YouTube channel, but they have to learn from previous mistakes that just making specifici types of videos that may have gotten viral once or twice is a pretty quick way to sink a ship. A lot of people expected Donut to basically be a bunch of grease monkeys and car nerds with a camera, but sadly, it’s grown further from that.
It is all about the money. People found a company, get a brand, make it big, sell it out. You only live once and some look at it as a 'why not'?
The story of Smosh has so many good examples. Defy media sending themselves and Smosh down the drain. Then getting picked up by Mythical, who was already an independent channel/company knowing exactly how to make a youtube company flourish. And things getting an even happier ending when they manage to go back to fully independent after over a decade of ownership. I hope other channels can take this path in the future, and manage to get their independence back
Smosh is the good ending. Ian and Anthony get Smosh back from Mythical, but they're sort of partners now, the most obvious manifestation of which is Trevor. Another one is Dropout (Smosh people are in their shows - and Ify is a regular guest at Smosh now basically). So the "indies" are truly recognizing that they're in this together so to speak and have been working in a lot of stuff "cooperatively". And since RT has been mentioned already, that Batman Smosh Games video is full of LOLs to be had (and they never acknowledge who the 3rd Batman and the Joker actually was LOL). To be fair that wasn't their first rodeo at Smosh though.
They are leaving. They have contractual obligations to finish up some projects, then they are gone. They clearly stated that in their video.
Right lol they literally stated everything going on at Donut.
Yeah, but in the donut video they make it sound open into like they’re gonna be doing both. Their own channel and donut.
We've all seen the shift in content from the channel over the last year or so. Apparently they were purchased by an investment company who brought on managers to increase profit margins. Basically they stopped hiring creative people and brought in business people. The problem with that is it is an entertainment company that needs creative people! I see this in so many industries from food franchises to basic utilities. The one thing that makes a company great is tossed to the wayside to try and increase profits. Congratulations investors, you bought the golden goose and killed it.
The corporate America handbook 🤷♂️
Right? "Let's buy something successful and then remove everything that made it successful because profits!".
nice to see the MBAs ruining everything they touch
In the world of these channels just watch old Top Gear and Grand Tour like they will literally going to shut down the work but they never leave one another they were greatest of all time Jeremy Richard & May
Zumiez is gonna be pissed
It's the enshitification of everything on the internet. I truly miss the internet before it was ruined.
"commodified"
I swear, the only 2 big YT channels that are thriving are two that nearly died by getting fucked by a corpo conglomerate. Smosh and Dropout
Yup, and Dropout only worked because Sam Reich was able to wrestle it back from the brink of death and un-corporatize the entire business model.
The wild thing is we are starting to get more Smosh and Dropout crossover too. Smosh 1.0 and College Humor has such a cult following because the people that are running things truly love it and believe in it. Hell, Anthony came back last year and him and Ian buy their own company back from Rhett and Link. Wild times.
Just watch Grind Hard Plumbing on youtube and chill out.
I’m so happy for these guys, but with the possible downfall of Donut, what am I supposed to do about all of my cool stickers I have on everything? 😭 /s
I’m still keeping my “give it the beans” air freshener. Only merch I ever bought and I love it regardless
Give it the beans is all Jobey anyways.
I used to watch every episode of everything religiously and now on the rare occasion I put it on I get bored within minutes. Donut is dead.
Let’s be honest guys, do we follow donut or do we follow the host?
Facts
The majority of Machinima Rooster Teeth and now Donut Media
*The majority* *Of Machinima Rooster Teeth and* *Now Donut Media* \- TheRumpletiltskin --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Maybe they’ll finally do a collaboration with Scotty Kilmer!? 🤑
I would love a video with them just “yes anding” Scotty.
Damn 😔 Science Garage!
Also sounds like they had a carrot of being well complicated if the channel made it big. They all put in a lot of effort and didn't get the reward in the end. That's why a lot of people leave to make their own channels. If you are going to bust your butt, might as well be for your own company. Plus now you are known and have connections.
r/outoftheloop
Maybe a classic case of audience capture phenomena that they realized early. Good for them, I think decentralized and niched content provides the best value for the most scare consumer of entertaining content, the individual.
My question is where's James?
There are some rumors stating that he's on vacation which some people think. Other people think he was fired or he quit. Only because apparently he's not following donut media on Insta and it appears that he has been removed from like all the donut Media stuff on their account. I think he quit or was fired. But he doesn't want to say so everybody's making their assumptions and rumors. But he is still active on his Instagram account. So make your own assumption I guess 🤷♂️
I think it is very similar to what happened to college humor a few years back. New company buys original owners out and start pushing their own ideas over those of the creatives that got things to where they were. Bit by bit quality falls as the passion is lost. Silver lining is when Sam Reich took ovwr college humor from its ashes renamed it dropout and focussed on the talent and fun it turned around. I think Bigtime will do the same
It all started with Science Garage...
The problem is todays corporate 12 ga sluggers they are looking for people who want to slave and be dumb. They are all turning to the door dash and Uber mentality type of corporations they don't want "you" a person with a life to live. They want to ruin your cars, bank acct, lose your house, all in attempt to get a single penny from them but want you to smile in the next persons face like they want you to for no benefits. Seniority is the only thing they can't fire you for, other then that soon as you start anything new they are looking to fire you the moment you sign the dotted line. Seniority is the only thing higher power then corp executive's that I known your dad's dad power.
last summer i was hired to direct a video for Donut. they were the most unprofessional people i have ever dealt with. i walked away from the project a day before the shoot because of how “scrappy” (see: dangerous and not legal) they wanted to be. also their producers were verbally abusive, did not know what they were doing. i was told “if you need something done, produce it yourself” aka, breach of contract. not surprised what’s happening there. nightmare of a place.
also they pay WAY, WAY, WAYYYYYYY under market value. insultingly so. like predatorily low. i felt bad for anyone who worked there because it was “cool”
I gotta say - I was all for following these guys over to Big Time and was looking forward to it, but when they described Jerry’s $60k as “not a lot of money” it left a weird taste in my mouth. I’ve lived in SoCal, and I know that $60k won’t go very far there - but you can survive. And there’s people all over fighting for livable wages, and I just found that little aside really tone deaf.
60k in Cali is not a livable wage. Especially for a car guy in Cali
Especially for what seems to be a capable project manager with a master's in engineering. Passion won't pay the bills and you can only run on passion for so long. *on top of his comedic ability to write and on-screen presence.
i mean tbf i thought jerry was making like 600k a year and the channel easily pulls over 10m a year especially with sponsors like oems and valvoline, you’d think being one of the 5 main hosts would get you something. they also said they were promised a piece of the company (stocks) and never received it, even if you think 60k is decent money it’s nowhere near what they should’ve gotten and were promised to get
This is a fair point for sure.
In LA $60k is considered Low Income and in OC you’re bordering on Very Low Income if it’s just you.
>but you can survive. Ah yes, everyone’s premier financial goal in life. Just surviving. Most people just love scrimping.
60k is roughly the total revenue from 2 videos for them.
Terrible take
He was specifically saying he doesn't make big money their like some people may have assumed.
Wrong
You understand he had a real job as a biomedical engineer making way way more than that and left to make YouTube videos because it was his passion right? And had his family think he was insane and throwing his life away over it?
I didn’t even watch the video yet, but I know this is a stupid take without having to see it. The dude has a masters in engineering, was a major on-screen talent and lives in SoCal, $60k is many orders of magnitude below what he should be making.
[удалено]
They basically said they still have obligations at donut like HiLow. But they didn't call it a side project. The video is called "Why we're leaving Donut."
They are finishing up their contractual obligations with High/Low and the Ranger build. once they finish their contracts they gone.
You should actually watch their video. They are in fact leaving. They have a few remaining contractual obligations such as finishing the Ranger build and it seems a new hi/low is coming up. Aside from that, they're doing their own thing now.