Penny Arcade - Comic - Iconic

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Iconic

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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Showsni

If Josh DeSeno (the face of the Kappa emote) ever does something hateful, would twitch ever be able to recover?

Bropocalypse

Today's comic has Calvin & Hobbes energy

Aldo

Can someone tell me if I got this right: Pogchamp is an emote on Twitch that had the face of some dude who turned out to be evil, so they deleted that emote and made a new one with a fictional character?

Sorce

Aldo wrote: »

Can someone tell me if I got this right: Pogchamp is an emote on Twitch that had the face of some dude who turned out to be evil, so they deleted that emote and made a new one with a fictional character?

Got it in one.

Showsni

Aldo wrote: »

Can someone tell me if I got this right: Pogchamp is an emote on Twitch that had the face of some dude who turned out to be evil, so they deleted that emote and made a new one with a fictional character?

Pretty much, although actually they've been cycling through a bunch of different Pogchamp emotes.

BloodySloth

Have they settled on the lizard permanently? I remember when they first announced they were going to cycle through a bunch of different streamers, one of them was bombarded with hate speech.

RatherDashing

So here's what I don't get. From what I gather, Twitch doesn't feel like it can remove the Pogchamp emote because it's a vital part of the Twitch lexicon, communicating something that you couldn't possibly communicate with another emote (or heaven forbid, words). But what Pogchamp communicates is not tied to the personhood of Pogchamp, who as previously determined is a bad person. So it sort of makes sense, in a perverse way, that the trolls who want to want to celebrate Pogchamp the person want to make the emote stay the same. A lizard won't communicate Pogchamp for them because they actually want to refer to that person by using the emote.

But what are the people who have moved on from Pogchamp the dude actually trying to say when they use the lizard emote? What is the meaning of an emote that depicts a person if you remove that person?

Let's say I'm part of a culture that uses the phrase, "Shaka, when the walls fell" to convey the idea of failure. And let's say something was discovered about Shaka that makes me reluctant to make that reference anymore. So I start saying "Picard, when the walls fell". But the Picard who I am referencing isn't known for failure. So does the expression have any meaning?

So I guess I'll concede that people on Twitch feel that they need to be able to say Pogchamp. But what the heck does Pogchamp the emote actually mean if it's disassociated from Pogchamp the person?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Bropocalypse

RatherDashing89 wrote: »

But what the heck does Pogchamp the emote actually mean if it's disassociated from Pogchamp the person?

It's a way to convey expression

BloodySloth

The dude's name wasn't pogchamp, it's just the name of the emote. The meaning is really just conveyed by the facial expression, and I would venture that most people on twitch don't even know who the guy is, or at least didn't until he earned a certain level of infamy through this scandal.

Ringo

I can't see the word 'iconic' without thinking of DnD Next

Tofystedeth

JusticeforPluto wrote: »

Part of it is also Twitch, like most of the internet and humanity at large, is just plain toxic.

They really still love Pepe over there for example.

They don't use Pepe the way the alt right does, at least not in the places I've been. Pepe is kind of the inverse problem of pogchamp, where the actual character of Pepe end the artist behind him are fine, but the usage of Pepe was not.

BloodySloth

You'll see both sides of Pepe on twitch. I understand that the actual creator of the character really wanted to see him rehabilitated/reclaimed, so I try to give it the benefit of the doubt unless there's sketchiness afoot. Pepe's in a weird spot right now.

Darkewolfe

Is the consensus of the PA crowd now old enough that we no longer understand the kids, and have to collaboratively guess at their lingo?

Djiem

At least now, no one has to eat a baby.

Tofystedeth

Bropocalypse wrote: »

RatherDashing89 wrote: »

But what the heck does Pogchamp the emote actually mean if it's disassociated from Pogchamp the person?

It's a way to convey expression

Part of it is that pogChamp became so much a part of the lingo on twitch, that streamers and chat actually say it out loud.
Like "Pog!","Poggers!" Etc. so you don't even see the actual emote a significant amount of the time that it's referenced. Similar to people who say el-oh-el or lol out loud. Basically the existence of a pogChamp is more meaningful than that specific pogChamp.

Phoenix-D

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Is the consensus of the PA crowd now old enough that we no longer understand the kids, and have to collaboratively guess at their lingo?

I, like a think a bunch of us, cheat by never understanding the kids in the first place. :P

painfulPleasance

Tofystedeth wrote: »

Bropocalypse wrote: »

RatherDashing89 wrote: »

But what the heck does Pogchamp the emote actually mean if it's disassociated from Pogchamp the person?

It's a way to convey expression

Part of it is that pogChamp became so much a part of the lingo on twitch, that streamers and chat actually say it out loud.
Like "Pog!","Poggers!" Etc. so you don't even see the actual emote a significant amount of the time that it's referenced. Similar to people who say el-oh-el or lol out loud. Basically the existence of a pogChamp is more meaningful than that specific pogChamp.

Poggers predates the guy though, because "Yo, that's fucking poggers!" from him was how pogChamp started.
/shrug

doompooky

BloodySloth wrote: »

The dude's name wasn't pogchamp, it's just the name of the emote. The meaning is really just conveyed by the facial expression, and I would venture that most people on twitch don't even know who the guy is, or at least didn't until he earned a certain level of infamy through this scandal.

So Gootecks' face, called pogChamp, became a word. And we need this word in the video game TV language, but his face is now horrible to us. So we have turned his name-word into a lizard and cast his face-word into darkness. Got it. This must be precisely how my dad felt when I was a teenager. I'm gonna go give him a call.

dennis

FYI, here is the lizard, which is apparently a pre-existing meme because I wasn't already out of the loop enough:

BloodySloth

doompooky wrote: »

BloodySloth wrote: »

The dude's name wasn't pogchamp, it's just the name of the emote. The meaning is really just conveyed by the facial expression, and I would venture that most people on twitch don't even know who the guy is, or at least didn't until he earned a certain level of infamy through this scandal.

So Gootecks' face, called pogChamp, became a word. And we need this word in the video game TV language, but his face is now horrible to us. So we have turned his name-word into a lizard and cast his face-word into darkness. Got it. This must be precisely how my dad felt when I was a teenager. I'm gonna go give him a call.

Like I get not everyone uses twitch or keeps up with trends (let alone keeps up with trends on twitch) but surely "guy's face is used to make an emote, guy ends up being a prick, emote is changed, minor drama ensues" isn't too alien of a plotline to follow for anyone who regularly uses the internet.

doompooky

BloodySloth wrote: »

doompooky wrote: »

BloodySloth wrote: »

The dude's name wasn't pogchamp, it's just the name of the emote. The meaning is really just conveyed by the facial expression, and I would venture that most people on twitch don't even know who the guy is, or at least didn't until he earned a certain level of infamy through this scandal.

So Gootecks' face, called pogChamp, became a word. And we need this word in the video game TV language, but his face is now horrible to us. So we have turned his name-word into a lizard and cast his face-word into darkness. Got it. This must be precisely how my dad felt when I was a teenager. I'm gonna go give him a call.

Like I get not everyone uses twitch or keeps up with trends (let alone keeps up with trends on twitch) but surely "guy's face is used to make an emote, guy ends up being a prick, emote is changed, minor drama ensues" isn't too alien of a plotline to follow for anyone who regularly uses the internet.

Oh no doubt, I follow it. But just like my dad knew who Darth Vader was, he probably didn't grock exactly why it was important that he utilized a synthetic crystal set in his lightsaber, or why I (or anyone) cared