Good evening folks, I’m your favorite internet news correspondent Donnie Lemonie. Guess I’m back, back again, Donnie’s back, be sure to share with all your preferred social media platform friends. K is out for this week with a very real illness (reverse flu), so he asked me, a very real person and not a thinly veiled alias to detach himself from the expressed views in this news piece to step in and write something.
My previous topic was about sharing art and the wrong ways to go about critiquing and stealing art. Today’s topic is a little more sensitive than that (I too am disappointed to read the title and not have it be about an insane TikTok trend), with these stories let’s reflect on two big ideas here: Is profiting off faking the death of a love one morally askew, and is it socially acceptable to spit on someone’s grave while the bodies still warm?
JayStation: DO NOT WATCH HUMAN MUCUS AT 3AM
JayStation is an unfortunately successful YouTuber who is willing to stoop so low for views and money that he’s probably tempting kids to enter his storm drain as we speak. His list of irritating behavior is pretty long and at this point it’s just impressive with how he continues to lower the bar time and time again. Who is JayStation and why is he considered a scummy YouTuber?
- Jaystation’s claim to fame is “3AM” content where he spams out low effort skits usually involving the dark web or occult activities going amok at the click-bait hour. Often these skits abuse copyright as I’m sure he does not have expressed permission to use: Mickey Mouse, Kermit, or Barney the Dinosaur in his content.
- JayStation has been criticized for homophobic content: making multiple videos of drinking “gay potions” and then turning into an effeminate and flamboyant caricature while him or one of his buddies acts repulsed.
- Generally making inappropriate content for his audience, pretending to be beheaded and purchasing slaves on the dark web.
- Trying to profit off late celebrities: Having a video series in which he uses an Ouija board and summons Mac Miller, XXXTentacion, and Etika days after their passing.
- Making up false claims of being robbed.
However, his most recent henious act might be his worst yet. JayStation is now doing a video series about his recently deceased girl friend tragically killed in a drunk driving accident. The teeny tiny problem with this, the small issue with this is…. She’s not dead.
OOH…The plot thickens. It’s a good thing there’s no recent deaths of someone dying in a tragic accident that faking someone’s death as a prank would seem extremely insensitive so close (nervous laughter). Oh no, I’m totally surprised the click-bait scumbag’s video turned out to not be very truthful. In a three video series, JayStation “cried” wiping the tears from his brow (?) in a monetized video announcing the death of his girlfriend Alexia, then a follow-up where he visits a fake roadside vigil he set up, and then a final video where he contacts her through the dark arts of an Ouija board. He would have gotten away with it to, but other YouTubers went around and asked the police (no record of any such crash under the victim’s name) and contacting a friend of Alexia, who later got confirmation from Alexia herself who confirmed that, she’s very much not dead.
In recent developments it would appear that JayStation has come forward and admitted the obvious, deleted the video series and is possibly being arrested (but it’s just a prank, bro). The truth is JayStation and his girlfriend broke up and she wanted no part in this scandalous fake death nonsense. To make matters worse Jay also thought it would be just hilarious to commit criminal harassment (doxing) Alexia’s friends posting her phone number on social media and encouraging his fans to call the number. Alexia’s family may or may not be seeking legal action against him, I guess we’ll have to see how the story grows in the upcoming days.
So, what’s the takeaway from all of this? Don’t do this, I know I’m probably preaching to the choir but maybe don’t exploit your young impressionable fan base and using the sensitive subject matter of death for sensationalism. I don’t really feel the defense of it’s comedy or it’s entertainment works here because as much as your channel content is like a show, it’s equally your personal account and your enterprise. If NBC promoted the season finale of This is Us by pretending the cast died in a house party fire or if your neighbor Steve made up a story of his daughter dying to gain sympathy from the neighborhood, you’d probably say that’s pretty f—ed. You’d expect JayStation to act a little more like an adult and not Eric Cartman but here we are. Personally, I find the idea of dying kind of terrifying and it’s kind of just gross to think that someone would want to exploit your corpse and milk it for every dime its worth. Maybe sound off in the comments would you want some internet douche-bag using your name or death to exploit his viewership or is that kind of just plain wrong?
Kicking Them While They’re Down: Bullying or Journalism?
In the wise words of Eugene. Krabs, “Am I going to defile this grave for clout and my agenda…. Of course, I am!”. At least Mr. Krabs waited for the grave and didn’t you know act when the body was still warm or anything like that. So maybe you heard but recently there was a helicopter crash with 9 casualties, one of them might have been a basketball player or something, I’m not sure.
I think anytime we suffer 9 deaths it should be a time of grief, mourning, and somber reflection. However, it can also be a time for vindictive and petty journalism. 9 people died but not to name names (Felicia Sonmez) decided it was the perfect time to retweet an article titled “Kobe Bryant’s Disturbing Rape Case”. For a timeline: this was sent out only 2 hours after I heard the news, at the time only 5 people were reported dead, but after his daughter was announced as one of the victims. I’m having a hard time deciding upon a word to describe slandering a person who died just mere hours ago but let me try: putrid, ghoulish, despicable, repulsive, abhorrent and just plain vile.
You knew what you were doing, you knew you were going to get attention out of this and get under people’s skins and honestly the lack of empathy is rather disturbing. Read the room, this wasn’t the time or the place for this! Alcoholism is bad, should we sneak into AA meetings and remind them of how awful of people they are? Would you tell someone if their friend committed suicide, “that’s a sin, they deserve to be in hell”? Seriously, what is wrong with you?
I’m going to be honest with everyone, I was never a Kobe fan and I considered him maybe my anti-role model. I thought Kobe Bryant was an arrogant megalomaniac, and a selfish ball hog who only cared about himself. I didn’t want to be Kobe I wanted to beat the Kobe’s of the world; yet when I heard the news the other day my heart sunk. I knew Kobe was a loving father, a mentor to many, and an idolized hero to a lot of people. Kobe certainly is a complicated figure for more reasons then one, but to weaponize the worst aspects about a person while people are still trying to cope and process the events that just transpired demonstrates an extreme lack in human decency.
I know to many followers of this blog that they have an emotional attachment to fictional characters, imagine watching the death of your favorite fictional character and then the person next to you just goes “what’s wrong with you, you know this isn’t real right”. It’s a little unsympathetic. Sports is a entertainment narrative, an athlete is just as valuable as our favorite directors, actors, writers or whoever. When that person you idolize dies do you really want to hear “their stuff sucked” or they were a shitty person”. (apparently, understanding this blog’s audience I know the prime example is the KyoAni Arson attack. You don’t have to imagine people making claims that “who cares all they make is garbage”…I’m pretty sure that examples unfortunately not hyperbolic enough. Those people 100% exist). All those genuine thoughts are bound to come forward, but how soon is too soon?
Other examples I think of in trying to illustrate just how gross this is:
Imagine after Michael Jackson death if someone was like “6yr old f—ker, now 6 feet under, Yipee!” or if someone posted an article the day after 9/11 and was like “Look on the bright side, statistically in buildings that size there was likely 5-10% comprised of people who’ve committed sexual assault so it wasn’t all that bad” Holy shit could you imagine!
I was taught at a young age that, “if you can’t write it in someone’s birthday card, you shouldn’t say it to their face”. I think the new version is going to be “If you wouldn’t say it at the person’s funeral, maybe don’t say it within 24 hours of their death.” Felicia Sonmez later went on to brag about the amount of death threats and hateful comments she received and then played the victim and journalistic integrity card. I quote “Any public figure is worth remembering in their totality” I agree with this mentality, there’s a time and a place for that kind of reflection and hours after his death is not the place for it. Revisionist history is bad, and no one should be able to shy away from their faults or times of poor judgement…. Unless YOU’RE A MASSIVE HYPOCRITE!
How much lack of self-awareness do you have to have to criticize people for not confronting negative aspects of a public figure and then DELETE THE TWEETS. I imagine this was part of her suspension from the Washington Post but still how much integrity do you lack, to air dirty laundry and then as soon as you’re hit with any sort of protest you act like your better than everyone else and then sweep it under the rug because you look bad. Pretend it never happened, I guess. 71.1K twitter followers doesn’t equate to any sort of responsibility and certainly doesn’t make you a “public figure”. The vitriol Sonmez received isn’t justified and as much as I want to say I’m sure the next time I’ll see her is after she and her creepy smile gets cast in Get Out 2; but I don’t want to be a cruel as her so I’ll just say I hope she reflects upon this experience and maybe considers why intentionally causing distress for your own personal gains is kind of a mean thing to do.
Overall, I Donnie Lemonie just says it likes I sees it but I’m not infallible and you’re allowed your own opinion. Feel free to let me know your thoughts, are these pleas of desperate attention-seeking as pitiful as I portrayed them or do you think “I should be allowed to fake people’s death as I choose, it’s your fault if you watch it” or “tomorrow’s a relative term, there’s no concrete socially acceptable timetable of when I’m allowed to be a jerk about a recent tragedy so, I say as I please. I mean, I a person who has never met Kobe Bryant and I’m going to go out on a limb and say probably never will meet him am the superior authority in judging the content of his characters so I’m going to rain on everyone’s parade to avert the attention to a more deserving individual…me. I’m so woke I need an Ambien!”
Moral of the story: people suck. Until next time, I’m Donnie Lemonie and I keep your news just like you like it…….. Tweet & Sour.
K at the Movies 