Entry 2: TRR Tonight Spiraling?

Discussing The Ralph Retort Tonight, or just TRR Tonight, giving a short history of it and an overview of what looks like its death-throws (hopefully not.) And, of course, writing updates!

TRR Tonight In a Tailspin?

This is something I planned on writing about later a couple of Entries down the line, and only intended to talk about what I like about the program and what I could leave behind. Now, I’m gonna have to go a little deeper than that. Originally, I just wanted to do a quick history of the show, overviewing it. Now, I have to do that and combine it with what might be the last gasps of it, and a quick analysis of that. All in a very short amount of time, so sorry if this article has a touch of the ‘tism. This should’ve been two different articles, spread (ideally) years apart.
   But that’s not how the cycle of a channel born of IBS works.
   It’s a bit of a touchy subject, with the circles TRR Tonight runs, but I’m going there, anyway. Why? Because I’m already used to being smeared, so why not? The fact remains that my cerebral capabilities surpass that of anyone obsessed with intersectionality, and therefore I can listen to a program and not necessarily endorse every viewpoint expressed on it. Sure, there will be people who read this and will use it as an excuse to throw their “-ists,” “-isms,” and “-phobics” at me, but since those are the same people who change words on the daily to mean whatever they want them to mean at the moment, lacking a basic concept of language, I regard their opinions with less respect than the dirt I walk on.
   That aside, while I support Ralph and his cohosts, I’m not above criticizing someone who’s f*cking up bad. And Ralph his shooting himself not just in his foot, but he’s aiming at every toe individually and blowing them off, prolonging both his pain and ours.
   The story of how I started listening to or watching (depending on the platform) TRR Tonight is a quick story. And it all had to do... with The Last Jedi. Oh yeah, that atrocity of a “film” is why I am now worrying that a podcast I irregularly enjoy is coming to an end. I disliked The Last Jedi; vocally so. I looked on YouTube for people talking about it. I came across a podcast called WorldClassBullsh*tters on YouTube, who spent a long few months talking about everything wrong with it (which, in fairness, is all of it,) then began to move on to all geekdom. I stuck around, because the content was better than the controversy of their previous subject matter.
   But then, during a stream in early June of 2018, they got a Super Chat out of nowhere, asking them to comment on "MundaneMatt." There are those of you who already know where I’m going with this. These days, there aren’t many in the Drama community who don’t. Even if you’re opposed to Ethan Ralph, creator of the Killstream, you know who Matt Jarbo (aka MundaneMatt) is and probably roll your eyes at the mention of him. But me? Well, I’d just discovered a thing called Gamergate, four years after it ended. I didn’t even know gaming had a “-gate.” I thought you needed a connection to a Clinton or Nixon to get a “-gate.” And I was curious, since I’d heard that name before. And never in a good way.
   Well, the hosts of WCBS declined to comment, since they apparently already had. After all, it was four days after the controversy had erupted. But they referred to TheQuartering, another streamer I (at the time) liked. So, I went to watch his vid about it. In the video, he quickly summed up that a self-admitted soy-filled b*tch called MundaneMatt had been false-flagging anyone who criticized him, while at the same time criticizing others. And he’d gone and exposed his malicious hypocrisy in a stream, live for thousands to see.
   Not only did Jeremy Hambly have an opinion, but he was in the stream when it happened. I found an archive of the episode, hosted on the YouTube channel Cognitive Talks. It was a show titled the Killstream on the channel The Ralph Retort, born of the Internet Blood-Sports era. Hosted by Ethan, Zidan, and Gator, featuring Jim “Mister Metokur” and the bloated flagtard himself, Jarbo the Hutt, with the appearances from Jeremy “TheQuartering” Hambly and Keemstar it was two and a half hours of fun, featuring drama and the exciting reveal of Jarbo’s report history, confirming that he was, in fact, a liar, false-flagger, and soy-filled b*tch.
   Notable quotes include, “NOW WAIT A MINUTE MATT, NO! Matt, NO!” (Ethan Ralph,) “Look at all those tabs!” (James Allsup) “Go into the corner and cry!” (Keemstar) “I’m sorry I’m a soy-filled b*tch and flagged your videos,” (Matt Jarbo), “Honkhonkhonk hooooooooonk!” (Gator’s soundboard.)
   To be completely honest, I’m listening to that stream for the hundredth time as I type this out.
   This was my first impression of the Killstream. And a bit of a misleading one, at that. The Killstream was a mixed bag. On one hand, it covered a lot of drama and provided me with a genre of content I didn’t know would entertain me. From MundaneMatt to battling one “gay op” after another, the shows wrote themselves as spergs making much ado about nothing picked fights with the Killstream and those who liked it. It got so heated that one internet tough-guy, Cheif Donga Running Wheel of the Disabled Tribe (TonkaSaw,) who once drew a crowd of a thousand viewers per show, can’t get a hundred over a four-hour stream because he picked a fight with Andy (Race)Warski, got it set up, promoted, and DIDN’T SHOW.
   The internet doesn’t forget, Donga.
   Now, of course, everyone rises, and everyone falls, and Andy has taken some time off the internet... because he turned out to be more like Donga than he thought. This was the guy who, while in a fight-ring in Knoxville, threw it in Donga’s face that he’d once said “You don’t step up to a man,” then panicked when faced with a three-on-three street brawl, where three drunken a******s faced off against him (who trained in “MMA”), Failure (who had a hundred pounds, at least, on any of the three he picked and could suffocate the poor b*****d by sitting on him) and a streamer named Alex... who had a firearm on him. See what I mean by the show writing itself? This fight could’ve been won, easy. Instead, Andy screams at them like a little girl, even as they’re leaving, provokes them to come back, then (as they’re leaving AGAIN), he FOLLOWS them, still yelling at them to “STAY. THE F*CK. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!”
   On the other hand, that drama was separated by episode after episode of crap I preferred not to listen to. Mainly: a metric f*ck-ton of Jew-jokes and thinly veiled jabs with racial stereotypes. I can handle a different sense of humor, even if I don’t personally find it funny, but d*mn, guys. And, of course, that willingness to dive head-first into edgy content was exactly what got them kicked off YouTube. More on that later.
   Then there was Zidan, who outright went out of his way to go find stories that he could throw an anti-Jewish lens on. Everything was a “Jews control the world” conspiracy to him. Honestly, I didn’t miss him when he left. And yeah, he left, as much as Ralph tried to pass it off as just an extended absence due to circumstances in real life.
   Of course, there were all the “edgy” callers who yelled “N*GGER!” as soon as they were on air and whatnot. It got to the point I had to selectively listen to the program on iTunes. If the episode didn’t revolve around drama, I didn’t tune in.
   Unfortunately, easily triggered and perpetually offended lefties didn’t leave the Killstream to its little corner of the internet. Their ultimate crime? Raising charity money to donate to St. Jude’s with Super Chats tainted by all that evil edge. The Wallstreet Journal was the main subject of the stream. Or, more aptly, sh*tting on (and justifiably so) WSJ. Back in early November of 2018, The Killstream featured their second HealStream event: an episode dedicated to raising money for charity, donating all money from Super Chats. They’d raised an estimated $27k, then BOOM! The stream suddenly ended. Confusion ensued, and viewers flocked to Ralph’s Twitter to find out what the hell had happened. The announcement came moments later.
   WSJ had forced YouTube to strike down the entire channel, as well as every other channel in Ralph’s network. They nuked him right off the platform.
   Less than an hour later, the truth of the matter was trending on Twitter: #WSJKillsKids. It was a well-deserved hashtag. What other reputation have you earned than an image of your senior writers snatching money away from a bed-ridden child, tubes of poison stabbing their arms, saying, “Sorry, Becky, we know you’d like to not have cancer, but we decided for you that you wouldn’t like your cancer treated with money raised by words we don’t like. You’re just going to have to suffer. You’re welcome!”
   Once again, for the people in the back: #WSJKillsKids.
   Now, obviously WSJ hates children and wants them to die of cancer, so I’ll never excuse their heinous actions. However: hey, Ralph, did you ever consider, oh I dunno, NOT making it so f*cking easy for them to deplatform you? Yes, Free Speech is what’s right and the 1st Amendment was literally written to protect speech that tyrannical lefties want silenced, but they run the f*cking asylum, remember? They play by their own illogical rules, and nobody can stop them. You guys did it to yourself, handing them the bullsh*t excuse to make their dumbass decision justified.
   Thus began a journey from platform to platform. First, they went to a subpar (at the time) app called DLive. After spending a few episodes there, they went to an app called Stream.me. It was a lovely little place that I considered starting a stream on, talking about writing. I was discussing that possibility with a former moderator of the Killstream’s chat, Bad_T*ts, when Stream.me was shut down by streamers who’s a******s were chapped by the Ralphamale’s arrival to the platform, bringing with him some very popular members of the drama community, all of whom bumped the existing mediocre leaders down a few pegs.
   Fun fact: one said streamer now runs Bitchute.tv, trying to compete with YouTube. Make of that what you will.
   The Killstream made its way back to YouTube. This time, on Memology 101, hosted there alongside all of those lovely short vids he does. I, personally, had heard of Memology, but had never checked him out. Now, even though the Killstream has left Memology’s channel, I’m still subscribed to him.
   While as guests on someone else’s channel, the hosts of the Killstream really sanitized their act. Not for themselves, but because they didn’t want to be responsible for getting Memology struck down, too. Which, of course, all the concern-trolls were saying would happen (and were probably trying to cause.) That, and a bunch of twits who think they’re internet lawyers tried to claim Memology hosting the Killstream was “ban evasion,” according to YouTube’s p.o.s. T.o.S. Obviously, they’re wrong, hence why they remained up. The callers also blunted their edge a bit, and I found myself able to listen to it without earbuds in my own apartment.
   In the end, they elected to leave YouTube to return to a (marginally) better functioning DLive.tv, which offered hope that they could return to their former antics. And it did, hiding them behind an “X” rating, allowing them to go wild. Ralph also rebranded, dropping the Killstream in favor of The Ralph Retort Tonight, or simply TRR Tonight.
   Alright, cool. Good for them. Things seemed to go back to normal. The hosts went back to seeing a Jewish conspiracy in every bit of news, and I went back to only listening to their drama episodes.
   It didn’t last long.
   Due to my selective listening to TRR Tonight, I missed exactly when it happened. The last episode I’d listened to was "Familial Business." What caught my attention initially was the lack of updates to the Killstream iTunes feed. Then I return to Twitter and was recommended a tweet from Ethan Ralph--which put me RIGHT in the middle of all the drama I’d missed, making me play a lot of catch-up.
   From what I understand, Ralph needed a break to take care of his ailing mother, his only living parent, as his father had passed away a few months ago. During that time, Ralph, who’d hosted some of his best shows while drunk off his a*s but had recently gone sober, seemed to have fallen off the wagon hard.
   Gator and Flamenco, the current cohosts of the show, took up the mantle and carried on in Ralph’s temporary absence. By all accounts, they did VERY good shows, to the point that Mister Metokur came on and praised them, personally. And that was what triggered the sh*tshow that followed.
   Now, Ralph’s defended himself so far by pointing out his audience likes watching a good sh*tshow, and that’s more than fair, except it’s also complete bullsh*t. It’s fair, because it’s true, but it’s bullsh*t because he’s using it as an excuse to not fix himself.
   Now, what the f*ck am I referring to with all this build-up? Well, as all of us who’ve tuned in to the Killstream knows, there’s a constant occurring cycle with those of IBS fame. An old IBS streamer will cover a bit of drama, watching a bigger channel spiral out of control. This will make the first vulture blow the f*ck up in popularity. He’ll fatten himself up on the corpse’s audience, adding them to his own. Then, that streamer will ride that upward above the rest, providing their own variation of content. However, it’ll get to big for him, and he’ll bring in some help. That help will, in some way, show him up but making up for how he sucks in his production. After that, it’s the internal strife that’ll tear the show apart. The whole time, it’ll be the host’s own actions that contribute the most to the accelerating tailspin until the final crash, resulting in total irrelevancy. The vulture turns into the next meal for the other to gorge on. And so, the cycle continues.
   Gator, while hosting the short-lived Scuffed Retort (the archives of which Ralph, in his insecurity, took down) had this awesome set-up. If you watch Cognitive Thought’s channel and his latest streams, you’ll see it. It looks amazing. See, the whole premise of the Killstream was it was a late-night news/drama internet talk show. So, what did Gator do? He made a screen that reflected the spirit of that, looking like something out of The Late Show. It was perfect, and even helped distance TRR Tonight, already titled like a late-night show, from the Killstream, making the rebranding more effective. As you can see, this simple change worked on multiple levels.
   And that chipped Ralph’s shoulder. Sorry, but it’s hard to talk about this in a way that flatters Ralph. Realistically, he comes out of this looking sh*tty. Praise came pouring in for Gator, and the Ralphamale felt the need to re-mark his territory. He put his foot down and changed the background back to the original lack-luster layout.
   Fans weren’t happy, and criticism came pouring in. As if needing to prove this was his show and display his technical prowess (or, as it turned out, lack of,) Ralph did a couple of solo streams, all while hitting both the liquor bottle harder than ever and--as some suspect--the prescription one, too. The streams were abysmal disasters, which are also now removed from the internet. But not before they’d stirred the pot even more. Ethan fell into a drunken stupor during one before stream-sniping a fourteen-year-old girl, Soph, known for her unapologetic edge. He yelled at his mom, producing the infamous soundbite “Suck a f*cking CO-LL you an Uber, then!” In another, from my understanding, he called out Cognitive Thought to a fight. All of them were laden with technical fails and dead air.
   I say, WHOA, Kemosabe.
  Not a glaring endorsement of Ralph’s solo capabilities, if you ask me. Obviously, Ralph wasn’t the tech junkie of the show.
   Excuses came pouring out as Ralph took to Twitter to defend the sh*tty product he’d produced. He was taking sleeping pills; no, it was really COFFEE he was drinking; the cover on his phone was the reason his grammar was so f*cked up, even after he’d taken it off...
   Nobody was buying the bullsh*t.
   Who did Ralph take it out on? Well, this is an easily predictable spiral, with a trajectory he’ll hit every beat along the way, so you can probably guess: his audience. Obviously, this is, hands down, the last thing a host should do. The Killstream was made to cater to the host, and the contents sorted out its audience. I’m probably the last person anyone would expect to listen to it. Yet, I do.
   However, the audience is there, now, me included in the masses. In some streams, I’ve seen upwards of 4k people tuning in. The audience is who the audience is: mainly a bunch of edge lords and trolls who love to watch a good dumpster fire. That’s all well and good. But they’re also people who care for the program they’re watching. They chose the TRR Tonight over every other show for a reason, and now they’re the ones ensuring its success. The LAST thing you should do is lash out at them, telling them things like “it’s not their show” and crap like that. Dude, Ralph, you wouldn’t be anywhere close to the level you achieved if not for them.
   When I sent out a plea for him to see some reason, this was his response: “Well, what can you do other than keep trucking on.” Oh, I dunno, NOT keep trucking on? Because on the road you’re on, trucking on is the WRONG answer! Your destination is one YOUR stream has personally sentenced other streamers to: irrelevancy! What the f*ck are you thinking? Is your pride SO important that you can’t veer away from your own self-destruction? Guess what? TRR Tonight may die, but you’re the only one it’ll take down with it. When you scraped this ship against the iceberg, the fans readied the rescue boats for Gator and Flamenco. We’ll watch whatever show they move on to. They’ll carry on, and without you. Is that what you really want, Ralph?
   Well, maybe I can appeal to you with the only thing you give a f*ck about: Even Nora has her limits, dude, and she deserves someone who hasn’t f*cked their life into the dirt with reckless abandon. Clean yourself up. Now.
   You’ve barely begun your tailspin, and already you’re so f*cking creepy that you made a teenage girl cut her stream short because you were staring at her. You really want to be THAT guy? And she actually enjoyed being on your show. Are you that dedicated to riding this all the way to the crash that you need to push away everyone whose ever been associated with the show to the point of creeping on a teenager?
   Speaking of those connected to the show, we have to talk about those closest to it. His cohosts, who’d carried the show when he was gone, were the next target. Gator, who did all he could to make sure TRR didn’t fizzle while Ralph was taking care of some family stuff and reuniting himself with the bottle.
   As of now, Gator is definitely done with TRR Tonight. He already announced it publicly. He finally reached his end. I don’t follow him on Twitter, so I had to hear about this via Cog’s stream. And Gator, being good natured, was nothing but gracious in his announcement. There was no denouncing of Ralph, only hopes that his friend would get help to control his drinking. That’s grace, right there.
   Flamenco is a toss-up. I can’t determine if he wants to come back or if Ralph will even let him. I wouldn’t blame Flamenco if he didn’t return, after how he’s been treated. It’s complete bullsh*t. Both him and Gator did nothing but see a problem that should’ve been addressed a long f*cking time ago--Ralph’s constant substance abuse--and tried to help him.
   Oh, and remember how I said Ralph defended himself by saying his audience liked it when he was drunk, implying the quality of his show was raised after a few drinks? Yeah, that’s the same excuse any alcoholic will spout, trying to convince people that the hooch is actually and aid, instead of a detriment.
   So maybe, just maybe, Ralph, you might wanna f*cking apologize. At this point, you need a little Dr. Phil bullsh*t. I heard Dick Masterson was on that show way back in the day. You should ask him if he has any connections he could pull a favor from and get YOU on that show. Talk some of your sh*t out. He’ll tell you a lot of the same sh*t we are.
   There’ve been a lot of tips passed to Ralph over the past few days, one of which is “Take some time off the internet.” This is quite a valid plea, seeing as how it can work if taken seriously. Unplug, ignore all social media, clean your room, and come back when all your sh*t’s sorted out.
   At this point, there’s no question that Zidan left, or why. He must’ve seen this sh*t coming. He read the tea leaves. Hell, I still remember when you guys peddled the bullsh*t, “Nah, Zidan didn’t leave. He’s just busy in real life.” Will you still be telling yourself that in ten years, when he hasn’t come back from the gas station with that pack of smokes, Ralph? Dude, why’d you even bother telling us that? Gator gave us something close to it in that last Scuffed Retort. For those of you who didn’t see it on Cog’s stream, Gator and Ralph had a bit of an “intermission” moment on air and Ralph caught on. Gator promptly muted the stream, and a little while later, they suddenly had to end the program due to “audio” issues.
   Yeah, like we’re gonna buy that.
   We, your fans, aren’t the people you want to be lying to about this. Make no mistake, there are plenty of people who want to watch this burn, no f*cks given to what the internet would be losing in the process. Some people just want to see the dumpster fire. We’re not them. Treat us with respect and give us the full truth when this sh*t goes down. Or, at least, tell us to f*ck off and mind our own business. That’s preferable than pretending the laundry you just strung up isn’t really dirty. We can tell what those skid-marks on the underwear is, so don’t tell us you spilled gravy on the way from the washer to the line.
   The last thing I want to end this with is “RIP TRR.” I want to be able to type, with a smirk on my face, an unironic, “Can’t abort the Retort, long live the Killstream!” I want to end this on a happier note. But even as I type these words, all I can hear in my mind are the words of Gator, as he began one of the shows he hosted that started all this, after he played the iconic intro that recapped some of the Killstream’s highlight moments. Little did he know how true they rang, now more than ever.

   “Better times.”

Writing Updates

Writing has slowed down quite a bit. This month was difficult in general due to me having to work with my landlord and management to get bedbugs out of my unit. Multiple screw-ups on their end forced me to pull their weight the best I could. With the multiple rearrangements of my apartment, each that took hours to days (depending on how much time in advance I was notified) to both set up then take apart, I’ve had a lot of time where I couldn't access my writing.

   Because of that, typing up the first chapter of Faerie Quest has taken much longer than it should’ve. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have any patrons, yet. I’m hurrying to get it done. Then there was this post that I really wanted to do, because I wanted to address the whole Ethan Ralph sh*tshow.

   I’m thinking of scrapping the idea of selling The Pizza Deli on Smashwords, and instead post it on Writers Cafe again. I printed it out with a bunch of lined space through it to write in all the stuff I replotted and have been jotting it down in my spare time. I’ll post each chapter as I get it done, but I don’t think I’ll have a set schedule for them.

   And I think that covers the updates to my writing, for now.

Conclusion

Like everyone, I’m wishing Ralph well, because for as much as I can leave with the TRR Tonight, there’s still stuff I like about it. I want to see it continue. As many others have openly expressed, I hope he gets whatever help he needs. In the meantime, I will be getting back on my schedule for writing Faerie Quest and type up The Pizza Deli for Writers Cafe.
   In closing, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it. Come back again sometime, f*ck triggered feelings, it’s okay to be whatever race you are (including white,) jokes aren’t “targeted harassment,” I’m more than just a letter representing my sexuality, and please check out my other work both here and at your favorite retailers!

Author's Note

Please don't create an account here just to respond to this journal. Engage wherever you found the link to it. This site doesn't need a ton of sock-accounts. However, if my journal drew you here and you want to try your hand at writing, feel free to join the community!

Feel free to comment, like, and share. If you're a writer here, feel free to rate. I love engagement of any kind! Also, I have other writing I'm working on here, so feel free to check any of that out and let me know what you think.