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What is Air Pig?
A shameless tactic to boost my YouTube viewership. Er... I mean- a cartoon parody of ERB, the Epic-Rap-Battles YouTube channel (NSFW).
What do you need to know about Air Pig?
While working on Noakes, I had the idea to play a rap battle between Jesus and Satan in the background of an episode's opening scene. I figured that viewers of such a scene would demand I produce a full Jesus/Satan battle video, which would then be compared non-stop to the works of Youtube mammoth ERB. Thus, I scrapped the scene.
Then I asked myself "why NOT attract ERB's fanbase? It's a BIG fanbase, you have views to gather and, looking at ERB's comment pages, HUNDREDS want to see Jesus rap battle Satan. Give them the video they want! ERB won't! They refuse to put Jesus in Satan's firing line for views. Why would the Noakes Channel care? There's porn in the Noakes pilot! Your channel's line of shame is BEYOND crossed! If you want strong viewership, take it from channels that have it already!"
So, whether the video would later cameo in a Noakes episode or not, I went to work on Jesus vs Satan.
I had nothing against ERB's creators, hence the polite shout-out in the video's credits, but Jesus vs Satan was made to bluntly state to ERB fans "Forget ERB or any other BIG channel, mine is the channel to watch." Within weeks, the video gained views in the thousands.
My intention was only ever to make one "Air Pig" Rap Battle. It was only after Jesus vs Satan went viral and I was bombarded with demands to make a PewDiePie/Tobuscus battle that I made a second Air Pig video, as a gesture of responding to fan demand, not ignoring it. And as a means of throwing more stones at YouTube's Goliath-channels.
I had no idea what ERB fans saw in YouTubers PewDiePie or Tobuscus, let alone the idea of them rap-battling. To me, no pairing for ANY kind of battle, rap or not, seemed lamer than these two.
Hard as it was, I tried to somehow make a not-lame version of a PewDiePie/Tobuscus battle, hence my depiction of the YouTubers as violent crime lords in the morally-bankrupt enterprise of YouTubing. I knew what fans wanted from this video and wondered if I could give them it without them noticing the dirt I was out to shovel on their YouTube idols.
Smosh and RWJ would cameo since their fans also wouldn't leave me alone with demands, but I refused to let them leave the video in a pleasant state! At first, the Noakes cast were meant to kill the YouTubers, but I figured that such a visual would doom Noakes to be blacklisted by YouTube's loudest fanbases before the show had a chance to pick up any steam. Thus, I settled for the weaker ending of ERB pulling the triggers.
Though both went viral, I deleted the original Air Pig uploads in 2014, along with the first Noakes Channel. The videos lead to me being bombarded with hundreds of abusive comments every day for nearly a year.
The abuse came from PewDiePie fans who liked his Air Pig video and were outraged that I hadn't made more of them. None of the outrage seemed to revolve around me having PewDiePie violently shot!
As I was releasing Drunk School, my subscribers were actively campaigning to flag any new video I would upload to the Noakes Channel that wasn't PewDiePie vs Tobuscus II. Every video flagged en-mass, YouTube would remove from my channel.
When I responded with a video saying that I had no plans to make a future Air Pig rap, the abuse increased tenfold. Finally, I decided enough was enough. I had built the wrong audience, it seemed, one that sends death-threats for not giving them more PewDiePie cartoons. I removed Air Pig from the internet and built a new channel from scratch, Noakes Network. Thanks to Stress Mode, it wouldn't take long for me to build a new, more open-minded and tolerant audience.
Today, I remain skeptical about putting Air Pig back on the internet. I don't want to resurrect that stream of abuse. Unlike my other projects, I am NOT planning to ever continue Air Pig. I've only posted about it to establish how my first Noakes Channel went viral. If I didn't explain Air Pig here, my reasons for starting Drunk School and Stress Mode won't make much sense in future posts!
Any questions, confusion or compliments about Air Pig? Leave a comment below.
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QUICK GUIDE TO MY VIDEO WORK - PART 3: DRUNK SCHOOL
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