Twitch streamer Caseoh has cultivated a following of trash talkers. They joke about the twitch streamer himself, stating he is, “Paycheck to paycheck” and, “looks like the gabgogabolab”. Caseoh is a video game streamer on the streaming site twitch and is overweight. His viewers noticed this along with his funny demeanor and started making overexaggerated jokes about his weight. Caseoh, instead of forcefully shunning these community members, laughed along with them. He ironically says “ban this dude” sometimes, but he continues to allow these jokes not only in his twitch chat, but his discord, YouTube comments, TikTok, and Instagram. So, is it fat shaming, or just part of the fun?
Caseoh’s fanbase spans over many platforms, but for the purposes of this study, I will be sticking to mostly Discord, Twitch, and PlayStation+. This is because most of the interactions on these platforms real-time interactions that happen with Caseoh during his streams. This can be anything from a positive comment, to making a joke, usually on his weight. With TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram most of his content is just parts of his stream that were edited for the TikTok/ Instagram reel/ YouTube short style of videos. Also, the comments for these types of videos are usually not seen by, or most importantly reacted to by Caseoh.
The type of comedy that Caseoh creates is reaction; wherein he watches a piece of media or plays a game and his reaction to what is happening is the focal point of the entertainment. This means that the bigger or more caricatured the response the more of a rise will come from the audience. This is an important note to make because while Caseoh’s fanbase will make funny made-up news stories about him, the funnier part is how Caseoh reacts to it. This means that Caseoh purposefully encourages this kind of behavior or interaction, because he thrives off it.
From what I can tell the ‘fat shaming’ media that appears in his twitch chat and Discord is not regarding all overweight people, just Caseoh. This shows that his fanbase is not full of fatphobic people, but just Caseoh haters? Not quite haters, but contributors. When someone jokes Caseoh, he will usually repeat what the person said and laugh at it or joke and say, “get this guy banned”. A very important difference between hate and joking is whether the person getting joked takes it as a joke, and even gives a nudge back at the jester. Caseoh does just this, showing that the fans are not fat-phobic, but they are also a part of the joke; just like a regular group of friends.
