Here’s a picture of people sitting in the crowd for Gearbox’s panel at PAX West. They were listening to a song from Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.
The song was about bigots.
About 41 minutes into the Inside Gearbox Software panel at PAX West, the outspoken Gearbox CEO said his company liked to entertain. “I thought I’d do something I’ve never done in front of a live audience,” Pitchford said.
“I’m gonna sing a song.” But the song in question wasn’t a cover of something popular, or a rendition of something from, say, the Borderlands franchise.
It was about bigots. It’s in the title: The Bigot Song.
@CommanderPaul1 @SciencePorn I like science from my science porn, not misogyny.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) August 24, 2016
According to Pitchford, the genesis for it all started from a joke from the SciencePorn Twitter account. He thought it was sexist, something he reiterated on stage, and announced that he’d be unfollowing the account.
“I’ve never gotten so much hate … apparently people are watching everything I’m doing, a whole bunch of people had to spend a huge amount of time telling me what an arsehole I am for having the opinion that that was a sexist thing,” Pitchford explained.
Enter The Bigot Song, stage right. You can see the full introduction below, but the song itself starts from 3m 09s.
If you’re not able to listen in, here’s a quick rundown: it’s not the best delivery. Pitchford even decided to sign the whole piece an octave higher, which doesn’t come off well when the higher notes arrive.
But that probably won’t raise as many eyebrows as the song itself. Here’s some of the lyrics:
Nobody likes talking to a drunk unless he’s buying
Nobody says hello when they’re goodbying, unless they’re Hawaiian
Nobody tastes eggs and bacon when they’re frying, that’d just be dumb and you’d burn your tongue
and nobody likes a bigot unless he’s crying
Nobody much likes it when the neighbours are always prying
Nobody really likes Meg Ryan movies that much do they?
Except Meg Ryan, and even she’s not really sure these days.
Nobody really likes the CIA really spying and running right-wing paramilitary desksquads
Nobody likes a bigot unless he’s crying
Boohoo, like a big baby
Boohoo, well
Most people hate bigots cause they’re arseholes, right?
Judgemental agents of fear
You know who probably hates bigots even more?
Who randy?
Themselves.
When shedding a tear and crying like a Gamergater with self-loathing and low self esteem
… let’s take the esteem down even lower now …
The song then went into a Buddhist joke — that Pitchford apologised for in advance — before petering out.
I don’t know what to really make of this. It’s good that Pitchford has the strength of his convictions, and wants to use his platform to, at least in his own way, make the world a little bit better.
Maybe leave the guitar at home next time, though.
Comments
25 responses to “Randy Pitchford Decided To Sing About Bigots At PAX”
I don’t think the problem is the message, or the convictions, or any of that…
It’s just that it’s not a very good song.
It really didn’t need the higher octave, did it.
Kind of a cringeworthy performance – certainly brave of him to take to the stage I guess. Not referring to the message / content of the song, just the performance.
I see this and now I see how he thinks Alien: Colonial Marines was okay.
He’s just not all there. 😛
Saw this when a friend linked it the other day, it was… weird. Like the joke forgot what it was trying to do before it even started and just ended up missing the mark entirely. Got to the end and all I wanted to say was “I don’t get it?”
So what’s the point of the song? Are we bigots if we hate gearbox and Randy now?
You’re a bigot if you laugh at a joke he finds misogynistic.
But… Thats not even what bigot means. Lol oh Randy,
You don’t have to be a bigot to call Randy on his shit.
I’m a Buddhist & I punch people a lot.
there’s an entire Buddhist sect all about gaining enlightenment through punching people.
We just accept why we do it & move on.
Do you guys have like a newsletter or some kind of literature I could peruse?
buddhistpunchingannoyingtwats.com used to be the go to website for discussions about spiritual philosophy & the best ways to punch annoying twats.
This is pretty much SJW craziness. Thinking your spreading a message about mysogney when really you are just telling a very one sided story of an online argument, without letting the other side say anything back.
Id say this is one of the most childish things I’ve ever seen from a grown man. Randy just crying to an audience being all smug.
Most childish thing from a grown man?
I have a No Man’s Sky refund thread for you to peruse….
Haha. I was smart enough to see through that and didn’t buy it. But what they did was false advertising. It was basically Peter Molyneux lies all over again.
Tries to laugh at crying bigots by crying over them.
I’d rather GearBox try produce a good game. Still waiting.
OK, this doesn’t explain why that dude in the header image isn’t wearing a shirt… or why that other dude is wearing fingerless gloves.
That’s standard PAX.
Fuck me that was pure cringe…
For those who are wondering what started everything, whcih could have been in the article, was this joke.
“Houston, we have a problem.”
What?
“Never mind”
What’s the problem?
“Nothing”
Please tell us?
“I’m fine”
That’s an old joke too.
That’s actually pretty funny. Is that really what Randy Pitchford was upset about? Can’t be….
That was the joke, although if you clicked or pressed on the embedded tweet it would open up the whole chain. There are several replies, so I couldn’t embed the whole thread on the page (it’d just get really messy).
Super cringe worthy, but I guess he’s got to do something to distract people from the absolute failure of Battleborn.