Colin Moriarty, a co-founder of the popular YouTube channel Kinda Funny, said today that he plans to leave the group. This announcement comes several days after Moriarty drew fire for a controversial Twitter joke targeting women.
Pictured: Colin Moriarty (Screengrab from Kinda Funny video)
“It’s with a heavy heart and great sadness that I announce my resignation from Kinda Funny, effective immediately,” Moriarty wrote on Facebook today. “This morning, the guys and I had a constructive conversation, and feel that, with our separate visions for the future and for the direction of the company, it’s time to go our separate ways.”
Moriarty, who spent several years at IGN before leaving in 2014 to found Kinda Funny, is a colleague of mine who has long been supportive of Kotaku (I appeared on his show last week). He’s always been outspoken about his conservative political stances, making appearances on various political talk shows including, just this morning, the Glenn Beck radio show. To many Kinda Funny fans, Moriarty’s politics have always seemed at odds with the rest of the group, whose members skew liberal.
Last week, on International Women’s Day, Moriarty tweeted a crummy, poorly targeted joke:
Ah. Peace and quiet.#ADayWithoutAWoman
— Colin Moriarty (@notaxation) March 8, 2017
And continued:
She’s actually in bed next to me, and thinks my blatantly obvious joke is funny. Because not all people are humorless sacks of shit. LOL. https://t.co/ctpxLu0YT8
— Colin Moriarty (@notaxation) March 8, 2017
Unsurprisingly, these tweets proved controversial, drawing fire from a number of Kinda Funny fans and outside observers. Later that day, Kinda Funny co-founder Greg Miller issued a statement apologising and noting that Moriarty would no longer be appearing at PAX East in Boston this past weekend. And now, Moriarty has left the group.
“Opportunities are already popping up for me, bringing me in a new, different, and exciting direction, a direction that I feel makes perfect sense for me,” he wrote. “Obviously, you haven’t seen or heard the last of me.”
Although to some extent this split had been building for quite some time — Moriarty’s views often conflicted with Miller’s and the other co-founders’ — it appears that this joke was the spark that lit up the gasoline.
Comments
52 responses to “Kinda Funny Co-Founder Colin Moriarty Leaves YouTube Group After Controversial Joke”
I find it hard to believe he didn’t expect to be publicly lynched after that one.
Sad but true, whereas women make derogatory jokes about men and get off scot-free (as indeed they should). Thankfully there are still people around that can recognise humour, even if it’s not something they would laugh at themselves. Others are outraged that someone might find something funny that they don’t…
“You just don’t have a sense of humour” – The defence of every would-be comedian who dumps a trite quip on a hot button topic.
Either own the turd or stop being surprised that people can clearly see you fomenting outrage in an attempt to maintain cultural significance.
But… hes a COMEDIAN. His hole thing is to BE FUNNY. Like, holy shit.
Equality means treating everyone the same. It dose NOT mean that everyone needs to be put down when they some something that is not bubble-rapped in bull shit that the so called feminist movement wants to believe in. If anything, this guy should grow some balls and stand his ground.
That’s the thing though, isn’t it, can you really call yourself a comedian if your jokes are shit? It was a terribly lazy joke intended to upset people, there’s nothing great about that.
And what ground would be standing, that he so obviously ran a play for attention? I guess it worked for him… yay?
As far as equality is concerned, dial your indignation back and have another try.
Of course you can. That’s how you get bad comedians and good comedians 😛
go see the children and women around the world get murdered by U.S. drone strikes , or beheaded by terrorist groups. or kids starving to death… there are more pressing matters happening on this planet , that should take your anger and unite such anger in a way to get positive changes.
you people disgust me you want the 1st amendment for yourselves but not for others that have a different perspective of comedy or any thought opposing yours . .
I think the issue was his second tweet? It was clearly a silly joke with no real commentary behind. Some people would have laughed, some people would have rolled their eyes, and yes, some others would have been outraged a little (that last must be considered a constant in our days). But when you decide to explain the joke and then say that everybody who didn’t find it funny is a sack of shit? You are failing as a funny man and indeed, as a man.
I think that’s being a bit disingenuous to the intent of the follow-up tweet. It seems more to me that he is not saying that you need to find it funny or you are a sack of shit, he is talking about those getting all uppity at the joke as being a “humourless sack of shit”. Since it’ll be the ones taking it seriously who are getting angry about it, and the ones who have a sense of humour can… sense that it is an attempt at humour. Having a sense of humour doesn’t mean they have to think it’s funny or a great joke, it just means seeing it for what it is. Basically covering what you already said in the first half of your post actually 😛
Nope. Equality is not treating everyone the same. Equality is ensuring everyone is able to operate at the same level.
You don’t tell a quadraplegic to use the stairs just because you can walk.
Secobdly being a comedian is irrelevant to the nature of the joke. He made a bad joke on a day dedicated to recognising the global disadvantage, bigotry, servitude, slavery and disenfranchisement, mortality rates, social oppression and grotesque abuses women face on a globap scale every day. He also made iy in a time where a president has triggered some fairly intense introspection after being elected while bragging about sexually abusing women, and who passed a gag law on any american organisation talking about family planning.
Know your audience, know your timing.
Comedians make bad jokes all the time, if he didn’t want to be judged he shouldn’t have made a globally available statement.
I just wanted to point out that you described equity, not equality. Which would be what our society would be striving for if it were self identifying as a socialist society but instead we, “the west”, are a capitalist society with some socialist leanings.
While our society espouses equality, which lets everyone of means do the same as everyone else, and doesn’t try to begrudge anyone the same opportunities. It’s not set up to propel anyone who needs to work harder to gain the means any faster to get there.
Yikes. Well. I’m curious where that ‘heavy heart’ will take him. Maybe he can get some air time after his buddy Glenn Beck.
And yet honestly true. The worlds turned into such an oversensitive place where people really are a bunch of over-sensitive snowflakes. While the joke was crap, honestly, most of time people go from zero to outrage at the drop of a hat, most of the time, people should just go ‘meh’ and pay it the attention it honestly deserves.
This. At some point people forgot the fundamental lesson their parent taught them as a kid when their sibling was being annoying “just ignore him and he’ll stop”.
Seriously people, calm the fuck down.
I imagine it would have attracted far less attention if it hadn’t also happened on International Women’s Day. Timing is pretty important in comedy, and his was awful.
Of course, even more reason to just “ignore the troll”
Even on International Women’s Day it seems pretty clear it’s just playful ribbing. I don’t really know this guys work, so maybe this is the last in a long line of crap, but on it’s own it doesn’t seem that bad. Even the backlash doesn’t appear to be that big.
Even now I’m rolling my eyes at the ‘you can’t say anything anymore because everyone is over sensitive’ crowd, but at face value this really does look like an over reaction.
I agree the worst I’ve seen against the joke is people saying it was in bad taste/offensive to them personally. But the howling about how its not so bad and people are wrong for being offended has been deafening.
In the end it seems like Colin leaving isn’t related to the tweet but a general disconnect in where the group wants to go and where Colin wants to go.
The joke was based on the fact that it was IWD, and the associated “Day without women strike”.
Its hardly comedy gold, but the hypersensitive overreaction is as sad as it was predictable.
I think it was the whole point of the joke though. There is humour in the absurd, although a lot of people obviously don’t recognise it or don’t appreciate it.
Would you feel the same way if he’d said “Ah, my belongings are safe #ADayWithoutABlackPerson” on Black Awareness Day? In both cases the joke implies a negative stereotype on a day that pretty much exists to try to dispel those stereotypes.
That’s the absurdity of it. But as I said, not everyone appreciates that. Not appreciating humour is no reason to condemn the author of that humour. If I make a joke that no-one laughs at, I might think twice next time I want to make one, assuming I care what others think of me.
I’m not condemning him or anything, just to be clear. I do appreciate inappropriate humour when it’s crafted well but in my opinion this joke was just bad taste all-around. If that’s the kind of joke he wants to make he’s welcome to it, but I’m not going to defend him over it. You said above that it could be recognised as humour even if it doesn’t seem funny, but to be honest I think calling that tweet humour is a bit of a stretch.
Also from what I can see on Twitter the criticism seems pretty calm, I’m not sure where the accusations of outrage and overreaction are coming from.
I will say I got a chuckle out of your joke.
It’s fairly proven that women being the more social of the genders talk a lot more than men. Most stats post around 20,000 women vs 13,000 men per day.
Stereotypes are bad but what when they are true?
Do we ignore fact to keep people happy?
You mentioned blacks and crime, there are as you would know so many mitigating reasons why crime is higher in black communities and among others in their community so I don’t see it as a valid comparison when one is a genetic trait, the other a social/economic/everything else issue.
With respect to talkativeness, women only have a lead in collaborative settings. In non-collaborative settings there’s no difference between the amount men and women talk (Using sociometers to quantify social interaction patterns, Onnela et al 2014). In other words, social factors are the prime cause of difference between men and women in talkativeness.
So yes, the comparison between the two is apt. Would you feel the same way as you do about his women comment if he’d said something negatively stereotypical about black people?
Where did I say disrupting the peace?
The original tweet referenced peace. I edited my post just before you replied in any case, just a heads up.
Coming from Colin I honestly would have laughed, but if it wasn’t funny to me I would know his intend of trying to make a joke out of it.
“Intent to joke” isn’t a free pass to say anything you want. Racism/sexism are still racism/sexism even if they’re wrapped up in the “it’s just a joke” excuse.
I bet this has been on the cards for awhile. In the last few months he has seemed far less enthusiastic in the podcasts they do and just seems to be irritated more easily. I myself am not a fan of his but I wish him the best in what he does next.
The Kotaku article headline is wrong, or at least misleading – go watch their Morning Show, and they clearly say the Tweet had nothing to do with it. They’ve been wanting to go in different directions for a long time, they’re all still friends (Colin’s even there walking around the set). The whole tweet thing is just making a mountain out of a molehill – this departure, as you said, was on the cards for the long time.
The morning show dispels a lot of rumours going around, and you can see how sad Nick, Tim, and Greg are over Colin leaving.
Yeah but “Man leaves youtube group after amicable split with colleagues” isn’t going to rile up any internet debates.
If I was sitting at a desk next to Greg Miller I’d be easily irritated too!
Not surprised really, the guy was always a dead shit at IGN
Wow people are a bunch of overly sensitive little shits these days.
Nothing wrong with the joke. Sad!
Don’t you mean “SAD!”. Or “TERRIBLE!”?
That sucks, i always found him to be a great counterpoint to the overexcited personalitys of the other guys, he always told it how he saw it. The joke wasnt great but it was humorous and something we have all said, im guessing getting thrown under the bus by his partners and “friends” stung the most. shame that cant get rid of that tim douchebag
Meh, it seemed like it was their decision. I honestly can see that it was in jest and was a crap joke that just plays on the insecurity of others’ but y’know – unprofessional. A lot of people would have either been fired or reprimanded for that if they were a public face of any company. People are snowflakes, it’s a reality. They have an issue sifting between the stupid and the dangerous thinking they are one and the same. Until we value nuance, consideration and challenge over arbitrary support for our chosen teams, this will be a reality for quite a while.
Unprofessional from a company with videos on youtube about how to swallow cum? OK Was it a joke that didn’t need to be made for the millionth time that day? Probably but, it’s a harmless joke and if you are offended by it you have too easy of a life
Wow such a sad world we live in where something great can be brought down by something as simple as a tweet that was probably made in some form or another a billion times the same day. Well I’m unsubscribing now. I go to kindafunny to here interesting conversations about stuff but, guess it’s just gonna be all stories about tacobell and superman from now on now that colin is gone
I’m so glad to see him go. It seemed at times like I was living in some parallel nonsense universe after following Kinda Funny some years ago. It almost all made sense – funny guys, interesting opinions…and Colin. Just a relentless turd who not only people took seriously but thought was very intelligent. He’s loud for sure and opinionated but on the wrong side of Dunning Kruger I think – YouTube his video about mass effect from IGN days…not sure much else needs to be said. Like some darkest timeline reality bites ego trip.
I’m really happy to check back in with that channel and those guys
People, stop getting riled up, either for or against.
These stories have one purpose and it works every time.
I dont always agree with Colin but he was the best thing about KF for me. Women make those kind of jokes all the time and it doesn’t bother me :/ gender jokes are boring not offensive
The more I think about it, the joke is actually quite shit but not because its offensive, its just a boring thing your old uncle would say. KF without Colin won’t ever be as good, Tim is the absolute worst and puts off way more people than Colin ever could.
Those that aren’t in the loop with KF and their content might not understand that the team have been slowing drifting away for quite a while with certain topics of their shows dividing them. He’s in the public spotlight more than he was at IGN, so he should have understood the risks of tweeting a sensitive joke on International Women’s Day. The tweet was just the last straw really.
I wonder how many of the people who ripped into him for the tweet are Trump supporters… lol
.
Why is that relevant?
If you’d want to apply political logic there, the people ripping into him would actually be more likely to be left leaning as generally the left are ideologically more liberal towards this sort of thing and therefor more protective, and the people who lean to the right tend to be more conservative and would kinda laugh it off due to conservative values? On the surface level anyhow.
Wow! We are all so precious, arent we!?
He did nothing wrong. Nothing.
The only mistake he made was apologising.
Yes, people are quick to get outraged on the internet – left or right – old or young – it doesn’t matter – if you disagree with something you immediately go to a 10. You can see this from the people offended by his tweet and those aggressively standing up for it. The problem I have with the whole thing is the spirit of it – it was purposely created to stir the pot and annoy people. Funny or not, that’s just kinda lame in my opinion.
as the guys at South Park pointed out when they sent a whale to the moon, things are funny because they are wrong. We laugh at inappropriate flatulence, because it’s wrong. If things keep going this way no ones going to say anything funny again. Even humour like Sienfeilds although harmless, is usually based in the absurdity or wrongness of a situation. So when a comedian makes an innaproppriate woman joke, on womans day, he’s clearly aware that what he is saying is wrong. Shit, I make jokes about having a wife all the time in a similar vein, and my wife makes jokes about a husband in a similar way. This world is getting stupid and boring because no one can see the difference between a joke and an insult. And if you have a wife, you soon find out why this joke is funny.