Watch This: Vic Berger checks in on de-platformed MAGA chuds, so you don’t have to
Grifters thrived in the age of MAGA, but where are they now? Mostly hocking crypto, their own Cameos, and survivalist buckets
Aux Features Berger
Vic Berger established himself as one of the great documenters of the MAGA era early on in the 2016 election. Over the next four years, the former Super Deluxe video artist made airhorns, silence, and slurping sounds some of the most effective tools for satire around. His work meticulously explored the lives of such grifting luminaries as Baked Alaska, Mike Cernovich, and other names that’ll make you say “Oh, yeah, I vaguely remember seeing those names on Twitter.”
But what happens to a true patriot after the apocalypse, or worse, Joe Biden’s presidential election? While swindling people out of their money is still plenty popular online, many of the MAGA movement’s greatest grifters have largely disappeared. Of course, that’s not by accident. Many of them were de-platformed from their primary revenue sources, such as Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, etc. for expressing obviously hateful, bigoted, and violent messages that spread misinformation and incited domestic terrorism, including the insurrection on January 6. But many of the MAGA-verse’s greatest stars are still out there, attempting to convince themselves and their flailing follower base that they’re still relevant.
Luckily, for those who don’t have the time to keep up with Dave Ruben now that they definitely don’t have to, Vic Berger has kept his eyes fixed. In his latest video for VICE, Berger delivers a hilarious and deeply sad look at where the stars of yesteryear ended up in the past six months. For some, the answer is obvious. Michael Cohen, the “Mooch”, and Army Of The Dead star Sean Spicer all joined Donald Trump, Jr. on Cameo, where they tell people who want to be owned for their birthday that they have been owned like so many libs. Others, like Brandon Straka, were arrested for participating in the January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Dilbert-creator Scott Adams, now friendless, is still out here trying to convince people that he’s a hypnotist.
Berger’s work is always hilarious and grotesque in equal measure, and this is no exception. From Scott Baio being scolded by his wife for saying “god dammit” to Tim Pool, the subject of a recent exposé in the Daily Beast, hocking his food buckets, it’s a half-hour of schadenfreude featuring names that you hoped to never hear again. If we’re lucky, maybe it’s the last time.
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Tim Pool is a dim fool.
And Jamie Starr is a thief!
I’d never heard of the guy (or half of the people in this video, thank god) but I can really get behind his stance of “I’ve always been against eating dead cicadas right off the ground.” He seems like a smart chap.
He started out as a “I’m a centrist doing gonzo journalism coverage of Occupy Wall Street”, but jumped on the alt-right IDW grift, and has traded the “both sides”-ism for backing rigged election conspiracies and reporting on the “eViLs of BLM and Antifa”. He’s a sad, amoral grifter.Oh, shit! Sorry, you were better off before knowing any of that.
And I’d say that Les Wynan should do more thinkin’ and less whinin’.
There’s no Councilman Les Wynan!
Good line though.
Just one look at him and hearing him talk for a few minutes no one can convince me that Tim Pool doesn’t still live with his parents and doesn’t eat swanson hungry man dinners for every meal?
I can’t confirm that he doesn’t live with his parents and eat Swanson Hungry Man dinners for every meal.
Scott Adams acting like he’s a hypnotist is one of those things I’d never have predicted, yet seems obvious in hindsight.
It’s because of his sheer mental prowess.
Really? Why? Wait, weren’t there some Dilbert panels where Dilbert was getting hypnotized?
IIRC, Dogbert was a master hypnotist who bent people including Dilbert to his will. The trick to understanding Adams is that Dogbert is his author surrogate character, thinking he’s always the smartest guy in the room, witty, and he could rule the world if he felt like it.
He always came across in his books from the 90s as a fairly liberal dude who was weird, maybe mentally ill on some level, but largely harmless. Whats funny is how often he would talk about how he wasn’t an engineer but worked with them and often talked about how his life in corporate America was more about being a white dude before the internet got huge and how institutional inertia or lack there of was an issue.But I stopped reading his stuff by the early 2000s and a review of his Wikipedia….wow. yeah, you can easily see he buys his own product and that’s a problem. He definitely has conflicting views regarding what he understands and what he thinks he does. A perfect example of Dunning-Kruger applied to a large amount of money and an outsized voice.
Gonna have to disagree here. Adams was never any kind of liberal, even in the nineties, and I think that it’s all over Dilbert. Adams actually tells better jokes than most cartoonists, and that’s not nothing, but the overriding emotion in that comic of one of helplessness and despair. I mean, there are lots of semi-political strips where real-world problems are presented, but nobody ever wins anything in Dilbert. There are never even any small victories. Nobody seems to have a life outside of work. Everything is always depressing. It’s like concentration camp funnies. Adams was asked about fairly basic lefty stuff, like unions. He was not a fan, even then.
Interesting, I would argue his general stance was socially liberal, his economics were more libertarian, nothing too outlandish. I can’t really recall dilbert that well, I’ve not read him seriously in almost 20 years but I was also into CS back then and ended up with a masters in IS. So, I would love an union…but I have coworkers who are mostly upper-middle white dudes who can’t stand the idea.
I just want to say that I think your analysis of Adams himself upthread is spot on. And you’re right in thinking that Adams’s views aren’t particularly unusual or extreme. But Dilbert is what happens when a libertarian writes a comic about work life. When your standard answer to work-related grievances is “start your own company”, “go freelance”, or “deal with it,” your “work sucks” comic is not going to be a puddle of sunshine and hope. The issue is that that sort of moral support is one of the better things that art can do, even if we’re talking about comic strips. It can like, help you deal with your problems, even if it’s just emotionally. But Dilbert isn’t really into making its readers feel hopeful about anything. So many of its punchlines are the boss with the devil horns saying “too bad!”Since you work with computers, I can only hope that your workplace isn’t too much like Dilbert’s.
I’ve worked remote since 2010. I bounced from city to city for a while, I was little more than a hired gun who could use SQL and finally moved back home to help my dad after mom passed and got a private sector gig working for a medical organization maintaining their databases and running queries. It’s a really awesome job and my coworkers are utterly problematic. Being a woman in CS is like being somehow utterly fuckable and yet untouchable. I’m respected but kept at arms length which works for me. I’m a loner extrovert, I don’t really want to be bothered but I enjoy company. I feel like I don’t work with as many dilberts but I also don’t pry into their lives. They’re mostly upper-middle suburban dudes who got into CS for the money and it shows. I spend mine fixing the house for my dad and my BF now, they spend theirs on lavish vacations and 2nd and 3rd luxury cars.
I’m a guy in a language-related field so I’m usually outnumbered by women, but the situation doesn’t get all that uncomfortable. I’m glad that you’ve got something worthwhile to spend your money on, though usually all I can spend on my folks is time, as the money in my field ain’t exactly great. Still, it’s something.
As for my relationship with my co-workers, I teach English as a foreign language abroad, so my experience becomes a teaching tool. There’s a distance of course, but you do get to know your students pretty well, and they get to hear about your family, too. I grew up overseas as the one American in the room, so it’s something I’m used to. It’s like capitalizing on my childhood, frankly. And that’s fine. I don’t think any of my students have been particularly eager to fuck me, though.
Oh yeah, it’s why the second I was able to go remote, I did. I generally lived in the city I was working in so if I was needed in the office it wasn’t a plane trip to there but when I worked in the office for the first few years after graduating I had nothing but awkward comments and nothing truly inappropriate (I was lucky) but I find I work better alone. I miss having direct coworkers on occasion but I’m in a beer league which is largely on hiatus still. :SI’m glad you find happiness in your job. Everybody deserves the best life they can manage. ^_^
Wonder if he hypnotized himself into believing he’s not as asshole
“You either retire a hero, or you write long enough to see yourself become the villain.” — The Watterson Corollary to the Harvey Dent Theorem
How does Charles Schulz fit into this idea?
Schulz just wanted to watch the world burn.
Like all geniuses who declare that they are now experts on human behavior, his read on people is absolutely terrible. Like when the Matt Gaetz stuff first popped up he was like “I can tell Matt is telling the truth” when even most of Matt’s Republican contemporaries were distancing themselves from him lmao.
BEST. VIDEO. EVER.Some deserves an Emmy or whatever type of award this video needs.
I hear it’s up for a Grammy and World’s Greatest Grandma.
It’s actually a relief that I can still experience compassion for these clueless grifting dipshits who very much punched their own tickets to bankruptcy and obscurity.I hope they’re able to find productive work far from the spotlight that improves the lives of their fellow man.
Yeah, and I hope that they get mauled by bears.
Socialist, atheist bears. Who drive Priuses.
Please, bears drive Subarus.https://jalopnik.com/why-do-bears-always-get-stuck-in-subarus-a-crowdsource-1826989977
“It’s actually a relief that I can still experience compassion…”You lost me at compassion. I live in upstate NY, where it’s either dems or MAGAts. Due to the idiocy of folk in the area that don’t believe they need to work, I’m kinda stuck with a staff that sometimes are insufferable MAGAts. Folk have figured out that I don’t tolerate political discussions at work anymore. I’ve learned there is no reasoning with any MAGAt. Delusional is one thing, but brainwashed is a different level. How people bought into Trumpism is beyond me.
like breaking rocks with their heads
As much as I like Vic Berger videos, there’s no way I can sit through half an hour of watching these MAGA losers.
I could only manage about 3 minutes.
It’s really good. The editing and presentation is so good.
I had to take breaks, but it was worth sitting through. Watching Dave Rubin being a pissbaby because he can’t get people like Caitlin Jenner to come on his stupid show gave me a nice Monday morning boost.
It was painful, but I also just let it play and be background noise. These idiots make me sick, but informed public blah blah blah.
did you skip the full hour trump one? billions and billions
and billions and billions
and billions and billions and billions
Oh please watch it, if only to see Scott Baio get yelled at by his wife for saying goddam which breaks his “train of throught” which turns out is just him mumbling and saying “Joe Biden” with an exhausted look on his face.
The Phantom Zone of irrelevancy they all disappear into is so satisfying.
Does the video address the conspiracy theory that Alex Jones is actually Bill Hicks, after he got brainwashed and given a new identity or something?It’s my second-favourite conspiracy theory after the one an English guy I used to work with had, about the moon landings: The landings were real but all the footage was faked, because why would the US trust a country like Australia to relay the signal for something as important as landing on the Moon?
Send him a copy of the movie The Dish with Sam Neill in it but tell him it’s a documentary.
Would you believe, The Dish is what actually set this English guy off in the first place? We got free tickets to see it through work, and he formulated his theory, after the film, in the pub.Hitchcock had his Icebox Logic, Jezza had his Back Bar Logic.A few more jars and he started telling us that dogs can’t look up, and became quite belligerent about it when we wouldn’t stop laughing.Good times.
It unfortunately doesn’t, that is a pretty fun theory.I’ve been listening to a bunch of Knowledge Fight and Behind the Bastards, and those analyses into Jones’s schtick really has killed my buzz for making fun of Infowars. Jones has been platforming movements like Christian Identity for ages, and now all I can think is that Jones is knowingly a white supremacy propagandist.All the same, there’s hilarious moments still, like any time the Infowars staff gets dramatically fired/quit, or insane alt-right idiots make insane claims, like when Riddler cosplayer Roger Stone claimed that North Korea snuck election ballots into the port of Maine. Stone & Jones should definitely be sacrificed to the volcano gods, but they have their shining moments.
Alex Jones is just like Bill Hicks. If Bill Hicks was stupid, unfunny, gross-looking, capitalist, had an annoying voice, and a believer in stupid non-JFK conspiracy theories.
I’ve only really heard the conspiracy described in top-level terms: Bill Hicks didn’t die he became Alex Jones. I really should look into it because I’m sure the details are fascinatingly stupid…
I like it, and I wonder if we could convince Alex Jones that it’s true.
Non-Epsteinian conspiracies you mean.
Scott Adams isn’t friendless, last I checked he was getting tirelessly retweeted by, uh, Nicki Clyne.
It’s such a weird swerve, and it only makes me feel more sad for Clyne, she is truly ill.
I had such a crush on her back in the BSG days. It’s a shame what’s happened to her.
Usually when you ask “what happened?” you find out it was always that way.
Only till Allison Mack gets out of jail. Then all bets are off.
That was something. Watching it felt like an eternal loop and when it ended I wanted more.
You always had the choice to not pay any attention to MAGA people. De-platforming them simply proves that you fear what they have to say, that you cannot refute what they have to say, that you cannot defend your own position. De-platforming people violates their right to speak their minds. De-platforming them violates the rights of others – including yourself – to hear what they have to say.The enforced silencing of an opponent is the tactic of the oppressor. If you can successfully silence an opponent, it proves that you are the oppressor. For if you are the oppressed, if you are the victim of their oppression, how then can you silence them?
I remember telling someone, way back in 2017, that all the dregs of the MAGA movement were gonna be doing the reality TV circuit in ten years like washed-up celebrities past. It’s where Trump was born, and it’s where his hangers-on will wind up.History is going exactly as I predicted it then.
I thought Roger Stone was getting ready to drop his spoken-word poetry album?
Wow, Moe Tucker really let herself go.
I think I’ll give Photo-Negative Mr. Paul Mooney a miss, thanks.(also, RIP Mr. Paul Mooney)
Oh, my he has many looks. Here he is ready to take the Chris-Craft out at Martha’s Vineyard:Here he is about to ask George B. Wilson to check out the Jag’s big end so he’s got time to get Myrtle to check out his big end:Here he is on the set of Dallas:Here he is demanding you get The Batman:Here he is makin’ sure Fat Paulie don’t forget to pick up the gabagool after he whacks that snitch Dino Cipriani:Here he is expounding on Heidegger on PBS’s Philosophy: Understanding Our Existence series:Here he is telling you that, oh no, that sofa is all wrong for your sunroom, darling: Here he is being rudely interrupted by a television interview on the way to his job at the Bank of England:Here he is telling you that you won’t find a better deal on a used RV than at Stone’s RV Emporium, the largest used RV dealer in all North Eastern Texas, and if you do, he’ll give you $5000, cash: Here he is asking if anyone’s seen his Persian cat:Here he is at the piano about to bust out his rendition of “Puttin’ On The Ritz” at Fiorello LaGuardia’s Spring cotillion:
Someone once said he looked like a villain in a movie where the main character was a dog.Now he looks like he’s in the DTV sequel where the villain steps on rakes and shit.
Literal lol. That’s perfect because he’s obviously going for Batman villain so calling him that would just be a compliment, but “villain in a movie where the main character is a dog” really nails it with the appropriated level of scorn and derision.
This was my favourite:
I’m pretty sure that Diamond and Silk are angling to be in the next Tyler Perry movie playing Madea’s sisters
Still nothing at all funny about these people.
Meanwhile, Dilbert-creator Scott Adams, now friendless, is still out here trying to convince people that he’s a hypnotist.And presumably still feverishly searching Twitter for criticisms that mention him by name so he can quote-tweet them and unleash the Randian Dunning-Kruger exemplars who somehow apparently still slavishly support him.
…Randian Dunning-Kruger…::shudder:: Didn’t know those two things were enough of a combo to be known as such, but man, does it make sense to me.
They will come a runnin’ if you dare to point out that, yes, Trump did say there were “good people” on both sides as Charlottesville. They will scream at you that he wasn’t talking about the march where the woman got run over, but in fact the march the night before. Oh, you mean the tiki torch mob chanting “Jews will not replace us?” Those are the “good people?”
I introduced my brother to Vic Berger’s work with one of his videos about Jim Bakker and his apocalypse slop, and now I get an excited text whenever a new one drops. I watched this yesterday at work but had to keep stopping as my face hurt from trying not to blurt laugh like a hyena. Highlights were Dave Ruben begging Caitlyn Jenner to return his calls, Tim Pool saying Trump would win in a 50 state/538 electoral vote land slide, and of course Scott Baio arguing with his wife off-camera.Later that day I listened to the QAnon Anonymous episode about Liz Crokin, so it was quite the day for schadenfreude about stupid right wing grifters.
I love that Renee Baio isn’t concerned with Scott saying “goddammit” due to any religious conviction, but rather a worry that Scott is “gonna lose a lot of [his] Christian followers”.Hey, Renee? Have you seen the Christian response to Trump? You could take a piss on a picture of Jebus and still be a hero as long as you say women should be imprisoned for having an abortion.
So. Many. Adidas. Ads.
I cannot believe that anyone is so narcissistic to state that a fire at a styrofoam factory is the result of a failed drone strike on his office. I try and keep track of the deranged conspiracy theories on Twitter, but that was a new one on me.
Vic Berger is a comic genius and national treasure.
It’s actually pretty impressive how these clowns have grifted folks over and over, thereby increasing the economic anxiety many of them feel, only to turn around and blame liberals for causing their economic anxiety.
Just like we need new restrictive voting laws to ease people’s anxiety about voting fraud, anxiety that was created by the people trying to impose the new restrictive voting laws… Its just always an ouroboros of shit.
The creepy MAGA icons. Forever an ugly part of history
I’ll be glad when they’re an ugly part of our history—right now, they’re an ugly part of our present. Ugh.