The Irate Gamer

About

The Irate Gamer is a YouTube personality portrayed by Chris Bores who is known for his series of ill-tempered video game reviews. His YouTube series has been frequently compared to Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN, also known as James Rolfe), leading some fans of AVGN to proclaim Bores to be a ripoff, dislike all of his videos and leave an excess of hateful comments and parody response videos on his uploads.

Online History

Chris Bores released his first Irate Gamer video on his YouTube channel^[1] on April 28th, 2007, in which he played the Back to the Future video game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. In the seven-and-a-half minute video, Bores combined clips from the movie with the gameplay, while he gave a relatively hostile overview of his playthrough. Many fans initially compared this video to the AVGN’s review of the same game uploaded nearly a year earlier, as Bores raised many of the same points Rolfe had made in his production. As of October 2012, the comments have been disabled on the video due to the controversy it caused.

In July 2007, Bores launched the official website at irategamer.com^[2], and later that year, launched two additional web series. In October 2007, Bores uploaded a Ghost Hunters-inspired video (shown below, left) in which he and a group of people explored the Patterson Tower^[3], a supposedly haunted Ohio landmark. This video evolved into a supernatural exploration series called Haunted Investigators^[4] in which Bores and friends visit local places known for being spooky. The next month, Bores launched Irate Gamer NEO^[5], a show dedicated to reviewing modern games (shown below, right). In 2008, Bores further expanded his channel adding the series Irate the 80s^[6] in which he reviews food, drinks and toys popular in the 1980s.

In 2009, Bores began compiling a documentary style show called History of Video Games^[7], chronicling the growth of both arcade and console games over the years. As of October 2012, there are five episodes of this show, reaching the release of the console Fairchild Channel F in 1976. In 2011, he began refilming the videos in high definition for a potential DVD release. Also in 2011, he launched a Facebook profile^[8] for himself, where he has nearly 1500 friends and publishes updates publicly for people to follow.

Reputation

Silent Rob’s Criticism

On September 11th, 2007, a YouTuber known as Silent Rob uploaded a video comparing the Irate Gamer to the Angry Video Game Nerd. Rob accused Bores of plagiarism and predicted that his next video, scheduled to be a review of the Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesNES game, would be a near copy of Rolfe’s review.^[9] Since Rob used footage from Irate Gamer episodes, the original video was taken down due to a copyright claim by Bores, but has since been reuploaded by Angry Video Game Nerd fans.

Commentary from Other YouTube Reviewers

In 2008, Doug Walker, the Nostalgia Critic, released a video that was part of a faux feud with the Angry Video Game Nerd in which he claims that Rolfe has become the “Irate Gamer” in respect to the Critic’s videos after an extremely long series of vulgar insults (shown below, left). This is followed by canned booing, and Walker apologizing, saying that this comment was going too far. Rolfe acknowledged the Irate Gamer for the first time a year later at a convention (shown below, right) where he stated “he pretty much pretends that I don’t exist so why would I even need to say anything about him?”

Parody Videos

There are several mean–spirited parodies of the Irate Gamer Show on YouTube, including several accounts dedicated solely to hating on Chris. These videos exaggerate the flaws of his videos to ridiculous proportions, like the “Isuck Gamer Show” (shown below, left). Many other videos depict the feud between the Angry Video Game Nerd and the Irate Gamer (shown below, right). That Guy With The Glasses reviewer Linkara has also parodied Bores’ videos, reviewing an issue of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers comic in the style of the Irate Gamer, exaggerating his perceived flaws. As of November 2012, there are 600 search results for “irate gamer parody.”^[10]

Related Memes

Bores n’ Doors

In late 2008, Bores uploaded his review of the obscure NES cult game “Monster Party”^[11] while appearing upset that he has not been invited to a Halloween party occurring across the street from his home. Multiple times throughout the episode, the Irate Gamer’s doorbell rings and he is greeted with people who believe the party is happening at his house. These scenes spawned the “Bores n’ Doors” video fad, in which various characters from other works, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, are depicted visiting Irate Gamer during episodes.

Breakfast is Ruined!

Chris Bores posted a video unaffiliated with any of his series in 2007 featuring a rant about the cereal Lucky Charms, noting that the shapes and colors of the marshmallows had changed since his youth. To summarize this frustration at this, Bores proclaims “Face it. Breakfast is ruined!” This line is often used in parody videos as a quintessential example of complaints by the Irate Gamer that could be considered irrelevant, exaggerated nitpicking.