The Day Schmoes Know Died

I have always been a fan of Schmoes Know. Their ability to talk interestingly, in the vein of Siskel & Ebert's arguments interested me at a young age, so much so that they are the ones responsible for me succeeding Junior High School. I was at a bad position in my life, failing almost every class badly and consistenly feeling depressed. Schmoes Know saved me, their infectious energy and enthusiasm saved me from being this nobody to joining a community of people named Schmoeville! and interact with a film-loving community, which motivated me in everyday life. I was able to get my High School Diploma and get into CEGEP (the Quebec equivalent of College) in Cinema Studies. I will always be greatful for the opportunity I had to talk to some of the Schmoes via Google+ hangouts, that I created back in 2014. I've been consistenly unstable mentally, over the years, but the Schmoes, for a long period of time, made me feel like I mattered, like I had a purpose in life. In 2018, I do not watch them anymore. Why is that? Let me tell you what happened;

In 2015, on the Schmoes Know Podcast, host Kristian Harloff introduced a new segment called Unleash The Trolls after Harloff randomly called out a troll about his Mark Hamill interview. The Unleash The Trolls segment is relatively simple: the Schmoes read and call out the people who troll them in the comments section. It was from that moment that Kristian Harloff, the creator of Schmoes Know became what the common denominator would call a prick. When the show rebooted with Collider, and they introduced the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, Kristian Harloff started to have a snobbish, condescending attitude that killed the show's momentum. Slowly, key members were starting to leave; such as Alicia Malone and Miri Jedeikin who moved on to do something else while being replaced by Sasha Perl-Raver, whom I couldn't stand her yelling from the beginning.  The Schmoes were stuck with Harloff who kept ranting incassently, rambling on about how important the Movie Trivia Schmoedown is or giving attention to people who do not deserve any attention; trolls. Which led to more and more troll commenting and, eventually, the channel Red Letter Media started parodying Harloff's idiosyncracy with a show called The Nerd Crew. 

The Nerd Crew is incredible, this satire takes shots (of course) at the Schmoes and their love for Star Wars, and calling them out by being invited at Star Wars: The Last Jedi's premiere despite being « pathetic nobodies ». Then, instead of laughing at this incredibly accurate satire of, not only Schmoes Know, but Collider as a whole (don't get me wrong: Collider is filled with great people, such as Perri Nemiroff, Dennis Tzeng and John Rocha just to name a few) Kristian Harloff decided to act like a certain president I won't name and censor everyone from the Schmoeville! group that are supporters of RedLetterMedia, because they are bullies. Problem is, they aren't. They are satire, they were never meant to bully. Harloff's attitude started to worsen, instead of being someone that's passionnate and devoted to his fans by defending himself from « haters » (which is, if you are doing something different, acceptable), his attitude ressembled the one of a tyrant, who was blocking people left and right from Twitter because they posted a gif saying IT BROKE NEW GROUND! That's being a tyrant or a bully, by acting like a little crybaby because RedLetterMedia, the best channel on YouTube made a parody of them...how pathetic...to see someone I looked up to as a teenager change drastically in 4 years, which isn't a lot. From passionnate film lover to crybaby who gives attention to people that do not deserve any attention to full-on tyrant, the Schmoeville community and Schmoes Know has been tarnished by one single segment that killed the entire Schmoes Know YouTube channel. What I saw 4 years ago isn't what I see now, Kristian Harloff, father of two children (a newborn), from the way he acts on screen and on Twitter, isn't the role model he once was and the people that support Schmoes Know, now, doesn't feel like before, and even though change is good, Schmoes Know will never be the same and will only recover once Harloff, the man that is singlehandedly sinking the ship, is fired, and that comes from a fan's perspective. Go figure.