Jon Jafari

Jon Jafari
Personal information
Born Jonathan Aryan Jafari
(1990-03-24) March 24, 1990
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Residence New York City, New York
Occupation Comedian, Internet personality
Website normalboots.com, Jafari's channel on YouTube
YouTube information
Pseudonym JonTron
Years active 2010–present
Genre
Subscribers 2.4 million subscribers (May 2016)
Total views 295 million views (May 2016)
Network Polaris
Associated acts
Subscriber and view counts updated as of 4 May 2016.

Jonathan Aryan "Jon" Jafari (born March 24, 1990), best known by his internet pseudonym JonTron, is an American comedian, singer, video game reviewer, and Internet personality. He is known for his YouTube webseries JonTron, in which he reviews video games, movies, and television shows of varying genres in a fast, retrospective, and comedic manner. Jafari is also known for co-creating and co-hosting the Let's Play webseries Game Grumps,[1] and co-creating the video game review website, NormalBoots.

Career

JonTron

In 2010, Jafari created a YouTube channel called JonTronShow. He then uploaded a two-part review of Nintendo 64 game Daikatana, the first installment in his JonTron series. In each episode of JonTron, Jafari reviews singular games as well as games of a particular theme or genre. He usually incorporates elements of sketch comedy into these episodes to display his reactions to the video game that he is reviewing. Jafari has reviewed numerous video game adaptations of popular franchises such as Hercules, Barbie, Home Alone, Conan the Barbarian, and Pokémon.[2][3] Jafari also occasionally uploads skits as well as movie reviews. His most popular video is "Bootleg Pokémon Games" with nearly ten million views.

JonTronShow reached one million subscribers in 2014.[4]

In May 2015, Jafari released a spin-off webseries on his YouTube channel titled StarCade, in which he reviews games based on the Star Wars franchise.[5] The series was produced by Maker Studios, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, and concluded in December 2015 after nine episodes.

Jafari occasionally uploads videos in which he comments on matters that he finds important, which are usually related to gaming. This occurred most recently in 2016, with Jafari's video entitled "THE BLIZZARD RANT," in response to Blizzard Entertainment shutting down private servers of their popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft.[6]

NormalBoots

NormalBoots.com was created in late 2010 by Jafari and Austin "PeanutButterGamer" Hargrave to act as a hub where Jafari and Hargrave could post content and receive advertisement revenue. Soon after its creation, NormalBoots added Did You Know Gaming?, The Completionist, and Continue? to its roster of shows. The site was closed down in 2012, as Google's AdSense program offered better revenue options for the content creators.[7] NormalBoots was relaunched on January 24, 2014, with the addition of ProJared and Satchbag's Goods.[8]

Game Grumps

Main article: Game Grumps

In July 2012, Jafari and animator Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson, known for his Awesome Series and Girlchan in Paradise!! animations, announced they would be starting a Let's Play series titled Game Grumps through videos on both their channels.[9] Due to unspecified reasons as well as conflicts with JonTron, Jafari left Game Grumps in June 2013 and was replaced by Ninja Sex Party singer Leigh Daniel Avidan.[10][11]

The channel has gone on to amass more than three million subscribers and has spawned numerous spin-off shows such as Steam Train, Table Flip, Steam Rolled, and Grumpcade.

Collaborations

Jafari has collaborated with multiple YouTube channels, including Ethan and Hila Klein's channel h3h3 Productions. As of October 2015, Hila Klein is a producer for JonTron.[12] He has made an appearance on James Rolfe's Let's Play series James and Mike Mondays.[13] Jafari was also a featured vocalist in an episode of The Gregory Brothers' viral webseries Songify the News.[14] At the same time, The Gregory Brothers remixed Jafari's review of the bootlegged game, Titenic, and it was released on iTunes.[15][16]

Jafari has done voice-over work for the video game-based blog Did You Know Gaming?, covering episodes on The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, and Dragon Quest. He has also provided voice-over for their spin off series Did You Know Movies?, covering the development of Star Wars.[17][18]

In 2013, before his departure from Game Grumps, Jafari and Hanson appeared in a promotional video produced by Polaris for the Warner Bros. movie Pacific Rim. The video featured fellow internet personalities Jesse Cox, Dodger, Mike Lamond and TotalBiscuit. In the video they played new recruits undergoing training by "The Lieutenant Commander" played by Robert Kazinsky.

Jafari provided the voice for a penguin in A Hat in Time, an upcoming video game by Gears for Breakfast,[19] and will be providing his voice for a character in Playtonic Games' upcoming 3D platforming video game Yooka-Laylee.[20][21]

Other work

Jafari played Banjo-Kazooie in June 2014 on a Twitch stream to collect donations for Teach For America's GoFundMe campaign. Jafari stated that if the $25,000 proposed goal was hit, he would reprise his cover of Katy Perry's song "Firework," which was originally recorded in 2011 in his review of DinoCity. The full version of the cover was uploaded to Jafari's YouTube channel on February 14, 2016.[22]

Influence

In 2013, Jafari was among CraveOnline's "7 Awesome YouTube Gamers You Should Watch." Writer Paul Tamburro stated, "Mixing a large dollop of offbeat humour with a light sprinkle of insightful commentary, JonTron's reviews of games of old have inspired many imitators, but none have proven to be more hilarious."[23] Time magazine listed JonTron as 2015's seventh most searched Internet meme on Google, and he was also ranked number five on WatchMojo.com's "Top 10 YouTube Video Game Reviewers."[24][25]

In 2016, Jafari was featured as a character in the dating sim and visual novel Asagao Academy.[26] Funded as a Kickstarter project in 2014, it also starred portrayals of other NormalBoots creators, including Austin Hargrave from PeanutButterGamer, Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson from Continue?, Shane Gill from Did You Know Gaming?, Satchell Drakes from Satchbag’s Goods, Jared Knabenbauer from ProJared, and Jirard Khalil from The Completionist.[27]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Amini, Tina (2013-03-01). "Watch This Silly Source Filmmaker Re-Creation Of Two YouTubers Absolutely Losing It". Kotaku. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  2. ↑ Ponce, Tony (September 25, 2013). "JonTron died and on the third day rose again". Destructoid. Destructoid. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  3. ↑ Amini, Tina. "A Journey Through Bootleg Pokémon Games". www.kotaku.com.au. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  4. ↑ Cohen, Joshua (May 15, 2014). "YouTube Millionaires: JonTron Makes Terrible Video Games Great". Youtube Millionares. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  5. ↑ Chambers, Evan (2015-05-10). "JonTron's StarCade: Episode 1 - Atari Games". Talk Amongst Yourselves. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  6. ↑ Foxx, Chris (14 April 2016). "Warcraft fans' fury at Blizzard over server closure". BBC. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  7. ↑ LARROS_TWPS. "JonTron Finally Starts New Season. Finally. (@JonTronShow)". Mishka NYC.
  8. ↑ "A Legendary Pair of Boots Resurrect!". Talk Amongst Yourselves.
  9. ↑ Ponce, Tony (2012-07-18). "Egoraptor & JonTron twiddle their sticks, play some games". Destructoid. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  10. ↑ Amini, Tina (2013-06-26). "Fans Are Upset Over YouTube Duo 'Game Grumps' Break-Up". Kotaku. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Is JonTron and Egoraptor’s Breakup The End of 'Game Grumps'? Fans Sound Off on Social Media - New Media Rockstars". New Media Rockstars. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  12. ↑ JonTronShow (2015-10-31), Titanic: The Legend Goes On - JonTron, retrieved 2016-03-03
  13. ↑ "Wondering Where JonTron Was All These Months?". Talk Amongst Yourselves.
  14. ↑ schmoyoho (2015-06-09), Of Murder & Catfish: Songify the News #8, retrieved 2016-04-06
  15. ↑ "Titenic - Single by Jontron & The Gregory Brothers on iTunes". iTunes. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  16. ↑ Nichols, C. "Titenic: the Song". Talk Amongst Yourselves.
  17. ↑ Hernandez, Patricia. "A Few Surprising Ways That Pokémon and Science Influenced Each Other". Kotaku. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  18. ↑ Ponce, Tony (2013-08-04). "Nintendo bred a new flower to market Pikmin on GameCube!?". Destructoid. Retrieved 2013-12-19.
  19. ↑ Zarnyx. "Interview with Art Director of 3D Collect-a-Thon Platformer, A Hat in Time". Talk Amongst Yourselves. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  20. ↑ "Playtonic on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  21. ↑ "Playtonic on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  22. ↑ "Brilliant web animators team on Katy Perry charity cover vid". Monsters and Critics. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  23. ↑ "7 Awesome YouTube Gamers You Should Watch - CraveOnline". CraveOnline. 30 August 2013.
  24. ↑ "Top 10 YouTube Video Game Reviewers - TopX Ep.11". YouTube. 29 January 2015.
  25. ↑ Waxman, Olivia B. "These Are the Most 'Googled' Memes of 2015". TIME.com. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  26. ↑ "Date and Dump YouTube Personalities in This New Romantic Visual Novel". Motherboard. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
  27. ↑ "Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club Lets You Date Youtubers | Hardcore Gamer". Retrieved 2016-05-03.

External links

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