Hey Infofans, today we've got a special treat for you!
Because our favorite lab rat is currently recuperating from one of his latest challenges,
we decided that it was the perfect time to give him something easy to do.
So we asked him to go over the last year's worth of challenges and pick out some mean,
funny, or just favorite comments he came across and share his views!
That's right, this is the clap-back episode- except not really because turns out he's too
nice for that.
But, stay tuned because your comment may be the one that gets a reply in this episode
of Challenge: respond to the comments, part one!
Alright, well this is definitely a bit unusual.
I've been talking with The Infographics Show about my future participation in challenges-
if you've seen the Surviving 72 Hours Alone In The Forest challenge, it kind of made me
rethink stuff after the bear incident.
I know it seems like I'm out here kind of winging it, but that's not true at all and
contrary to what the girlfriend, and a lot of people on youtube seem to think, safety
is pretty important to me.
Running into a bear while unarmed was definitely not safe.
Buuuutttt, I have to admit, I miss doing challenges.
Yes, even the unsafe ones.
I guess I've always been drawn to taking risks, and that really explains a lot in my life.
Even though the girlfriend wanted me to scale back, she understood that it kind of makes
me happy to get out there and do these weird/sometimes unsafe things.
So she did what her amazing self typically does and supported me 100%, then immediately
rolled up her sleeves, dragged the producers of The Infographics Show into a meeting, and
negotiated what we'll be calling 'hazard pay'.
I feel sorry for the producers, when she wants something she's hell on wheels, and I knew
she was perfectly willing to keep everyone locked up in that meeting for days if that's
what it took.
Honestly, she's probably my best professional asset- which is why I let her handle all the
money matters!
So I guess the big announcement is there's nothing to fear.
I'm back for another season of challenges, and to be honest, I've been kind of bored
without them.
And my first official 'new' challenge is to go over the comments section of some of my
past vids and address the mean, the nice, and the ugly.
Hey, it beats using only public restrooms for 72 hours.
Now typically you need a hazmat suit to delve into a comments section online, but I gotta
say, you guys are overwhelmingly positive and supportive- even with each other.
I was expecting a million fights and negative comments, but I was definitely surprised.
So here we go, time to respond to some of my favorites!
1.
Hearing "This might be my last challenge episode" almost killed me
almost died when he said this might be his last challenge... we love you man
honestly same I'm just happy I can say I grew up with him.
Oh man, that 72 hours in the forest episode definitely got dangerous and when I got home
I had to seriously rethink if I'd continue doing these challenges.
Running into a wild bear is up there on my list of favorite things to not do while in
the woods, specially when it's fall and the bear clearly is a bit on the skinny side.
Like I said in the episode, skinny bears in the fall are extra dangerous because they're
desperate to add on pounds.
The girlfriend was pretty upset when she found out, but surprisingly it was her who made
a strong case for not quitting.
She told me, “If you can share your experiences, then maybe you can help someone not get hurt”.
It was a good point, but I think deep down inside she really just wanted me to keep doing
something she knew made me happy.
Or, she wanted to keep me from doing other more dangerous things- I have a friend in
the media who asked me if I'd be interested in doing press correspondence overseas in,
well, the very not nice parts of the world.
Seeing these comments though made me “awwww” in real life, and even the girlfriend was
smiling from ear to ear.
We had no idea you guys cared so much.
We're just normal people- well, at least the girlfriend is- and occasionally have to go
through silly things.
Man, you guys are great, and hopefully you're happy to hear that no, I won't be quitting.
2.
The screaming was foxes 100%.
Younger foxes sound like children crying
It could have also been mountain lions
These two comments are also from the 72 hours alone in the forest challenge.
If you remember, or haven't seen it, in the middle of the night I started hearing the
strangest howls, screams, and roars I've ever heard in my life.
Now, what was strange about it at the time is that I've been in the wild a lot throughout
my career and personal life- from camping in the Pacific Northwest for fun to Uncle
Sam sending me on not-so-fun camping trips to Africa and the Middle East- but those sounds
were like nothing I've ever heard.
I've heard foxes before, and yeah, it scared the crap out of me the first time because
they sound so human-like sometimes.
I've never heard a mountain lion personally, but we got recordings of them to listen to
along with other dangerous animals during some of our survival training in the military-
you basically have to learn the sounds that specific animals make in different parts of
the world so you're aware of them during an op.
The thing about these sounds was that they sounded nothing at all like that.
There was one animal screeching horribly, and it sounded like it was only a few miles
away.
They were short, intense screeches, like a giant owl from hell that's constipated and
trying to pass a turd.
The weirdest part was that the screeches were responded to from a completely different direction
with a low, long howl of sorts.
Then whatever was screeching was silent for a moment and screeched back one short screech.
The other animal gave off a shorter howl in response.
There were a few yips and at one point even a roar- though the roar sounded really far
away.
To be honest, it was terrifying.
They just didn't sound like regular animals.
The location I was at is pretty remote along the Pacific Northwest coast- like you have
to use a 4 wheel drive truck through a trail that's barely a road to get there.
I didn't want to accidentally run into anyone.
People have joked that it was a bigfoot, but I guess I'd have to see and hear a bigfoot
to know for sure.
Whatever it was, I'm glad it was a bear and not them that showed up to my camp.
3.
I just know that hes going to mention his military training
I saw a lot of these comments across the vids I looked at, and here's the thing: the episodes
are obviously at least partly autobiographical.
If you've watched all of the episodes, or at least a lot, then you probably already
know a lot of things about my personal life- but there's things I have to repeat because
A) they are important to the challenge, and B)
there's always new viewers watching an episode who may have no idea who I am or where I come
from.
It's definitely not a weird flex- I don't even like bringing it up as I'm getting to
know new people and I don't like talking specifics unless I can remain anonymous- it's just part
of the show.
4.
I wonder when he's gonna start calling the girlfriend, the wife.
Next Challenge: Most epic way to propose to girlfriend!💍
Ok so, I saw a LOT of these, and if you're a fan of the show you've probably already
heard that me and the girlfriend were never really into the marriage thing.
We know what we've got- and neither of us are going anywhere.
You know how you know when you really love someone?
I mean really love someone- like the type of love that makes you suddenly stop in the
middle of dinner on your fourth date and just stare at that person while the world fades
away, and you review every bad thing that's ever happened in your life and you just say
to yourself, “it was all worth it, it all led to you.”?
Well, you know you really love someone when it doesn't matter the hells you've been through
before, or the many times you were scared for your own life.
You really love someone when the world becomes a terrifying place because a million things
could happen to take that person out of it, and away from you forever.
Real love is questioning if you'd even want to go on without her.
Or him.
And you don't really need a formal marriage for that.
At least, that's what we've always thought and... well, maybe things change.
5.
Already mentioned the girlfriend 2 times at 1:13.
I'm out.
Why is he so obsessed with his girlfriend?
Still flexing his girlfriend is he
So these types of comments I consider along the line of the previous military comment
before.
There's two responses to these comments I'd like to make.
First, the initial description of the challenge videos concept I got was to carefully record
how each affected me and my life.
Now, when you are in a committed relationship and live together, your significant other
is a part of that life.
Naturally, the challenges are going to affect her too, so recording her responses isn't
a 'flex', it's part of what you're tuning in for.
My second response is that there's a common thread in comments like this, and it kind
of makes me sad to be honest.
These comments clearly come from insecure people who are threatened by the life of a
complete stranger, and their response is to lash out in the only way they can: negative
comments.
You see it everywhere- someone has, is, or does something, and all the insecure people
take to the comments section.
It’s the only power they have.
When someone posts a comment like this, it really only speaks about them.
Honestly, I wish I could do something for you guys.
Maybe the show should do a confidence-building video, or a real how to attract women and
not a lame, bro-pickup-artist fake crap video.
I hate the thought of anyone being lonely for whatever reason, but if you want to change
then it starts with you- and let me tell you, maturity goes a long way towards attracting
a partner.
And not making comments like this is a solid first step on that road.
6. if you dont do a face reveal 6ix9ine will snich on you
Ok, that was legitimately one of the funniest comments I read during this whole thing.
If you don't get it you probably need to look up who 6ix9ine is and why he's become so infamous.
Obviously the show gets a lot of emails and comments asking for a face reveal, and we
did address this in one of our previous vids.
The thing is that we're really, really not comfortable with our real identities being
shown- even just first names.
Believe me, I'm not ignorant of how little time it would take to track down our identities
with just a first name and some general details by dedicated internet sleuths.
If you type in ‘infographics show’ to google, then face, host, and staff are some
of the recommended searches.
For the girlfriend, she's got her professional life to worry about, and for me, well, I'm
already uncomfortable with how huge the Challenge community has gotten.
I started counting views just for the fun of it and stopped at 15 million, and I still
had a lot of episodes to go!
Honestly, I'm just a normal guy.
The girlfriend's used to being in front of cameras, but I have always been happy to be
behind the scenes.
I will say this, if you watch our Create The Perfect Life In The Sims challenge then that's
probably the closest you'll get to a face reveal.
I seriously spent like 3 minutes on my sim and 30 minutes on hers- so you probably have
a better idea of what she looks like than I do, but the resemblance is... uncanny.
I think I even said in that video that I kind of got a crush on her sim.
Is that weird?
To get a crush on the sim you created to look just like your girlfriend?
7.
Why didn’t he just record with go pro
This comment was also in response to the 72 hours in the forest alone challenge.
At the start of that vid I talked about how I had proposed we get a dedicated camera guy
and turn this whole thing into more of a documentary style format using real footage, but the costs
involved are... well kind of crazy if you want to do it professionally.
The thing about this comment is that... it never even crossed my mind.
Seriously, totally blanked on just wearing a gopro.
Great suggestion, sadly too late.
As we contemplated the future of the challenge series, we talked about going 'real', but
in the end my concerns over privacy for myself and the girlfriend made a pretty strong case
for not doing that.
Honestly, I kind of like hiding behind animation and a narrator, I'm not keen on even just
having my life stalked online.
For now, that's just how it'll have to be- but hey, write to your local tv stations and
if you can get a tv network to pay us a few million bucks for our own show I'll go on
tv all you want.
I'll go on every tv show there is.
I will physically live inside your tv set if you pay me enough.
But for now, yeah, animation it is.
8.
This is fake This guy isn’t even real 😂
Honestly, there's a lot of comments like this and well, last time I checked I was real.
But can anyone really prove they’re real?
See, eventually we will be able to create computers advanced enough to recreate the
human brain digitally, and once we have a computer able to run thousands, even millions
of these simulations simultaneously, well, you could create a complete digital world.
With enough computing power you could create an entire digital universe- and not a single
being that inhabits it would ever suspect it was all fake unless you told it.
Or, there could only be one real being in the entire world, because the entire world
is a simulation run by an artificial intelligence for the benefit of the one real human that
logs in to play the latest, coolest game: Pre-World War III Earth!
You only think you're real because the programmers need you to act like you are for the enjoyment
of the one person playing this simulation who is actually real.
The worst part?
Simulations like that could be run at many times normal speed, so the person playing
this game could simulate an entire lifetime over his lunch break at work.
That's right, you may be nothing more than a future, and much lamer, version of Overwatch.
You're nothing more than someone's lunch break.
Alright guys, that's it for now, but stay tuned for more responses as I dig through
more of the comments on our videos.
Did I mention one of your comments?
Want to see me react to one of your comments?
Only way to do that is to, well, comment, but it'd be nice if you liked and subscribed
too while you're at it!
Talk to you guys again soon- and seriously, you guys really are the best!
Oh, and now I'm supposed to have the narrator tell you to watch this video, and if that
video doesn't interest you, then watch this other one instead!
Ha ha, that's right, narrator, you have to do what I say because I typed it!
I'm the Captain now!