Sometimes, you see something so astonishingly bad, so terribly misinformed, so very little effort put into it, that you can't just ignore it.
From February 17-20, NYC hosted the annual American International Toy Fair, and amazingly Chris got invited. I guess Puppet Steve is that popular? Toy Fair is invite-only by the way.
If you recall his E3 coverage, it's pretty similar. Well, without all the interviews because I doubt Chris has enough clout to tell random people "Can you pretend this puppet is real and it's interviewing you?" He's not the Jim Henson Company or Robert Smigel.
But it is loaded with all the usual misinformation that Chris is known for. What fun!
I won't go over every video, my sanity can only take so much. It's more the lowlights.
This year, Chris did something different and did some live coverage using YouTube's streaming feature. It went about as well as you might expect, in that it was a total disaster.
The video quality looked like a cell phone from 2006. It lagged in spots, causing commentary to go out. Everything was blurry. Perhaps it's why Chris stopped after 11 videos and just went to post-production commentary. This will hurt him.
Chris barely even tried the Steve voice. He was basically doing his normal voice but with "attitude". Was he afraid of people staring at him?
He also shows that he still can't ad-lib to save his life. Every toy he looked at was "super cool". Not just cool, "super cool". Chris really does feel like the embodiment of Steve Buscemi's "How do you do, fellow kids" scene...
Most of the live coverage was FNAF related, because of course it was. He still calls Chica a guy (how long has he been doing this?)
There's also Bendy coverage, Stikbots (whatever those are), toys based on Hello Neighbor (why?), and then we get into the reaaaal bad shit with a video on Transformers. It features one of the major problems with his coverage, Chris not getting names right or even trying to say their names even though they're written right on the box. My informant notes how he just says "this Predacon" when the box clearly has their names. That is some next level lazy.
Even the clickbait title is lazy, using The Last Knight. Even though the toys have nothing do with that movie, and even then the movie came out months ago and it wasn't popular.
He followed that up with a video on Nickelodeon toys, specifically based on 90's Nicktoons. The mistakes really start adding up here. Referring to "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters" as just "the Real Monsters show", getting Oblina's name wrong (pronouncing it Oblika), and referring to Gerald from Hey Arnold as simply "Arnold's friend". Not like he was an important character or anything!
Following that one is a video on new Marvel Legends figures based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Chris' commentary makes it sound like he hasn't watched a single MCU movie.
It starts with him referring to Red Skull as "Red Hood", that's DC you fuck! Then he calls Ronan the Accuser "the villain from the second Thor movie". That was Malekith, and he looks nothing like Ronan. Ronan was the villain of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Then he shows a two-pack of Thor & Sif, and openly says he doesn't remember her name. I'll explain why this is bullshit soon.
Then he calls Yellow Jacket "the evil Ant-Man". Good lord, I know the MCU has a problem with creating memorable villains but you're not even trying!
The reason that Sif line, and really getting all these names wrong are complete bullshit, is that you can clearly see the names on the boxes! They're right behind the figures! How are you THIS terrible at this Chris? Is there something wrong with you?
Then a video on Lego sets (actual Lego, not the off-brand stuff) with cringy sketches involving his custom Lego Puppet Steve. He actually brought it with him just to do that... that is so lame.
He looks at $100 Harry Potter set, makes the old as fuck "Dumbledore is Gandalf" joke (that joke is old enough to have children), gets more things wrong like not recognizing Nearly Headless Nick or Professor Quirrel (you know, the villain of the first book & movie!) There's a reason these are problems I'll get into later...
"The cool spell hat" That's the Sorting Hat! Come on!
Then he shows Jurassic Park/World sets. The first one he refers to as "Manor house museum". Even though the box clearly says "Indoraptor Rampage at Lockwood Estate". He makes a terrible joke about the dinosaur bones being their "mummy". Even though those are Indoraptors, and the skeleton is a triceratops. You're not even trying!
He refers to the park security as "FBI agents". Unless there's FBI agents in the upcoming movie, then they're not FBI.
Then he looks at another set that he refers to as "Paradactyl Chase". Nooo it's called Pteranodon Chase, it says it right there on the box! Also, you don't pronounce the P in Pterodactyl or Pteranodon you hack.
Then another set that clearly has the Tyrannosaurus Rex, but he just refers to it as "dinosaurs". Come on Chris, the T-Rex is the mascot! You can't seriously be this lazy!
And now we get to the video that inspired me to make this post. One about new Pokemon toys. Bores and Pokemon, you know this will go well.
It all goes wrong when he refers to a Togetic figure as "full-grown Togepi". Just... wow. Not to mention wrong because Togetic isn't the final form anymore, it's Togekiss. Hell it's been Togekiss for 12 years now.
Then he refers to Marill as "Pikablu". What... year ... is it? I can't believe there's still someone that unironically uses Pikablu. Holy fuck.
Then he doesn't even try with Chinchou and Pidgey, simply calling them "this guy". You don't even know Pidgey? Come on!
Though he recognizes Staryu, he fails on Wurmple, Charjabug, Salandit, and Togedemaru.
Pichu is simply "the baby Pikachu", and he fails to name Larvitar and Pikipek
By the end of it, he doesn't even try to name Carvanha, Stufful, and Bounsweet.
Look, I get not knowing the Gen 7 Pokemon so easily, I would have trouble too as I have barely played the Gen 7 games (I found them so boring). But see I know how to do a little something called... research! If I don't know something, I look into it. And this is the problem I wanted to address with these videos.
They're very clearly done in post-production, with post-commentary and visual edits. This isn't the live stuff he tried during Toy Fair. Chris purposely recorded all these videos with misinformation, not caring if the name was on the box, or if the name could easily be looked up. He could have bothered to look up Togetic or Marill or Pidgey or all the Alola Pokemon, but he didn't even try. He could have double checked who these MCU characters were, or those Predacons, but he didn't lift a finger. This further showcases how Puppet Steve is nothing more than low effort garbage that acts as dangling keys for easily-entertained kids.
Chris as a content producer has completely given up. He's not even accomplishing the bare minimum. As awful as Irate Gamer was, at least there was a small sense of trying. It wasn't good, but at least you could somewhat tell he tried. This is Chris not even doing that. Does he no longer have pride in his own work? Or is this just shit to pay the bills because his ghost hunting garbage will never get off the ground.
EDIT: Seems I spoke too soon about interviews. He actually did one! But not as Puppet Steve. In fact, it's pretty clear that Steve is in there via green screen, and when it cuts to a close up of the interviewee, you see Chris' hand holding an iPhone (instead of a mic). When Steve is on screen, the interviewee is looking down. That must have been awkward. "Hey can I film you looking down at something even though nothing is there?" "Why?" "Just do it!"
