Fuck NO Video Games

Internet personality Jon “JonTron” Jafari has a history with transgressive humor. He’s dropped homophobic and racist slurs, joked about sexual assault, and frequently used Hitler as a punchline. Criticized yesterday for his use of ableist language on Twitter, Jafari doubled down on his behavior - then tried to deflect criticism by using the genocide in Gaza as a talking point.

Details and screenshots under the cut. Trigger warnings for ableism, ableist slurs, genocide.

“Playstation Now” is the most painfully retarded thing I’ve seen in a while. WTF even.

-please don’t say “retarted” Jon, it’s pretty rude. Thanks.

I’m sorry I forgot you were retarded, my bad

I think being offended by something is a stupid concept. What you are attempting is essentially social censorship.

Asking someone to avoid the intentional use of hateful language does not constitute censorship. It’s a request for empathy - for the speaker to understand that what they just said is unnecessarily hurtful, and that exploiting derogatory language for a cheap laugh perpetuates harm.

Jafari turned to TwitLonger to address growing backlash:

To everyone
I don’t usually respond to this kind of criticism, but this has gotten so out of hand and always happens when I make some sort of ‘controversial’ statement on twitter. To you people who get offended at every turn: Why don’t you try focusing your civil unrest at something that dearly needs it, like the fact that today the Israeli air force struck a school with a missile killing 10 people, most of which were children. I suppose you’re all ok with that, as long as the missile didn’t call the school ‘retarded’ first, right? My job as a comedian is to make people laugh and feel better about their lives. So no, in the midst of so many other pressing matters in the world, I will not apologize for calling a PS4 retarded. I encourage you to look at yourselves and think about what really matters.

Nobody can claim that their job is to bring levity in troubled times, then point to an ongoing campaign of genocidal oppression and say, “see, my joke was nowhere near that bad!” Using innocent deaths as a prop in an argument is abhorrent.

After some thought:
I mainly want to apologize to anyone who may have interpreted that I was using loss of life overseas to sidestep controversy, that was not my aim. I was merely trying to make a point, I guess it didn’t land. The mere thought of doing that is appalling to me, and I am sorry if anyone took it that way.

This is not a matter of people 'taking a point the wrong way’. This appears to be Jafari’s first-ever mention of Gaza on Twitter, and it was used to deflect attention from his use of ableist language. When called out on this, Jafari claimed to be hurt; he said that he advocated for Palestine in his personal life, but that it wasn’t appropriate for his Twitter audience. Apparently, it’s more appropriate when the discussion benefits him personally.