I was watching yet another video detailing the decline of JelloApocalypse, I found myself thinking whatever happened to Jello from "Which Scooby-Doo Character is the Best".

JelloApocolyse is (possibly was) among other things a Youtuber best known for his “So This is Basically” series. Short, sarcastic, critical reviews of mostly TV shows and “Welcome to X” series, similar thing but for websites.

He was a popular name for a while but his reputation suffered a sharp decline for a number of reasons, his own ego, bad faith criticisms, moral grandstanding and open hostility to other (frankly more successful) writers. 

His worst traits came out in I think three main events, there were others but these seem to be the most commonly brought up and each one is I think worth examining in detail when understanding the kind of character Jello is. 

The Infinity Train Tweet. 

When the show was cancelled Jello made a series of tweets saying how the cancellation was justified, and how its own team did not know how to tell its own story. Not liking a show is one thing, but to rub salt in the wounds of the staff after it was effectively nuked was seen as being in very poor taste. 

The Lovely Complex Controversy. 

Took a doubling job and took it on himself to try and rewrite the series to suit his preferences, insulting the creator and effectively validating the localisation on what was a passion project by a fan of the original series. This has possibly gotten him blacklisted from the industry as a result. 

The One Piece hit piece. 

A video packed with so much false information and bad faith arguments it’s doubtful he even bothered to read or watch the series first hand when scripting. Little more than an excuse to badmouth the franchise and Oda, going as far as to call him a paedophile. This feels like the final nail in the coffin of his reputation and credibility, though the cracks were definitely showing before this. (Fun fact he did voice Sterry a in the dub, so be interested to know if he’s ever called back to play him). Possibly this will be his last “So this is basically” video and that would be for the best I think. 

There are plenty of people who have broken down the above and other controversies in more detail than I can be bothered to get into. I've linked some of my favourite videos discussing Jello below. 

The reason I'm writing this is because I kept thinking back to his “Which Scooby-Doo Character is the Best?” video. Specifically why this side of Jello did not seem to come out as much because I like that Jello. I don’t care much for Scooby Doo these days but it’s overall a very positive video, Jello clearly likes the franchise a lot and seeing someone excitedly geeking out over something they actually like for 50 minutes is a lot of fun. The video breaks down each of the five main characters, plus some of the more recognisable supporting cast, discussing the best and worst of their attributes though different versions of the show. Given the series has been re-booted like, 20 times by now plus 40 odd movies there’s a lot of shifting in the personalities and it’s well worth examining what works well and what doesn't. He concludes each character section by pitching his ideal version of each character to form the dream mystery incorporated with the best Shaggy, Schooby ect. Oh and the best character according to him is Fred by the way, and honestly, for the reasons he explained, I'm now convinced Fred is the best.

It’s one of the few liveshoots videos he’s done and one thing I really enjoyed was him dressing up as each of the main characters as he talked about them. It's a fun bit and I think shows he really wanted to put the effort in. There’s some criticism here and there and digs at writers but for the most part it feels fairly balanced and coming from a place of a legitimate fan. Not someone who’s just talking about the current popular thing for the sake of jumping on a bandwagon for the sake of attention.

So where did this Jello go? Well with 3.5 million views it’s his 33rd most watched video, far from the highest on his channel, far outperformed by the videos of his more negative reviews. Plus this came out in 2021, already after some of the other more notorious videos had come out, so it’s not as if Jello started his Youtube channel this way and declined overtime. The bad faith criticisms were already there, this was just a break from the normal content. “Whatever happened to Jello from his Scooby-Doo video?”, Nothing, because that was not really Jello, that was a small glimpse into the creator he could have been. Maybe he kept up the other review videos because they performed better, maybe he kept it up because he wanted an excuse to talk crap about other show writers with plausible deniability that he dose not just hate other writers for whatever reason.

Obviously there’s nothing wrong with critiquing the media, absolutely we need honest discussion on shows and such, flaws and all, and if people just want to exaggerate a series flaws or misrepresent a show for fun they can do that as well. Just don’t get defensive when people call them out on that, and don’t blur the line between the genuine and false takes, otherwise everything ends up getting read in the worst possible way.

Probably the key takeaway from Jello is, don’t make things from a place of ego and spite, in the end it's all court up with him and nowadays the main thing being discussed about him is the controversies. This could well be his legacy if he does not turn things around.

I'm not sure if he's still planning on keeping the channel running, his last main video was uploaded 10 months ago, with a short uploaded in September. Maybe he’s just busy with other projects or maybe he’s decided to step away from YouTube. Honestly I don’t really care to keep up to date with him anymore, unless he shows some actual growth I don’t think he’s worth following. I will however however probably keep watching videos about his reputation going up in flames, both to learn from his his mistakes and because a dumpster fire is always fun to watch.

Vids I like. 

I have regrets: The Many Faults of JelloApocalypse

[arthandle]: So This is Basically JelloApocalypse: Unchecked Egotism and Artistic Vandalism

LunaLuna: JelloApocalypse's One Piece Video is REALLY Bad