If 2018 has taught us anything, it’s that kids love playing Fortnite just about as much as they hate not playing Fortnite. In recognition of this, the latest “YouTube Challenge” issued on Jimmy Kimmel Live involves parents simply turning off the TV while their kids are in the middle of an online, unpausable Fortnite match. As expected, the children, they are not pleased.
On last night’s show, Kimmel presented the videos sent in that answered his call and the results range from displays of bafflement and disbelief to irritation and, of course, actual goddamn violence. The more benign clips are actually pretty funny: one kid laughs in shock, saying “What is wrong with you? Leave!” to his dad and another shrieks a startled “What?” between giggles. The severe reactions are a bit more troubling. There’s plenty of dolphin-like screeches of anger and thrashing about, but also a handful of furious birth control ads where the kids respond to the TV being turned off by tackling or smacking their parents.
How Kimmel will be able to sleep at night when his audience of parents experience such a chill in their family relationships is anyone’s guess, but maybe he’s comforted by knowing that his is the work of the modern documentarian. He archives our culture, unvarnished, and can’t allow himself to be dismayed by the wrath of any number of pre-pubescent rage monsters created along the way.
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