Looking back I can’t quite put a finger on my first Jenna Marbles video. Sifting through my history of Likes, it must have been sometime after the Minecraft Let’s Play scene had calmed down. But it was sometime before PewDiePie started reviewing subreddits…
It must have been after Ze Frank had ended “the show”, but before the premiere of “True Facts”. By then I had definitely stopped listening to the Yogscast podcast while farming mushrooms in Vechs’ Super Hostile maps (no you’re a nerd). And I probably knew who JackSepticEye was, but I certainly wasn’t a fanboy yet.
If memory serves, Jake and Amir were still doing their thing, though their ‘thing’ might have been a little further from their manic-office-sketch beginnings and closer to their soap-opera-bromance ends. It was sometime around the end of Machinima, that seems right… Zisteau had likely started Terraria by then, and Epic Rap Battles of History must have been in full swing.
This isn’t helping, is it…
I struggle to place the moment, truly; I certainly was not “First!!”, I’ll admit that. But I do wish I had arrived sooner.
I have nascent memories of enjoying ‘How to Mildly Annoy Other People’. And I was utterly sold on ‘Everything is Glue’, though it took a little context to explain to friends. And by the time I had witnessed your drunk magic shows and complete ineptitude at games, I was hooked. Bathtub thoughts and vlogmas and bad apps gave way to tiny furniture and life lessons and a lot of love, with radiant splashes of rhinestones and far too many fake eyelashes.
Slowly things changed on this video-sharing website. My favorite Minecraft Let’s Play server, Mindcrack, began to lose members to internal grievances or the Grind. My obsession with Hannah Hart opened my eyes to Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart, the Holy Trinity. PewDiePie stopped playing horror games, not because he tired of them but because he ran out. Then he bet the bank on a Disney sponsorship, and lost it all on a bridge in PUBG. The Filthy Frank Show came to a close, and livestream uploads of Super Mario Maker began to take the world by storm.
Eventually I discovered Half in the Bag from the RedLetterMedia guys. And eventually editor Matt Hunziker turned It’s Alive with Brad Leone into the prized gem of the Condé Nast behemoth. And eventually the Gregory Brothers… the Gregory Brothers never really went away, did they?
The news this week has been rough. (It’s got nothing on the year, don’t get me wrong.) But if you know who Jenna is, you also should have known this day would come. Jenna has always been an icon of compassion and love on the Youtubes. Time and again she has demonstrated her utter care for her online family, and gone to extreme lengths to reduce what little harm she may have ever caused. Jenna Mourey’s actions, both in comparison to other YouTubers and idealistically, have always been demonstrably good. She is a bright spot in the days of millions of people, and her love for her community is latent in every action she has ever taken.
News of her leaving the YouTube space rings tragic for all the viewers and creators who cared to know her. We will miss her dearly, and it’s worth betting she’ll miss us too. We’re family, after all. (Dink.) But we all know that if she ever had any inkling of a suspicion that her content could harm her family, she would not hesitate to end it. This was not a surprise. This was Jenna, all along.
Of course this is not a death knell. There are other outlets for this Leisure Lounger, from social media to livestreams to podcasts. And if you ask me, I don’t think our favorite Virgo will be able to get away from the community she has fostered. I appreciate her example in this situation as much as every other, I look fondly on the time and love she has shared with us, and I eagerly await the next great thing that Jenna ‘Marbles’ Mourey has in store.
Here’s to you, Menna Jarbles. Thanks to you, I will always remember that Peach is the smart one. I will always be slightly weirded out by the friendly, platonic body massage. I will never see Hillary Clinton the same way again. And I will always appreciate the Ratchet Fashion community, from a safe distance.
Your hair is always in my prayers. And I hope to someday find you in Elder Scrolls Online, building pond monuments to your dogs and playing lutes with your elf friends. Cheers.
--Jingleheimer-- 