Chris Bores, better known as The Irate Gamer, is a YouTube personality and video game reviewer who is known for his similarity to the Angry Video Game Nerd, who he clearly draws inspiration from, the dubious quality of his videos, and the disproportionate “Hatedom” that he has gained, consisting of people, dubbed AVGN Nazis, who not only proclaim Bores to be a ripoff (which is, more or less, halfway true) but dislike all of his videos, ridicule him and leave hateful comments to an excessive degree. Many derisive parodies of him have also been made. Chris Bores’ responses to these criticisms have also been controversial and have earned him more haters.
History
Chris Bores released his first “Irate Gamer” video on April 28, 2007. It was about Back to the Future for NES, which was among the games previously reviewed by AVGN. This was followed by several other video game reviews, some of which had also previously been reviewed by the AVGN. Flaws in these videos noticed by many included mediocre humor and a lack of skill displayed by Chris while playing the games, rendering some of his complaints about their alleged difficulty invalid. Minor but numerous factual mistakes also appeared in the videos, showing a lack of research.
Later, Bores launched “Irate Gamer NEO”, a spinoff series in which he reviews modern games, as well as other material such as “Haunted Investigators”, which resembles the television series Ghost Hunters, “IRate the 80’s”, in which he reviews pop culture items from the 1980’s, and History of Video Games, in which he discusses the history of video gaming starting from the very beginning (and at a very slow rate; jokes have been made that the series will take many, many years to complete). These videos have not generated as much attention as the main Irate Gamer videos, though they have spawned a few memes (see below).
In response to the hate aimed at him, Chris Bores disabled ratings and/or comments on many of his videos, blocked many users, and had many parody videos taken down under copyright claims, including some that didn’t actually use any footage from his channel. Again, this only caused even more criticism.
As of late, Bores’ work has deviated significantly from that of James Rolfe, although many argue that it is still mediocre.
Examples of Hatedom
Parodies
There are several mean–spirited parodies of the Irate Gamer Show on YouTube, including several accounts dedicated solely to hating on Chris. These videos exaggerate the flaws of his videos to ridiculous proportions. An example of this is the “Isuck Gamer Show”. Many other videos depict the Angry Video Game Nerd killing the Irate Gamer.
Nostalgia Critic Mention
In 2008, shortly after the launch of Thatguywiththeglasses.com, the Nostalgia Critic released a video that was part of his faux feud with the AVGN in which he mentions the Irate Gamer. In it, he claims that AVGN has become the “Irate Gamer” to his creative genius. This is followed by canned booing, and the Critic apologizing and saying that that was going too far. Note this this was after the Critic had just called the Nerd an extremely long series of vulgar insults.
James Rolfe Mention
In 2009, at a convention, James Rolfe acknowledged the Irate Gamer for the first time. When asked about him, James said: ’’"I’ll answer that as quickly as I can. Uh, I have no reason to answer it, I mean he pretty much pretends that I don’t exist so why would I even need to say anything about him?"’’
Linkara Parody
In April 2011, Linkara of TGWTG.com released a joke video parodying the Irate Gamer and his flaws, in which he reviewed an issue of the “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” comic in Chris’ “style”, exaggerating his common mistakes.
Associated Memetic Jokes
Bores n’ Doors
In late 2008, Irate Gamer uploaded his review of the obscure NES cult game “Monster Party”. In the plot of the episode, the Gamer is upset that he has not been invited to a Halloween party that is occurring across the street from his home, and that people are coming to his door thinking that he is hosting the party. Multiple times during the episode, the Irate Gamer’s doorbell rings and he is greeted by strange guests at his door thinking that he is having a party. These scenes spawned the “Bores n’ Doors” video fad, in which various characters from other works, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, are depicted visiting Irate Gamer, usually using scenes in which said characters visit doors.
Breakfast is Ruined!
In late 2007, Chris Bores posted a video in which he ranted about the cereal Lucky Charms and how the marshmallows had changed from the original ones since the cereal’s introduction. To summarize this frustration at this, Chris said “Face it. Breakfast is ruined!” This line has become a small meme unto itself, and is often used in parody videos as a quintessential example of complaints by the Irate Gamer that could be considered irrelevant, exaggerated nitpicking.