Keep Moving Forward | How A Cartoon Reviewer Changed My Life
To start, I’d like to tell you a story.
It was the summer of 2014, and I was doing pretty well. I had finished seventh grade with all A’s, I was the star of the middle school track team, and I had received my first ever iPhone for my thirteenth birthday!
The reason I’m telling you all of this is because I’ve previously mentioned that whenever I was at a *low* point in my life, I ended up gravitating to content creators who were bad influences on me, and bad for my mental health in general. But this is what happens when you’re at a *high* point in your life: your judgement is clearer, you make better decisions, and you end up finding people that make the good times even better.
So one random evening in June, I was hanging out in my room, waiting to be called for dinner. I was on my phone, scrolling through YouTube. I remember watching some old SpongeBob YTPs when suddenly, I stumbled across a video in my recommended section titled “Animated Atrocities #49 | “Little Yellow Book””.
I was like, “oh, this looks kind of interesting” and clicked on the video.
As they say, the rest is history. Seriously, I can’t believe that was nine years ago.
So who made this video, anyway? Who am I talking about?
TheMysteriousMrEnter, also known by his real name Johnathan Rozanski, is an animation critic who started his online presence as part of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom, centering most of his content around discussions of…
But no, this time I get to talk about somebody I actually like!
So I didn’t start watching his videos until a year after he started his channel, but from what I can understand his most popular review series, “Animated Atrocities”, started because somebody who was a fan of his MLP videos asked him to do a review of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode “The Splinter”. So he did, it was a reasonably big hit, and people asked him to do more episodes; eventually he branched out into other animated shows and even movies.
He started out as a scene-by-scene commentary reviewer in the style of Doug Walker, a.k.a. the Nostalgia Critic, but over time he’s branched out into other styles and formats. Side note, it’s funny how every channel that started out as a Nostalgia Critic clone eventually went on to forge their own identity while Doug himself has refused to evolve his content at all over the course of a decade and a half, which has cost him dearly.
As with every YouTuber I find and take a liking to, I immediately started binge-watching Mr. Enter’s videos. They were funny and entertaining, and I agreed with a lot of his points. He was actually the main catalyst (the secondary catalyst being my sister, Teddy) behind me eventually watching Bojack Horseman and Steven Universe, which ended up being two of my favorite shows of all time. I had always really liked cartoons, but this was my first step to learning a lot more about them, and looking at them with a more critical eye.
I actually have a lot of nostalgic memories of watching his videos. Lots of time on long car rides and between races at track meets were spent re-watching his Top 10 videos in particular. But I also watched his videos a lot during hard times; the aftermath of my family getting robbed, the fights I had with my parents, the fights my parents had with each other, all of the times I was bullied in school. Something about his style of commentary always resonated with me, calming me down and taking my mind off of stressful situations when needed.
Now, if you’ve ever heard of TheMysteriousMrEnter for any reason outside of his actual content, it’s the laundry list of controversies he’s gotten himself into over the years. While they haven’t been enough to get me to stop watching his content, I’m at least aware that they exist and he has made mistakes in the past. Here’s all the ones I can think of off the top of my head that I actually consider to be worth addressing.
Spotlight: My thoughts on (some of) Mr. Enter’s controversies
- His “Putting Your Hoof Down” Review / His “Pet Sitter Pat” Review
I’m grouping these two together because they’re more or less the same. These are two of the most prolific instances of him personally attacking writers, with the latter incident resulting in some of his fans harassing one of the writers on Twitter.
Make no mistake, I think John and the people who harassed writers on his behalf were totally out of line. Still, I’m glad this didn’t end up being anything too serious. He apologized to the writers in question, hasn’t done it since, it’s all water under the bridge now.
- His “Troll” Review
Mr. Enter has a habit of using the subjects of his reviews as a jumping-off point to talk about a broader subject matter. Personally, it’s led to some of my favorite videos by him, but this approach is pretty hit-or-miss with other people. This was one of the more infamous examples, where he talked about an Internet animation about cyberbullying and stated that he believed trolling and cyberbullying to be the same thing, going so far as to delete every comment saying otherwise (which is where the bulk of the controversy came from).
Keep in mind that this was back in 2014, also known as the year of GamerGate (or at least where the bulk of the action took place). Since then, the use of the word “troll” has evolved to encompass everything from random stupid YouTube comments to death threats and doxxing. It’s gotten to the point where almost everybody knows somebody who’s been on the receiving end of an attack from “Internet trolls”, and people generally take the issue seriously because we’ve seen the harm these sorts of people can do.
John, if you ask me, you kind of ended up getting the last laugh here.
- His pandemic commentary/ just about anything political he’s ever said
So, just for the record, I politically identify as an anarcho-communist. I know that even on Medium this will make me somewhat unpopular, and I know that John mostly identifies as a libertarian. So my core political stances are very different than his, but I wouldn’t call any of his viewpoints outright immoral. Of course, I disagree with things like him calling the American Democratic Party “the left”, but that’s an wider problem with American politics in general.
Like many Internet content creators, he’s been largely influenced by the tumultuous political climate of the 2010s. Believe it or not, up until around 2016 people actually called him a “social justice warrior (SJW)” and thought he got too offended about everything. Then from around 2018 to 2021, people called him a reactionary because of things he said about political correctness (which felt like he was regurgitating talking points from popular political pundits at the time) to healthcare (the one issue I believe we disagree on the most; I believe in universal healthcare, but as of the time of me writing this I believe he does not).
Then there’s all the pandemic stuff, and everything he’s said disagreeing with mandatory masks and lockdowns, which I refuse to talk about here because he has LONG since apologized for everything he’s said about the pandemic, saying that he was in a bad place mentally at the time (weren’t we all).
Now, while I disagree with a variety of Mr. Enter’s political opinions, he’s got a reputation similar to JonTron, Toby Turner, Brittany Venti, and other Internet personalities that got swept up in reactionary right-wing politics- a reputation that, to me, is completely unearned. At least nowadays he doesn’t speak about things he knows he’s not qualified to talk about.
- His Turning Red review
Personally, I don’t think that his argument was that stupid or offensive; it was just a pretty milquetoast point (Turning Red did itself no favors by setting itself strictly in 2002) delivered in the weirdest way possible. As for his Twitter rant, aside from the “I’ve done worse stuff, why am I getting canceled over this?” argument, he wasn’t wrong to blow up the way he did.
You see, there is only one acceptable way to “respond to criticism” on the Internet: apologize and refuse explain your actions or intent, regardless of who was actually right or wrong, or how right or wrong they were. Anything else is considered “doubling down” or “getting defensive”. So it was kind of refreshing to see somebody take at least somewhat of a stand against this aspect of Internet culture.
And regardless of what you thought of his review, it was completely ludicrous that he got lumped in with people hating the movie for stupid reasons, in order to add fuel to the (weak) idea that “grown men hate teenage girls and anything made for them”. Even people who disagreed with his take thought the backlash he received was overblown.
- His Cars 1 review
So, this one is pretty recent, and I don’t know if it even counts, but recently John went on record saying that he considers Cars 1 to be the worst in the trilogy, worse than Cars 2. Aside from this being an unpopular opinion, people are saying that his review was poorly made and nitpicky, and needed more time in the oven. I’m kind of split on this.
On one hand, I disagree on principle because I love Cars 1 and regardless of its flaws, it holds a special place in my heart. On the other hand, I’m fine with him making this review, and I consider most of his points to be a matter of us having slightly different perspectives and tastes. On the other other hand, some of his points, like about the film’s length and the environments, seemed off the mark given that Cars 1 isn’t the sort of movie built around being flashy and exciting in a traditional sense.
At the end of the day, we just disagree. And that’s fine.
So if Mr. Enter has messed up so much, why do I still watch his content? Why am I still a fan of his?
Because greatness is not the absence of flaws and mistakes; it’s the net total of your contributions. And at least with me, he’s had way more hits than misses.
First of all, aside from making me laugh, he also made me think. Around the time he started talking politics was the time I had started getting into them as well; at the very least, he kept me from becoming a full-on right-wing reactionary. I found his commentary on social issues to be poignant and insightful, and I still do!
His two-part review on “Homer Badman”, an old yet still relevant episode of The Simpsons, is actually my favorite thing he’s ever done. Everything he said about the media circus encompassing accusations of sexual assault still holds up after all this time. ““Innocent until proven guilty” applies to both the accuser AND the accused” is still my go-to mantra for high-profile accusations to this day, and if this was common sense there would be fewer instances of people making asses of themselves.
I also found myself relating to him a lot, in terms of interests, personality traits, and so on. After watching his videos for a few months and finding his (old) DeviantArt account, I found out that he was on the autism spectrum, just like me! Considering that this was during the mid-2010s, where ableist insults were even more rampant on the Internet than they are now, this was a big deal.
Hearing that somebody else struggled with many of the same things I did was very helpful at a time when almost nobody took me seriously- I was only in middle school, after all. But I had finally found somebody who validated my concerns about choosing a career path when my interests were constantly shifting, and about not feeling understood by the people around me.
Additionally, Mr. Enter was also the first person I had ever heard talk about asexuality. If you recall during my editorial “Love Island”, I said that a certain YouTuber had introduced me to the concept… yeah, this was that guy.
And again, that was huge. I had started to notice that something was different about me, that I wasn’t developing crushes like my peers were, and although it wasn’t that important to me, I was starting to get a little concerned. But now I was like “wait, so you’re telling me that nothing’s wrong with me? You’re saying that this is just another sexual orientation, like being straight, or gay, or bisexual? How did I never know this?!”.
So that was a load off my mind.
I also took notice when Mr. Enter announced his plans to launch a cartoon series called Growing Around. Even though the crowdfunding campaign failed, I still admired him for trying. I’ve actually thought about making some of my own ideas into cartoons, although thanks to his videos on the animation industry I know it won’t be easy.
It’s actually thanks to John that this blog even exists. No, I’m serious.
While a number of different content creators have influenced my style of writing, he’s the one who convinced me to write. He convinced me that as long as I spoke my mind and did it with passion, somebody would listen. He convinced me that somewhere out there was an audience who would listen to what I had to say. He encouraged me to be as brash and outspoken as I am.
Now, as I already mentioned, Mr. Enter has been the subject of a lot of controversy, which has led to a lot of backlash. While some of it was earned, a lot of it was not only unearned, but spiraled out of control into onslaughts of bullying and harassment. Believe me, I should know. I was there during the “commentary community” phase of the Internet, where a community of several dozen LeafyIsHere clones with less than 1,000 subscribers and even fewer brain cells declared John and his videos to be the worst thing since AIDS.
Look into that on your own time, they don’t really deserve my recognition.
He goes over a lot of that here, and I’ve got to say that this video was a great idea. Acknowledge the places you’ve messed up, but also stand up for yourself where the hate is unearned- it seems like the obvious way to deal with harassment, but it’s a bar that some content creators have been unable to clear. I’m glad that this video patched things up between him and some other YouTubers, and most of the original “trolls” have backed off since then.
But of course, several things have come up. None of us are perfect, after all. And while Mr. Enter become a better person after all these experiences, you can tell it hasn’t been easy for him.
His “Top 10 Worst Mr. Enter Videos” anniversary special, while occasionally a fun trip down memory lane, veers into some uncomfortable , borderline self-deprecating territory. But I understand that everybody reflects on their past differently. I just think he shouldn’t be so hard on himself. Most of his screw-ups aren’t as bad as he thinks they are.
And it was absolutely heartbreaking to hear about his struggles with OCD. Believe me, I know what that’s like. I’ve spoken about it on this very blog.Nobody deserves to go through this; I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. But at the very least, letting people who have gone through these things know that they’re not alone is never a bad thing.
John, if you’re reading this, listen to me: I love your content. I really do. I love the way your style has changed over the years, while still feeling like you’re the same person at your core. I love how you’re never afraid to say what you think, but you’re also willing to change your mind and hear different points of view. I love how you’ve gotten thousands upon thousands of people to think more deeply about things they otherwise might not have cared much about. Trust me when I say, you’ve had a positive impact on many people, myself included.
So happy birthday, and congratulations on ten tumultuous years of content creation. I have no idea what the future will hold for you, but just know that I’ll be there to support you, like I have been for a long time.
But most importantly, thank you. Thank you for making the bad times good, and the good times better. Thank you for inspiring me to create. Thank you for inspiring me to learn from my mistakes. Thank you for inspiring me to not let myself be defined by my past, or what other people think. Thank you for inspiring me to keep moving forward.
Thanks so much for reading. Until next time, stay on the hook!
