Peace Out Caboose

Fans of the groups like Achievement Hunter and the show Red Vs Blue probably have no idea what I’m talking about. So here’s a little history for you, if you don’t know who Joel is.

Joel Heyman was one of the original founding members of Rooster Teeth back in their inception. He became known for his voice work as the simple minded but hilarious character of Caboose in Red Vs Blue.

He also quickly became known for his off kilter sense of humor on things like the Drunk Tank podcast. Further solidifying that personality on Let’s Play videos with Achievement Hunter and the subsequent podcast episodes following. One the Spot is where a lot of the more casual fanbase of Rooster Teeth got to see his kookiness firsthand.

Despite being a kinda wacky dude and being into conspiracy theories, Joel was generally well loved by the community. A lot of that was obviously due to the role of Caboose, who’s been a fan favorite since Season 1. However, it would appear that the sentiment was not shared all the time behind the scenes.

Joel recently took to Twitter to confirm that he had indeed been let go. For what reasons, we’re not entirely sure. Based on what Joel said in his tweets, it’s safe to assume that he may have been in the crossfire on recent events.

@JoelHeyman Will you still be doing VA work with RT even though you’re no longer an official employee? You do some great voice work as Caboose and Oobleck.

— Garrett Whiteman (@GarrettWhiteman) June 6, 2020

See, Joel has always tended to be more outwardly controversial than some RT staff. Except where some members like Jack Patillo are outwardly hard Leftist, Joel was outwardly just politically mean. Tending to lean more conservative, but overall Joel just has a long history of picking fights.

Glancing through his social media, this becomes readily more and more apparent. Several times he’s gotten into fights on Twitter with other RT staff members like Jack, Gavin Free and others. Sometimes over nothing at all, but he just seemed to be unable to help himself from voicing his opinion.

@jack_p Your leftist friends are going to burn down your house and kill your animals.

— JoelHeyman (@JoelHeyman) July 14, 2018

If you’re thinking ‘well that’s a stupid thing to fire him over. Especially if other people in the company do it’. Well, you’re not the only one thinking that, but things are very tense right now. There are protests happening all over the country over equality, injustice etc.

Rooster Teeth is In the Midst of Changes

Recently, Rooster Teeth made an announcement that they’d be seeing some serious company reform among racist claims. Rooster Teeth has been battling the media and fans for months now. Claims of toxic behaviour, horrible working conditions and unfair hours have been plaguing the company.

Earlier this year, RT even shut down their online store due to low demand among fans, and fired 13% of their staff. Shortly after that, Mica, a member of the Achievement Hunter crew, blasted the company for not defending her. When she received thousands of hateful messages and death threats based on her performance.

All in all, 2020 was not a great place for Rooster Teeth workers as a whole. The company is seeing a lot of backlash from both sides of the community and from people who do not even watch their content. While they have staked claims on reforming the company among a changing landscape, it may be too late for some of them.

Heyman’s firing may be the final straw for a lot of people within the community. Most of them grew up with Heyman’s character and grew up with Rooster Teeth as well. Seeing it now at a point where people are leaving in droves is not a good sign.

Hopefully they stick to these changes and see out 2020. We don’t want to see anyone suffer and see the downfall of a beloved company, but it’s out of our hands.

 

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