Bernie Sanders met his first catboy vtuber on a Twitch stream yesterday to assist promote presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and, I gotta say, he dealt with it fairly properly. Most individuals—not to mention U.S. Senators—would possibly’ve been extra hesitant, however Sanders took it in stride.
Twitch streamer and digital YouTuber Sykkuno greeted Sanders in his anime avatar moments after he joined the stream and defined why he wasn’t on digicam just like the others, which included host AustinShow and standard streamer Pokimane.
“Have you learnt what a vtuber is?” Sykkuno requested. There wasa temporary second of awkward silence earlier than Sykkuno repeated the query: “Have you ever heard of a vtuber earlier than?”
“Nope,” Bernie admitted.
“No? I am the primary one! Thanks for supporting vtubers!” Sykkuno exclaimed whereas AustinShow tried to maneuver the present ahead.
Sanders smiled and informed him he is “wanting excellent.”
The quick change was a deal with in an hour-long Q&A the place Sykkuno, Pokimane, Valkyrae, and Mark Hamill requested Sanders about politics and the upcoming election. They coated matters like his assist for Harris, the battle in Gaza, and U.S. healthcare. After Sanders made his departure, the dialog continued for an additional two hours with extra friends, together with Hank Inexperienced and Mark Cuban.
However Sanders stumbling into vtuber 101 was the most well-liked factor clipped out of the stream and shared throughout social media. It isn’t day-after-day you get to see an 83-year-old senator speak politics with a messy-haired catboy in a hoodie. And the meetup felt reflective of, if not a bit extra real than, the Harris marketing campaign’s current ways to attraction to younger voters. Brat Summer season could also be over, however Catboy Fall is right here.
this is perhaps the funniest second in american political historical past thus far https://t.co/kNGKpjhspH pic.twitter.com/Gmd2Qn1iumOctober 23, 2024
“This is perhaps the funniest second in American political historical past thus far,” X person therealpanzer posted with a screenshot of the friends lined up on the Discord video name.
I am by no means going to recover from the absurdity of seeing a nonetheless shot of human faces joined by a single vtuber. Even after their explosive recognition on Twitch and YouTube in the course of the pandemic, vtubers have not shaken all of the novelty off. However we’re getting there: Pink-haired vtuber Ironmouse not too long ago turned essentially the most subscribed-to Twitch streamer ever with over 320,000 subscribers earlier this month. I am sure Sanders will not be the final politician we see speaking stay on Twitch with an anime character, and I am right here for it.
