https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4z_M3gazQM
About fifteen years ago, Penny Arcade was looking for an artist to assist them with graphics on the site. Or something. So they decided to film the job interviews for a series of videos.
Robert Khoo is the accountant or something for Penny Arcade but he’s also like the manager. He seems to be the person in charge of the company, even above the two guys who make the comics (Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik).
0:45 – There were 1000 applicants. They narrowed it down to 12. They conducted phone interviews. And now they’re down to three applicants: Erika Greco, Lexxy Douglas, and Matthew Potter. Matthew is the star of this thing. He gets shafted hard.
1:00 – Here’s Lexy. She talks about stuff.
1:15 – Here’s Matthew. He says some shit.
1:45 – Here’s Erika Greco. She’s a fat chick with facial piercings. She likewise has stuff to say.
2:00 – Mike says, “We’re trying to ascertain their sense of humour and how they would interact socially.”
Indeed. That’s the entire point of this. This is the most shameful job interview I’ve ever seen.
They’re applying for an artist job. Nowhere, in this entire two part video, do we get a look at their portfolios. This is entirely about personality. And they’re open about it. They don’t see any problem with this.
2:15 – Robert Khoo says, “It will be a lot of, ‘How well will you fit here?'”
2:30 – Footage of Matt playing ping pong at the company ping pong table. Very important for job interviews. “How well does this guy play table tennis?” But this is what they’re doing. They’re looking for somebody fun to have around the office. They don’t give a fuck about their art abilities.
3:00 – There are like 10 Penny Arcade employees interviewing each candidate. How ridiculous is this? Ten people interviewing you at the same time? And they’re doing those ink blot tests that I’m pretty sure have long since been discredited. In any event, this pseudo-psychological bullshit is totally inappropriate at a job interview. Skills and experience, you fucking faggots. Try asking about that.
3:30 – Mike and Jerry both complain that Matt isn’t a funny guy. He was serious. Wasn’t a jokester.
Well, he is at a fucking job interview.
4:00 – Now Matt is being interviewed by Mike. Mike says, “Let’s say that Jerry tells you to shove the recycling up your asshole.” Matt doesn’t have a reply to this insane, homosexual remark. Then Jerry says, “That’s tomorrow. We’ll see how much we can cram up their asses.”
What does any of this…the guy is there for a job interview.
They uploaded these videos and didn’t see any problem with any of this. Sexual harassment? Would they ask that question to a woman? Maybe they would. I don’t know. These people seem to have no idea how to behave. But this question is obviously inappropriate for anyone.
5:15 – Some employee says, “Did Erika show you anything at lunch?” Mike says, “She told the most racist joke I have ever heard.”
She’s hired! Spoiler: I’m not joking. This fat chick with the face piercings who told a racist joke got the job.
Then Mike tells the joke. Everybody in the room is white, unless Robert Khoo is also there. He’s Asian. Nobody has a problem with any of this. We don’t hear the joke. That gets cut out.
5:45 – Then there’s footage of Erika telling this joke. The question was, “Can you tell us a joke” and she says, “The first joke I think of is so racist.”
First of all, why is this an interview question? Secondly, why would anybody tell a fucking racist joke at a job interview? Thirdly, why would you hire such a person?
She says that her “Republican Louisiana friends” told her this joke. She’s from Missouri, I thought, but she’s from the South in any event. Is this how you want to portray the South? Maybe it’s accurate. I don’t know. I’ve never been there. The stereotypes about how they’re all backwoods, racist hillbillies put me off ever wanting to go. And she’s not dispelling any of these myths, if indeed they are myths.
Then she tells the joke, it’s bleeped out, and everybody laughs hysterically. At “the most racist joke” that Mike has ever heard.
Then we cut to when Mike re-told the joke to all of these white people who work at Penny Arcade and they’re all laughing hysterically.
Here’s part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPPj9X4IHdU
0:00 –
Matt: So when are you guys going to decide? Is it tomorrow’s big pow wow? Or is it —
Robert Khoo: We’ll probably decide by the end of this week. The option of not hiring anyone has also been discussed.
So now here’s the guy in charge of this whole thing, at the end of all of this bullshit, saying, “Oh, maybe we won’t hire anybody.”
They’re here to get a job. It’s very hard for artists to find jobs. That’s why they agreed to do this humiliating shit. Appear on camera for these disgusting job interviews. They’re desperate.
I remember at the time, Mike would regularly say that he was looking for a friend with this thing. He was looking to pay somebody to be his friend. That’s what this whole interview was about.
This is how they treat prospective employees at Penny Arcade. “Can I stick the recycling bin up your anus? You’re not fun. Be more fun.” What about art? Are any of these people good at art? We don’t know. Nobody seems to care.
There should have been a lawsuit over this. You can’t fucking treat job applicants like this. What does any of this have to do with the job? Why are we bowling with this weird faggot?
Mike might be looking for a friend but these people are looking for a job. If you want a friend, put your leather chaps on and go to the local gay bar and see who’s interested.
Let’s continue the video.
0:30 – Footage of the job applicants bowling. You know…because they’re looking for a job. This is what you have to do if you want to get a job at Penny Arcade.
Were these people even paid for any of this? I really doubt it. So they got NOTHING for it. Worse than nothing. They got humiliated for the whole world to see.
0:45 – Now Mike and Jerry are in their office and being asked how the bowling went. WHO GIVES A SHIT? You’re looking for an EMPLOYEE. Somebody who can make a fucking web comic. What does bowling have to do with anything?
“Did it reveal their character that you were expecting?”
WHO GIVE A SHIT? They released these videos and thought that this was all a good idea.
So Jerry says that the bowling was a waste of time and they didn’t get “good data”. How much time do you have to spend with a person before you decide to give them a job? Most job interviews are like 10 to 15 minutes and then after that, the person will say, “Okay, I’ll give him the job” or “Okay, I’m not going to give him the job.” Ten to fifteen minutes. You don’t need to go bowling and play ping pong and have a series of pseudo-psychological tests and recreate Make Me Laugh. Just ask fucking questions. RELEVANT questions about their skills and experience.
1:00 – So now they’re playing Pictionary. This is all to find out who’s the most fun to have around the office. That’s what they’re trying to determine with all of this. That’s the whole point of the show. Who’s the most fun? Who does Mike want as his new friend?
2:00 – So now Robert Khoo shows the three job applicants the Penny Arcade website and says, “What is wrong with this site?” It’s some stupid pseudo-psychological bullshit that bad job interviewers do.
Then some guy who works there says to Robert Khoo, “I wonder if they’ll still want to work here after being asked these questions.”
He’s right. This is not REMOTELY how you treat job applicants.
Robert Khoo says, “That’s going to be my last question. Do you still want to work here? Because we just beat the shit out of you.”
Why did nobody say anything? That fat employee is expressing discomfort at all of this but maybe he should have done more. Maybe somebody should have explained that this is all insane. You can’t treat job applicants like this.
So now it’s Robert Khoo interviewing Matt. Matt is an awkward guy. He’s been awkward the entire time. But who gives a shit? He’s applying for a job as an artist. Not a Walmart greeter.
Robert Khoo says, “I want to know why, in the next ten minutes, why you’re better than those two girls out there.”
Here’s what I’d say. “Here’s my art portfolio. Has anybody even looked at it? All we’ve done is gone bowling and played Pictionary and somebody asked to put things in my ass. I don’t like any of that stuff. I like drawing. Look at my fucking comics and make a decision, you self-aggrandising piece of shit.”
But Matt says, “I feel like I do good work. And when I do open up, I’ll be a friendly, funny guy around the office.” Then they cut to Robert Khoo rolling his eyes.
This is what they’re looking for. Somebody fun to have around the office. And this guy knows it. Everybody knows it. That’s the whole premise of the videos. Find a friend for this weirdo Mike Krahulik.
Then Matt is asked if he has any questions for them and his question is, “What should I do to improve myself”. Something along these lines. He’s talking about his art portfolio. He mentions the art portfolio. And Robert Khoo just gives a random, pseudo-philosophical answer about working harder. “Confucius say sacrifice your social life.”
How does that help? He was asking specifically about his art. Is he bad at drawing hands? That’s the sort of thing he was asking about.
They didn’t even look at his fucking portfolio. Or anyone’s portfolio.
4:00 – Then Robert Khoo is an asshole to Lexy.
5:15 – Now he’s interviewing Erika . She’s the fat, racist chick with the face piercings.
7:30 – It’s revealed that Erika gets the job. Based on what? Bowling ability? Racist jokes? I’m telling you that NOT ONCE do we see ANYBODY’S art. This was just a fucking popularity contest.
8:00 – Robert Khoo is saying that he’s been talking with the people who didn’t get the jobs because he wants them to understand, “That it wasn’t anything personal.”
IT WAS ENTIRELY PERSONAL! They made a decision on who to hire based on personality. Who’s the most fun to have around the office? And apparently, their idea of a good time is hardcore racism
So that’s the end. What happened to Erika?
Well, she proposed to her boyfriend shortly after she got the job. This was in 2010 at PAX. That’s the nerd convention that Penny Arcade ran or maybe still runs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSBSf9L2oDM
Oh, great. Happy ending.
Well…then a little while later, she became a man. And then she quit I think partly because Mike Krahulik tweeted some stuff suggesting that he doesn’t much care for ladyboys.
Oh, she became Gavin Greco. Here’s his/her Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/gavgreco/?hl=en
That’s some beard. I can’t grow a beard. Does that mean that I’m not a man? No, I’m pretty sure that I’m still a man. Some men are just hairier than others.
She got a bunch of tattoos and has pictures of her with her shirt off. This is all her trying to be a man. But again, I don’t have tattoos and I hate taking my shirt off. Still a man, though. Reason being: Y chromosome.
And she is with some HELLA ugly people in these pictures. When you’re a woman with a beard, you tend not to attract the hottest people. This is circus freak show shit. And it was entirely of her own making.
There was no reason why she couldn’t continue to be an ugly woman. She chose to become a freakishly ugly man/woman.
And she/he gives his/her job as “designer”. Uh huh. So the Penny Arcade gang seemed to pick the wrong person. Maybe don’t hire the freak who tells a racist joke at a job interview.
What about Matthew Potter? What is he up to these days?
I don’t know. His name is too common. I’ll just assume that he’s doing a job that he enjoys and nobody is asking him if he wants to put things up his anus.
Oh, this is possibly him:
https://matthewpotterart.com/about/
He does portraits. No mention of him being a ladyboy. I’m thinking that he would have been the better choice. But that’s just me. I think that companies should look for somebody who’s good at the job as opposed to somebody who’s going to tickle our ribs with racist comedy.
Somebody in the comments to the first video says, “Man times have changed. Erika would probably by crucified for even thinking a racist joke was funny now days. She’s probably been canceled already.”
No, saying a racist joke at a job interview was outrageous even in 2009. I remember because in 2009, I was writing on the Penny Arcade forums about how disgusting this job interview was, how they gave the job to a woman who told a racist joke, and that Matthew was the right candidate. At no time in my life has it been appropriate to tell a racist joke at a job interview. Not in the 2000s, not in the 1990s, not in the 1980s, not in the 1970s.
In the 1960s…maybe it would fly then. But I’m just speculating.
But I wrote on the forums about how terrible this job interview was. It was just a popularity contest. And everybody dogpiled on me. “No. It’s important to find an appropriate fit in a workplace. That’s the most important thing. Who cares about skills and experience?”
Those fucking morons on the forum would always just agree with whatever the degenerates who make the comic would say or do. There was no critical thinking.
But Robert Khoo made a later video referencing my posts. Because I presented cogent arguments like an intelligent person is wont to do. I didn’t just blindly follow what the creators of the comic said.
And Robert Khoo said, yeah, maybe this guy has a point. It was just about personality. Maybe we should have focused more on skills and experience.
Mike Krahulik also weighed in. He suggested that I’m an idiot and that I would never get a job at Penny Arcade.
Robert Khoo left the company in like 2011. According to his Twitter, he hasn’t had a job since.
In 2013, there was something of a scandal over a Penny Arcade job advertisement. It suggested that you were going to be grossly overworked and grossly underpaid.
We are quite literally looking for a person that can do four jobs.
– You should have no problems working in a creative and potentially offensive environment.
We’re terrible at work-life balance. Although work is pretty much your life, we do our absolute best to make sure that work is as awesome as possible so you at least enjoy each and every day here.
– Annual Salary: Negotiable, but you should know up front we’re not a terribly money-motivated group. We’re more likely to spend less money on salary and invest that on making your day-to-day life at work better.
So it’s like 15 years later and I’ve never even considered applying for a job at Penny Arcade. Mike Krahulik can take his disgusting job interviews, his fondness for racist jokes, his low paying jobs, and his complete disregard for employees, and shove them right up his ass along with the recycling bin. And that fat fuck Jerry can watch.
That penny arcade documentary is still burned into my brain. It's the first time i remember that the internet felt like it wasn't my world anymore. I had been reading Penny Arcade everyday since high school and that shit just turned me off it permanently. Also it made me hate gameboy chiptunes because I would forever associate it with these scumsucking soydykes.Of course she became a man. who didn't see that coming?Also about Khoo: that evil chink was the one who put Gabe and Tycho on anti depressants and made them sell out. They became a PAX company first and foremost and the comic turned shit practically overnight. Not money motivated? They were making millions from that shit.You're getting offended by the fact she told a racist joke, but this kind of tranny is the person who would get you cancelled for saying something racist today. It was never about racism, and it was always about an in-group of california liberals. That atmosphere in the video represents everything about the new left and what the internet has become. It's framed as anti-racism pro-homosexuality but that's just a label. Inside they're disgusted at fags and hate mexicans just like the rest of us.
I can make my own observations on race and how certain people tend to behave but I always give people a chance and have never traded on racist jokes.