Last week, I took a moment to explain why Minecraft, the world's biggest video game, sucks hard balls. And in my "research" for that post (five minutes), I found a number of Minecraft recreations of 9/11 over on YouTube. All of these tributes are misguided at best and tasteless at worst …
... but oh, people, this is just the tip of the blocky, 8-bit iceberg. As the Deadspin staff and I discovered, there are a great many Minecraft recreations out there, and they are something to behold. Keep in mind that many of these videos were made by people under 18 years old, which makes for a good public reminder that people under 18 years old should be manacled and kept away from the general adult population. Let's get into this:
Slavery: The Movie
Created by: Retro Turtle
Starring: Adam Stockbridge and Bailey Sims!
Sample dialogue: "I live in a small town in Africa. We are all happy. No interferenes buy anyone. Such a laugh we have about if we were captured!"
Cheery music? At times, yes
Does the video mean well? Yes. These kids seem to fully grasp that slavery was bad. Bonus points for the English accents.
Sample YouTube comment: "great job this. shows that people has changed so slaves are not tolerated I am impressed"
Minecraft Burning Cross
Created by: Jason Galley
Description: "Burning a cross in minecraft"
Cheery music? No. You get lo-fi butt rock with your burning cross.
Does the video mean well? The burning cross is presented without comment. IT IS WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO BE.
Sample Youtube comment: "I should purchase minecraft"
Minecraft Auschwitz
Created by: Matheiu M
Description: "This is a little reproduction of the Auschwitz Birkenau camp in Minecraft. Just a little thing we did. Hope you like!"
Sample signage inside gas chamber: "Take off your clothes"
Cheery music? Nah, tasteful piano
Does the main guy flick a switch that burns all the women and children at the end? Yes
Does the video mean well? I'm skeptical, given the comments
Sample YouTube comments: "This is fucking hilarious omg I need to make a video of the camp my friend and I made it makes Auschwitz look like something out of a Disney movie"
* "Jeeeezus christ dude with the ending really not funny but funny wtf"
* "laughed way too much"
* "great build, but never forget those millions of innocent people who died in real life during the Holocaust, never forget!!!!!"
Minecraft Hotel Sex
Created by: WhiskeyKingofcats
Description: "1: Please forgive me for the bad quallity of the animation and video. I worked real hard, but that wasn't enough. I needed better animating skills. But THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH FOR THE HALF A MILLION VIEWS!!!!"
Sample dialogue: "Then they had sex made lots of babys and became poor.."
Cheery music? EDM, baby!
Visible insertion? No
Does the video mean well? No. WhiskeyKingofcats is in this strictly for the LULZ.
Sample YouTube Comments: "i watched this and im 9 i want to see the sex"
* "This is probably the most autistic Minecraft video on Youtube, and that's a fucking big accomplishment"
Minecraft Rape
Created by: GamersoftheAwesome
Sample dialogue: "Hey, what are you doing? What are you doing? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? OH MY GOD!" [Rapist bursts into flames.] "Well, that was SOME rapist!"
Cheery music? No music.
Does the video mean well? Nope. Although the rapist dies at the end, so lesson learned, I guess.
Sample YouTube Comment. "Usually I wouldn't like this type of video because it's made by little kids... But that ending though..."
* "Epic keep it up"
Minecraft Suicide
Created by: Hardcore gaming tips
Description: "Minecraft - Don't abuse your wife | A sad story… A sad story of a man who comes home to his wife...who is not home."
Sample letter left by abused-wife character: "sick of you bein drunk and hitting me I TOOK EVERYTHING WITH ME.BY"
Does the video mean well? The male character seems a lot more upset that she took his diamonds with her than anything else, so no.
Sample YouTube Comments: "This is not funny. Abusing woman is no joke and happens all over the world. Your sick to this this is funny!!!"
* "1:55 SPIT THE COCK OUT OF YER MOUTH AND SPEAK!"
Drew Magary writes for Deadspin. He's also a correspondent for GQ. Follow him on Twitter @drewmagary and email him at drew@deadspin.com. You can also order Drew's book, Someone Could Get Hurt, through his homepage.
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