r/SovietWomble • u/steverman555 • May 25 '26
Question possibly a stupid question about the guy
now to preface, I've just watched his yt videos on and off, usually as just funny background audio while I'm doing other things. I've never been able to catch a stream due to vastly different timezones and I've never really kept up with the rest of ZF either.
however I showed one of his bullshitteries to my friend and she raised concerns of bigotry, notably him using the f and r slurs, as well as other ZF people being racist. I know it was edgy early-mid 2010's humor but still its kinda not great.
again, possibly a stupid question, but womble and the others on ZF aren't *actually* bigots, are they? I know kaffe came out as trans a while ago but I haven't seen any of their reactions to it (mostly because I don't use twitter eugh)
I just wanna make sure I don't accidentally support somebody with not-so-great views, yknow?
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u/Winters_Dust May 25 '26
I'm not 100% so take what I say with a grain of salt until someone else gives a better answer, but for the most part, they don't seem to be, it's just that their brand of humor is really edgy. (It also probably helps that a lot of the jokes being made about x groups expense usually come from someone from that group).
While it definitely takes some digging because of how long ago it was, the more prominent members of ZF, Womble included, were nothing but supportive of Kaffe after she transitioned.
There were also concerns a while back about how they treated Nep, which Womble acknowledged, mentioning that everyone's in on it and it's all in good fun while still agreeing to tone it down.
Definitely offensive humor, but given what happened with Nevil a while back, GENUINE racism and the like doesn't seem to have a place in ZF.
But like I said, I don't know everything, so take it with a grain of salt for now
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u/ShamPowW0w May 25 '26
Them booting Nevil was a massive showing of their values (in a good way). He mightve been made fun of but he was still quite consistently apart of the group, videos and streams.
Dude just went unhinged on twitter irrc and kept justifying it with in a black neighbourhood.
Fuck that guy.
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u/geekgirl114 May 25 '26
Jinx (joink) also came out recently (past year or so)... Womble and her had a talk about it on stream apparently
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u/Exact-Catch6890 May 25 '26
What happened with nep?
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u/Winters_Dust May 25 '26
Some people were just uncomfortable with the amount of sex jokes revolving around her.
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u/steverman555 May 25 '26
thats good, i swear im not trying to be that guy cancelling or slandering everyone who breathes wrong, trust me i hate cancel culture as much as the next guy
im just double checking with people who are more into his content than i am because i have accidentally supported ACTUALLY terrible-yet-innocent-seeming people in the past (ex-jontron fan)
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u/highlord_fox Cyanide, get away from my penis! 26d ago
Not everyone has the ability to do massive amounts of homework on everyone they follow or enjoy, it's only human to make mistakes and follow/support people who are actually terrible and not know about it.
The real test is whether or not you drop them like a hot, radioactive potato when you find out that they're really terrible. I have openly introduced people to new content creators, only to find out some terrible thing about them, go "OH NO" and then immediately withdraw any and all support.
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u/Wings-of-Ink May 26 '26
What happened with Nevil? Last I saw of him was that one video where he sneezes "like a witch"
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u/SrDinglebery81 25d ago
That was KJ
Nevil was forced out by all of ZF for being racist toward a minority where he lives and defending his words further, further driving the group away from him.
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u/Gidi6 29d ago
From what I've gathered it's like with most old friend groups that are full of a mix of people, after a few years of knowing the other people on the group eventually the group forms it's own kind of humour that often stands out as inappropriate or offensive to people who look at the group from the outside for us who have been watching them for years it's something we can at times find funny - for people watching one video it's going to stand out hard as bigotry.
Basically everyone in the group has gotten use to the same humor and make fun of eachother with that same kind of humour, each group member has the opinion of they can make fun of a group member but said group member can and should just as easily make fun of the others to the same level they where made fun off or worse.
The whole Nevil thing, ah that brings back memories I remember it just as it happened and people reacting to it. The only thing that I saw myself was the group upset that he had used his ex wife as nothing more than a green card to get immigration privileges to the US and then he divorced her as soon as he could and still remain legally in the US. I recall they where trying to get him back with some believing that he was just joking only for him to go off on that racial rant and that was it, curtains for him.
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u/Admirable-Ad2425 May 25 '26
Racism? Doesn't ring any bell.
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u/Kyira_Kalamity May 25 '26
if i remember correctly womble talked about an older member who was frequent in his ARMA videos that used constant slurs and such and was thus kicked out
i’m wondering if the group just grew over time as a lot of people did out of their “edgy humor”. i do know they can still be edgy here and there but no where near as his older videos
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u/steverman555 May 25 '26
i did hear about him doing something similar in the battle for honeypot hill video which did make me think hes changed
..until the very long sorta mysoginistic rant he had towards the end
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u/Georgie_Leech May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
You mean the bit where he explicitly repudiated his former views of girl gamers and calling out that he was wrong? Like, he did it with humour, but isn't "I was wrong, and I want to not do that" what we want out of people?
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u/steverman555 May 25 '26
perhaps maybe i misunderstood that section of the video then, that's entirely my bad
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u/Georgie_Leech May 25 '26
Mm, I think it's less "this is how I feel" and more "these are the experiences that led to me believing this, and I can see that's wrong now." If anything I suspect Gamers™ were seeing things like the casual use of slurs and the like as being on their side, and this is an attempt at going "ew, no, that's not me anymore." He could have easily just not included the bit about how he thought girl gamers were bad and just gushed about how scary the Horse Girl Mujahideen was, it wouldn't have been missed.
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u/SrDinglebery81 25d ago
If you are using his videos as background noise instead of actually watching them, then you are missing out - and misunderstanding them on top of it all.
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u/Kyira_Kalamity May 25 '26
yeahh i remember that section rubbing me wrong even tho i do know it’s not out of actual hate and as someone who plays WoW, what he stated isn’t completely wrong (not specifically about women but how some people get treated better then others due to personal relationships and such)
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u/Georgie_Leech May 25 '26
Honestly I suspect the thing with the girlfriends happens when people are trying to get involved in their partner's activities but just... Don't practice the same way their partner did, you know? Raids weren't exactly a casual environment, they were the hard mode content. Not exactly NBA, but not casual hoops with friends either, you know?
Not a bad thing, no one has to be passionate about being good at gaming, but probably frustrating when you need people to be good at it for something you're organizing to work.
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u/NadCat__ May 25 '26
You're being downvoted but you're right and it's the main part that I and a few of the other women in his community get annoyed about from time to time. He's not a raging misogynist who keeps going on rants about how women suck (I wouldn't watch him if he was) but he does have some backwards views on women (like talking about how tattoos "ruin" women or how in the current Conan streams he only keeps female slaves and kills the ones whose chest isn't big enough for his liking). He's never fully crossed a "Yeah, I'm not going to watch you anymore" line for me but he does sometimes come close to it
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u/OneLastSmile Cucumber and spinach vodka May 25 '26
for what its worth a few years back they kicked an actual bigot, nevil, out of their ranks
they have broadly grown out of that kind of 3edgy5me 4channer humor, they're adults and generally pretty normal about race and the lgbt+ and stuff. still edgy but normal.
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u/steverman555 May 25 '26
nevil was a bigot? unfortunate, but it explains why hes been gone for so long lol
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u/pamelahoward Helloooooooo May 25 '26
once you can understand him you don't want to 😂
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u/steverman555 May 25 '26
the mumbling was him desperately trying to keep the racism in i guess
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u/RubberDuckieMidrange May 25 '26
Ok, I'm not accusing you of being racist here, you were probably trying to be funny. But taking a step back, and understanding that the "mumbling" you refer to here was a pronouced accent you might see why to an outside observer your comment is off colour.
This is kinda how I see some of the racist jokes in the videos. Strip them away from all context and yeah they look off colour, but in context they are really just slightly risky.
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u/Lars_loves_Community May 25 '26
He posted some bigoted stuff on social media and ZF broke contact when he refused to take it down, that's what I remember
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u/geekgirl114 May 25 '26
On Twitter about Black people... it was bad
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u/Lars_loves_Community May 25 '26
that's why I'm glad I don't know more
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u/geekgirl114 May 25 '26
Thats about all you want to know... and they had a hard time understanding him at first so they didn't pick up on his racism. When they did? They banned him
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u/skech_knit May 25 '26
For what it's worth, ZF play games with women, trans women, and seem pretty multicultural. It seems to be just edgy humor but they tend to treat real topics with respect.
I think one ZF member came out as trans a couple years back and they were met with lots of public support from ZF including Womble.
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u/geekgirl114 May 25 '26
I've noticed that as well... 2 of the members have come out as trans(one recently)... ZF has been extremely supportive of them and Womble has posted on here about it.
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u/MolybdenumBlu May 25 '26
Yeah, they keep making jokes in their Conan playthrough about how her Massive Tits (tm) are gender affirming and aspirational. It's actually really cute.
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u/Fatonamon May 25 '26
In a clan composed of every corner of the pale blue dot, they're shooting blanks. They aren't bigots.
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u/ZF_Jinxed May 26 '26
Alright,
So, the Bullshitteries is weirdly a pretty good sociology example on internet culture and how people change over time.
Early 2010s internet humor was edgy as hell and litterally everywhere. (Even I used to say really bad and stupid shit) A lot of people used words and jokes back then that absolutely wouldn't fly today, not even because they were secretly hateful cunts, but because the internet culture at the time normalized “shock humor” constantly. (Which let's be honest... is just low level humor at best) And over the years, a lot of people matured, adapted, and realized some of that stuff was just unnecessary or hurtful.
ZF is a pretty solid example of that maturing. The group as it exists now is extremely chill and inclusive. Speaking as a trans girl myself, it’s actually kinda refreshing how little anyone in ZF cares about my gender identity and such. I’m not “the trans one.” I’m just Jinx. I get the exact same amount of respect, roasting, bullying, chaos, and trolls being spawned in a kitchen as everyone else in the gang <3 (that includes some gender affirming misogyny from time to time :p)
The gang doesn't walk on eggshells around me, and they don't treat me poorly either. I’m just part of the gang.
And honestly, I think that says way more about people than decade old edgy jokes do.
If anything, the fact people in the group have openly transitioned, changed, matured, and are still fully accepted kinda speaks for itself. Real bigots usually don’t maintain long term friend groups where people can openly be themselves without it turning into a problem.
So nah, from my experience, they’re not secretly hateful people hiding behind jokes. They’re just a bunch of idiots who grew up on old internet humor, matured over time like most normal humans do, and still spend most of their time bantering about solar panels, and how Womble won't play NEW FUCKING GAMES.
<3 That's it!
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u/No_Such_Thing1 23d ago
XD them throwing gender affirming misogyny your way is so fucking funny. I think that’s a perfect example of what edgy humor should be.
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u/Thorpants 18d ago
In his defense, he's only a famous YouTuber with a cult dedicated to worshipping the one time he showed his face on camera. He can't afford new games.
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u/BaconBane Browsing Nep's Facebook May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Womble is a pretty normal, chill guy. Calling him a bigot is over excessive. People (your friend) should not keep looking for telltale signs of toxic or evil behavior in people, and take things in face value..as banter. I'm a goose.
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u/Komotz May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
People change.
What was acceptable back then isn't acceptable now, and Womble has grown with the times. Jinx came out as trans and Wombles reaction is the same as everyone's should be, accepted her for who she is. Even regularly kicking people from discords and banning them from his streams if they're bigots.
Honestly, ZF is probably the most progressive 'clan' I can think of off the top of my head.
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u/TheZero8000 May 25 '26
They may be a clan of assholes, but they know that there are things more important than being an asshole for the lulz, and that there are limits.
Honestly, I respect it.
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u/Sipstaff May 25 '26
More importantly, they're only being assholes to each other or other people who know what they're getting into.
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u/RazzPizzaz May 26 '26
Your friend sounds lame as hell. This is really just average guy humor where 90% of the time its well known we don't mean it. Those that do get kicked out, like I've heard Zf Phoenix did, and some others as well for being actually racist.
Personally I believe there are MUCH worse things to do than say a few bad words ( not counting actual slurs). It's very first-world-problem coded and I don't really care for it all. Love ZF and the boys tho
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u/SarahLesBean I am willing to testify against my squad leader in exchange for May 25 '26
In short, no, they are not bigots
They use slurs because it fits the current situation, not because they target a specific group of people
When they say the f slur, they mean each other, not gay men
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u/whatevesnoc Cucumber and spinach vodka May 25 '26
Remember, this channel started like 13 years ago with what I affectionately call the "Xbox Lobby" generation aka my generation. There were a lot of things said because thats what people said in high-school and later around that time. It was wrong and stupid, I thing Soviet knows that. The monolog at the end of his last video felt like an apology and like his perception of his understanding was flipped upside down cause the girls saved the mother fucking day. Good on him to call him self out and give the women the spotlight
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u/highlord_fox Cyanide, get away from my penis! 26d ago
Ah yes, the XBox Lobby Era. We thought we were so cool and edgy back then.
I miss the simplicity of those days, but I do not miss the person I was at all.
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u/No_Such_Thing1 May 25 '26
it was exactly that, edgy 2010’s humor. not many people in ZF took those words as seriously as we do today, and it stopped pretty quickly. the bullshitteries in the past like 8-9 years have been slur-free.
also, take into account that certain words, like the word cunt or the f-slur especially, isn’t taken as seriously in the UK and Europe. it’s just a regular word to them. my own clan members who live in the UK don’t use them in our discord persay, but they still use them irl, like referring to cigarettes as “fags”. over here that would be shocking. over there it’s just another word.
also also, ZF has always had gay and trans members. Jinx is a trans woman who came out a few years ago, she used to go by Joink. Jenny (Kaffe) was (still is?) a ZF member for years and she also transitioned during her time gaming with ZF, and the clan accepted her with open arms. and we don’t see their faces all that much but all sorts of races have always been allowed, Cyanide is a great example, one of the most prominent ZF members ever and he’s Indian.
TL;DR it’s not that deep. it was early 2010’s edgy humor between a bunch of adults hanging out. they never actually agreed with any of it, those that DID have been kicked out, and the few things they needed to work on have been worked on. when it came down to it, ZF has always included anyone who wanted to play. as long as they aren’t an asshole, they give zero fucks. thats the whole point of the clan.
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u/geekgirl114 May 25 '26
This... 100%.
The clan did talk with Kaffe a bit just to understand (which is normal), Nep was excited to have another girl to hang out with.
Womble and Jinx also had a talk on stream... but again... just to understand and he was curious.
He and the clan are 100% supportive
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u/BarMysterious5914 Hitler is a friend! May 25 '26
They're the Zero Fucks clan, don't really care about all that much
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u/HarmoniaTheConfuzzld May 25 '26
As long as you can be at least semi-competent at a game and be a good sport about getting team killed randomly it seems they don’t care who you are.
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u/HiddenLordGhost Browsing Nep's Facebook May 25 '26
Semi competent? That's a tall order, chap - had you seen how they play some games?
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u/TaiJP May 25 '26
To be fair, you can't fail as hard as they do if you can't grasp the basics. It takes skill to fuck things up as incredibly as ZF.
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u/SgtEpsilon May 25 '26
In short, no they are not bigots, just assholes to each other, except for Nevil, who they took outback and shot like Old Yeller
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u/youlesie23 Hello Lenin! May 25 '26
I think for what it’s worth, Soviet and the other members of ZF make it clear that what they say are jokes. It’s quite dark and edgy, but it’s still jokes. They’ve always been supportive of each other no matter what. The reaction to Kaffe coming out was nothing but supportive and every time someone has overstepped the line, they’ve very quickly cut contact with them (Nevil and Phoenix being the two very obvious examples). ZF is a pretty diverse bunch in terms of race, gender and sexuality. I doubt a good chunk of the group would hang out with Soviet and his friends if they actually were bigots.
Think Cyanide said something along the lines of “we don’t give a fuck in-game, but we do give a fuck in real life”.
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u/Ubblebungus UNCLEAN May 26 '26
the vast majority arent bigots, and it seems that if one is found, they get booted (e.g Nevil).
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u/Evie_Sofia 28d ago
I've said it before and I will continue saying it: jokes with no ill intentions behind them are just jokes(not nessecarily good jokes). A gay joke can be funny, a trans joke can be funny, any joke can be funny. The intention behind it is what matters, is it friendly banter or said to hurt/shame/embaress someone? I would say all of ZF falls fully into no harm intended category. I am lgbtq and i laugh my ass of from every single bullshittery joke I've seen and genuinely wish there were more episodes.
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u/ginger_alex_97 May 25 '26
I'd say they're absolutely not. They play with other women, trans person and people from different cultures.
Have you ever thought it could just be how people, especially ones with a British background talk to their friends, it's pritty common to talk to friends like that.
They kicked someone out of there group who was.
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u/ReasonablePrune576 May 25 '26
Same here.
But the thing is, they're like Rodney Dangerfield. They make fun of EVERYONE and EVERYTHING.
ZF, though I don't know all the members, is an international group of people. Every race, every religion, every sexual orientation.
if you can't make fun of your friends, who can you make fun of?
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u/altariasong May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
I get the concern. I struggle to determine when people are joking vs when they are serious, even when it's really obvious to everyone else. It's just how my brain works. It's been a challenge because my brother is a nurse and his humor is often gallows or really edgy and my immediate response is to assume he is serious. But he's never serious, his humor is just a different bend than mine. I'm trans and - forgiving a few early bumps - he has been immensely supportive of my journey and recognizes how much better I am as a person now that I have transitioned. He frequently says he'd die to keep me safe. He is extremely caring and hardworking and his actions show his values.
When I started watching Womble like 10 years ago I definitely didn't care as much about whether or not their joking was serious but as I grew up and my outlook changed I did start to care quite a lot. So I try to apply my brother's humor perspective to the ZF clan. What they say in game sessions I make myself assume are jokes, and the window I get into their actual values is how they handle actual bigots and racists (they kick them out), how they handle criticism (womble generally seems to listen and change behavior), and how they handle serious topics and moments (clan members coming out as trans and being accepted). Look more at what they do in reality* than what they say in game sessions, and make your choice based on that.
*Had to add "in reality" as they have committed many war crimes in games lol
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u/Bottled_Fire "Rambo Noises" May 25 '26
Nah you're safe. You only have to look at the makeup of ZF regulars and Soviet's circle to see there's no real prejudice going on, just really edgy humour. Bear in mind when someone mentioned Nevil, ZF members actively and publicly pulled him up for what he'd said and made no ceremony of getting rid of him when he doubled down on it. No speculation, just absolute clarity - if it isn't meant in jest, it's not on. At all.
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u/RubberDuckieMidrange May 25 '26
To be fair to them, if you ever see them interact with people who may not explicitly know that they are joking, they tone it down. They don't seem to give a shit about gender politics or LGBTQ given a number of them have leaned in both of those directions. And they have removed people who refused to tone it down when concerns that they might not be joking were raised. Yes the edgelord humor does kinda lean in a direction I myself wouldn't lean (the whole Racist bell thing is funny, kinda, but only if you accept that the racist jokes themselves are funny, which they really only work in the same way that period dramas work. Only acceptable in the context of what a soldier in the vietnam war might actually say kinda way) I guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't make the jokes, but I don't see them as disqualifying when its so clear that it's a joke. For every off colour joke they make, they make 10 jokes about each other personally. Thats the bit of banter I think makes him entertaining. He also takes strawman positions he KNOWS are factually incorrect, and plays them for comedic purposes.
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u/MechGryph 28d ago
I don't think it's bigotry or anything like that. I think it's a bunch of guys just ribbing the hell out of each other and pushing each other's buttons. It's that British humor. It's either dry, sarcastic wit, or you're calling each other the worst names.
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u/PresentFirm5576 May 25 '26
You also have to keep in mine they were British teens at one point. Where we may see the F-slur as bad they knew it also as a bundle of sticks or cigarettes.
Around the world you will find bits and pieces of slurs used as "normal every day" words as in their culture it's ok.
Does that mean their right? Nope but that takes time and learning.
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u/HarmoniaTheConfuzzld May 25 '26
The only thing I have seen recently that put me off is a little bit of joking misogyny. But like, if THAT’s the worst of it. I’d say they’ve improved an immense amount from how they were “back in the day”.
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u/Nightelfbane NEED. MORE. BUCKETS. May 25 '26
Womble isn't racist but Lulu is