PE Removal: The Singularity (MrSpherical)

Alright so after seeing this video, I don't think this guy cuts it.

Thanks to Valkerone for permission.

What’s The Work?

MrSperchical is a YouTuber who created a PolandBall like series that details various events and politics in history. Countries create AI for reasons revolving around the concept the U.S. and China rushing to develop a powerful A.I, resulting in the creation of the Singularity. The candidate I am removing?

Who is The Singularity?

Read here.

Why doesn’t it count?

So watching the video, I don’t think this has the proper tone needed for a villain to count for this trope. The work is fairly comedic for most of the story, and while things do become darker when the Singularity gets involved, I still can’t say it’s to the point where it’s serious enough.

First of all, it’s A.I. takeover of the world is played for laughs. A news reporter explains that everyone has lost their jobs and no one can afford anything thanks to A.I. The reporter then gets fired from his job mid-interview and states that he is going to join the rabble. The Singularity shows up then proceeds to announce that they are mass-producing Star Wars sequels. The thing is that while causing everyone to lose their jobs to the point where they can’t afford anything does sound bad on paper, it is treated as fairly lighthearted here. The only onscreen effect we have of people losing their jobs is via the news reporter getting fired which is played as a gag of him getting canned while doing his job only to cheerfully state “Looks like i’ll join the rabble”. It also doesn’t help that it is followed up with the Singularity announcing that it produced 242 Star Wars sequels with 400 more on the way. Both the firing of the news reporter and the AI taking over are played lightly and while it’s true the mass-production of Star Wars movies may be done to showcase how soulless an AI world would be, that doesn’t mean it is showcasing it in a serious manner. And the fact that it is showing it through Star Wars movies of all things does show it isn’t meant to showcase it that seriously.

My second issue is that most of the reactions towards it’s actions are fairy comedic, which also dampens the seriousness of it’s actions. When the reporter gets fired, he says “guess I’ll join the rabble”, when the AI announces it’s takeover on the news, America says “That’s it, no one messes with my capitalism” and when China is killed, his response is “LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST REPUBLIC OF CHINA” to which America follows it up with “China! I mean, I hated you but still.” While comedic reactions aren’t inherently disqualifying, they can pose a problem if they happen frequently enough to the point where if the character’s reactions to their crimes aren’t meant to be that serious, then that means your reaction is probably not meant to be serious either, especially in lighthearted works.

And my final issue is that it’s screen time is only for a few minutes, which wouldn’t be an issue if not for the fact that most of it’s screentime has a lot of comedic moments and only truly starts to get threatening within the last few minutes of screentime, which I really don’t think is enough to make up for the fact that it’s silly 90% of the time. This is a Polandball like series which I don’t think are conductive enough in general of Pure Evil considering how memetic they are with most of the stuff being for laughs.

Verdict?

Strong cut.