Spill.com talks about Ryan Davis and this is how I responded

Edit: I've been looking through the comments, and noticed that the trend went from the community saying fuck you to Spill.com to agreeing with the Spill crew that we need to get into shape and that this blog post was unnecessary. I was actually hoping to see what you guys think, and now I'm feeling like I'm changing thoughts on what I said before. I probably should of gave Spill more credit about keeping yourself in shape because it is important for us to stay healthy. Also, I guess I got too sensitive about this and I apologize. It was probably too much for me to expect these guys to know more about Ryan Davis besides his death and I really shouldn't of expected them being more empathic towards Ryan. I might make more edits to this blog later, but if you want to read it now, here it is.

Hey guys, on June 9 I noticed that the movie/humor website, Spill.com, actually talked about Ryan Davis on there podcast show, The Daily Spill, where two of the site's critics, Korey Coleman and Cyrus talk about recent news of movies and entertainment overall. Here's the link to the podcast for anyone who wants to listen to, but I'm going to tell you guys my thoughts on how Spill handled the story.

The Podcast

On there front page, I saw Ryan as one of the four dudes in yesterday's Daily Spill logo where he is in between Johnny Depp as Tonto from The Lone Ranger and the lead guitarist for Metallica. I have a feeling if Ryan saw this picture, he'd probably be stoked seeing it. And I did not listen to anything else they talked about on the show, I just jumped into the Ryan story to see what they were gonna say. I thought if that picture of Ryan was on that logo, maybe Korey and Cyrus (real name is Chris Cox) from Spill actually knew Ryan from the past somehow and wanted to talk about him as a person and why this news is so tragic. Maybe the Loading Bar guys pressured the Spill crew to talk about this because maybe when those guys were on Spill, they might of saw Ryan and Giant Bomb as inspirations for their work. Instead, the Spill crew went this direction:

When they got to Ryan's death, they were stating some facts about what they found about Davis and his death, saying he was a former editor at Gamespot and then became a senior editor on Giant Bomb, mentioned that Giant Bomb was one of Time Magazine's best websites of 2011, stated that he died at the age of 34 and died in less than a week after he got married. Of course they felt very sorry for Ryan as they felt he died too young and felt extremely sorry for his wife, family and friends having to deal with such a loss. This was something I appreciated, they brought up facts about Ryan's career and his legacy and they seemed genuinely sorry for him passing away too early. That said, their podcast went into a direction that I thought was utterly unnecessary.

After stating how sorry and sad they were hearing this news, Cyrus then brings up a quote he found from someone saying "When was the last time you pressed the X button?" This quote would lead to Korey and Cyrus using this story as an example of encouraging people to stay healthy because they brought up that Ryan was a "big guy" in their podcast and assume he might of died from health problems. While they do acknowledge that they themselves aren't in the best shape either and they are right about what health problems can do to someone's life, this to me seemed like an excuse for them to take this story somewhere where it did not need to be because they did not know what else to talk about. Granted later in the podcast, they admitted they never met or heard of Ryan before this story and once they saw a picture of Ryan, they probably thought he did not take care of his body enough and that might of resulted to his death, thus causing them to transition to tell the audience to find time to stay in shape. Right now, I don't know if I should feel angry or not because they really had little to work with because of their lackluster knowledge about Ryan, but at the same time if they are willing to put a picture of Ryan on the Daily Spill logo of June 9, that would imply that these guys knew more about the man besides his death and would emphasize why this news is so tragic for a selected group of people.

The one moment that had me furious beyond belief was right around the end of their discussion on this news as Cyrus says out of nowhere "Maybe his new wife stabbed him to death, who knows". I shit you not. He said that. That was by far the stupidest and not welcome assumption I've ever heard. Sorry if I'm overreacting, but that just pissed me off! It just just doesn't seem right to just randomly assume that. At least Korey stated that he felt really bad for his wife and did not accuse her of something terrible.

And one more thing, they had links to all of the stories they talked about, but for Ryan Davis, the source came from Rueters.com and not from Rorie's blog from this site. They probably went with Rueters because that had the facts about Ryan Davis' resume, but still, I would of rather have them cited Rorie's article. To me, that would of been an honorable move on Spill's part to provide the link.

My Response

After listening to this, I was pretty torn with what I listened too. I was happy that the Spill.com crew bothered to talk about this news and see them send their condolences for the loss. However, moments like them telling people to stay in shape and Cyrus' idiotic assumption about Ryan's wife had me either raising my eyebrows or really upset. So I thought of writing a comment to them, but instead of sounding angry, I collected myself and wrote what I thought was a restrained and critical response to the Ryan Davis bit in the podcast.

First thing I did is to actually provide the reason why he did, and most of us know it was of natural causes. I even provide a source to one of our forums that had the information. I wasn't sure about directly making a source to Mr. Richard Davis' twitter account, because I wasn't sure if directly linking to his account just to find an answer to their podcast was bad or not. So I chose the board that had the quote instead.

Then I stated that I appreciated that fact that they got to talk about this news. Then I stated what I thought about this news in two sentences, saying it was a shame that he died so young because he was an amazing video game personality and approached his job in such a positive and humorous direction. I even made a comparison between their site and Giant Bomb because like what Korey and his crew have done with movie content by providing video reviews and a variety of podcasts, Ryan and his co-workers did the same, with video game content providing excellent content all around that was for the most part, freaking hilarious. I was probably being too hopeful that when they were going to talk about Ryan Davis, they would actually connect themselves with Giant Bomb, but that did not happen.

Lastly, I had to tell Cyrus how I felt about his comment about Ryan's wife. I avoided expressing my thoughts on their direction to lose weight, but that comment had to be addressed. For those who do not know, the Spill crew have a tendency of bashing their members in the comment section whenever the members themselves make rather outrageous comments that the crew might find offensive. I decided not to take that route and say that I just found that comment inappropriate and unnecessary. I also said that based on what I've listened to on their podcasts, Ryan and his wife were madly in love and she would never do such a thing. I then asked him to please never make an assumption like that again if you truly know little about a news story like this.

I hope my feelings seem justified about this. For me if they put Ryan's picture on that logo to talk about this, I would think they would talk more about Ryan rather than starting off sending their condolences and then go on talking about maintaining your shape, which they said is hard to do in "nerd culture" as they call it. If you really know little about the man, why bring this up at all? Now I think about, Spill should of avoided this story if they do not know who Ryan Davis is and just talk about movie news. I also hope my response was the right thing to do. I made a restrained response that wasn't too critical and I wanted them to know more about the man by providing more information. I hope I did not do anything stupid linking the board that was about Ryan's dad giving the reason why Ryan passed away. All I know is that I'm still waiting for Cyrus to respond back to me so he can apologize, because again, that comment should never been on the show.

Man I wanted to get this out! Some feedback about how I handled this would be much appreciated. RIP Ryan Davis

They sound like they don't have the professional maturity to talk about death and life while still being engaging. I'm sure they didn't mean harm. They just didn't know how to approach the issue with any craft.

I agree that since they had little to work with and had little to no knowledge of Ryan, they shouldn't have exactly assumed it was his weight and started telling people to watch their health.

However, WE have been watching this guy in videos for years, we've seen him sweat and lose breath and struggle to move, so in my belief it is our DUTY to take note of his weight and wake up and realize that obesity is not just a thing that you ignore.

I don't know what took his life and neither do you, but as fans and followers we know that it was probably the number 1 cause, and we shouldn't ignore that. It's NOT disrespectful to be aware of these things and to discuss them maturely.

May he rest in peace, and like I said in another thread, he will be my motivation to remain in shape for years to come. I'll remember his loving face and warm humor and then get off my ass and run around the block.

@jouseldelka: You're right, it is true that obesity is a serious issue and something we do need to keep an eye on. Much like you, I will also watch my weight and stay in shape.

Or better yet, if they had little to no knowledge of Ryan, they probably shouldn't have talked about it at all. Or if they felt the need to, they should have kept it short.

I've never liked Spill from what I've seen in the past, and this certainly doesn't do anything to help my perception of them.

@jouseldelka: Some pearls of wisdom right there.

Fuck those guys. You're comment was more than acceptable though, don't worry. If they give you shit then fuck em even more.

I must have missed the cause of death explanation, where did you get that info?

I think a couple of the jokes were out of taste, and they shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. But they kept it relatively short, at least one of the two guys sounded bummed out about it, so I dunno. They probably shouldn't have mentioned it, but it is big news. And I have no knowledge of this podcast, but it looks like they cover all the big news stories of the day, so they couldn't just ignore it. I'm torn with this, it was a little unnecessary but not exactly a huge deal.

Hey, just be thankful FOX News didn't catch wind of this story.

fuck those guys.

I haven't seen a non-cartoon version of Cyrus in a while, but I'm pretty sure he's around Ryan's size. Just pointing that out if it makes a difference. As far as the logo goes, since you actually listen to their podcasts, then you probably know that their "video game news guys" aren't the same as the people who do the podcasts generally speaking.

That's Cyrus apparently, he should take some of his own 'advice'.

@poveren: This is where I found the information. It was a thread about Ryan's dad tweeting Ryan's cause of death.

Wow. Fuck them.

You're overreacting. This kind of tasteless humour is all over the radio and Internet, you're just reacting to it this time because they're making jokes about someone you actually cared about. If you're a celebrity or even a quasi-celebrity this stuff happens when you die.

I'm 99.975% sure he didn't make the assumption that his wife killed him. It's an over the top joke fishing for a reaction and it looks like he caught you.

You can't be too angry about them talking about living a healthier life. From the little we know of Ryan, he was a heavy drinker, ate unhealthy food and was a smoker. You have no idea whatsoever the affect his lifestyle had on his death.

It's understandable that you're offended but you need to look at the context. Writing them a letter is unnecessary and they probably eat that shit up.

Like most of what those guys do, my main problem with it is that it's not funny. I´ve been listening to their movie reviews and some podscasts for the last couple of years and my main problem with spill is that they're not funny, they act like they're funny and laugh at their own jokes but everytime they try to be "hilarious" they just fail miserably. I respect their opinions in movies but if you are going to make jokes on a story of someone dying you have to know how to do it and not go for the obvious "he's fat, LOL"

Sometimes things just open themselves up to discussion, wether Spill knew anything about him or not.
They're having a conversation about it, It doesn't sound like they're being assholes. They have their world, and it's seperate from giantbomb's you don't do anything a favour saying things like "Fuck those guys"

It's worse to react to it in a negative way, because they really don't mean any harm.

Maybe it was because the whole time they were just speculating about how he died and how people who play video games are unhealthy but the comment about his wife stabbing him was just tasteless. I mean I don't expect these guys to know the full story but maybe just look a little bit into the people you are going to cover on your podcast.

@hunkulese: That's the thing, because that I do care about Ryan Davis and gotten to know him over the years is why I felt upset at points during the podcast. Trust me though, no letter was written, just a middle sized comment that's all.

I think you're well within your rights to criticize them, I just don't know if I would have bothered. No one can stop someone from saying whatever they want, and even if you could, what would you accomplish? A ban on any off-color jokes regarding Ryan Davis? I'm sure he would've loved that. You know what a wilting violet he was when it came to politeness.

I'd also probably level the same thing at folk such as @jouseldelka who believe it's their DUTY to lecture people on their lifestyle. Ryan was not a child, how he lives his life is really none of our business unless he chooses to allow us to make it such. Enjoying his video content really doesn't mean he needs to change his lifestyle so that you can continue having what you want.

Weather or not Ryan's death had anything to do with his weight, it's still not bad to remind people that they need to keep their health in check, especially considering the sedentary lifestyle we all engage in to some degree. Fact is, 34 year olds don't die out of nowhere for no reason. Regardless of what the actual cause was, we all could be a little bit healthier, in general.

I can understand your frustration Bucket, but when your post seems more mature and educated than the premise of their podcast I can guarantee I will not be clicking any of their links or listening to any of their podcast. In the same respect, I am sure that a number of podcasts on the internet are saying stupid things about Ryan passing away. We would be here a long time to cover every idiot on the internet who spouts off about this terrible tragedy.

What was said on the podcast was in poor taste (despite me liking the spill crew), this thread is in poor taste. Why?

The man is dead, how he should have been, how he could have been no longer matters. It's how he was that should be remembered, and he was great.

From the way you describe it, it seems as though the wife stabbing him joke was supposed to sound like respectfully backpedaling off being too judgmental about weight. Like "Hey, were not blaming it on weight for sure because what do we really know." Let's be honest, as much as everyone is terrified of coming within 100 miles of mentioning it, who didn't immediately think about Ryan's weight when they learned he died of natural causes? I'm torn up but you can't expect everyone in the world to have such empathy. Hell, most of us don't have it.

Hey, everyone. I'm Jason Murphy, former member of the Loading Bar (the now-defunct video game branch of Spill.Com). As a few of you may know, the Loading Bar was dissolved a few months ago. Jeff (the primary video game editor) and I went off to form our own, unrelated site. I haven't listened to the podcast in question, but wanted to extend our condolences to the Giant Bomb community.

Of all of the people we encountered at E3 this year, Ryan was the only one that left Jeff starstruck. He's one of the biggest reasons we do what we do and when word got out of his passing, we were crushed. Giant Bomb, and more specifically, Ryan, are two of the biggest inspirations for us. In the hours and days after his death, it became very clear that we weren't alone. The gaming community was dealt a blow, but we're better from having him on the front lines.

1. Ryan was a big guy. He himself, anyone who saw him, and anyone who knew him knew this as a fact. If someone wants to take the opportunity to use that as a way to say "eat better and exercise," okay. The problem isn't that they discussed that matter. The problem is that they assumed it was the cause of death (which to be honest, sleep apnea can come along with being overweight). However, Ryan made no apologies for his weight and lifestyle, so who fucking cares?

2. Was the "wife stabbed him" comment light-hearted in tone or deathly serious? Nonetheless, I have a feeling that Ryan and/or Anna would probably laugh their asses off at that notion, even following it up with a "uh uh uh uh uh" moment.

3. You are commenting in a forum section that has been flooded by hundreds of people writing blogs and creating tributes to a man they never met...and then people are calling into question why Spill is talking about Ryan on the podcast? People are allowed to talk about it. Hell, Chobot "talked" about it on GameTrailers.

Beyond that, Spill.com sucks shit anyways. Why the hell waste your time over there?

Man I used to hear people always recommend Spill.com for movie review and stuff, but now suddenly everybody hates it because they talked about the death in poor taste? Color me surprised.

I immediately assumed weight had something to do with it too. Ive seen and heard of too many young people dying because of their weight. Its hard not acknowledge it as a likely factor. If your very overweight you either have to accept the fact that your life expectancy is severly reduced or do something about it. I didn't take offence at what was said, they didn't pretend to know anything about what happened and they made that clear

I'm sure the comment about his wife stabbing him to death as a cause was a stab at the actual cause not being released to everyone. Like a "for all we know..." moment.

Sounds like ignorance, I am certainly guilty of making comments about the death of people in the past that would be wildly inappropriate to say to someone who knew them. I'm just smart enough not to publish it on the internet. Death can be a difficult thing to report on with respect if you're used to lambasting movies for laughs.

I think this is pretty normal. When an actor dies, you've got people that only saw them in the movies saying stuff like "He's been terminated" in an Arnold voice or saying off color remarks. The general public hears about the death in passing, says a few things and moves on. For us, we've "known" Ryan since he started at Gamespot and have a deeper connection to the crew than the typical gamer or techie. It'd be like how I felt when Michael Jackson passed away, I was sorry for the family but didn't have much to say about it. However, the super fans that had followed him since he was in the Jackson 5 were devastated and I'm sure they were outraged at some of the comments.

If anything, I think they brought up a decent point about health. Ryan died of "natural causes" which is enough to spark a general health discussion. He had sleep apnea that was exacerbated by weight issues. He lived large, drank whiskey, smoked, and enjoyed more pleasures of life than most people. A lot of us live as if our bodies are an obstacle for pleasing the mind or simply a vessel for pleasure and its easy to not think about health when you are young. It may not be the right discussion at the time, but if it causes a few people to think about health even if it wasn't the cause of death for Ryan, then I'd say its a decent thing to discuss eventually.

The wife stabbing thing sounds like a joke someone would say that didn't know him, so I don't find it that offensive. You just can't get mad about people not feeling as bad as you do.

I didn't get that far into your post because it sounds like whining. I feel about about Ryan but I don't expect anyone else to feel or grief about it the same way I do. Quit being a little bitch.

You know. I know we all feel shitty about Ryan's passing, but you can't expect everyone to take it so seriously.

I mean shit how often have you, or your friends, or the crew of GB joked about someones death before? It's just something that happens. No need to get offended and be over sensitive about it.

I think we all need to take a step back and take a deep breath before responding to people ignorant about Ryan. I mean shit ive heard Jeff and Ryan joke about various dead wrestlers several times, and some dead rappers too i think. It's not a big deal.

Couldn't of said it better myself, we all loved Ryan but it's not disrespectful to tell people the importance of staying in shape.

Spill.com is great. It's a crude crew, with diverse personalities and opinions, and not unlike GiantBomb, all of their content is impromtu, and full of often crude honesty - the kind of honesty you get from a podcast. Being a crude individual myself, I can't help but admit that my thoughts went to the exact same places (obesity likely being a factor in Ryan's demise, and jokingly thinking to myself that he just got married and how fucked up it would be if his wife had a hand in this...).

So if I was into podcasting, and I'd have a semi-impromtu conversation about Ryan's demise, it'd be likely that the result wouldn't differ much from whatever Cyrus and Korey said. Ryan having been a rather crude guy himself, according to recent recollections on the memorial bombcast and from what we've seen and heard from himself over the years, I don't think he'd mind it one bit. So why would you? I get that grief strikes everyone differently, but I'd advise you to grow a thicker skin. I certainly don't get mad anymore at things I read and hear and see on the internet - for the most parts. That wasn't always like that, and it's always been an awful waste of time.

Do you really want to be guy who takes offense at every little thing? Nothing stings as much as a perceived slight, and all of it is on you. You can be certain neither Cyrus nor Korey did mean to offend.

I don't care what kind of health advice they want to spread around, Ryan is dead. They shouldn't be disrespecting him like that.

Theres nothing anyone can do about it now, the man also suffered from Sleep Apnea. Not exactly the best thing to have, everyone. We don't know the cause but i'll be damned if that couldn't of been part of it.

This also brings me to another point such as that Hollywood life and shit and other websites. If they had no affiliation with Ryan and just want to talk about the man dying to get hits or some shit they need to keep their mouths closed.

People deserve to be healthy, but i'll bring the point up again that Ryan is gone. Saying he should of lost weight or something or even pointing that shit out is absolutely disrespectful.

As a side note to all this out rage, Jason Murphy, I would let you have your way with me in a broom closet good sir.

@seppli said:

I agree with this guy.

Just to note, I did make a change to this stating my changing thoughts on the subject. But yeah, now I'm starting to feel dumber for making this blog in the first place. I'll promise to have tougher skin for something like this next time. Korey and Cyrus really did not mean any harm. I still think that back stab joke was unnecessary, but again, I don't think Cyrus meant anything offensive when saying that.

That's who spill are to me, I like them. They are are a crude crew, but I seriously doubt they were out to offend people on this. Cyrus did start it off by saying how sad the story it is and Korey then agreed with him. You can't really blame them for picking up on things such as Ryan's health, I'd be lying if I said that the same things didn't go through my mind at first, though I know it's none of my business to speculate.
I do feel that the op is being a little over sensitive.

Never heard of Spill.com and now I have no intend to go there

I think it's very easy for us to get defensive about this kind of thing and I understand that but I doubt they meant any harm here. I wouldn't worry about it.

On the one hand, just from looking at Ryans picture, hearing he's dead at 34, and knowing nothing else. It's pretty easy to figure out how he died. On the other hand, Korey Coleman is maybe one of the more annoying internet personalities ever, in that "I think I'm the loveable RDJ when I'm really just a horrible jackass that everyone around seems to detest" kind of way.

I'm just gonna go ahead and say that if anyone here suggested even with all the layers of sarcasm the internet allows from "jk" to a suffocating number of emoticons that Ryan's wife murdered him you would be banned from this site, so maybe we could all just stop trying to justify these clowns.

I like those guys a lot at spill and for the most part i don't think most of what they said was all that bad. Just to warn everyone to say healthy and you never know when you will go so try and be active as much as you can is the summary of what they said. The comment that Cyrus made about Ryan's wife was out of line and i understand being upset on that point. But i do believe they mean well and its a bit of an overreaction to throw hate their way. If you don't want to support them that's fine but its seem like it was coming from a heartfelt place.

Guys, it's still too soon to be discussing/speculating back and forth about what took him :(

A least give it few weeks. Please guys.

I've seen this posted a couple times and feel compelled to respond. People of all ages do die out of nowhere all the time. SIDS is probably one of the most depressing things there is.

The younger you get the more uncommon it is but it does happen. I had a neighbor die out of nowhere in his 30s. He treated his body like a temple. He didn't drink, didn't smoke, ate healthily and was active. Then bam one day heart attack and he was gone.

Life is fragile.

First of all: who? And second: why should I care?