"I would never marinate a Congresswoman."
October 21, 2020 7:01 AM   Subscribe

People were surprised when Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez set up her own Twitch channel, but she demonstrated why the channel was set up with a streamed game of Among Us to help get out the vote. The stream had a number of notable guests, from collegue Representative Ilhan Omar to streamers such as Pokimane, HBomberGuy (who got the first kill on AOC in game) and DisguisedToast (who made the statement in the lede right after proceeding to marinate the Representative.)
posted by NoxAeternum (54 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Rep. Omar also posted a Tweet with the specs of her PC, which afforded a thousand+ (mostly positive) reactions:
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1318737296120778752?s=20
posted by wenestvedt at 7:17 AM on October 21, 2020 [21 favorites]


My daughter has latched onto old Animaniacs episodes lately, and she asked me this morning the significance of the line "while Bill Clinton plays the Sax". Suffice to say, politicians appealing to the younger folks has come a long way since then.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 7:20 AM on October 21, 2020 [20 favorites]


I hope they have great mod teams and config the shit out of their bots.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:25 AM on October 21, 2020


My daughter has latched onto old Animaniacs episodes lately, and she asked me this morning the significance of the line "while Bill Clinton plays the Sax". Suffice to say, politicians appealing to the younger folks has come a long way since then.

"While AOC calls out sus" for the new season?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:27 AM on October 21, 2020 [11 favorites]


Someone posted about how AOC is sus and Omar is on thin ice and I was like holy shit what did they do?? And that’s how I learned about the Among Us stream.
posted by brook horse at 7:40 AM on October 21, 2020 [19 favorites]


I enjoyed this meme-ing of the HBomb murder. His timing was impeccable.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 7:42 AM on October 21, 2020 [10 favorites]


AOC, in addition to being an advocate and a vote for a bunch of solid policies, is a once-in-a-generation political talent. I'm just so impressed with her.

How many pols could do something like this and be anything other than ridiculous? I mean, I'm sure someone somewhere is saying she's silly or unserious for doing this, but I'm also sure that person is doing more damage to themselves than to her.
posted by mark k at 7:46 AM on October 21, 2020 [36 favorites]


The original stream if you have 3.5 hours to kill (including the pre-stream standby loop).
posted by ardgedee at 7:47 AM on October 21, 2020 [8 favorites]


My 12 year old son is obsessed with Among Us, so I find this simultaneously cool and more evidence that I am old.
posted by Mchelly at 7:59 AM on October 21, 2020 [6 favorites]


Also "“Orange is sus,” referring to Donald Trump" is beautiful.
posted by Mchelly at 8:03 AM on October 21, 2020 [9 favorites]


My roommate (who is way more familiar with this) was watching the stream last night, and said he could tell that AOC wasn't all that familiar with the game. He briefly explained the concept to me - it sounds kind of like that party game where one person is the secret assassin and is covertly trying to "kill" people by winking at them, and the other players need to figure out who the secret assassin is. Only it's set on a spaceship with little 8-bit characters, and there are two secret assassins instead of one (and you "accuse a culprit" by throwing them out the airlock).

He said he could tell she wasn't familiar with the game because in the rounds when she was one of the assassins she just sort of stood around, and everyone else was also a little too paralyzed to do anything themselves because "dude, I don't wanna throw a congressperson out of an airlock."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:07 AM on October 21, 2020 [10 favorites]


It's a close relative of the old party games Werewolf or Mafia.
posted by bonehead at 8:08 AM on October 21, 2020 [4 favorites]


dude, I don't wanna throw a congressperson out of an airlock."

IIRC, right after this Rep Omar ripped through everyone like Jason Voorhees while maintaining a perfect "What's going on?" facade...
posted by mikelieman at 8:10 AM on October 21, 2020 [32 favorites]


My timeline this morning was mostly about how this got Ninja to stream with women.
posted by scruss at 8:26 AM on October 21, 2020 [4 favorites]


It's a close relative of the old party games Werewolf or Mafia.
Right? It's basically Winky-Murder in SPAAAAAAAAAACCE!
[Edit - Oops, guess I didn't read EmpressCallipygos' whole comment]
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 8:26 AM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


I just hope that that having two of the most divisive Democratic Congresspeople betray and murder people doesn't backfire somehow.
posted by ckape at 8:29 AM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Given that most politicians avoid unscripted situations like the plague, this is kind of bold.
posted by quillbreaker at 8:41 AM on October 21, 2020 [5 favorites]


"Kind of" bold? When gamers are, on the whole, not super-receptive to women, much less WOC, much less WOC in positions of pwer? I would call it suuuper bold -- and more power to them, too! :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 8:49 AM on October 21, 2020 [37 favorites]


I mean, politicians haven't avoided the plague this year either, so why not.
posted by stevis23 at 8:51 AM on October 21, 2020 [27 favorites]


Ilhan's daughter roasting her mom on Twitter for being "old" is my near-daily wholesome timeline cleanse.
posted by Beardman at 8:52 AM on October 21, 2020 [13 favorites]


How does Among Us on Twitch even work? They seemed to behaving their meetings via voice on Twitch and yet still commenting on what was going on — doesn't that give the game away? I've never played it, in case that wasn't obvious.
posted by Ampersand692 at 9:00 AM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


I caught this right as they spaced AOC early on and the whole thing was absolutely delightful.

It doubled as a peek inside the day-to-day socialization of members of the House, too, which was fascinating. Amash being ideologically perpendicular to AOC in public but the two of them just being able to text each other casually was boggling.
posted by greenland at 9:00 AM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


How does Among Us on Twitch even work? They seemed to behaving their meetings via voice on Twitch and yet still commenting on what was going on — doesn't that give the game away? I've never played it, in case that wasn't obvious.

I suspect they were chatting on Discord and only unmuted for the meetings. If they also watched the stream, they could have cheated but surely the Squad is too good for that! Justin Amash was watching, so true to his nature, might have tried to be a spoiler.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:06 AM on October 21, 2020


It's standard practice to use voice chat only while playing, since leaving your video on can give you away.

(to translate: the saboteur/killer status is revealed to one person with a red screen at the start of the game, and that player attempts to hide this fact for as long as they can. Watch the video and see how this could be a problem.)
posted by mookoz at 9:23 AM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Is Rep Omar's viewpoint up anywhere?
posted by BS Artisan at 9:27 AM on October 21, 2020


Ilhan's daughter roasting her mom on Twitter for being "old" is my near-daily wholesome timeline cleanse.

Yeah if you're not following both Ilhan and her daughter you're missing out on some great internet comedy, 99% of which involves Isra ruthlessly dunking on her mom for being a "boomer" on Twitter.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:31 AM on October 21, 2020 [8 favorites]


After seeing the WaPo highlight of the game last night, in combination with the first half of Enola Holmes, I had a really vivid and unusual dream sequence of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez starring in a very, very bloody crime show. By the final scene, her hair was let down, she had beat the bad guys and saved her SO, then got up from the grass lawn and walked off in the dusk.
posted by polymodus at 10:46 AM on October 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


My roommate (who is way more familiar with this) was watching the stream last night, and said he could tell that AOC wasn't all that familiar with the game.

Yes, when she announced she was doing it, she said she had heard of the game but had not played it.
posted by odin53 at 11:17 AM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


I really hope she doesn't ever Milkshake Duck.
posted by Scattercat at 11:33 AM on October 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


Man this is so fire!

(That’s what the kids say, right?)
posted by misterpatrick at 11:54 AM on October 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


I watched about an hour of this and it was so genuinely fun and nice to watch, a refreshing item in 2020. Also Corpse Husband has a startlingly deep voice and it was funny to watch her obsess over it. Definitely created a lot of fun highlight moments and something I enjoyed.
posted by msbutah at 11:54 AM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


I loved this! I only found out about it because I was planning to watch the McElroys streaming, which they accidentally scheduled for the same time. Later on, I played myself, and noted some rando naming their room "aoc" to draw people in. My tastes in entertainment are way too childish lately.

It made me think of the traditional game of American politicians, which is golf, something that closes out people without much money, and allows for private dealmaking with cronies. Streaming, and watching streaming, does require some equipment, but it's equipment that is mostly also used for work and family, and it is accessible to everyone with an internet connection. If the country lives, I would like to think that streaming games (or gaming privately) would become more common for politicians in the future.

Plus, like golf, it requires no serious physical fitness and is generally alcohol-adjacent.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:12 PM on October 21, 2020 [5 favorites]


speechless with admiration. And a little incomprehension. But mostly admiration. And hope. This Congress woman from the Bronx gives one hope that the MattGeatz and BenSasses of the world (much less Trump and co) are not fated to win.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:30 PM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


I think it speaks highly of AOC's character at just how uncomfortable she is at lying.
posted by cazoo at 12:40 PM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Let's not take that line of thought too far; apparently Ilhan is a relentless axe-murderer. :D

Also I caught part of this stream last night and wow, it is so refreshing to see elected leaders who are intelligent, sociable, kind, and just all around the best that America has to offer.
posted by Balna Watya at 12:44 PM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


I watched about an hour of this. When the first book on how millennials & gen Z changed politics, it should start with an account of this in the intro.
posted by morspin at 12:46 PM on October 21, 2020


Among Us clearly isn't AOC's game. A reminder that she's a League of Legends player in Silver III, which is within the top 10% of players.
posted by persona at 12:54 PM on October 21, 2020 [7 favorites]


she's a League of Legends player in Silver III

Makes you wonder if Congress prepared her for the toxicity in League, or vice versa???

Among Us has the advantage that since games are so short, and everyone eventually gets to be the imposter (and you're teamed up randomly), that you don't usually have grudges. League, not so much.
posted by meowzilla at 1:03 PM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Just in case anyone is wondering...

A basic definition of “marinating” another player means that you are spending a lot of time in their presence in-game, so that when you make the occasional foray apart (in this case, to kill one of the other players), the marinated player still has a sense that you have been with them all the time. And in this game, they then report that the killer couldn’t possibly have been you, since you spent “all” of your time in their company.

It takes advantage of the persistence of the sense of being accompanied, and their distraction of trying to complete other tasks, so that they do not notice the brief moments when you were not there. The marinated player thus becomes an unwitting, and often very vocal, alibi provider for the actual killer.

The term derives from soaking the other player in your presence, so that they are left with the sense of it even while you are gone.
posted by darkstar at 1:35 PM on October 21, 2020 [29 favorites]


Can we throw the have a beer thing out and make pundits ask each other if they feel like they can sit down and play a social deduction game with their candidate?
posted by cmfletcher at 2:51 PM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


I like that they got a picture of a dead orange spacebean for the article.
posted by fleacircus at 3:31 PM on October 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


I caught part of the stream last night and had a blast watching a few snippets this morning with my 11 year old daughter who loves both AOC and Among Us. She's requested movie night on Friday be replaced with a full watch of the captured stream.

It was fun watching representatives who are close to my age (35), who share similar interests, and who are genuinely interesting and fun people. With almost half a million people watching the combined streams and my daughter's immediate questioning as to whether I had a voting plan in place, it seems like it was a very successful few hours.
posted by Quack at 4:31 PM on October 21, 2020 [8 favorites]


Yeah, it was obvious that AOC hasn't played Among Us and wasn't a "pro" gamer, which honestly given the fact that she's supposed to be a hard-working representative is probably for the best, but this was clearly not the first game she's ever played either. But she ran the stream relatively well - even the pro streamers were impressed at the quality of the graphics her team managed to pull together, and the setup seemed pretty robust on her end.

Apparently they'd even managed to work out how to moderate a Twitch stream without violating the First Amendment, a hilarious requirement she was at least partly responsible for, so there's an unfortunate amount of Trump boosting in the chat.
posted by Merus at 6:20 PM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Do you think tweeting that they "kills AOC" earned Hbomerguy a little red mark in their FBI file? And what about that name anyway?
posted by rtimmel at 7:05 PM on October 21, 2020


IIRC, right after this Rep Omar ripped through everyone like Jason Voorhees while maintaining a perfect "What's going on?" facade...

For most of the stream she didn't have her mic muted, and in one game everyone heard her laughing maniacally as she slaughtered a crewmate.
posted by Panthalassa at 8:09 PM on October 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Just to add to the “marinating” concept, it appears that the player Disguised Toast is not only highly skilled at it, but also coined the term.

Having watched a few examples of marinating, I’ve noticed that a very powerful tactic is for the killer (who is marinating another player) to make an initial statement that “The killer couldn’t possibly be $MarinatedPlayer, because they’ve been with me the whole time.”

This not only encourages the marinated player to recall all of the time that the killer spent in their presence, but also induces the marinated player to trust (and defend) the killer further, because the killer has just come out with a statement of support for the marinated player. The marinated player’s short-term survival depends upon such statements of support, so they are even more likely to ally with the killer in mutual defense.

It’s really a very clever bit of social engineering.

I’m now thinking of ways this similar tactic is used in other small-group dynamics...
posted by darkstar at 3:12 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]




As a Gen Xer who does not play on twitch, I had to look up the meaning of “poggers”.

It’s evidently a term uttered by younger gamers at a sudden, surprising, skillful game maneuver or development.

Derived from “pogchamp”, itself derived from “POG champion”, itself derived from “Play of Game Champion”, an expression for someone who demonstrates extraordinary game skill.

Holy cats is this making me feel old.

posted by darkstar at 6:02 PM on October 22, 2020 [4 favorites]


According to this video, poggers/pogchamp ultimately comes from a literal game of pogs. (I'm not an expert but I don't think I've ever heard "play of game". "Play of the game" is close but it's pretty limited to Overwatch ppl and I think they abbreviate it to potg.)
posted by fleacircus at 7:43 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]


Awesome - thanks, fleacircus! None of the references I found linked the expression back to its invention. They just attested what appears to be a folk etymology / eggcorn for the “POG” portion of the term.

I’m especially gratified because I am not too old to be unfamiliar with POGs.

Also, does anyone remember ALF? He’s back. In POG form.
posted by darkstar at 9:59 PM on October 22, 2020


One of my fav streamers Brian Kibler made this Among Us video encouraging his fans to vote and it is pretty great. I esp love how the white cop votes for Orange.

Orange is Sus. VOTE!
posted by lazaruslong at 8:16 PM on October 28, 2020


Wow ... way to find out a kid I hung out with in high school is a popular streamer now. I’m glad! He was fun—
posted by Countess Elena at 8:40 PM on October 28, 2020


Kibler? Nice! Yeah, he's even more than just a popular streamer, he's one of the all-time greats in the modern Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone worlds.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:05 PM on October 28, 2020




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