Seventy years ago the USA intelligence agencies failed causing a Hawaiian naval base to be destroyed which in turn gave World War II a new combatant. In 2013 and 2014 a CEHo attempted to move revenues away from being 85%-90% Leo and failed even worse. But #totaldrama failed too.
We have not supplied an adequate explanation as to how management could be so inept. In a few short months they fired their #1 talent, hired an obese priest to be their main star, reduced the presence of the lovely and talented Sarah Lane by 50% and the only new show not to be cancelled is Padre’s Corner which has yet to get one ad, outside of networkwide-weekly-buyouts. This is not a joke even though it may seem like one.
So today I offer two possible answers. One hit me when I was perusing Richardya on Soundcloud, this piece had lyrics that made me think of psycodelic drugs.
http://soundcloud.com/richardya/rabbit/s-MBPIW
That is one answer, psycodelic drugs. The other answer is a mental condition brought to our attention in the invaluable comments section of our little niche kitsch blog.
In order for a person to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) they must meet five or more of the following symptoms: Five or more? Our boy is 9 for 9.
<1> Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
Let’s think about this. Have you seen the chair he sits in? Do you know how often he speaks to his staff when not on camera? Try never. He makes everyone, including Vint Cerf: the father of the internet, wait for him. He loves associating himself with people like Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs when he should be associating with people like Prof Jeff Jarpiss. Does he tell you fans about his fabulous 49’er seats, or that he goes to the Superbowl or that he sits front row at concerts and flies first class and on and on.
<2> Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
The man speculated that if he was offered thirty million dollars for his network he would think about selling. Uh Huh. (video proof) He also considers himself 1st class elite and surrounds himself with pictures of himself and his network logo. (Look at his desk) He is very infatuated with his looks and his relationship. Why does everyone know about his fancy toilet and TV, oh the success he is.
<3> Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
Have you ever heard him mention a friend from his actual life? No. Never. But how many times has he mentioned Kevin Spacey and Steve Martin and Paul Simon and fucking Regis?
<4> Requires excessive admiration
His girlfriend and news director could be two of the biggest suck ups living in the eastern hemisphere of planet Earth. Le’gum quotes #Soup like other people quote Shakespeare and Aristotle. The Soupguzzler hires people like Jeff_N and EffenDund and Patrick who are huge fans. He wants to be around people who worship him. If you examine all his co-hosts from Steve Gibson to Dicky Debartolo to @ProffJeffJarvis they all heap excessive amounts of praise on him. (not Thurrott)
<5> Has a very strong sense of entitlement, e.g., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
Why not fly first class and stay at Claridges where royalty stays? People serve him coffee and bring him lunch. People plug in his laptop. He hates his fans but loves their admiration. He has a 24 hour chatroom where one can praise him or hit the road.
<6> Is exploitative of others, e.g., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
Pay the stars on MacBreak Weekly and Windows Weekly pittance. Pay guests (besides JCD) on TWiT zero and expect them to beg to be on his show. Tear Jason away from his family on Sundays to work his show. Change editors hours to working nights from working days on a whim. The Hebrews were treated better in Egypt than his employees are treated. Chat room mods are even bigger suckers, those freaks serve him because he says their nicks twice a year on camera.
<7> Lacks empathy, e.g., is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
Ruins lives without thinking about it. Bye Bye Erik Lanigan. His poor fans spending their last penny on TWiT mugs so he can go on yet another vacation. [This symptom <7> of the disorder is very similar to prior <6> if you think about it, so the examples there belong here too, but I am not typing them again.]
<8> Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
Gee, he thinks Kevin Rose and Dvorak ripped him off. He thinks every podcaster on Earth ripped him off yet pays zero homage to the podcasters before him, such as Adam Curry and Harry Gilchrist. He is so jealous of Kevin Rose for selling Revision 3. I don’t even like Kevin Rose but the fact that he caused so much pain to the two-faced freak makes me like the little guy a bit.
<9> Regularly shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Does alleged sexual harassment count? How about if we factor in laughing at sexual harassment training? How about treating employees like slaves? How about exploiting personal relationships on air to fool the idiot fans in #twitlive? Does making everyone wait for you qualify? How about expecting everyone to appear on your podcasts free and never appear on theirs, no matter how many times they ask?
*Note* I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV, I barely even watch TV but if the #soupguzzler can diagnose us, we can diagnose him. Tit for tat.
Did Leo start out Narcissistic as he has developed into now? I don’t remember the early TWiT cottage years as being the hell hole the Shithouse is now. Leo would prop up that net cam on the counter and it was sorta cool watching the radio (listening for me, I work with my hands and power tools) show and he’d actually interact with his live chat audience in a positive way. The most telling narcissistic attribute Leo carries is #3 , no real life friends!!! Leo has centered his life around Lisa and to the lesser extent, his children and that’s it. Meeting up with fans or telling fans your going to meet up in a different city monthly, is not a substitute for real friends that actually like being in ones presence . if I have one and only one grip concerning this post, its somehow tyeing a great song by one of the great bands to Lisa’s face.
John» Quote comment
Did you ever read the leosaffair.blogspot.com entry? Find it strange allegations posted – over a decade ago – look familiar to anyone reading Total Drama today?
There are also PLENTY of abusive incidents from Twit’s early days. Laporte has had YEARS to get used to saying the most vile and nasty BS on camera, but have nobody call him out for any of it. The only thing which has changed is now more people are starting to point things out.
Perhaps his most infamous incident is wishing Steve Jobs dead, when it was known Steve was very ill. Then he goes on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and talks about the mans death afterwards? Seriously?! Long may Apple continue to ban someone who spoke in such a manner. I hope nobody at Apple ever forgets Laporte’s vile words.
Because he’s being called out more often, his digger has taken to sitting off-camera and waiting for the live stream to stop after Sunday Twit, before she leaves. Making sure he doesn’t have a chance to say too much she doesn’t want him to? Losing battle there..
The other change from earlier days is, unfortunately for him, I think he now has someone ruthlessly feeding his issues for their own greedy ends.
Instead of trying to help him become a better person she enables many of the worst aspects of his personality. The dolls and shirts aren’t done just to make money. She knows how to feed into his emotional needs. He’s barely able to put his pants on and show up on time, much less run a business. So he feels very reliant on her.
I don’t think he’s happy with the situation he’s created with her. As is evident by the expanding waistline.. Filling an inner void, are we?
earlydays vs now» Quote comment
I have read that blog post, written by a very pissed off ex that was clearly abused by Soup. Out there in the open so wife #2 must have made her deal with Soup in the interest of the kids.
John» Quote comment
This person’s recollection of events may or may not represent reality.
She clearly was a smitten fan hoping for more than she was getting.
I didn’t find the blog post particularly detailed or convincing. (as in: It provided woefully little factual content for its claims of deceit.)
NormansThirdNipple» Quote comment
Didn’t Col. Walter E Kurtz have this disorder?
PeterO» Quote comment
Are you telling me that someone who has chosen as his profession to perform in front of an audience might actually turn out to be narcissistic? Really?
No wonder Léo feels superior if this is the worst critique you could come up with. He is!
Just remember that he could probably walk away from most of the drama any time he wishes. The dude is a brilliant, bored-out-of-his-mind genius who’s mostly trying to pass the time till his next performance.
NormansThirdNipple» Quote comment
NormansThirdNipple, not all “performers” choose to be narcissistic or opt to use their medium as a vessel to amplify their egocentric ways.
It can actually be said that a vast majority of people who decide to be on TV or the silver screen value their privacy above all. But this doesn’t seem to be the case with Mr Laporte and this is one of the points that Ghost Dog made in his excellent article.
You are absolutely correct in saying Leo Laporte “could probably walk away from most of the drama at any time he wishes.” But here is the point; he is not going to because of all the factors stated by Ghost Dog which I will recap in my own words in the hope that you will be able to understand the substance of the column. Leo wont walk away as he can unashamedly continue to feed on his sense of self importance at TWiT.
Furthermore, and in a strange way, the studio setup and his and Ms Kentzel’s “projected gravitas,” sadly gives the weaker and gullible viewers of TWiT a reason to empathise and blindly support and lap up his distasteful, conceited, lying, and sexually exploitive ways.
As for Mr Laporte being a “brilliant, bored-out-of-his-mind genius;” your comment sadly belittles the whole of mankind if this is your benchmark of being a genius. To this end, it can be said that Leo Laporte is definitely not a pillar of society or show any qualities that should be looked up to or admired without hesitation.
I would ask you to reread the article with an open clear and unbiased mind. And yes, really?
DB09» Quote comment
I’m frankly not sure if we agree or disagree, so let me try to rephrase:
Narcissism is a common trade among those who enjoy performing in front of an audience.
Without knowing the unknown unknowns of Léo’s life, how are we to judge how highly (or lowly) he values his privacy? We know he sure wasn’t pleased when Gawker ran Lisa’s sexts.
I don’t quite see the close connection you seem to imply between the two issues, much like I don’t agree with your other point:
Being a genius may lead to making a great contribution to society, but the latter (or lack of) doesn’t suggest you are (or are not) the former. It also doesn’t imply that you have to strive to be a role model.
Btw: If you look at Léo’s track record, he is a successful owner of a small media business, he has two dozen employees in a small town off the trodden path, he is/was on the board of his kids’ school, and is contributing to charitable causes.
I’d say he’s the very definition of a “pillar of society.”
NormansThirdNipple» Quote comment
I would say that Steve Jobs was a brilliant malignant narcissist, but I would never say that about Leo. Leo is educated, and his intelligence is blunted by his narcissism.
Those with malignant narcissistic personality disorder believe they are entitled to everything: not just their money, but yours too. You owe them.
And they believe they’re never wrong, it’s the rest of the world that is wrong, no matter what the facts indicate.
By definition, malignant narcissists are sociopaths, and Leo fits the bill. He’s a terrible father, and not really able to form intimate relationships with other people; they are just a means to an end. Oh, malignant narcissists are great at faking intimacy, but they’re not capable of a true emotional bond.
When you listen to Leo, take note of how quickly and often he turns the conversation back to himself, no matter how irrelevant or off-topic his comments are.
When he doesn’t really know anything (and on MBW and Security Now!, that’s most of the time), he tries to inject some comic relief just so he’ll have something to contribute, which more often than not derails the conversation. But as it’s all about him, he doesn’t mind that he’s just done a disservice to his audience, because his fragile ego was served.
A lot of the research today on MNPD suggests that these people are created when they are young children, possibly due to a schism occurring in their relationship with one or both parents.
And here’s the worse part: if your parent has MNPD, you either rebel against that parent, or you become a narcissist yourself. Not very good odds.
In fact, I think malignant narcissists are so dangerous to our society that we should be locating and detaining them in a facility separate from the rest of society. To narcissists, we are all just lambs for them to prey on.
And one last thing: MNPD is incurable. Because the narcissist believes that everyone else is wrong and he/she is right, it can take years just to get them to realize that they are the problem, and the disorder runs so deep that even after a decade or more, most therapy ultimately fails.
macsimcon» Quote comment
With regards to Soups issues.. Even a live stream, with many cameras, wasn’t enough. Nor an office with glass windows. He needs Dropcams to feel like you’re watching him too. Someone must pay attention at all times! It’s very impressive that he’s taken his issues and built a business around enabling them. But you know it’s actually related to real problems when he’s unable to stop, even when he starts to harm himself with his own actions.
Soup’s aware he has something wrong. He’s said it, multiple times no less, on camera. Although he’ll usually reference it as a lack of impulse control, lack of filter, or related to attention deficit disorder. So it’s not a question of “if”, but rather “what” the issue is.
Even though he appears to have many elements of being narcissistic, his low self-esteem about things (like weight and looks), doesn’t totally fit that.
BHB’s guess was histrionic, which I think could be a better match. Check Wikipedia to see what you all think. When I tell you it includes a “PRAISE ME” acronym, in the article, you know it’s off to a good start!
Not a doctor» Quote comment
Mr. Laporte is a guy under a lot of pressure. He HAS to deal with expensive and flaky high technology with cameras running. He’s got tinnitus and depth perception problems. His job forces him to adopt a friendly, easygoing persona which even Gandhi or the Dalai Lama would have a hard time maintaining given the frequency of annoying tech problems.
It’s possible he might be haunted by the emptiness of worldly success. There are striking parallels to Citizen Kane. I suspect rich people have a hard time dealing with the down to earth shortcomings of everyday life after tasting the heights of luxury and the obsequious attitudes of those who deliver it.
Mr. Laporte is asked to engage with a mass audience while remaining a tech world insider forever above them and their small time hardships. It’s a sad spectacle to watch his most valuable media asset (his personality while live reading ads) diminish through overexposure and repetition. If TWiT experimented wth shutting down the studio stream for a month and focused on finished shows, a lot of the pressure bearing down on him and the staff would be relieved. They could fully be themselves off the air. The audience would be left wanting more. Viewers could enjoy professional broadcasting and not be subjected to the disillusioning realities of behind the scenes production.
dno1967b» Quote comment
…but who will cover breaking news?
John» Quote comment
Could Mr. Laporte’s narcissistic behavioral anomalies be caused by the use of mood-elevating drugs? Too much, too little, whatever.
The latest TWIG, #279, contains abundant narc-festing. In case you think life is too short and time is too valuable to listen to the complete episode, here a couple of examples (all times are approximate and lifted from the audio download): 56:30, Mr. Laporte explains why he values Mr. Jarvis and Ms. Trapani; 1:26:55, Mr. Jarvis reciprocates; 1:38:14, Mr. Laporte concludes a silly, pointless and protracted description of this year’s YouTube Rewind by saying, “…and I am in the hunt with some big bucks looking to sign some YouTube stars…um interesting…we’re gonna lock them in for several years. Hey, my advice kids–get an agent before you sign that deal!” Are you listening Mr. Merritt?
Just wonderin’ and best regards.
freheel» Quote comment
I just got banned on TWIT for say “I just think bitchin’ about Comcast or cell phone battery time a waste of bandwidth.”
John the third» Quote comment
Padre’s Corner costs Twit nothing to produce since Padre does all the work except maybe the final editing. The lights and equipment in the studio are always on day and night so having Padre there doing something costs nothing.
In fact, this issue came up during the Inside Twit that was done the day before Erik Lanigan was fired.
Leoflub» Quote comment
On a tangent, the pay of presenters is mentioned in this thread. Does anyone know how much Steve Gibson gets for SN? I know Leo stated he should really give him more (there’s a simple solution there Leo), but I wondered how much that might be.
drp» Quote comment
Leo rarely spoke to me. Lisa once told me that was because I didn’t have breasts. You also forgot to mention how he threw my family into tailspin right before Christmas last year. I used to think he was an ok guy just being steered the wrong way by a greedy, manipulative woman. But I see now, neither Lisa or Leo have a soul.
Jeff Stewart» Quote comment