BadComedian

Evgeny Vladimirovich Bazhenov (Russian: Евге́ний Влади́мирович Баже́нов[2], IPA: [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ bɐˈʐɛnəf]; born May 24, 1991), better known by his internet nickname BadComedian (or Evgen BadComedian, Russian: Евге́н BadComedian[3], IPA: [jɪvɡʲˈen]) is a Russian YouTube personality and film critic.[4] He features in an eponymous YouTube channel where most of his reviews were uploaded.

In this Eastern Slavic name, the patronymic is Vladimirovich and the family name is Bazhenov.
BadComedian
BadComedian YouTube channel logo
Evgeny Bazhenov on Vidfest 2016 in Moscow
Personal information
BornEvgeny Vladimirovich Bazhenov
(1991-05-24) 24 May 1991
Sterlitamak, Republic of Bashkortostan, RSFSR, USSR
NationalityRussian
Websitethebadcomedian.ru
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011—present
GenreFilm criticism, comedy
Subscribers6 million
(September 2020 estimate[1])
Total views990 million
(September 2020 estimate)
NetworkCarambaTV (formerly)
100,000 subscribers 2012
1,000,000 subscribers 2016

Bazhenov makes critical reviews of Russian (and occasionally, American, Indian and Ukrainian) movies.[4] His first review was uploaded on March 28, 2011. Sometimes he uploads positive reviews on a separate channel called EvgenComedian. He used to collaborate with CarambaTV. Evgeny often criticizes comedy films directed by Zhora Kryzhovnikov and released by Enjoy Movies company and action films created by Alexander Nevsky. In 2015—2017 BadTrip web series was released, in which Evgeny Bazhenov travels around different places in the United States related to famous films and TV series.[5] His works are inspired by Nostalgia Critic and The Spoony Experiment reviews.[6] The nickname "BadComedian" is derived from the name of Comedian, a character from the Watchmen comic book and film, while "Bad" implies that Bazhenov himself thinks of his reviews as sarcastic rather than humorious.

Eurosport, RBK and Elle called BadComedian the main film critic of the Russian YouTube.[3][7][8]

Biography

Evgeny Bazhenov was born 24 May 1991 in Sterlitamak, Republic of Bashkortostan. At the age of 12 he moved to Dedovsk with his parents. Currently he lives in Nakhabino, an urban-type settlement in Moscow Oblast.

In 2013 Evgeny graduated Russian State University of Trade and Economics, the faculty of commerce and marketing. The theme of his graduation thesis was "Viral videos".

In 2013—2014 and 2017 Bazhenov gave a stand-up performance tour. At the same time he hosted a show about stand-up ProStandUp, which was published at CarambaTV website. BadComedian appeared in cameo roles in the 2016 film Friday and 2015 film Hardcore Henry. He was one of the voice actors for the Russian dub of Wish I Was Here, Tusk (2014), and Sausage Party (2016). Thanks to Bazhenov Wish I Was Here was released in the Russian film distribution service. In gratitude for helping with the release of Wish I Was Here, the film's director Zach Braff offered Bazhenov the voice role of the film's protagonist in the Russian dub.[9] In 2014, Bazhenov hosted a TV show "Heroes of the Internet" on Russian Peretz TV channel along with Maxim Golopolosov and Ivan Makarevich. He used to work for a year as an editor for Vesti news program on Russia-24 TV channel.[6][10]

Bazhenov confessed that his favourite movie directors are Yuri Bykov, Viktor Shamirov, Roman Karimov and Evgeny Shelyakin.[11][12]

Reception

Reviews reception

Bazhenov stated that he has received legal threats by the actor Mikhail Galustyan's connections as well as from the director Maxim Voronkov and the actor and bodybuilder Alexander Nevsky after publishing reviews of their respective films.[3] Alexander Nevsky called Bazhenov "a hater", while Mikhail Galustyan stated that he "offends persons, violates copyright and expresses unconstructive criticism".[13] There are examples of positive reception of reviews by creators and actors of the reviewed films: rapper Basta praised the review of his film called Gasholder,[14] while singer Alexey Vorobyov liked the review of his film Treasures O.K..[15] Director Yuri Bykov stated that BadComedian's positive review of his movie The Fool had increased its popularity, and expressed graditude to the YouTuber.[16]

Famous Russian translator, film critic and publicist Dmitry "Goblin" Puchkov commented on Bazhenov's reviews, calling him "merry and smart" and noting his "surprisingly deep view of life according to his young age".[17] Film critic Alex Exler marked the growth of BadComedian's creativity and praised his moderate use of obscene language.[18]

Company of Heroes 2 controversy
See also: Company of Heroes 2 § Reception and criticism in Russia

In 2013, Bazhenov uploaded a review of the game Company of Heroes 2, where he called it "a game created by Nazis", because, as Bazhenov says, the game developers disgraced the history of World War II, showing the USSR in a negative view, while Nazis, in contrast, were shown in much more sympathetic way. The review caused sales of the game in Russia to stop.[19] The English-language version of his review caused many arguments in the Western gaming community.[20] The incident was highlighted on Polygon,[21] GameSpot,[22] and VideoGamer.com.[23]

To Hack Bloggers

In 2017 Bazhenov published a devastating review of the film To Hack Bloggers, in which BadComedian heavily criticized the work of Gosfilmofond, a state-controlled foundation which has the declared goal of supporting the Russian cinema. BadComedian stated that To Hack Bloggers was extremely poorly made and called Gosfilmofond's money spending useless.[24] This controversy had an impact in the Russian press. Russian Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky, called the film "a creative failure",[25][26] while Gosfilmofond's executives announced an investigation about spending of budget money.[27] Bazelevs Company, the studio that created To Hack Bloggers, called BadComedian "an ill-wisher of Russian cinema".[28]

Going Vertical review

In the night of 31 May 2018, BadComedian uploaded a highly negative review of the feature film Going Vertical, which revolved around the 1972 Olympic Men's Basketball Final. The review turned out to be longer than the actual film. The cause of his discontent was that Going Vertical creators plagiarised another sports drama film, Miracle (2004), on top of that, the film distorted the real history of the basketball match and sportsmen's families were insulted.[29] During the night, after uploading the review, it gathered over one million views and even influenced Going Vertical’s ratings: it lost 30 positions in KinoPoisk′s Top 250 Best Movies, and after that disappeared from the list completely.[30] A week later, Evgeny uploaded another video in which he answered his critics and explained his fans′ actions. The video began with the shoutout of Yuri Kondrashin, the son of the late coach of the Soviet basketball team Vladimir Kondrashin (the Going Vertical′s protagonist), in which he thanked Bazhenov for "the rebuff to the slanderers".[31][32]

Filmography

Live action
YearTitleRole
2015Hardcore HenryOne of the cyborgs, cameo
2016FridayCameo appearance

Voice acting and dubbing
YearTitleRole
2012Ninja in Action
2014Wish I Was HereAidan Bloom
TuskTeddy Craft
2016Sausage PartyGum

Video games
YearTitleRole
2020Cyberpunk 2077Ted Fox

References
  1. On 14 July 2018 Bazhenov made both his subscribers count and his views count private on YouTube (visible only to himself). The current data is only an estimate extracted from third party sources such as SocialBlade and Trackalytics.
  2. Кремер, Лика; Севрюгин, Виктор (2015-10-08). "BadComedian: "Выиграют только пошлые комедии и госзаказы". О квотах на российские фильмы". tvrain.ru. «Дождь». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  3. Буторин, Артём (2015-06-07). "Евген BadComedian: "Капелло — итальянский Михалков. Оба снимают плохо за большие деньги"". eurosport.ru. Eurosport. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  4. Нейман, Анна (2014-05-22). "Евгений Баженов, кинокритик BadComedian: "В России с авторскими правами все очень странно"". afisha.74.ru. 74.ру. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  5. Буланов, Алексей (2015-09-28). "Вышла пилотная серия комедийного шоу "BadTrip"". sub-cult.ru. «Субкультура». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  6. Свирина, Ольга (2015-03-08). "BadComedian: "Ненавижу все свои обзоры"". ellegirl.ru. Elle. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
  7. Тарабан, Софья (2016-11-01). "BadComedian выпустил разгромный обзор на "Дизлайк"". ellegirl.ru. Elle. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  8. Настя Берёзина; Павел Карасёв (October 2018). "Агент влияния: как работает самый популярный кинокритик России" [Agent of influence: how does the most popular film critic of Russia]. 9 (143). РБК.
  9. Короткин, Алексей (2015-06-13). "Фильм на деньги интернета". gazeta.ru. «Газета.Ru». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  10. BadComedian: работаю на канале РОССИЯ 24 on YouTube
  11. Окулова, Елизавета; Раевская, Виктория; Нелидова, Элен (2014-10-20). "Евгений Баженов о смысле жизни". kinopoisk.ru. «КиноПоиск». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  12. 5 вопросов BadComedian / Телеканал «Дождь» on YouTube
  13. Банников, Игорь (April 2015). "Михаил Галустян: "Я писал эсэмэски без ошибок — для девушек это очень важно"". maximonline.ru. Maxim. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  14. Никитин, Андрей (2016-04-20). ""Кремль? Просто в аренду": как живет самый успешный рэпер России". afisha.ru. «Афиша». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  15. Воробьёв, Алексей (2013-11-19). "Алексей Воробьёв". vk.com. Алексей Воробьёв. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
  16. Юрий Быков - о "Методе", Хабенском и BadComedian / вДудь on YouTube
  17. Дмитрий Пучков. Разговоры на диване [Dmitry Puchkov. Discussions on the couch.]. YouTube. Event occurs at 277s.
  18. Экслер, Алекс (2015-04-04). "Кавказская пленница!". exler.ru. Exler.ru. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
  19. Михайлов, Артём (2013-08-08). "Эти люди облили дерьмом историю нашей страны". mn.ru. «Московские новости». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  20. Witty; ASTRO ZOMBIE; Поляков, Александр; Champ (2013-08-06). "Company of Heroes 2. Специальное расследование". kanobu.ru. «Канобу». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  21. Campbell, Colin (2013-07-25). "Why gaming's latest take on war is so offensive to Russians". polygon.com. Polygon. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  22. Makuch, Eddie (2013-08-05). "Company of Heroes 2's Russian distributor suspends sales". gamespot.com. GameSpot. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  23. Scammell, David (2013-08-05). "Company of Heroes 2 distributor suspends sales in Russia following complaints". videogamer.com. VideoGamer.com. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  24. BadComedian о провале фильма Бекмамбетова on YouTube
  25. "Мединский вслед за BadComedian раскритиковал фильм "Взломать блогеров"". lenta.ru. «Лента.ру». 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  26. Королёва, Ольга (2017-02-13). "Как мы оценили эффективность "Фонда кино" и победили на хакатоне Министерства культуры". vc.ru. vc.ru. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  27. Егоров, Алексей (2017-01-25). "Куда уходят наши деньги? BadComedian против "Фонда кино"". kanobu.ru. «Канобу». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  28. Хачиян, Нарина (2017-01-24). "Хейтеры обрушили рейтинг". 360tv.ru. «360° Подмосковье». Retrieved 2017-03-01.
  29. "BadComedian снял обзор на "Движение вверх". У фильма резко упал рейтинг на "Кинопоиске"". Афиша (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  30. Кузьмин, Женя (2018-05-31). "На "КиноПоиске" массово заминусовали "Движение вверх" после выхода обзора BadComedian — Кино и сериалы на TJ". TJ. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  31. "BadComedian ответил на критику своего обзора на "Движение вверх"". Афиша (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  32. "Сын тренера Кондрашина поблагодарил BadComedian за "отповедь клеветникам"". ИА REGNUM (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-12-02.
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