JOTD: harmless or detrimental to the sport?

jotd is run by fucking kooks for kooks

I would not say that a single Instagram account dissuades people from skiing. If the behavior of everyone on the mountain led people to believe that they weren’t wanted, like the kids on tik tok, I could see that being very discouraging. However this is not the case. It is a single Instagram account, and I’m not sure how or why you would know jerry of the day exists unless you are involved in the sport. Not only this, but the vast majority of content is meant to be funny, people stuck on chairs, the white strip of death, people who are clearly way out of their element, a lot of content is skiers with more experience eating shit, and there is a lot of mountain bike and water sports content too. I’m pretty sure every sport has some version of the same account, ie Kookslams.

Anyone who stops skiing because they saw a vid of a weird crash was probably gonna stop skiing for a stupid reason already

Yeah JOTD isnt too bad in my opinion - they dont make fun of people just for being bad/beginners, it's usually pics/videos of people doing ridiculous stuff or trying to ski stuff way above their skill level

I do empathize with some of the videos tho cause we've deff all been in some of those situations. (Sliding down a hill on your ass after losing a ski, eating shit on the stairs with ski boots, getting wrecked off a jump etc.) Overall pretty harmless.

(Kookslams is a wayy better follow IMO tho)

Majority of their following are Jerrys themselves

I think it definitely does, mostly for people that weren't exposed to it as kids but still really want to try it, as JOTD makes fun of all the unwritten rules of skiing that people break. If you aren't in ski culture, how are you supposed to know not to ski in jeans on a warm day, or have a gap between your helmet and goggles even if it is more comfortable that way? I know for myself, Kook of the Day (JOTD for surfing) has definitely dissuaded me from trying to learn to surf as an adult as I see videos of people doing things that seem completely normal from a non-surfers perspective, but are apparently taboo in the surfing community. It just seems like a massive learning curve to both learn how to do a sport and learn the complete culture of the sport without embarrassing yourself.

I don’t think it’s detrimental to the sport. A classic trope of the old Warren Miller films was Warren making fun of new skiers doing embarrassing shit. That was back in the golden age of skiing when it was super popular and new resorts were opening like crazy. If anything, I think accounts like JOTD help keep skiing relevant and fun - as long as the posts aren’t mean spirited

People take themselves too seriously.

Jotd is a gift from the gods.

If you are dissuaded from learning how to ski because of JOTD you were never meant to ski in the first place

I guess i stirred a pot somewhere?

Wish the old thread was up to see the reponses but again mixed feelings on JOTD.

I can see how it is off putting to new skiers and how they dont feel welcomed. And this goes beyond jotd. There is an eletist metality represented everywhere. Ultimately, i hate that. I fuckin love to ski. I want everyone to experience that same passion as me. And i also want them to continue to provide for my salary with smiles on their faces so we need to be welcoming.

That being said, i also am a huge fan of comedy. Most forms of it really (aside from punk kids physically knocking down new and young skiers) so i do think there is a place for things like jerry of the day. Just so long as its with generally good taste. The whole "minimal skill maximium send" thing is a huge hit amoung skiers who only get out for 1 or 2 trips a year. They fully embody this and buy things from JOTD. I also agree that you likely don't know what JOTD is as a first time skier until your friend shows you your pic on their page.

man you guys are getting soft.

I think it encourages it. It's kinda like a club where you can only rip on the kooks if you aren't one. I think it gets people kinda stoked.

i think if jotd was just videos of beginners pizzaing down the bunny hill it would be detrimental. luckily, its just a glorified epic fails account

BdoobzInspired by the comment made by @partyandBS , at what point do accounts like Jerry of the Day dissuade people from learning how to ski? Where is the line?

Discuss.

I think an account dissuades people from skiing when the joke is people being bad at skiing rather than falling over n shit

Stuff like this isn't new tho i remember in a really old warren miller movie for a few minutes its just raw video of people slipping on an ice patch and its super funny partially from the context that its old and before laughing at other's falls was as big of a thing

I love that it's so mainstream that if you see somebody doing something stupid you can be like "yeahhhhhh Jerryyyyyy" from the lift and they will be embarassed.

Quite a bit of JOTD was filmed and uploaded by the Jerry’s friend or family, so clearly those individuals don’t mind it.

**This post was edited on Dec 15th 2020 at 7:49:18pm

Jerry's dont know they're Jerry's

nah, we need more shit to keep people humble. chirping and making a little fun of folks helps with that, and doesn't have to be in mean spirit. Ball busting needs to make a comeback.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/984792/-1-Skier-Dad--Original-

My all time fav JOTD video is of the guy trying to do like a kick flip with his ski off his toe piece, and he accidentally kicks his ski up over his head through the window of the shuttle bus behind him, and the bus driver comes out and starts screaming at him in French or whatever. Ah it kills me every time

honestly half of the posts are of people with helmets on backwards, goggles upside down, or somehow hiking across the road with skis on??? not really sure how that seems to be a good idea, but 99.99% of people realize that it's just a joke and looks funny. And everybody sees the fails as what they are, FAILS. There's thousands upon thousands of fails on youtube doing literally every activity you could ever possibly think of, but does that stop people from doing flips into pools and jumping off cliffs? maybe the cliff thing cuz that's pretty sketchy for some anyways, but I really don't think it discourages anyone from skiing because it's all obviously in good humor

This is a typical JOTD post

Jerry of the day is mostly on the harmless side since the stuff they post is just so clearly ridiculous. But its a fine line. I think JOTD might encourage people to over do it though and end up making fun of people or negatively judging people who aren't totally plugged into ski culture. I could go on and on (and there are a lot of sociological and historical studies about why skiing is exclusive).

Example: a couple days back, I took two of my (female) friends out to a mellow backcountry location to get some turns in (no avalanche terrain, no avalanche danger forecasted since there is like 8" snow on the ground, and dozens of other people hiking up the trail). A nice day to get a few turns and enjoy the scenery. We were bootpacking, I was wearing a hoody, and my friend was wearing some weird legwarmers- basically we weren't wrapped in gore-tex and dragging around $2000 set ups. As we were walking up the trail, some excited young men accosted us, repeatedly yelling "beacon probe shovel?!" I was just like, yeah, sure we do (we did not). Shortly after that, another bemused guy came up to us and I explained my friends were learning to snowboard. He just laughed in our face "That's hilarious! It makes no sense to learn to ski in the backcountry!" (Its way cheaper than buying a lift ticket and they had me as a bootleg guide). Needless to say, neither of my friends were stoked on either of those interactions and were embarrassed by them. Moral of the story being that Jerry of the Day feeds into the association of skiing expertise with looking a certain (usually expensive) way and passing pre-mature judgment on people who don't have the right look. I understand that people were "looking out for us" but it was clear they had no interest in understanding our plan and rather jumped to various conclusions about our group based on their pre-formed ideas about what a skier looks like.

Its not just Jerry of the Day that's to blame, but there are aspects of "ski culture" that foster elitist attitudes (plenty of sociological and historical studies on this matter). Any single elitist statement is not going to convince someone to give up skiing, but the sum effect of all those little bits and pieces, plus larger barriers to participation namely expense, ends up being a pretty powerful dissuasive force.

mcswizzleJerry of the day is mostly on the harmless side since the stuff they post is just so clearly ridiculous. But its a fine line. I think JOTD might encourage people to over do it though and end up making fun of people or negatively judging people who aren't totally plugged into ski culture. I could go on and on (and there are a lot of sociological and historical studies about why skiing is exclusive).

Example: a couple days back, I took two of my (female) friends out to a mellow backcountry location to get some turns in (no avalanche terrain, no avalanche danger forecasted since there is like 8" snow on the ground, and dozens of other people hiking up the trail). A nice day to get a few turns and enjoy the scenery. We were bootpacking, I was wearing a hoody, and my friend was wearing some weird legwarmers- basically we weren't wrapped in gore-tex and dragging around $2000 set ups. As we were walking up the trail, some excited young men accosted us, repeatedly yelling "beacon probe shovel?!" I was just like, yeah, sure we do (we did not). Shortly after that, another bemused guy came up to us and I explained my friends were learning to snowboard. He just laughed in our face "That's hilarious! It makes no sense to learn to ski in the backcountry!" (Its way cheaper than buying a lift ticket and they had me as a bootleg guide). Needless to say, neither of my friends were stoked on either of those interactions and were embarrassed by them. Moral of the story being that Jerry of the Day feeds into the association of skiing expertise with looking a certain (usually expensive) way and passing pre-mature judgment on people who don't have the right look. I understand that people were "looking out for us" but it was clear they had no interest in understanding our plan and rather jumped to various conclusions about our group based on their pre-formed ideas about what a skier looks like.

Its not just Jerry of the Day that's to blame, but there are aspects of "ski culture" that foster elitist attitudes (plenty of sociological and historical studies on this matter). Any single elitist statement is not going to convince someone to give up skiing, but the sum effect of all those little bits and pieces, plus larger barriers to participation namely expense, ends up being a pretty powerful dissuasive force.

That's not jotd that's someone being a genuine asshole.

katrinaThat's not jotd that's someone being a genuine asshole.

For sure underlying issues of asshole-ness contribute to obnoxious outbursts like that, and I do have a tendency to over think these things, but no one does that kinda shit if you are biking without a helmet or something. I'm always gonna get down voted for getting deep into the weeds with social/cultural issues but people are asking questions with really complex answers.

edit: its a good thread and I respect that not everyone is gonna approach this kinda stuff the same way as me!

**This post was edited on Dec 15th 2020 at 11:14:03pm

mcswizzleFor sure underlying issues of asshole-ness contribute to obnoxious outbursts like that, and I do have a tendency to over think these things, but no one does that kinda shit if you are biking without a helmet or something. I'm always gonna get down voted for getting deep into the weeds with social/cultural issues but people are asking questions with really complex answers.

edit: its a good thread and I respect that not everyone is gonna approach this kinda stuff the same way as me!

**This post was edited on Dec 15th 2020 at 11:14:03pm

Yea it's hard to tease nuance out of an NS thread. I'm sorry your friends had a shit experience, I'd just say in my personal experience people like that don't represent the majority of the culture. Most people are super supportive and kind.

mcswizzleJerry of the day is mostly on the harmless side since the stuff they post is just so clearly ridiculous. But its a fine line. I think JOTD might encourage people to over do it though and end up making fun of people or negatively judging people who aren't totally plugged into ski culture. I could go on and on (and there are a lot of sociological and historical studies about why skiing is exclusive).

Example: a couple days back, I took two of my (female) friends out to a mellow backcountry location to get some turns in (no avalanche terrain, no avalanche danger forecasted since there is like 8" snow on the ground, and dozens of other people hiking up the trail). A nice day to get a few turns and enjoy the scenery. We were bootpacking, I was wearing a hoody, and my friend was wearing some weird legwarmers- basically we weren't wrapped in gore-tex and dragging around $2000 set ups. As we were walking up the trail, some excited young men accosted us, repeatedly yelling "beacon probe shovel?!" I was just like, yeah, sure we do (we did not). Shortly after that, another bemused guy came up to us and I explained my friends were learning to snowboard. He just laughed in our face "That's hilarious! It makes no sense to learn to ski in the backcountry!" (Its way cheaper than buying a lift ticket and they had me as a bootleg guide). Needless to say, neither of my friends were stoked on either of those interactions and were embarrassed by them. Moral of the story being that Jerry of the Day feeds into the association of skiing expertise with looking a certain (usually expensive) way and passing pre-mature judgment on people who don't have the right look. I understand that people were "looking out for us" but it was clear they had no interest in understanding our plan and rather jumped to various conclusions about our group based on their pre-formed ideas about what a skier looks like.

Its not just Jerry of the Day that's to blame, but there are aspects of "ski culture" that foster elitist attitudes (plenty of sociological and historical studies on this matter). Any single elitist statement is not going to convince someone to give up skiing, but the sum effect of all those little bits and pieces, plus larger barriers to participation namely expense, ends up being a pretty powerful dissuasive force.

That sucks. I feel like everyone has had this experience in one form or another in the BC. One time I stepped out of my ski like first turn into a chute, and it was kind of all I could do to grab my ejected ski and just kind of do a clumsy one ski descent down like 75 or 100 feet to an area that I would have a chance to get my ski back on. My buddy was spotting me it wasn’t especially dangerous or anything just kind of an awkward situation where I was like, that sucked my ski decided to pop off at a shitty time.


Well this guy was traversing by as I got down and didn’t really see what happened just kind of saw the aftermath and was like THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULDNT BE BACK HERE!!! And just went the fuck off on us.

I mean why do people act like that? I don’t get it.

Social media has made everyone into self conscious cry babies. If JOTD dissuades you from skiing then you weren't going to become very good anyway so who cares? Even though skiing requires a certain level of affluence it's still a tough sport. There's a video of a dude dislocating the bottom part of his leg in thread up above as of writing this. I've bitten holes in my tongue, gotten concussions and permanently ruined tendons and I've gotten off EASY in terms of injuries. fuck I know a dude who blew his knee cap apart on a rock and has to ride a snow bike now. If an Instagram page makes you feel bad then you're too weak to become a good skier. Sorry for the tough love but it's the truth.

**This post was edited on Dec 16th 2020 at 12:08:37am

BrandoComandoI don’t think it’s detrimental to the sport. A classic trope of the old Warren Miller films was Warren making fun of new skiers doing embarrassing shit. That was back in the golden age of skiing when it was super popular and new resorts were opening like crazy. If anything, I think accounts like JOTD help keep skiing relevant and fun - as long as the posts aren’t mean spirited

I don't think that because there is a tradition of it that Warren Miller partook in is a good argument for anything--that's just keeping a long-standing status quo for the sake of keeping it status quo. I think it's a comfortable answer to say that it's all in good fun, and people who don't get that should just get it already. because, at the end of the day, it seems like stopping making fun of other people to make skiing a more welcoming culture is simply too inconvenient for skiers to do especially because it maintains their hierarchical superiority over Jerries.

Dig a little deeper within yourself and ask why ridiculing beginners is so important, especially considering that you were once a beginner. (this part is posed at anyone reading this, not just the quoted poster).

Also, I've begun to notice a trend of skiers just defending the elitism in skiing for no reason that I can see except that examining it would be more work than ignoring it and accepting it. Like, when people have negative experiences with skiing, folks on this site like to use this discrete logic where negative things are isolated and not anyone's fault, but use this reasoning about skiing being good where it's like, "the culture as a whole is super supportive and positive, you just have to understand that."
It honestly feels super hand-wavy to me and is a fallacy to overlook negative experiences in skiing culture as not being part of a dynamic system just as much as whatever positive things are happening. just spewing thoughts and processing here.

They have posted videos of pros and really good skiers crashing before too.

appaAlso, I've begun to notice a trend of skiers just defending the elitism in skiing for no reason that I can see except that examining it would be more work than ignoring it and accepting it. Like, when people have negative experiences with skiing, folks on this site like to use this discrete logic where negative things are isolated and not anyone's fault, but use this reasoning about skiing being good where it's like, "the culture as a whole is super supportive and positive, you just have to understand that."
It honestly feels super hand-wavy to me and is a fallacy to overlook negative experiences in skiing culture as not being part of a dynamic system just as much as whatever positive things are happening. just spewing thoughts and processing here.

People need to take individual responsibility for being an asshole. Jotd didn't make them do it.

katrinaPeople need to take individual responsibility for being an asshole. Jotd didn't make them do it.

(I typed this out in the reply to your post, but, to be clear, this is a general response and not all directed specifically toward you, katrina)

I completely agree, but I don't think it's as simple as that sounds. While it seems obvious that an Instagram account isn't forcing people to behave in certain ways, it also doesn't make sense to absolve JOTD of any influence--we've seen what social media can do to culture at a national political level, and why is the sort of content going around in skiing exempt from scrutiny? JOTD didn't make anyone behave like an asshole to beginners any more than FOXNews forced their viewers question the efficacy of a mask in limiting the spread of COVID-19, or any more than Henrik's video parts forced freeskiers rep Wu Tang and sag their pants.

I don't believe that people who are acting like assholes know that they are acting like an asshole. Isn't it worth considering how skiing culture (or parts of it) gives permission to asshole-ish behavior? And by what basis do individual skiers draw the line of what's "being an asshole" and what's "all in good fun"? and at what point are those lines drawn to uphold a dominant culture that's avoiding calling itself out?

The fact that there are any stories of people being dissuaded from further pursuing being part of the greater skiing community is reason enough to ask ourselves what we can do to eliminate those negative experiences. This thread has a bunch of people so ready to accept that people who endure a culture of ridicule can join it, especially since they had to. If that's what skiing culture is, then skiers need to stop saying that it's as welcoming and positive and supportive to everyone--because right now seems like it's only those things for certain folks. Obviously you can't make everyone happy, but what does it say about a community whose social media presence is largely occupied by an account dedicated to making fun of others within the parameters of a bunch of unwritten cultural rules that help it tautologically dodge classification as anything but altruistic?

sidebar: It's hard to discuss these things and only hear voices from the insiders' perspectives.

appaIf that's what skiing culture is, then skiers need to stop saying that it's as welcoming and positive and supportive to everyone

uhhhhhhhhhh what? Skiing is like every other sport dude. It's welcoming if you're good.