U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-V.T.) participated in a Twitch livestream alongside super popular creators like Imane “Pokimane” Anys and Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter on Tuesday night. The event allowed Sanders to stump for the Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris before the election in November. Over the course of the evening, viewers were surprised with celebrity guests like Mark Hamill and Hank Green, but perhaps the memorable moment was when the group taught Sanders about Vtubers.
Sanders and the other event participants didn’t play video games during the stream, like U.S. House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) did in 2020. Instead, the content creators chatted with the politician and asked him questions about politics and the upcoming election. This included pressing political questions about Senator Sanders’ stance regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza, but it also had some lighter moments.
Skykkuno, one of the content creators on the stream, appeared on the stream as a Vtuber, so his face looked like an anime avatar. Sykkuno isn’t known as a dedicated Vtuber, but said that he was Vtubing because he had a skin condition. This brought up the topic of Vtubers in general. The brief conversation was glorious and slightly awkward, so I’ll just add a full transcript of the moment below.
Sykkuno asks, “Do you know what a Vtuber is?”
The video call goes quiet for a moment.
Sykkuno asks again, “Have you heard of a Vtuber before?”
“Nope,” Sanders said.
“No? I’m the first one! Thank you so much for supporting Vtubers!,” Sykkuno exclaimed.
At this point, Pokimane interjected and explained to Sanders, “It’s when they have this animated profile,” and AustinShow, who helped moderate the conversation, ushered the show on to other topics. If you want to see the full exchange yourself, we embedded the stream with a link to the moment below.
Many online commented on how bizarre the entire event seemed. Renowned actor Mark Hamill, who has been actively campaigning for the democratic party, appeared on the stream as well. So people got to see Sanders, Hamill, and an anime cat boy all in one giant video call. One tweet, liked more than 113,000 times, shared a clip and said, “this might be the funniest moment in american political history to date.”
Shark Tank star and entrepreneur Mark Cuban hopped on the stream as well. At one point, Pokimane asked him if he was the person who bid $200,000 to play video games with her at a charity auction and Cuban responded by saying, “You know it wasn’t me because it wasn’t high enough.” And then later, Sykkuno got the opportunity to talk about Vtubers again, when beloved YouTuber, writer, and educator Hank Green joined the called and actually knew what a Vtuber was.
All-in-all it wasn’t a glitzy political rally that filled a stadium with roaring fans, but all the casual chatter and its quirks make for a memorable and entertaining night on Twitch.
Source：https://www.polygon.com/twitch/469004/bernie-sanders-twitch-stream-vtuber-sykkuno-pokimane
