GameGrumps =/= LP?
 

In a stream a couple of weeks ago, JonTron, who runs a channel with Egoraptor called GameGrumps, said outright that he had a thing against Let's Play videos. He furthermore goes on to deny quite hotly that GameGrumps is an LP channel. The problem is...that's kinda exactly what the channel does. It does a pretty fantastic job of it, and if you're ok with heavy language and slightly more than occasionally crass humor, you'll love them, not to mention the fact that they upload at least 1 ten-minute-or-so video every day.

The Question, however, is this: Are the GameGrumps justified in claiming to not be an LP channel? Is JonTron (with all due respect to his work otherwise) a hypocrite for putting down LP videos? I want to hear your thoughts.

Ok my take on this is that.
Yes in a way Game Grumps is an LP channel. Regardless of what JonTron says.
and i give JonTron my fullest amount of respect. but putting down work your technically doing makes you a hypocrite

While I do believe that LP's should be a bit more carefree than other kinds of video game videos(playthroughs/walkthroughs), I don't think I'd really consider Jon and Egoraptor just recording themselves **** around in super nintendo games a Let's Play. I'd just consider it ****ing around. Not that that's a bad thing though, because they are both extremely hilarious.

I don't consider GameGrumps to be an LPing deal. I see the whole point of it as something to laugh at. Entertainment far outweighs information here. I think a more extreme example of this would be Cr1TiKaL, who only does some minutes of footage of random games with a humorous commentary as the selling point.

By my definition, an LP would be defined as playing through a game while commentating and having equal parts entertainment and information related to the game that is being played.

Game Grumps seem to be 90% entertainment and <10% information related to the game. All of their videos I've seen so far have been more about telling jokes about what's happening in the game being played, but they don't explain any details about what is being played.

Game Grumps would probably, if labeled as an LP channel, be sorted under their own subcategory of LPing if anything.

I agree mostly with Quad's opinion: A Let's Play is intended as informational gameplay with a bit of the player's personal feel to it. Since the Game Grumps mostly use humor and off-topic discussion for their commentary, I wouldn't necessarily call them a Let's Play group.

I'm not going to be technical or definitive with what GameGrumps is. So let's be honest here, GameGrumps is just a channel where Jontron and Egoraptor just have a blast of fun by playing any game of their choice. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but when I think of a channel that does Let's Plays currently, they do pretty much the same thing. There are channels that do do 100% guides and fully play through games, but nowadays, most Let's Plays consist of people who just play through games in their style. But by most of your definitions, I would agree that GameGrumps isn't technically an LP channel. But if GameGrumps isn't defined as an LP channel, then I know a whole mess of other channels which wouldn't be defined as "LP channels". But in reality a majority of those channels give pretty much the same experience as a channel that would fit into your definitions. And in response why Jontron dislikes LP's but still runs GameGrumps, I think it might just be that he just doesn't like how Let's Plays are sometimes done in a "completionist" form all the time. I say this because if someone were to watch some of the GameGrumps videos, and then watch some of the videos from a Let's Play channel that fully completes a game, they will probably notice that GameGrumps does almost everything in a same manner, except for that they just have much more fun and don't concentrate on completing a game. But that doesn't make GameGrumps any less of an LP channel.

(Sorry for the Length)

I personally don't care what Game Grumps is classified as. I see it as watching my two favorite video-game based internet celebrities playing their favorite video games and learning more about them as people; their game preferences, their personal lives, their senses of humor, even future projects. Ego made some nice animations out of it as well.
The only time I didn't enjoy myself watching them is when they outright flamed Skyward Sword with no explanation. But they redeemed themselves in their next video.

I wouldn't mind having them commentating my life. (Then again, I wouldn't mind having Raocow, an admitted LP-er, commentate my life either, but for similar reasons. Raocow watchers would understand.)

iirc: Jon hates the phrases "Let's Play" and "GameGrumps" together. In Megaman 7: part 12(?) - Dirty Laundry, they went over the facts that it is in fact an LP channel.
However, it's a bit more carefree than in comparison to other co-op channels. I agree with the next statement: I don't hate the fact that they aren't as down-to-earth as other LPers, and I love that no matter how many times I've gone through the videos, I can laugh as if I had just watched it for the first time.