I NEED A NOISE: A NOISE BIBLE

PRE-TOWER

Childhood

Theodore “The Noise” Gutierrez (formerly known on YouTube as “TheoNoisePranks”) was born on June 15th, 1994 to Lana and Francisco Gutierrez in the Silicon Valley of California. His parents were both second generation immigrants, his mother being Italian, and his father being Mexican. He was an only child of an upper-class family, with both of his parents being businesspeople.

Yes, they had moments where they were busy, ‘tis the nature with every job, but they were still physically present in Theodore’s life. Despite having a physical presence, the love given was very superficial and they weren’t very receptive to Theodore. It was as if they had a baby because “that’s just the thing you do in life”. Theodore’s parents did sometimes indulge in having a child by occasionally buying him the latest hi-tech toy that just came out. As a result, he is apathetic towards this superficial relationship.

This emotionally neglectful relationship has resulted in Theodore being particularly drawn to fame, approval, and ego stroking, yet lonely and subconsciously yearning for an intimate relationship.

Ever since he was very young, he spent much of his time on the internet. It started at the age of 6 when he would be transfixed on the family computer, playing games on it and occasionally snooping on the web out of his parents’ sight. One of the occasional computer games/programs Mr. Gutierrez would buy for Theodore was a simplistic music producing program, which Theodore got a real kick of and developed his love for music. It should be noted that this pairing happened out of pure coincidence, as the gifts given to Theodore by his parents were only so thoughtful. Of course, any child is driven by the urge to explore and sense the world around them, and thus Theodore would walk into places he really shouldn’t have been in.

It really did upset him at first… but then he couldn’t help but laugh. It was of that nervous, paradoxical variety, but Theodore never questioned it. He just took it at face value. Why, isn’t it just natural to laugh at treacherous taboos? To giggle at their visceral nature? People don’t contort so gutturally in the outside world. Only in the guerilla playground would you find shit so real! Only in the masquerading maze that nobody told her wasn’t a playground…

Theodore quickly gained a fascination for the edgy, the grotesque, and the absurd. He would frequent Newgrounds and internet freak show spots to gawk at lolcows. Sometimes he went to a gore site, but these excursions were somewhat sparing since he could only take so much. This is when he became obsessed with making fun of others who seemed stranger to him because, well, isn’t it natural to make fun of those more strange and repulsive than us? Even in his ridicule of those strangers, he found himself hypnotized by them… and he never could name why. Logically, he was embarrassed by this, especially when it pertained to furry and queer culture.

Theodore had a habit of exploring furry forums, which in turn, also exposed him to bits of queer culture. He, of course, still found the content in them humorous. However, he was also enamored by it in both good and bad ways. As per most of the things he saw online, it exposed him to some occasionally explicit content he shouldn’t have been seeing, but this soft side for the furry community would do him some good much later in his life. He was very embarrassed by this soft side and hid it as much as possible. In addition, while he would be neutral towards queer people for a portion of his life, that did not restrain him from making many a queerphobic joke, since he was (and continues to be) obsessed with edgelord humor.

While Theodore wasn’t on YouTube since day one, he joined it pretty early on in its lifespan, around 2008 or 2009. She grew a strong fondness similar to his fondness to Newgrounds, getting particularly enamored by the classic viral videos. To think you could be so generously complimented by just being funny enough! The concept of internet fame was already appealing to Theodore before, but something about how it was presented on YouTube made it appear all the more remarkable and desirable. Seemed easier too. No need for knowledge of flash or animation skills, to be a wielder of humor was just enough. Funnily enough, despite this yearning for fame being strong, he didn’t start chasing it after a year or two.

When that day came… a particular sensation began its trek to take up and give blessing like any other sense. To be a sense is to take up a block of space in one’s perception, and to be a tool to their idealization of the world. Isn’t that special? Isn’t that the way things are bound to be? Isn’t this a fate fit for an incomplete child? Yes, and this shall be the day Theodore became The Noise.

Ventures and Escapades on YouTube

Mr. Noise. That was the name of the first channel he attempted to get popular with. You could tell it was inspired by Fred Figglehorn almost to a painful degree. The Noise starred as the titular role “Mr. Noise”, while a couple of friends from school played the supporting cast and side characters. Mr. Noise’s main gimmick was self explanatory… he was very loud and tended to make annoying noises. His presence was abhorred by the rest of the cast and he wasn’t really liked by anyone, but the character was framed as if he was superior to everyone else due to how funny he was, as if he was some kind of Bugs Bunny type figure. Perhaps Mr. Noise would work much better if he was the object of ridicule, but if you suggested this to the Noise at this point in his life, he would be perplexed and a little offended too. What do you mean a facet of humor involves being vulnerable? You’re the stupid one for thinking humor isn’t just lighthearted fun! The channel got a very small following, nothing that could be categorized as “viral”. At least the Noise and his pals at school had some fun with it.

2016 hits, and the Noise is feasted off the succulent meals of Gamergate and cringe culture. He made another channel, with the Mr. Noise being abandoned for some years now. This new channel is called “Annoyed Noise”, and was dedicated to making Leafyishere-esque content that featured a rantsona that could, ironically, be described as “cringey”. These videos had the same faults as every other commentary and cringe compilation video that plagued YouTube: They perpetuated bigotry and eventually gave off the illusion that the ideology ever died off. Alongside those commentary videos, very early on he made some trolling videos that were quickly dropped off since they weren’t getting much traction. Speaking of traction, he got much more of it with this channel than with Mr. Noise, gaining a follower count in the tens of thousands. Not only did this thrill and stroke the now 22-year-old Noise, but it also made him much more compelled to track trends and to chase them.

For a while he would do some challenge or classic prank videos in addition to his commentary videos, but he would become more transfixed on the latter video type since they yielded him more views and attention. It was at this point where he rebranded to “TheoNoisePranks”, since he was especially interested in prank videos. One day during the very late 2010s, he got an idea that would change his life forever. You must admit it is a little genius. To prank people and to give them money afterwards… Why, it’s like a decomposer reviving the dead! I mean, in a sense, don’t they already do that already? Decomposers continue the cycle of life, but imagine if they could bless some random sucker with a second chance! All is fair and spontaneous in the hands of the philanthropic prankster.

The pranks started out fairly mild. Early on in this era, he had a series of videos that involved pranking random people in public areas then handing them physical cash that got mad popular. Many repetitions, modifications, and increases in power lead to these videos becoming much more elaborate/larger in scale, larger in reward (for both the Noise and winning contestants), and more ethically dubious.

Ethical Concerns

One of the biggest red flags about the production for this content was the fact that while the contestants did consent to the potential harm they may experience, they aren’t informed what will specifically happen to them in order to “keep the prank a surprise”. This, due the escalating nature of the Noise’s videos, led to many contestants being traumatized, and the fact they “consented” to it doesn’t nullify that fact.

One of these contestants happened to be Peppino Spaghetti, who attended one of the Noise’s challenges in desperation to quell his recurring financial issues. Peppino was featured quite prominently in the video he appeared in, being an object of ridicule. He was primarily verbally harassed and often had the camera shoved in his face. Alongside the physical threats he was faced with, the experience was miserable for Peppino. It left the already traumatized and schizophrenic trans man even more traumatized and paranoid, as well as kick off the rivalry between Peppino and the Noise. To add insult to injury, Peppino didn’t receive the cash prize nor was he financially compensated.

Those inside weren’t the only ones hurt, as he inflicted a subtle harm on his impressionable audience. Ever since the Annoyed Noise, edgy/offensive content is common in the Noise’s videos, though it’s not as common in TheoNoisePranks as it is in the previous channel. This humor manifested as jokes you’d hear from a cishet white boy, alongside some generic “gooner” humor. What made this a concern was that TheoNoisePranks garnered a sizable child audience and the Noise was aware of that.

Unwilling to take consequence and fearful of the idea of seeing himself in a negative light, the Noise simply brushed this concern as a matter of parents not monitoring their kids well enough and changing nothing regarding his behavior. In addition, he had a habit of speaking towards his audience as if he knew them for the sake of building user engagement, resulting in a parasocial relationship. One more issue the Noise instilled in his audience was the encouragement of witch hunting and dogpiling behaviors. This gave Noise’s fanbase a particularly insufferable reputation.

For the most part, the Noise was invigorated by the attention and fame he was garnering and his mood wasn’t really dampened by allegations made against him. This isn’t to say that they never stressed him out and tempted him to reconsider things, however. Of course, there was a concern for the potential of these allegations to hinder his ability to receive praise (and money, but money didn’t matter much to the Noise), yet he did take a moment to consider if he was doing the right thing. A big part of his identity during this era was how he presented himself as this person who was ultimately very good despite his “teasing”. Oh, what matters whatever comes out her mouth when her hand is so generous? This was the mentality his defenders and even the Noise himself went by. Indeed, the legitimate concerns about his morality were quickly brushed off by this rhetorical question and the fact that this cruel method was his main means of getting money, and then he continued forth with his day. It was easy not to think about it when you’re given love by a metal surrogate mother that you have some power over.

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