Fishman, Zabinsky Display Humorous Natures (Part II)

This is the second of a three-part series on the YouTube success of two former Sharon High baseball captains, Jake Fishman ’13 and David Zabinsky ’11. Known as ‘BugCatcherJLF’ and ‘Harry Highpants’, respectively, they each have produced wildly popular humorous videos that have garnered over 150,000 total views apiece. This piece continues with highlighting Fishman’s Pokemon commentary videos. (The first piece can be found on Yoni Monat's Blog on Sharon Patch.)

After a decline in interest in Pokemon as a pre-teen, Fishman says that his desire to play the game resurged during high school. Although he watched some Pokemon videos online, he did not think of producing films featuring himself until his junior year.

Buoyed by his friends’ support of his idea, Fishman released his first video last year, which, in his words, “went around the school [SHS] pretty quickly.” From there, he was off and running.

During each video, which is 18-20 minutes in length, Fishman plays a Pokemon video game and shares his analysis of the events in an amusing fashion.

“[I like] making people laugh and keeping them entertained,” Fishman said. “People wouldn’t come back to my videos if they didn’t like them. But people have come back and subscribed.”

“Jake's videos are hilarious,” said Zabinsky. “Even if you don't know a thing about Pokemon, Jake's videos are still wildly entertaining.”

A significant boost for BugCatcherJLF occurred last fall, when a non-Pokemon video attracted much attention. Fishman entered a contest held by a YouTuber with millions of subscribers. The contest was to make a video that featured “Welcome to Beast” being shouted in the most humorous setting.

Last fall, during a senior lunch at Sharon High, with the permission of Sharon High Principal Dr. Jose Libano and School Resource Officer Michael Hocking, Fishman executed his entry.

Fishman hopped onto his table and blew a foghorn, attracting the attention of his peers. He then screamed “Welcome to Beast” and proceeded to tear off his pants and break out into dance on the table in his boxers, eliciting boisterous laughter from his classmates.

Libano and Hocking, feigning anger, promptly escorted Fishman from the cafeteria. As Fishman departed, he turned around and thrust his fist into the air, producing another round of raucous cheers from the seniors.

“His ‘Welcome to Beast’ video was wicked funny because it was just something we would expect from him,” said Kevin McLaughlin, SHS ’13, who played baseball with Fishman for three seasons.

Fishman says that he has become increasingly comfortable on camera. “When you first start out, you’re kind of shy. You’re kind of sitting in front of the mic, [thinking], ‘What do I say now?’ But once you get more comfortable, you get better at commentating, and you’re more open,” he said.

Nathan Pedersen, who captained this past spring’s Eagles baseball team along with Fishman, said, “As he started to make videos, I saw that he was making progress. With how funny he is with the jokes he makes, they were actually pretty interesting.”

Fishman says that as he began producing episodes more consistently, he was surprised with the difficulty to garner viewers. “At first, I thought it was going to be kind of easy to get views and have subscribers.

“It quickly hit me that it’s really hard to do that; when you’re smaller, it’s harder to get noticed. But once I stuck with it, they started to come naturally,” he added.

Viewers of Fishman’s videos are scattered throughout the globe. The average subscriber is around Fishman’s age, began playing Pokemon when he did, and remain enthusiastic about the game.

“It might not all be about the Pokemon; it’s also about my personality and what I talk about when I play, how I react to [events in the game] – different things like that,” Fishman said.

Fishman says that although others on YouTube produce similar videos, the face camera on his videos adds to the production value. “Most people don’t usually have that. You get to see my personality, my facial expressions – more emotions,” he said.

Cindy Layton, Fishman’s mother, says that his on-camera achievements are not surprising. “Jake has a very outgoing personality, so this is the kind of thing that’s right up his alley,” Layton said.

McLaughlin says that Fishman always livened up the atmosphere at Eagles baseball practices. “He was a bit more serious while doing drills (as we all were), but when we were just hanging out in the outfield or by the cage, he was always making classic Fishman comments,” McLaughlin said.

In addition to Fishman’s regular Pokemon gameplay videos, two Pokemon-related productions have been particularly noteworthy. One focused on ‘patching’ a game, while the other laid out new rules of a modified Pokemon game.

Explaining the former video, Fishman said, “People make hacks of the games - they edit the games, make them different, change things. But you need to patch the game to make those changes. So I was showing people how to make those changes.”

The alternative gameplay, called the Everlock, was used by two YouTubers who have multiple thousands of subscribers, with Fishman being credited for the idea. (Fishman noted that the idea was originated in school by Nickie Cheung, SHS ’13.)

As for Fishman’s on-air name, a BugCatcher is a type of character in Pokemon, and JLF is his initials. “I stuck them together and thought it sounded pretty good,” he said.

Does Pokemon still hold the interest of young adults? Zabinsky says yes. “Admittedly, I do know a thing or two about Pokemon. Constant three-hour bus rides for baseball games this summer was enough boredom for me to resume playing again after my ten-year hiatus,” he said.

Over the summer months, BugCatcherJLF has racked up views and subscribers at the fastest rate in its history. “The consistency [of posting videos] is one part of it. But as you grow bigger, more people get to see it; it’s in the ‘Suggested Videos’ more often and higher in the search bar,” Fishman said.

Fishman, who has accumulated over 1,150 subscribers as of Sunday, says that his channel totaling 1,000 in August was gratifying. “It felt pretty good - definitely a big accomplishment. It’s weird to think about how many people 1,000 actually is – you could fill up a really big room,” he said, with a laugh.

Fishman’s accomplishments with BugCatcherJLF and on the baseball field for Sharon High each stem from burning passions, Layton says.

“They’re both the kinds of things that he totally immerses himself in, so when you do that, dedicate yourself to something – then of course you’re going to have success,” Layton said.

Fishman, who longtime Sharon varsity baseball coach and Mass. Baseball Coaches Assn. Hall-of-Famer Joel Peckham called one of the best pitchers he has ever coached, will attend Union College in the fall and pitch for the baseball team.

The runner-up for 2013 Hockomock League MVP says that his experiences producing the 150+ Pokemon videos – each episode requires about an hour of editing and rendering – has led him to pursue a minor in Digital Media.

“I definitely know how to use a lot more programs than I did in the past, for image editing and video editing. It’s good for when I go to college and jobs in the future that I can use these programs pretty well,” Fishman said.

Fishman says that future endeavors with BugCatcherJLF are incumbent upon his availability in college.

Zabinsky, who trains with Fishman in the baseball offseason, said, “Jake is a great kid. He's a tremendously hard worker and an amazing talent. He's going to have great [continued] success on his YouTube channel and even more success on the Union mound."