Limmy’s Crazy New Life

Limmy is a Scottish comedian who rose to fame through his BBC sketch comedy show Limmy’s Show which he created, wrote, directed, edited and starred in for three six episode series plus a pilot a christmas special between 2010 – 2013. The originality of his work led to a widespread and dedicated cult following. He also appeared in a cameo in the IT crowd as a window cleaner, and was a stand out recurring feature on Charlie Brookers 2011 wipe and weekly wipe. Between 2015 and 2019 he wrote 3 books Daft Wee Stories, That’s Your Lot, and his autobiography Surprisingly Down to Earth, and Very Funny (I would recommend the audio versions of each in order to feel the full effect). Limmy returned to the BBC with Limmy’s Homemade show, a one off special in 2018 which was later revisited in 2020 for a 3 episode series. Finally he made Limmy’s other stuff also released 2020 it’s a one off 30 minute retrospective described by himself in its intro as; “a wee self absorbed trip down memory lane” where he shares the origins of his online comedy before the TV days, his homemade show was a return to this DIY approach and marks the end of his television career. Limmy decided to end Limmy’s show saying that ideas were not flowing and he didn’t want it to feel forced or repetitive. He put an together an outline for a falconhoof (a popular character from Limmy’s show) spin off to the bbc commissioner and even wrote a pilot script, focusing on what life was like for falconhoof outside of the program, something in the vain of curb your enthusiasm or the Larry sandhurst show but the commissioner didn’t go for it.

For the past few years Limmy has found a new neche for his talents and has dedicated himself to full time Live streaming Live on Twitch, which I think is kind of funny in itself. The life of a streamer seems like a strange existence but he’s a strange man, and it works. He gets paid to play computer games from home and entertain his fans whilst doing so. Limmy has been into tech since his first computer the Commodore VIC 20 in his youth, it’s a fascination that has remained a constant throughout his life, as an early adopter of online streaming combined with the wisdom age brings (Limmy is 48), he has a confident, relaxed, and unphasable demeanor when streaming. The banter or “patter” from the chat is often harsh and at Limmy’s expense though it comes from a place of love. Most commonly his hairline will be subject of this good natured joshing, with constant references to him as being bald. It was before my time within the Twitch world that the chat would call him butter teeth, until he had them whitened.

Limmy is an extremely open individual, in his streams and in his autobiography he details his struggles with mental health, being bicuriously drawn to androgionus males such as Bret Anderson of Suade, problems with drink, his brushes with the law, and coming close to the brink of suicide. It’s not as much the fact that he is willing to discuss such topics at length but rather the apparent ease he displays in doing so that makes it interesting. His autobiography reads like a long confession, he goes into great detail describing the type of things that you wouldn’t ever want anyone to know.

If you’ve never experienced the website Twitch, it’s a space where people mostly play computer games or just chat (as does Limmy). audiences tune in and communicate with the streamer and each other in the chat section, though there is much more to be found there than just games and chat, the possibilities of the platform are pretty much endless. Imagine a live television show where you can interact with the presenter and the rest of the audience. I think for optimal pleasure it helps if you’re of a simultaneously introverted and tech savvy disposition though it’s not a prerequisite for engaging with the platform.

I put Twitch’s success down to it in some part gratifying the human desire to see and be seen and the modern need to be perpetually stimulated (or at least that’s a big part of what I get from going on the platform). There is often a dystopian pang of mundanity that I associate with the platform. There is something tragic about it in some fundamental way. Many of the channels are painfully boring or maybe just seem to me to be a bit lazy and exploitative. If you’re an attractive female who does asmr streams in your underwear you can do very well on Twitch. I don’t mean to come across as prudish or judgemental, fair enough I just find it a bit grim, it’s not as much what the streamer is doing but how often bored they seem and the chat section on these kind of streams just feels unsettling plus I seem to have the opposite of ASMR, someone making rustling sounds and whispering with wet mouth sounds right up close to a binaural microphone goes through me.

Streamers have dedicated followers and subscribers that result in a virtual sense of community and your monthly subscriptions fees go to supporting the streamer. Plus if you subscribe to a channel it gets rid of ads Here’s a recommendation if you want to see how surreal and abstract some of the

channels are, Dandidoesit.

Personally there are only a handful of channels that are able to transcend the mild feelings of doom I get interacting with the platform. If you’re not accustomed to the world of streaming in general its a bit of a culture shock, you may very quickly find yourself saying to yourself; what the fuck am I doing? what is this? or just, why? If you do start searching around the strange world of Twitch and feel yourself being instantly overwhelmed, I would recommend heading over to Limmy’s channel.

Limmy starts each of his streams usually with a Blahem request. A blahem is hard to put into words, it’s a kind of cheeky reptilian exposing of the tongue combined with the accompanying sound of “Blahem” the requests are different every time for example; party for the world blahem, oliver twist style please sir could I have some blahem blahem, brian Ferry blahem followed by a marble run where the first 1000 viewers to type !play will enter the marble race (as a marble) to a backdrop of techno inspired music made by Limmy. When fate decides the first marble to get to the finish line that person gets to suggest a premise for an improv story. The correct etiquette is not to try and suggest something overly complicated just a simple concept for example, “Man Takes Skydiving Lesson” and “Man goes Matal Detecting”. 

These improv stories are available to watch on YouTube as are all of Limmy’s Twitch streams. There are a few YouTube channels dedicated to archiving Limmys Twitch career run by fans. Limmy allows them to monetize the channels making it a win win win as it promotes Limmys Twitch Channel, provides an income in return for the fans dedication, and for fans like myself makes it possible to watch clips and highlights with ease. Here are two of these channels that I’m subscribed to on YouTube Benny Harvey and Limmy Twitch clips plus.

His improv stories are unpredictable, except for the names given to the protagonists (‘Craig’ if centered around a man, and ‘Mary’ if centred around a woman) the stories are often quite short but every now and then , out of the blue can go on for close to an hour, depending on his mood, or eagerness to get on with whatever game he’s going to be subsequently playing. He has a natural ability to convey deeply layered situational dark comedy that evolves rapidly off the top of his head, flipping between characters effortlessly, it’s masterful and a very funny and surreal way to start the day. Often they are so shit but in the absolute best way. His stories often have a tendency to turn and become ultra violent, if three wee guys show up that’s usually when you know things are going to get very dark very fast. I know that may sound fairly predictable but it’s the specifics and creativity of the violence that would be hard to preempt. They don’t always turn violent but when they do he will calmly but vividly describe the harrowing fate of Craig in such detail that it can get quite chilling, you do find yourself questioning from time to time the mind of the man that is capable of conjuring such things. He’s a good guy but I sometimes wonder if Limmy’s circumstances had been different in some crucial way, in a kind of sliding doors / parallel life. Could he have potentially turned out to be a menacing figure? a dangerous psychopath? But worse, a really creative one, with a nuanced, dark sense of humour, and a vivid imagination, combine this with the reality of his inexplicably chimp-like arms and flashing baby blue eyes and it paints a terrifying alternative that I’m relieved lives only within the realms of imagination. As a child he describes himself as a loner taking himself off for long excursions to the middle of nowhere, he also enjoyed sneaking out for night excursions, hiding in shadows, bushes, gardens, and scaffolding, feeling like a ninja / a dark force once taking out a knife and cutting peoples washing lines whilst they slept and then stabbed up a football. For the most part he didn’t feel lonely but rather liked his own company, He still does “It was me, and it was all yous. I liked that feeling, and I still do”.

My initial introduction to Limmy’s Twitch channel was via the Benny Harvey YouTube channel, where I watched Limmy play the game Death Stranding during the first lockdown. Limmy is probably best known for playing Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck simulator, which he will often return to in between other games. I find these are some of the most enjoyable streams as he doesn’t have to concentrate too much on the task at hand so therefore talks in a more varied and spontaneous way.

I find the contextual absurdity of his career direction as inherently funny as he is, he’s a deeply unusual and refreshing individual who seems to have found a rare level of contentment that feels aspirational. He will regularly state that this is it and that he’ll be streaming for the rest of his life, and that has absolutely no interest in doing anything else, and there’s something comforting about that. In an uncertain and ever changing world I will be able to tune into one of my favourite comedians Monday to Friday into his old age feels like somewhat of a privilege. I imagine it will look something like this:

The relatively isolated life of a streamer seems to suit him, in a real sense it may

have saved his life, providing an income for something he loves to play computer games, entertain people, and talk at length without having to wait for someone else to stop talking. Regular socialising seems to bore him and he has only a few friends he would meet up with in person, one of these persons is James Huston, also known as 1030 though they seem to interact mostly online as he is a fellow Scottish Twitch Streamer. 1030 is someone else I would also recommend tuning into. He’s a talented, creative, funny, and kind hearted person, a highlight of his online interactions with Limmy was a kind of virtual therapy session instigated by 1030 and held within the game Rust. Limmy and 1030 had made an alliance within the game, pooling their resources and working together until Limmy decided he wanted to go it alone and become God inside the server. 1030 set up a space in their base where they could talk things out in an attempt to encourage him to not be too hasty in forsaking the struggles of mortality and their previous ambitions as allies (whilst wearing rat masks).

It’s a rare victory for anyone in the chat to make Limmy laugh, if you see Limmy laughing it’s usually something he’s said or something he’s thinking that really gets him going. He sometimes lies in bed at night thinking of things to make himself laugh until he’s shaking with laughter.

The viewers chat in Limmy’s streams are a decent bunch and almost everyone in there seems to know the appropriate level of patter, this is aided by the addition of a strambot that filters out certain tropes of bad actors who may spam or write deliberately malicious things, (toxic edgy boy stuff with an undercurrent of resentment, and misogynistic bitterness). Streamers can also nominate dedicated trusted supporters of the channel to be ‘Mods’ who moderate the chat in real time, they can delete messages time people out from the chat or ban people..

My favourite thing to see on Limmy’s streams is when he is watching and analysing a video, something from popular culture. For example anytime

someone in the chat recommends a James Corden video for him to watch. Or when Liam Payne from one direction gives his reaction to will smith slapping chris rock at the oscars, that one in particular I feel is a must see I wouldn’t be able to do it justice by describing it, just search;

Limmy reacts to Liam Payne’s interview on the Will Smith Oscars controversy

He has the uncanny ability to make something so daft and nonsensical fruitful in a way that only the most intelligent and astute comedians can. His comedy is nuanced and displays a wonderful appreciation for absurdity and tragedy which results in a unique form of catharsis. His intimate understanding of media means he is able to intuitively satirise it accurately in so many forms with a rare level of skill, it brings to mind parallels with the likes of Tim and Eric. Limmy has stated Tim and Eric’s Excellent show, great job as a noteworthy influence in the stylistic evolution of Limmy’s show post series 1.

From 6 second vines ,(I would highly recommend the one hour compilation, his vines when combined become something that would be best placed within the context of a looping art gallery video installation) to 4 hour streams and everything in between he consistently creates moments and characters that contain real tangible depth that linger in the mind with a mystifying poignancy

that’s hard to justify rationally.

From 9:30 to 13:30 GMT Monday to Friday tune into Limmy on Twitch

I requested a quote from Limmy live ov stream here it is “I love streaming! Tune in soon and because there’s a big surprise coming.” Shortly after he rearranged his stream room to enjoy the natural light

Followed by another surprise of reverting to the original room orientation complete with the Limmy Twitch sign that had been gone for too long.

I also asked for Limmy to come up with the title for this article. He decided on Limmy’s Twitch career, so we decided to call it Limmy’s Crazy New Life. 

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