About

Etika, aka Desmond Amofah, was a YouTube streamer known for his excited reactions, particularly to Nintendo products. In late June 2019, Amofah was pronounced dead after his body was discovered in New York City's East River^[29][30][31] just days after he uploaded a video that appeared to be confessing his imminent suicide.

History

Etika was born on May 12th, 1990 and is from Brooklyn, New York.^[1] Prior to going into streaming, he worked as a model.^[2] He joined YouTube on July 16th, 2012.^[3] His first extant video, dated November 11th, 2012, gained over 22,000 views (video has been removed). In the following five and a half years, Etika gained over 662,000 subscribers on YouTube. He is most well known for reacting to Nintendo news; some of his most popular videos feature him reacting to announcements relating to Super Smash Brothers. The videos have since been removed.

Joycon Boyz

Etika is responsible for a subsection of his fans who are also very into Nintendo products calling themselves Joycon Boyz. In a video ripped from one of Etika's streams and uploaded to YouTube November 14th, 2016 by YouTuber JG Wentworthh, Etika pulls out a Nintendo Switch and begins to exclaim "JOYCON, BOYS!"

The popularity of that moment spread throughout his fandom and is often referenced in Reddit posts about him.^[4][5][6]

Suicide Scare

On October 25th, 2018, Etika posted to his subreddit,^[10] "And now, it's my turn to die. I love you all. Keep fighting for me, ok? I'll miss yall :* make the world better for your own kids, and REMEMBER TO STARGAZE. These last 6 years have been an HONOR." With the words, he posted a screenshot of his now-terminated YouTube channel, which he did by his own hand by uploading porn until YouTube took it down. Prior to that, Etika posted a video in which he appeared agitated, ranting against Twitter for banning him for using the n-word (shown below).

The post and the video led to speculation that Etika was suicidal. Etika again posted to the subreddit over an hour later saying he was fine and being "overdramatic."^[11] He also made a post saying "Yay, I Broke the World :D."^[12] Twitter user, streamer, and personal friend @FionaNova tweeted hours after Etika's Reddit post that she was with him and he was safe (shown below).

The ordeal led to speculation about whether Etika actually was safe, or if he was planning a stunt similar to an ARG. YouTuber Omni made a video explaining the situation, gaining over 60,000 views (shown below).

On October 28th, after several days of rumors and unverified information on Etika's health and whereabouts spread by people he was close to, Etika posted to his subreddit^[13] saying "Three days in the sunken place… One of the worst AND most enlightening experiences of my life. I'll talk all about it soon!" The "sunken place" is a reference to a metaphorical location in the film Get Out wherein a black person maintains consciousness but loses bodily control. The following day, Etika posted again to his subreddit,^[14] apologizing for making his fans think he was suicidal and explaining he was in the midst of what he called deep "personal realizations." He wrote:

"I did not plan to use an ARG to feign suicidal thoughts and garner mass worry from people. I'm so sorry to you all for scaring you like that. My creative bursts were just more prevalent, aka a fucking meltdown I suppose."

He also explained to his Twitch chat exactly what happened from his point of view. It was reuploaded to YouTube by user Dom (shown below).

Second Scare

On April 16th, 2019, Etika again began tweeting manically, including threats of suicide^[15][16] (examples shown below).

A friend of Etika's, streamer @TheAlicePika, was with Etika at the time and documented what was happening. According to her account, at one point, Etika asked her to leave because "he's expecting people to show up at his house and it might not be safe with me there.” She then contacted police who restrained Etika and took him to a hospital.^[17]

Online, people were torn about the outburst. Some were unsure how seriously to take the outburst considering the result of Etika's previous outburst in October of 2018. Redditor Godanki wrote "It was a fun ride. Etika is just being stupid now. We tried telling ya'll all this time he is messing about and its boring and not funny. RIP FRFX. RIP Joyconboyz"^[18] in /r/EtikaRedditorNetwork. User thewayshegoes99^[19] wrote the tweets could be evidence of mental illness beyond Etika's control.^[19]

April 29th Events

On April 28th and 29th, Etika began tweeting constantly, alarming his fans with the megalomaniacal and rapid-fire pace of his tweets. He apparently had DM'd multiple high-profile YouTubers who were verified on Twitter asking them to get him verified. They refused, as they had no control over Twitter's verification system, and in response, Etika blocked them.^[20] This includes close friends to Etika like @SkyWilliams (shown below, left). Alice Pika appeared to say it was the last straw for her, and that Etika was never going to hurt himself (shown below, right). At one point, Etika tweeted "Fuck the Jews."^[21]

At one point, Etika tweeted a video of the NYPD outside his house (shown below, top). They were evidently called by someone out of concern for Etika. Later, Etika showed the police invading his home and arresting him on Instagram Live^[22] after a 30-minute standoff (shown below, bottom).

Keemstar Interview

On April 30th, 2019, Keemstar posted an interview with Etika. The video quickly gained over one million views (shown below). The interview starts with Etika saying “Hey guys, what’s going on it’s me, the antichrist. I’ve come to purge the planet of all human life.” He continued with several unhinged quotes including saying that he “will be dropping missiles very very soon on every single human being" and “Death means nothing, why are you all so scared of death for?”

Etika also denied that his recent behavior was a publicity stunt, and when asked about the events of April 29th, he said "I walked into (the mental place) I became God, and I walked out.” At the end of the interview, the two devolved into arguing, and following the interview, he reported that Etika blocked him as a "rage quit" (shown below). The interview was covered by Daily Dot^[23] and Dexerto.^[24]

Fight with Police Officer

On May 1st, Etika was filmed shoving a police officer in New York City.

After the video was posted online, rumors swirled that Etika was arrested. This was not the case. Alice Pika confirmed that Etika was at a mental health facility, adding that she gave the facility as much information as she could to make sure Etika stayed there longer than a day (shown below, left). Twitter user @InfernoOmni said he was scared that Etika's life could've been permanently ruined at that moment (shown below, right).

Suicide

June 19th Video

On June 19th, 2019, Etika posted a video to YouTube apologizing to his fans, saying he was sorry for betraying their trust and pushing them away (shown below). He stated he was not suicidal before in previous incidents, saying "in an attempt to be edgy, I fucked up my entire life." It also featured Etika talking as though he would not be alive for much longer, saying things like "there will be games, movies, technology I'll never see. I'll never see Attack on Titan." He also said "the world will be better off without me." To many, it appeared like a suicide note. He has since been reported as missing and as of June 20th, police are looking for him^[25]. The video has since been removed from YouTube.

On June 2nd, Etika tweeted asking "When should I have my next mental breakdown y'all? what days y'all niggas got off?? 😂👌🏾." User @absolutemystic suggested June 20th, as "most people will be out of school,"^[26] to which Etika replied "I'll put this on my calendar (shown below).

This led some, like Keemstar, to believe Etika's June 19th video was staged and insincere.^[27] Others including @3andrewsinarow argued that the exchange could be interpreted as Etika secretly asking his fans for a date on which to kill himself and then receiving one.^[28]

Discovery of Body

On June 22nd, 2019, Etika's personal belongings, including his wallet, laptop bag, cell phone, clothes, and Nintendo Switch were found on the Manhattan Bridge in New York City, suggesting that he may have jumped off the bridge. Keemstar^[8] tweeted "I think we lost him, guys," when reporting the news, gaining over 5,700 retweets and 31,000 likes (shown below, left). User @MysticDistanc maintained a thread of information about Etika's disappearance, keeping track on rumors and false information being circulated online (shown below, right).

On June 24th, 2019, police discovered a body floating in New York City's East River, a half mile away from where Etika's belongings were found. As of June 25th, the body had not been identified. The New York Police Department said: "The medical examiner will determine the cause of death and the investigation is ongoing. Identification of the deceased is pending proper family notification. The medical examiner will confirm identification." The Verge journalist Julia Alexander^[31] tweeted several updates about the story, noting that the NYPD was "holding the identification until the family is notified" (example shown below, left). Meanwhile, Keemstar tweeted about the story as well, included a censored image of police recovering the body (shown below, right).

On June 25th, the NYPDNews tweeted that Etika had been found deceased. They did not specify if it was the same body they pulled from the East River. It was confirmed by other news outlets, however, that the body was Etika's.

Online Presence

Outside of YouTube, Etika is active on social media and has a devoted following. His subreddit, /r/etikaredditnetwork,^[7] has 6,969 subscribers. He also has over 194,000 Twitter followers^[8] and a devoted Wiki page.^[9]

Related Memes

Etika Reaction Parodies

Etika Reaction Parodies are a series of remix videos involving Etika's reaction to the teaser trailer of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and replacing the trailer footage with instances from other media.

Search Interest

External References