About

Hasan Doğan Piker, also known by his handle HasanAbi, is a socialist political commentator, former member of The Young Turks (TYT), and Twitch Streamer. He gained widespread popularity on Twitch with his 2020 Presidential Election coverage.

History

The Young Turks

Piker^[1] initially began his career as an intern for TYT^[2] in 2013, then 2016 became part of its segment by creating the show "The Breakdown", a video series with a left-leaning political analysis exclusive on Facebook. In 2019, Piker created the short-lived "Agitprop with Hasan Piker" (portmanteau of agitation and propaganda), described as a "dive into post-capitalist ideas….[that] feature interviews with leftist thinkers…" before leaving TYT on 2020 to focus on Twitch.

Twitch

In March 2018, Piker began streaming on Twitch in response to the right-wing foothold on Youtube and concerns that right-wing personalities would come to Twitch.^[5] Piker covers political content and streams his gameplay.

AOC 'Among Us'

On October 19, 2020, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez^[4][11][12] invited and collaborated with Piker and other popular streamers to play Among Us with her on Twitch for the "Get out the vote" initiative. On the following day, she and Ilhan Omar played the game with the streamers on Twitch, with a viewership of up to 700,000.^[15]

2020 US Presidential Election

On September 29, Piker covered the presidential debate, with over 125,000 viewers on Twitch. On November 3 election night, Piker, along with other streamers in collaboration, covered election results with a viewership of 230,000. Piker became the most-watched Twitch streamer during the election week with 6.8 million hours watched and 75,000 average concurrent viewers. ^{[13] [14]}

Leftovers Podcast

On September 26th, 2021, the H3 Podcast YouTube^[21] channel uploaded the first episode of their new comedic political commentary series "Leftovers" starring Ethan Klein and Hasan Piker. The first episode gained over 1.6 million views in four days and features the two discussing and critiquing a number of conservative news stories (shown below). The show takes place on a set made to look much larger than it is that somewhat resembles the InfoWars set.

H3 Podcast fans largely welcomed Piker to the channel, inspiring fan art and memes featuring Piker and Klein on the /r/h3h3productions^[22] and /r/okbudyhasan^[23] subreddits (examples shown below, left and right).

Online Presence

The subreddit /r/okbuddyhasan^[6] was created on June 13th, 2020, and acts primarily as a forum for memes about Piker and related content (examples shown below).

He currently has over 850,000 followers on Twitch, with over 39 million total views as of December 14, 2020. His Youtube main channel, created on June 15, 2015, and gaming channel, created on October 29, 2020, has both a combined 374,000 subscribers and combined over 37.3 million as of December 14, 2020.

Controversies

Dan Crenshaw

On August 21, 2019, during his stream, Piker reacted to Dan Crenshaw's appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast, criticizing the U.S. Representative's foreign policies on the distribution of arms to Saudi Arabia. Piker then made controversial comments by making fun of Crenshaw's eye and America deserving 9/11. ^[8][9][10]

“This guy has the understanding of foreign policy of, like, a 12-year-old. What the fuck is wrong with this dude? Didn’t he go to war and, like, literally lose his eye because some mujahideen- a brave fucking soldier fucked his eyehole with their dick? Isn't that how he lost his fucking dumbass eye, cuz he got his fucking eye hole fucked?"

“This is so insane. America deserved 9/11, dude. Fuck it, I’m saying it….in a video game. Like we totally brought it upon ourselves dude, holy shit. We did, we fucking did, in a video game, whatever, hypothetically, politically, we fucking did…Look at the way that this dipshit is running his fucking mouth, justifying genocide right now. Like, how is anything I'm saying controversial? We fucking fund the people who did 9/11, still to this day.” ^[5]

On August 23, 2019, Piker got a 7-day ban on Twitch.

Not only did these remarks got him banned on Twitch, Piker became a topic on national headlines. Rep. Dan Crenshaw responds to Pikers comments on Fox News.

Piker defends his remarks on Twitter and on TYT, stating "I should’ve used more precise and better use of the language there. It’s messed up that I would even give the opportunity to the right to try to morally grandstand on an issue like this, when they are 100% responsible for all the bloodshed that’s been caused.”

$3 Million House Purchase

On August 13th, 2021, Dirt^[16] leaked the details of Piker's $2.7 million home purchase, including a tour of the property. Word of the purchase quickly spread online and inspired criticism and accusations of hypocrisy towards Piker for buying a multi-million dollar home while supporting socialist political beliefs. The news spread, hitting a peak around August 20th.

Numerous content creators came to Piker's defense for buying the home, including Ethan Klein, Anthony Fantano and Gus Johnson (tweets shown below, click to expand).

The home purchase became the subject of memes on both sides of the argument over the following days (examples shown below).

Piker responded on August 20th in a tweet^[17] reading, "Everyone collectively needs to calm down." On August 21st, he then tweeted a meme showing Karl Marx with the quote, "Socialism is when azan has no house," gaining over 59,000 likes in five days (shown below).

Tim Pool discussed the situation a number of times on his stream and podcast, calling out Piker for being a hypocrite (shown below, left). Piker reacted and responded to these clips on his Twitch stream shortly after (shown below, right).

On August 23rd, Philip DeFranco covered the story on YouTube, gaining over 900,000 views in three days (shown below). The home purchase gained widespread news coverage throughout late August.^[18][19][20]

Related Memes

Destiny

In his early streaming career, Hasan cites Destiny as inspiration as the latter was not only a pioneer in online streaming but also one of the few to bring politics and debating on that platform as a career. The two initially were friends, however political differences and subsequent drama eventually split their friendship.

One notable event was the dispute between Trihex and Destiny, the latter admitted using racial slurs in private conversations. Piker reacted to one of Destiny's statements regarding to such drama, which Piker slams his fist on his desk, angrily^[3] responding:

"What a fucking liar, dude. What a fucking, weaselly, little liar, dude. What a fucking, weaselly little LIAR, dude. Holy shit, dude. Holy fucking shit, dude. Literally lying, STILL LYING to his audience. Can someone at least fucking enlighten Destiny that he's literally lying to his audience? What a fucking piece of shit, dude. Holy fucking shit, dude."

This quote would become a copypasta in the Twitch community and the reaction spawned three emotes, hasanSmash, hasanHyperSmash, and hyperHammer on BetterTTV. ^[7]

Alex Jones

Piker has expressed himself as a personal fan of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Piker would become a topic on a segment on Alex Jones's show "InfoWars", where Jones himself inaccurately criticized Piker's presence as an online personality, to Piker's humor and fascination, calling it "the best birthday gift ever" and making a "cameo" on the show. Piker would use sound clips for alert notifications from the segment on his streams.

Personal Life

Hasan was born in New Jersey, and spent the most of his life growing up in Istanbul, Turkey. He attended the University of Miami, then transferring to Rutgers University, graduating with a double major in political science and communications in 2013. He is the nephew of the creator of The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur.

Search Interest

External References