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| Joe Winko R.I.P. 1995-2025 |
So as I occasionally do, I thought I'd check in today on some of my forgotten "Quirkymen." And who could fit the name better than Joe Winko. I first posted about him here, I'd been following him for years on YouTube. He's one of those vloggers that you just can't stop watching, warts and all. In regards to Joe, his "warts" were that his arrogance, wasted intelligence, quirky creativity, obsessive compulsions, and general lone wolf qualities all reminded me so much of a younger me. And, heck, if you look at old photos of me, he kinda looked like me when I was much younger too.
I say "looked" in the past tense because I found out that Joe died just about one year ago.
It took me a minute or three to believe it since Joe had a very morbid obsession with death and often posted videos of himself visiting gravesites of people who died of questionable circumstances, was well-known in the Sims creative communities for his Sims movies featuring horror/slasher themes and postulating all sorts of questions of what an afterlife, with himself in it, would look like. He'd often mentioned in his videos his past attempts at suicide and his miserable experiences trying to find friendships and lovers in a world that barely understands or tolerates uniqueness, let alone outright odd and sometimes anti-social appearing autistic behaviorisms. His YouTube channel's last few videos, dated from a year ago, all feature subjects dealing directly with his own death, in fact implying, if not outright admitting, that he was going to commit suicide. Surely this is a big old troll on his part being played on his fans. He just went offline and decided to leave YouTube so he chose to come up with this ruse to freak everyone out. But nope. It's confirmed by independent obit sites featuring his real name and shit. He really did do it.
I don't know what it was about this kid that captured my eye really. I mean, there are a ton of kooky weirdos on YouTube. But he was my kind of weirdo. I felt a sort of kinship. He always liked car trips and posted often on several social media outlets his desire for anyone to drive him anyplace. I thought of doing it once, a few years back and I even emailed him about it. I backed out, like so many of his prospective drivers do according to his updates over time. But many others did take him on memorable journeys which he filmed, like the one above, where he's looking out the passenger side window as the scenery of the road whizzes by, not a care in the world. It'd be nice to believe that he's in a place now where he can feel that way again, eternally. To have that sun filled smile, and no longer be haunted by any more cruel summers.