No Matter How Hard It Tries, The Game Awards Can't Escape This Kid

The 2022 Game Awards only happened a few weeks ago, but it's sure to be remembered for years to come for a few reasons. After nearly three hours of the show,, the Game of the Year was finally revealed: FromSoftware's "Elden Ring." After the game's co-director Hidetaka Miyazaki and others representing the "Elden Ring" team took the stage, keen eyes noticed someone who didn't look like they belonged in the background. As it turned out, this individual was indeed not supposed to be there, and after Miyazaki's speech he took the mic to nominate "reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton" for a GOTY award. 

According to Keighley he was quickly apprehended, but not before discourse exploded online as to what exactly his intentions were and how rude it was to interrupt the "Elden Ring" team's moment in the spotlight. Until Washington Post's Jason Schreier revealed that The Game Awards' now-infamous prankster is 15 years old and "almost certainly a Jewish prankster," many thought his "nomination" of Bill Clinton and mentioning of two sects of Judaism was some kind of attempt at anti-Semitic humor. 

That might not be the case after all, but it's still been a bit of a nightmare for The Game Awards. After all, the prankster caused one of the most bizarre moments in the show and drew all attention away from the award itself with his absurd statement. Possibly as an effort to stop people from focusing on him, the organization has apparently started scrubbing the interrupter out of officially posted photos.

About two weeks after the 2022 Game Awards, the organization's official Twitter account highlighted the night's big winner for being the only studio to ever win two GOTY awards from the show. FromSoftware is indeed the only developer to have snagged two of these coveted trophies — one for "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" and one for "Elden Ring."  Attached to the post was an image of Hidetaka Miyazaki and his English translator. In the original version of that image, the prankster could be seen standing behind the FromSoftware director, but in this edited version, he's been removed — just not very well. 

From Software is the first studio to win 2 Game of the Year awards at #TheGameAwards

2019 – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
2022 – Elden Ring

Congratulations @fromsoftware_pr pic.twitter.com/UXzG83JsOT

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 21, 2022

In the official image, one can just about make out the interrupter's shirt and hand behind Miyazaki's shoulder, and fans derided The Game Awards for posting a sub-par photoshop job. One particularly viral (and obviously comedic) response compared it to an infamous "retouched" photo of Josef Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, a member of the USSR's secret police, who was doctored from the photo after the dictator turned on him. 

Other fans questioned why the Game Awards didn't just post a still of the speech that didn't have the prankster in the background, rather than go through the trouble of editing him out of a still that did. The organization has yet to upload a video of the GOTY award, but the editing of this photo could be a signal that he will be scrubbed from other footage and media from the show, too.