User:Nevermore/Sandbox/JaAm
| This article is about the controversial fandom meme. For the Japanese supergroup, see JAM Project. |
- JaAm is, depending on who you ask, either a mysterious quantity from the Unicron Trilogy continuity family, or a memetic joke that is considered offensive by certain minorities.
In-universe, Hot Shot is obsessed with JaAm, a mysterious substance. Some have suggested it may be a fuel source. Regardless, it's important enough to Hot Shot that he had a vanity license plate made to proclaim his love for it.
Out of universe, "JaAm" was originally a nonsensical term featured in a fan-edited pack-in mini-comic that subsequently became the subject of a meme, which in turn resulted it in being referenced in official Transformers materials on multiple occasions. While the term itself can be just taken as a funny name for a mysterious substance, other elements of the fan-edited mini-comic have since become the subject of criticism for depicting offensive stereotypes of mentally handicapped people.
Overview
The original fan-edited comic
Just before the Armada toyline's imminent release in 2002, scans of the first pack-in mini-comic were put online both at Transformers.com and at Ben's World of Transformers, the latter of which received early production samples from Hasbro for review. The original comic was trilingual, forcing the writer to fit three languages worth of dialogue into tiny word bubbles, resulting in short, stilted, and unintentionally goofy-sounding prose. Because of these limitations, many found the mini-comic to be a bit lacking. British fan Yartek took it upon himself to rewrite the dialogue as nonsense; reportedly, it took him the span of an afternoon to come up with the new dialogue. Among other things (such as Cyclonus asking what the hell he turns into, and Optimus Prime wondering where his feet are), Hot Shot was famously depicted as an incoherent oddball, randomly screaming non sequiturs such as "mY liFE iS PaIn" and "WhY mY ShOuLdErS hUrT?" in randomly uppercase and lowercase letters using the much-reviled Comic Sans font. (This was, perhaps, Yartek's commentary on the art.) The most famous quote, "jaAm", comes from Hot Shot's description of the large green energy-draining device, which he mistakes for a container of jam.
Popularity among the fandom and references in official Transformers materials
The rewritten mini-comic proved to be wildly popular in the fandom and grew to be one of the most persistent memes through the duration of Armada and beyond. When Ben Yee overhauled his toy review system, he commissioned Hot Shot fan David Willis to create a series of images based on the mini-comic, which would remain part of his rating system for almost two decades. (Ironically, the Hot Shot toy itself rated poorly on Ben Yee's scale.)
In 2008, Hasbro themselves officially referenced "JaAm" and its relevance to Hot Shot: The second Universe toy line featured a new Deluxe Class Hot Shot toy, whose vanity license plate simply reads "JA AM" in uppercase letters. (Hot Shot's wave-mate, Autobot Ratchet, likewise featured a license plate with an obscure reference, in his case to the cover of issue 70 of the original Transformers comic series by Marvel). Additionally, the final sentence of the bio featured on the back of the toy's packaging elaborates on his obsession with "JaAm", this time spelled in camel case.
In 2019, "JaAm" was referenced for the first time in a Transformers cartoon, namely in the Rescue Bots Academy episode "Rescue Promo": When that show's version of Hot Shot was dropped into a vat during a rescue mission at an out of control Griffin Rock cake factory, he emerged covered in a blue substance which he declared to be "jaaaam!" Furthermore, while not referenced by name, the 2020 Rescue Bots Academy Hot Shot toy that turns into a fire truck comes with a "Splash Blaster" that has been given a translucent green color, which appears to be inspired by the color of the substance from the fan-edited Armada comic as well.
Controversy
While one subset of fans considers the "JaAm" reference in particular, and the entire fan-edited comic in general, to be merely a silly joke that makes fun of the art style, and particularly the facial expressions, in an official Transformers comic, other people have raised valid concerns that the entire thing is just one big "joke" about Hot Shot being, well, mentally not well-developed. Not to beat around the bush, his portrayal in the edited dialogue makes him essentially a caricature of a mentally handicapped person. Additionally, Optimus Prime's edited dialogue features the line "Perhaps you can get some medical help", which can also be interpreted as denigrating people with mental issues.
Notes
- The specific capitalization of "JaAm" never actually appears in the comic, but Hasbro has used this capitalization on the back of Universe Hot Shot's packaging, with the second "A" being larger than the other—perhaps, we humbly propose, because that's how we've spelled it on this wiki.
- Hot Shot's love of jaAm was apparently inspired by the "Bunny Cuddles" stories from the British magazine Playhour, featuring an anthropomorphic rabbit whose favorite food was jam. [1]
References
External links
- "Armada - The REAL Story", by Yartek on FortMax's Instructions Archive
- Jam on Wikipedia
