Josh Roop - Loser Kid Pinball - Pinball and 2026 Predictions - Episode 84

JBS Show·podcast_episode·1h 25m·analyzed·Feb 20, 2026

Buzzsprout-18716192

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Josh Roop discusses Loser Kid's rise as Stern's reveal podcast and the ethics of maintaining access while asking hard questions.

Summary

Josh Roop from Loser Kid Pinball discusses his podcast's growth, relationship with Stern Pinball, interview strategy, and personal background including music and competitive pinball. He reveals details about gaining Stern's trust through discretion (Jack Danger scoop, keeping secrets), explains his interview philosophy balancing access with tough questions, and shares competitive pinball experiences and personal anecdotes.

Key Claims

Loser Kid revealed every Stern game except Star Wars in the past year
high confidence · Josh states: 'I think we revealed every single game except for Star Wars, and that was kind of like a weird thought.'
Star Wars reveal was delayed due to Charlie Kirk assassination attempt causing turmoil at Stern
medium confidence · Josh: 'At Star Wars is Charlie Kirk got shot. Yeah. And there was a lot of turmoil, I think. So there were some people shook at Stern... our interview got pushed back and then stuff started happening with the license.'
Jack Danger's employment at Stern was revealed months before official announcement, requiring editorial cuts
high confidence · Josh describes being told by Zach Sharp to cut Jack Danger footage from interview before Jack was officially announced as designer.
Stern initially required review of all Loser Kid interviews, later moved to trust-based relationship
high confidence · Josh: 'When Stern, there was early on Stern with, they had us submit every interview, and like they have to review it and stuff like that. And then it turned into this like, we trust you. Don't worry about it.'
Josh previously mistakenly leaked Zombie Yeti as TMNT artist from confidential TWIP content around 2019-2020
high confidence · Josh received call from Stern requiring redaction: 'I got a call. And it is, why did you guys do that? ... honest mistake. I didn't realize that was not public knowledge.'
YouTube channel growth for Loser Kid went from 700 to 2,500 subscribers in one year
high confidence · Josh: 'just last year we went from 700 on YouTube to 2500. It's incredible.'
Loser Kid now posts daily shorts vs. every three days previously
high confidence · Josh: 'originally, what I was doing was a short about every three days. But now actually I'm doing a short every single day of the week.'
Seth Davis stated Disney does not control Stern's game selection outside their licenses

Notable Quotes

“I think the reason I'm able to keep them is because it's paid off in the long run. Like I've gained very much a lot of trust from Stern.”
Josh Roop @ N/A — Explains philosophy behind discretion and why media outlets should maintain confidentiality with manufacturers.
“I'm willing to ask those questions because I think personally, me, any manufacturer out there should be willing to answer those questions... It doesn't build trust with the community, right?”
Josh Roop @ N/A — Articulates philosophy on balancing access with accountability in interviews.
“Do you feel like you know more secrets now that you own a podcast than before you had the podcast? And now today I can confidently 100 percent say yes.”
Josh Roop @ N/A — Reflects on insider information access gained through podcast credibility.
“When we have Seth Davis on, I'm going to ask him hard hitting questions. He's the president. He has to answer to everything, right? When we have Keith Elwin on and it's a release day for King Kong, I'm not going to ask him why like the BOM is a certain way.”
Josh Roop @ N/A — Clarifies contextual approach to interview difficulty based on role and timing.
“Jack must actually officially work there now. And we need this months before this was ever revealed. And so like we cut it out, and then we just kept quiet about it.”
Josh Roop @ N/A — Key example of editorial discretion and protecting designer confidentiality.
“I feel like we failed them because that the YouTube did terribly. And podcast numbers were pretty average. But it was funny because like the dude got like two or three jobs out of it.”
Josh Roop @ N/A — Demonstrates impact of Loser Kid platform beyond viewership metrics.

Entities

Josh RooppersonJamiepersonLoser Kid Pinball PodcastorganizationStern PinballcompanyJack Dangerperson Seth Davisperson Keith Elwin

Signals

?
business_signal: Loser Kid Podcast evolved from independent media to official Stern Pinball exclusive reveal outlet; represents significant business development and industry positioning.
high · Josh states they revealed 'every single game except for Star Wars' in past year; describes evolution from interview submission/review requirement to 'we trust you' relationship.
?
event_signal: Twippies awards 2023 generated significant technical/copyright complications when Zencaster re-uploaded 180+ archived episodes.
medium · Josh describes YouTube copyright strike for Foo Fighters music in Twippies episode; Zencaster automatically re-uploaded old episodes causing issues.
~
sentiment_shift: Pinball content creator community experiencing tensions between access-dependent outlets and editorial independence; ongoing debate about fairness/balance in interviews.
medium · Josh discusses criticism about 'softball questions'; explains contextual approach to interview difficulty; acknowledges perception of conflict between access and objectivity.
?
community_signal: Top competitive players actively mentor newer players in tournament settings, demonstrating strong community culture of knowledge-sharing and mentorship.
medium · Josh describes Bowen Kerins offering rules coaching at tournament; references conversation with top players about attaining top-1000 ranking viability.
?
leak_detection: Zombie Yeti employment as Stern art director confirmed through incident involving Josh Roop leaking confidential assignment to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2019-2020.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.255

0:00

On today's episode, Jamie interviews one half of the dynamic duo from the Loser Kids Pinball Podcast. Everybody put your hands together and welcome in my friend, Josh Rupp on the JBS Show.

0:21

Hello and welcome to another edition of the JBS Show and I'm excited. Josh Rube, Loser Kid Pinball Hanging out with me tonight, thank you so much sir For sure Pleasure for you to invite me on And come hang out with you man We have a good friend in common, Glenn Wechter Who does My intro music And my announcing now Yep Yeah he's kind of a secret weapon in the pinball industry And I wish like He would be utilized more But like he does so much for the podcast It's ridiculous Like that dude, if he ever starts charging, man, we're in trouble. We're in deep trouble. He's, he's fantastic. Great dude. I talked to him almost once a week and just bullshit with him and we have a good time. You know, he's a good dude. He is. I talked to him probably weekly as well. Oh yeah. Good. Yeah.

1:14

We both have something else in common. We both hosted the Twippies. Yes, that's true. We have, I totally forgot about doing that in 2023. and then like i got a reminder because for some odd reason like so we switched from soundcloud was our hosting thing and we switched to zencaster because that's what we were using anyway so it was like why why would you not so we switched to zencaster well it finally like renewed this year and it took all of our old episodes and re-uploaded them to youtube like all 180 some odd episodes and one of them that popped up was twippies because uh we had foo fighters music in it and YouTube's like, whoa, you can't be using this because it's copyright infringement. I was like, we went through this like a year ago. What is going on? And so come to find out, yeah. I totally forgot about doing that.

2:04

high confidence · Josh: 'We asked that question... And he answered. And he's like, no, we have a relationship with Disney... But they do not negate what we do. They do not say, hey, you can or cannot do this outside of their license.'

JBS Showorganization

Pinball Roundtableorganization

Star Wars Pinballgame

Jurassic Park Pinballgame

Triple Drainorganization

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pinballgame

King Kong Pinballgame

Iron Maiden Pinballgame

high · Josh received call from Stern requiring redaction of Zombie Yeti TMNT artist assignment; describes as honest mistake of mixing public and confidential TWIP content.

market_signal: Pinball content creation showing strong YouTube growth trajectory but facing audience ceiling based on niche learning curve and IP licensing constraints.

medium · Discussion of steep learning curve limiting content reach; references to threshold where 'pinball caps out'; YouTube growth (700->2500 subscribers) vs. mature podcast listener base.

personnel_signal: Jeff Patterson no longer active in pinball industry/TWIP operations; appears to have exited pinball media entirely.

medium · Josh states Patterson 'probably doesn't have any time for pinball left' and still doesn't communicate with Josh after 2019-2020 leak incident.

personnel_signal: Jack Danger working at Stern in undisclosed designer capacity months before public announcement in 2019-2020 period.

high · Josh describes cutting footage from interview after receiving directive from Zach Sharp; Jack later confirmed as designer when officially revealed at Expo.

business_signal: Stern appears to use Loser Kid Podcast as strategic reveal partner, suggesting calculated media relations approach prioritizing trusted outlets.

high · Partnership evolved from strict pre-screening to trust model; all major releases except Star Wars routed through Loser Kid; exclusive interview access granted.

licensing_signal: Star Wars Pinball reveal affected by external event (Charlie Kirk assassination attempt) causing Stern instability and license complications.

medium · Josh: 'At Star Wars is Charlie Kirk got shot... there was a lot of turmoil... there were some people shook at Stern... stuff started happening with the license.'

Yeah. So they just added to it. Did you watch it? I skimmed it. I'm not going to lie. It was really good, but the problem is it came out on Valentine's Day, and I didn't really watch it that day. and then i kept forgetting and then during the work week like people kept asking me like what was the results for the twippies i'm like i don't know so i finally what i do is i while i work i put a youtube episode on so when i say skimmed it's more like i have it on the background while i'm fixing a furnace or a water heater whatever it is so yeah i watched they did a fantastic job bash like yeah above and beyond of like the quality yeah it was just fantastic they're both audio engineers and they're amazing so yeah you know you can see that they're good at what they do we did a little review on the round table on the twippies and then i got myself in trouble again so you guys don't get in trouble at loser kid we do um it's just not very public okay we get in trouble the pinball round table with me and kale and retro rough we get in a lot of trouble and uh we have it for a bit and i'm assuming because um i'm not i'm not gonna hash all that oh no you're not trouble with um but uh yeah i get you though i i there it's weird um especially when you say something that you don't mean offensively or whatnot right call or you get the message and you're like like i think i think i talk about this opening now because the game released and everything like that when teenage mutant turtles was being rumored that was a dream theme for me and i was so excited i had loser kid at the time and it would have been 2019 2020 somewhere around there and it's when jeff patterson was still running this week in pinball and uh he was doing a news article but like on top of that if you paid for his extra stuff he was giving little juicy secrets behind the scenes and i got mixed up that one of the secrets he'd given was not public yet i thought it was part of his new les news letter and uh the rumor was that zombie yeti was doing artwork and which made me ecstatic because i love zombie yeti so we announced it on the podcast and not even 24 hours later i get a call and it is why did you guys do that what's i'm like dude honest mistake i didn't realize that was not public knowledge i'm like i can go redact that real quick it's not a big deal i guess he had received a call from someone at stern yeah that was like yeah you need to redact that you need to do it now you know and well you seem to be uh you seem to mend those fences pretty well since you have such a good relationship with stern right now yeah that's true well patterson still doesn't talk to me so i don't know i actually called him last week it was and i know it's his phone number because i left a message and say hey jeff this is jeff patterson dude's probably busy he probably doesn't have He doesn't have any time for pinball left, you know? Yeah, that's too bad. But all the other beefs I've ever had, they've all been squashed. We're good. Okay, that's good. They're all misunderstandings. They really, really are. Okay. You know, Gail and Ralph and I are good dudes, and we're not trying to cause really any problems. We're just three idiots having a podcast. So, anyway, Glenn told me something about you. He says you're a big guitar player. Yes. And you've got a ton of guitars. How many do you have? 10 i want to say do you have a favorite one uh the one i just picked up from daniel clark from sathara guitars he made me a loser kid guitar so uh it's got it's got earth shaker play filled as the body it's got the actual logo uh and the fretboard at the 12th fret uh it plays smooth it's exactly what i've wanted it's i don't know it's just it's a great it's got the dual humbuckers with a top humbucker you can split the coil so you get like that single action like you would like it's a Fender Strat or a Tele. Yeah, it just sounds so good. I love it. So I got into acoustic playing during COVID. That was my thing. Nice. Trying to loop a couple of LBs and play the guitar. And I'm stuck on GC and D songs. That's it, dude. You know? I grew up with, like, I wanted to be – I don't know if your fans like some 41 or blink 22 or yeah, they have a lot of that, like finger picking it's it's single notes played in succession really fast. And so I liked a lot of that. So that's what I learned it. Learning the actual chords didn't come to much later. Cause I was just more like three chords in the truth. Like I learned the power chords and called it good. And so it's funny. Cause even like when I have to, like, I have to really think about it. Glenn was playing guitar with me at expo and he's like, give me an E and like, give me a second. Okay. Yes. you know what i'm saying but yeah if you give me single notes and stuff like that i have a blast with those i was in a band for 10 years i actually was let's talk about it what kind of band was it it was a pop punk band of the 2000s persuasion so and you opened for some pretty good bands didn't you yeah um taking back sunday uh may the spill canvas uh terrible things I mean there was a handful of them that we just had a blast with yeah that's awesome dude well you see you're younger than me so I you know your music love is going to be different than mine right I don't know so my stepfather when he moved into the family he brought his record collection and his CDs and stuff so I grew up on ACDC I grew up on the 80s metal all that stuff I love the 90s and 2000s is my pocket but like i have an appreciation respect for the earlier stuff and even some of the older stuff or the newer stuff that's come along too so i can talk music with you i listen to about 35 to 40 minutes every night before i go to bed nice just on apple music just rocking something trying not to do too much metallica because i'm trying to go to bed but uh uh, my algorithm is intact. It's really good. Speaking of algorithms, you're like a guru with the YouTube algorithm. All right. I don't know about that. I think that's pretty good. You and Ralph, those are the guys. Like, have you studied it? Are you a studier of the algorithm itself and, and views and that sort of thing? I just take the numbers that I see through loser kid. And I, I mess with stuff. Like I, I'm always trying something different with it and whatnot. And so I don't know if I'm a guru, but I think I found a groove. That's definitely – I know there is a lot of people that's like, I'm always seeing your content. I'm like, I don't know how because I'm just doing what I've – I don't know. We started on YouTube about two years ago, and so it's been like a learning curve. But what I do find interesting is there has been a ton of growth in YouTube for us versus even just like our normal podcast. Granted we do have plenty of followers Via our old school podcast But it's like Just last year we went from 700 on YouTube To 2500 It's incredible I've had a good YouTube run We're doing okay right Yeah For starting a brand new channel two years ago Because I had to start over you know But yeah you're killing it I love the reels Keep the shorts coming They're fun I'm trying to keep up and they're great I love them It's fun and it's been interesting So originally What I was doing was a short About every three days But now actually I'm doing a short Every single day of the week I wish I had the time I started a new gig and it's just I'm working my ass off It can be exhausting but my edit day Usually my edit day Used to be only about an hour or two At the most It's now doubled but then again I have content for the next two weeks So like we're running the Pokemon Stuff right now and that's still Booked out until the middle of next week I think If I remember correctly Can we talk about Pokemon a little bit You get So you do have a phenomenal relationship with Storm because you get to Get it all you're the get You get all the interviews Of all the The new game right How did that come about? When did that start?