 |  |  |  |  |
| “ | Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil doesn't simply beat games, he completes 'em. 100%. No stone is left unturned until the viewing audience knows the value of any game Jirard has seen all the way to the end (and often far beyond that)! Through his cultivated skills as both a theater and film major, Jirard produces premium content on cherished classics or brand-new video games. Join Jirard as he shares his journey of completing and celebrating hundreds of video games. | ” |
―Jirard's channel description | ||
Jirard Khalil (born: January 3, 1988) is an American YouTuber and streamer known online as The Completionist, the titular character of a web series he created in 2012. His videos are mainly about video games, focusing on reviews and playthroughs to 100% completion, uncovering every aspect found in the game. Throughout his career on YouTube, Jirard has uploaded reviews of over 340 games. He was also affiliated with the YouTube network and gaming collective Normal Boots.
Jirard's content on The Completionist involves him reviewing and discovering every aspect of a video game, including completing the game on all difficulty options, finding every collectible and defeating every boss. At the end of his reviews, Jirard also shows the number of hours taken to complete the game along with the amount of collectibles he acquired. He stated that his style of completing games originated from his childhood, where he often played games repeatedly in order to convince his parents to buy him new games.
Jirard worked on The Completionist with collaborator Greg Wilmot. However, due to a falling out between the two members, the first 120 episodes of the series were removed, leading Jirard to recreate the episodes. In addition to The Completionist, he also created Let's Play videos on the channel Super Beard Bros. with collaborator and friend Alex Faciane. In January 2024, Super Beard Bros. co-hosts Alex Faciane and Brett Bayonne announced that the channel would be separating from Jirard, and that they would be shifting to independent funding going forward.
A member of the Open Hand Foundation charity, Jirard organized the annual event IndieLand, a livestream centered around showcasing indie games intended to raise money for dementia research. He later left the charity and resigned from his role as a board member due to the controversy regarding misappropriated charity funds. Ever since this controversy, many fans lost interest in him, resulting in his channel losing many subscribers, and his views on his recent videos not reaching the same watches as his older videos.
Early life[]
Jirard Khalil was born on January 3, 1988, and is a native of Los Angeles, California. He is of Lebanese descent. His father is Charles Khalil and his mother was Kaaren Reid Khalil, who was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia in 2003 and passed away from the disease in 2013. Jirard has four siblings, including three sisters; Leila, Monika and Kellee, and one brother; Jacque.
At birth, Jirard was diagnosed with Spinal Hemangioma, a condition that was supposedly going to correct itself in time. In 2021, he discovered that he had been misdiagnosed as a baby (due to medical proficiency at the time) and what he actually suffered from was a different condition called Blue Rubber Bleb Nevus (BRBNS) syndrome. This lead Jirard to suffer from anemia, which has caused portions of his hair and facial hair to turn prematurely white. As of 2021, Jirard is now seeing proper treatment for BRBNS.
Jirard attended California State University, Fullerton. After Jirard got his college degree in theater and film, he worked at a Best Buy. After his manager pushed him to pursue his YouTube dreams full time, Jirard started his YouTube channel, originally called ThatOneVideoGamer but later renamed The Completionist.
Career[]
The Completionist[]
| “ | With that in mind guys, this game gets our completionist rating of... Complete it! | ” |
―Jirard during Complete It ratings, The Completionist | ||
Jirard's YouTube career began in 2012. He had attempted to start his YouTube career multiple times, but had restarted due to a lack of success in gaining an audience. After meeting internet personality Arin Hanson, Jirard became inspired to create his YouTube career again, with an emphasis towards playing video games to 100% completion.
Jirard's content on The Completionist involves him reviewing and discovering every aspect of a video game, including completing the game on all difficulty options, finding every collectible and defeating every boss. At the end of his reviews, Jirard also shows the number of hours taken to complete the game along with the amount of collectibles he acquired. He stated that his style of completing games originated from his childhood, where he often played games repeatedly in order to convince his parents to buy him new games.
Unlike other reviewers, Jirard doesn't rate a game based on a four-point scale or numberical/alphabetical grades. Instead, his ratings are as follows:*Complete It! - The game is relatively easy and/or fun to complete, or the reward for getting 100% completion is worth the struggle.
- Finish It! - The game is still a lot of fun to play and finish whatever Story Mode is in the game, but getting all the collectibles and/or achievements is more trouble than it's worth.
- Play It! - The game is a lot of fun to play, but can get old with extended sessions or the late stages are far too annoying to deal with.
- Look At It! - The game is kind of boring or terrible to play, but interesting enough to check it out via a YouTube series or something similar.
- Donate It! - The game is horrible and should never be played by anyone sober. Originally titled "Burn It!"
Originally, his reviews were divided into rigid sections: Story, Presentation, Gameplay, Final Level, The Struggle and the Completion Bonus, before Jirard gives his final Completionist Rating. However, the show went under a massive retool after the Tales of Symphonia review in the October of 2016, getting an new interface as well as the new segments: The Legend, The Quest, The Battle, and The Reward; with only the rating system left from the original system-with each of the new segments merging and mixing previous aspects. While he still uses this format even today, the segment labels have changed to custom ones based on the title being reviewed.
Originally, Jirard was the owner of a collection of web series called That One Video Gamer, as well as partnered with Polaris. However, he eventually left Polaris after some internal strife and That One Video Gamer was eventually dissolved to just being an alternate brand name for Jirard's business ventures. For the majority of four seasons, the videos heavily featured Jirard's producer and comedic partner, Greg Wilmont (The Mediocre-ist) providing much of the comic relief, and later with Alex Faciane of "The Dex." In early 2015, Greg left the show after a falling out between him and Jirard (alluded to be because of the difficulties in maintaining a friendship while running a business, though neither have said much in regards to the details). In August 2017, Jirard eventually confirmed his falling out with Greg and that sometime after they parted, Greg had requested, and then demanded, that he pull down all the videos featuring the two. In a vlog, Jirard noted that it was a difficult decision and he considered fighting it, but ultimately decided to comply. He then announced that he would recomplete all 120 of those games in a new bi-weekly series called "The Completionist: New Game Plus", finishing that up in 2023. Jirard encouraged his viewers to upload the old episodes and disseminate them before he pulled them.
Collaborations and Side Series[]
| “ | In a world of unfinished games, only one man is brave enough to conquer them and defeat them all, and that is The Completionist! Since 2011, The Completionist has been completing games on a weekly basis while providing an in depth analysis of what is required to fully beat them and a brief history of each game! To date, he has 100% completed over 400 games, all for you to enjoy! YouTube and Twitch are the places to be if you want to watch The Completionist slay games, and if you want to see what he is up to in life, check out his Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! | ” |
―Jirard's bio | ||
Aside from the main The Completionist series, Jirard has several side series and is a frequent contributor to other channels.
- The Completionist: New Game + - Jirard re-completes the first 120 games on his channel, offering up new perspective and analyzing any new content for the games that came out since the original video.
- The Completionist DLC - A look at any additional DLC for a game that Jirard has already made a video on. Unlike the main series, this one only has two ratings: Download It! or Skip It!
- Top Tens - Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Jirard lists his Top 10 Best or Worst of a specific topic, based on his own experiences.
- The Completionist Ranked - Jirard makes a tier list of various subjects (such as Pokémon starter trios) based on his own criteria.
- If You Liked, You Should Try - Jirard focuses on a popular game, then gives a variety of recommendations of other games, particularly lower profile or indie games, that offer up similar gameplay experiences.
- Super Beard Bros - A Let's Play channel where Jirard is joined by one of his head writers Alex Faciane. Originally, the main draw was Alex providing various trivia and knowledge on the game in question while Jirard played, but that was eventually dropped when people other than Jirard handled the playing. Early episodes often had Greg as a guest, but those videos were lost after the video purge. Eventually, producer Brett Bayonne joined the series officially. In January 2024, Super Beard Bros. co-hosts Alex Faciane and Brett Bayonne announced that the channel would be separating from Jirard, and that they would be shifting to independent funding going forward.
- Scary Game Squad - A series headed by Jesse Cox over on his channel, with Jirard and Alex teaming up with him and Davis from The Warp Zone, which specializes in horror games.
- Big Bad Bosses - A pop group Jirard belongs to, along with Alex and Satchell "SatchBag" Drakes, with a rotating fourth member each album. Each group member cosplays as a video game villain (Jirard is Bowser) as they sing about the trials and tribulations of being a bad guy.
- Complete Chaos - Another band Jirard is a part of, this one does heavy metal covers of established video game songs.
There are also a variety of shows and formats that Jirard has either paused or ended:*The Mediocre-ist - Jirard and Greg switched roles, but since Greg is much less skilled than Jirard, his games don't get anywhere close to 100% completion. Retired completely after Greg left.
- Defend It! - A skit-based show, heavily based on Ace Attorney games, where Jirard acts as the defense attorney, trying to defend a heavily criticized game and shine a light on the positives. Opposing him is prosecutor Andrew Campbell, with Jesse Cox serving as judge. Eventually retired.
- Why We Love Games: Stories Through Gaming - Rather than a review, this series focuses exclusively on personal experiences Jirard and other guest YouTubers have had with the subject game in question. Eventually retired and folded into the main Completionist series.
- Insert Coin to Play - Jirard and his friends head to an arcade and have fun with the games there.
- The Completionist FIRSTS - Where Jirard gives a brief first impression of a brand new game, with the explicit intent on not going for 100% completion.
- Here Comes a New Challenger! - Jirard takes a deep dive at a new game before he's able to 100% it, complete with a unique ratings scale. Due to fan feedback, this series was discontinued and folded into the main show.
- The Hype - Jirard takes a look at an upcoming game and gives his thoughts on it, usually positive.
- God of Work - A scripted series made for G4TV, starring Jirard. Essentially a merging of God of War and The Office (US), it focuses on Kratos struggling to work an office job in between his released titles. After G4's closure, Jirard successfully gained the IP rights, but does not have the funds to make a Season 2 as of yet.
Originally, Jirard was the owner of a collection of web series called That One Video Gamer, as well as partnered with Polaris. However, he eventually left Polaris after some internal strife and That One Video Gamer was eventually dissolved to just being an alternate brand name for Jirard's business ventures.
For the majority of four seasons, the videos heavily featured Jirard's producer and comedic partner, Greg Wilmont (The Mediocre-ist) providing much of the comic relief, and later with Alex Faciane of "The Dex." In early 2015, Greg left the show after a falling out between him and Jirard (alluded to be because of the difficulties in maintaining a friendship while running a business, though neither have said much in regards to the details). In August 2017, Jirard eventually confirmed his falling out with Greg and that sometime after they parted, Greg had requested, and then demanded, that he pull down all the videos featuring the two. In a vlog, Jirard noted that it was a difficult decision and he considered fighting it, but ultimately decided to comply. He then announced that he would recomplete all 120 of those games in a new bi-weekly series called "The Completionist: New Game Plus", finishing that up in 2023. Jirard encouraged his viewers to upload the old episodes and disseminate them before he pulled them.
In 2021, as a part of Sonic's 30th Anniversary, the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel featured a new series called Sonic Rings. In the series, Jirard discusses his history with the franchise. That same year, Jirard joined the TV network G4 during their revival as a co-host of Xplay and Attack of the Show. He debuted his series, God of Work, in August 2022, which aired on both G4 and his channel. Created alongside Emily Rose Jacobson, the premise involves Jirard portraying Kratos from God of War in an office setting. Several months later, G4 was shut down in November 2022 after averaging 1,000 viewers, the lowest of any American cable network. On July 15, 2021, Jirard was featured in the first episode of the "Sonic Rings Series" by the official channel of Sonic the Hedgehog.
In 2021, G4TV was relaunched, and Jirard became one of the first hosts recruited for the new service. He was a constant on both X-Play and Attack of the Show!. Due to his responsibilities for G4, he had to scale back The Completionist to six videos a month (two Wednesdays, four Saturdays), and only appear on Super Beard Bros on the "'Eff it" videos. Once G4 closed down again, he refocused his energy on Completionist and Beard Bros.
Jirard did several collaborations with Proton Jon on The Completionist. Jon's first major appearance on The Completionist was as a guest reviewer on the Gunstar Heroes episode. He only appears in this episode by voice. The review was done to coincide with a co-op Let's Play Jirard and Jon did of Gunstar Heroes on Hard Mode for Jon's channel. Jon's first true appearance on The Completionist, however, is at the end of Jirard's review of inFAMOUS. He calls Jirard to ask him to help save the world, foreshadowing the Gunstar Heroes review. Jon appeared once again to help Jirard review Contra III.
Jirard was a guest feature on the seventh episode of Chuggaaconroy's Pikmin 3 Mission Mode series, entitled Pikmin 3 - Mission 7: Silver Lake Remix with The Completionist.
Jirard appeared in The Runaway Guys Colosseum 2021 and The Runaway Guys Colosseum 2023. He was also responsible for the T-shirts during the events.
Jirard made his colosseum debut in 2021 when he was on as a guest on two segments; Bizhawk Shuffler and Banjo-Kazooie.
Jirard appeared once again in 2023, this time as a full-on participant. This would ultimately be his last The Runaway Guys related appearance, as Jon revealed that Jirard would not be attending the 2024 colosseum due to the charity fraud scandal. Jon cut all ties with Jirard as a result of the charity fraud scandal.
Controversies[]
Open Hand Foundation Charity Fraud Case[]
Following the death of his mother in 2013 from frontotemporal dementia, Jirard organized the annual livestream charity event IndieLand under the Open Hand Foundation, a charity founded by his father Charles Khalil. The event showcases various indie games along with interviews with developers and guest appearances from gaming personalities, with the intent to raise funds for dementia research.[1][2]
In November 2023, YouTubers Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers uploaded videos revealing Form 990-PF records which showed that the Open Hand Foundation had not made any charity contributions since its inception in 2014, accumulating $655,520 in unspent assets by the end of 2022 despite recording tens of thousands in administrative expenses.[3][4] In a call with the two YouTubers, Jirard said he did not discover that the funds had not been donated until 2022, and was currently seeking an appropriate charity, still not having yet donated any funds. However, Jobst highlighted that the foundation's website lists the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as a recipient of research funding. During IndieLand events, Jirard had said the Open Hand Foundation was donating to UCSF, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, and also asserted that the Open Hand Foundation was one of the "main funding support partners" of UCSF.[5]
Jirard uploaded a response video about the situation on December 9, in which he acknowledged that the funds had not been donated, apologized for making "statements potentially implying donations were made when they had not yet been", and announced his resignation as a board member of the Open Hand Foundation. Five days earlier, on December 4, 2023, the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration announced it had received a donation of $600,000 on November 29. Ever since this controversy, many fans lost interest in him, resulting in his channel losing many subscribers, and his views on his recent videos not reaching the same watches as his older videos.[6] In January 2024, Super Beard Bros. co-hosts Alex Faciane and Brett Bayonne announced that the channel would be separating from Jirard, and that they would be shifting to independent funding going forward.[7]
Quotes[]
- "Yes!"
- "Do you have any more Whale trivia for us Alex?"
- "You know what they say; You can never save enough"
- "Later man."
- "I beat it."
- "That ain't me, man!"
- "Dummy Jirard, always making dumb scrub moves."
- "With that in mind guys, this game gets our completionist rating of... Complete it!"
- "NINTENDURRRRRR!!!"
- "Oh Mark Carr"
- "The Gooch is right there"
- "Got got by art"
- "Watch Lie to Me."
- "I just pressed A."
- "I AM the nail."
- Ladies and gentlemen......the bullet
- I SAVE-STATED
- The double jump
Filmography[]
Web series[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–present | The Completionist | Himself | |
| 2012–2024 | Super Beard Bros. | Himself |
Video games[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club | Jirard | |
| 2023 | Sea of Stars | NPC | Appearance later removed |
| N/A | Elsie |
Trivia[]
- Jirard has stated many times that Donkey Kong Country 2 is his favorite game of all time and will only review it when he feels The Completionist is ready to come to a close.
- Jirard's favorite Pokémon is Bulbasaur.
- Jirard is part of a band called "Big Bad Bosses".
- Jirard also hosted a Let's Play channel called "Super Beard Bros" with Alex.
- His Persona 5 review took so long to make that an updated version of the game featuring new content was announced and released right before it came out, thus rendering the video as of now outdated compared to the version that most players will play today.
- He also has a second channel, Jirard The Completionist although it is currently inactive, having last uploaded 6 months ago as of November 5th, 2020.
- The "The Completionist" channel used to go under the name "ThatOneVideoGamer".
- The "Super Beard Bros" channel used to go under the name "ThatOneLaserClown".
- Jirard is an honorary member of the YouTube group "NormalBoots".
- Jirard also hosted another channel "ThatOneVideoWebsite" although there is no content on it and it is unknown what this channel will be or was used for.
- Evidently it once did host content, seeing as the channel has 64,583 video views and a description stating, "Home of the Now You're a Man: The Cooking show and The Completionist!"
- On July 15, 2021, Jirard was featured in the first episode of the "Sonic Rings Series" by the official channel of Sonic the Hedgehog.
References[]
- ↑ IndieLand 2022 Livestream Set To Happen This November
- ↑ IndieLand 2023 Charity Event Is Happening This Week
- ↑ The Completionist's Charity Has Been Lying To You For Years...
- ↑ This Charity Is Lying To You
- ↑ Gaming YouTuber The Completionist admits to not donating over $600,000 to charity
- ↑ My Response
- ↑ https://www.patreon.com/posts/2024-update-95752144