The Binding of Isaac is deeply embedded within gaming culture, so much so that it inspired one of the most familiar and beloved emotes to ever spam a Twitch chat: BibleThump. It’s the roguelike hero’s head screaming/sobbing, frequently deployed to communicate complex feelings of horror, empathy, and sarcastic crocodile tears. And the Amazon-owned company says it will soon be deleted from the streaming network.
“The end of the BibleThump Era (2013-2024) is nigh!” Twitch announced on September 25. “On 9/30, the rights to our beloved emote expire. While this is sad news, we know that all emotes go to heaven. SPEAKING OF SAD – we’re going to need a new emote to spam these feelings…”
A thousand BibleThumps could immediately be felt entering the chat. “Terrible news,” wrote Twitch streamer Christina “Tina” Kenyon. “Small indie company can’t afford licensing fees for a single emote,” wrote the Vtuber Flipsie. Game designer Edmund McMillen, who co-created The Binding of Isaac, simply responded with his own barrage of BibleThumps.
“For those wondering what happened with the Bible thump emote, I’m 100% fine with coming up with a good solution to keep or modify the emote but I’m not in control of the new twitch policies so it’s really up to them,” he wrote in a follow-up later on. The developer, who also shipped Super Meat Boy, clarified that he still owns the rights to the image and would be “100% fine” with Twitch renewing them, seemingly at little or no cost.
For anyone who hasn’t spent much time in Twitch chats, the BibleThump emote has become so second-nature and ubiquitous over the years that it feels as inseparable from the streaming platform as anything else. The sobbing mug of Isaac, a small dough-like child that fights horrors in Zelda-inspired dungeons beneath his home, can be found clogging up chats every time a video game showcase disappoints, like when Hollow Knight: Silksong goes another Nintendo direct without a release date.
So why is Twitch getting rid of the iconic symbol? Some critics have blamed it on the company being cheap amid reports of declining revenues and a lack of clear direction. But Twitch also has a policy against emotes that “include unauthorized uses of another person’s content, brand, image, or other rights.” It could be that the company is looking to purge its repository of anything it doesn’t own the rights to itself, or doesn’t fit into its future brand deals and marketing plans.
Whatever the reason, it sucks and seems easily avoidable. Twitch’s announcement of the BibleThump emote apocalypse now has a community note. “Edmund McMillen, creator and current rights holder of The Binding of Isaac (the property the emote originates from) has said publicly he is open to renewing the rights and/or working out a deal. It is Twitch’s choice not to do so,” it reads.
The company has until the end of the month to save crying baby Isaac. In the meantime, rival streaming platform Kick is already teasing plans to add its own BibleThump emoji in Twitch’s stead.
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