Johnny Zest has the saddest backstory :(

Landgraabs are always known to be mean to other Sims and the most entitled of the franchise, so doesn't come as a shock they would abandon a kid. Money and fame has always been their priority in life.

90% of what people believe about Johnny Zest is just headcanon.

All we know is that he was disowned by the Landgraabs. Players can use him as Nancy's son, her brother, her cousin, her second cousin twice removed..... he has NO familial ties in his Relationships panel to any living Sim in-game.

If he was intended as Nancy's son, he would have that relationship to her. Instead they're complete and utter strangers.

Family trees were added after launch, but the game recognized brothers and sons from day one. He doesn't have that.

"kwanzaabot;c-17876181" wrote:
90% of what people believe about Johnny Zest is just headcanon.

All we know is that he was disowned by the Landgraabs. Players can use him as Nancy's son, her brother, her cousin, her second cousin twice removed..... he has NO familial ties in his Relationships panel to any living Sim in-game.

If he was intended as Nancy's son, he would have that relationship to her. Instead they're complete and utter strangers.

Family trees were added after launch, but the game recognized brothers and sons from day one. He doesn't have that.

Not really true. Nervous Subject was abandoned by his mom too and his dad Grim Reaper and they didn't have a relationship either.

"Scobre;c-17876183" wrote:

"kwanzaabot;c-17876181" wrote:
90% of what people believe about Johnny Zest is just headcanon.

All we know is that he was disowned by the Landgraabs. Players can use him as Nancy's son, her brother, her cousin, her second cousin twice removed..... he has NO familial ties in his Relationships panel to any living Sim in-game.

If he was intended as Nancy's son, he would have that relationship to her. Instead they're complete and utter strangers.

Family trees were added after launch, but the game recognized brothers and sons from day one. He doesn't have that.

Not really true. Nervous Subject was abandoned by his mom too and his dad Grim Reaper and they didn't have a relationship either.

Nervous Subject's relationship with Olive Specter was supported by his memories. Johnny Zest does not have memories.

Johnny Zest is a blank slate. You can make him woohoo Nancy Landgraab if you want to, if the game considered them blood relatives that would be impossible.

"Scobre;c-17876183" wrote:

"kwanzaabot;c-17876181" wrote:
90% of what people believe about Johnny Zest is just headcanon.

All we know is that he was disowned by the Landgraabs. Players can use him as Nancy's son, her brother, her cousin, her second cousin twice removed..... he has NO familial ties in his Relationships panel to any living Sim in-game.

If he was intended as Nancy's son, he would have that relationship to her. Instead they're complete and utter strangers.

Family trees were added after launch, but the game recognized brothers and sons from day one. He doesn't have that.

Not really true. Nervous Subject was abandoned by his mom too and his dad Grim Reaper and they didn't have a relationship either.

Also:

https://i.imgur.com/fq9ZGha.png

"kwanzaabot;c-17876217" wrote:

"Scobre;c-17876183" wrote:

"kwanzaabot;c-17876181" wrote:
90% of what people believe about Johnny Zest is just headcanon.

All we know is that he was disowned by the Landgraabs. Players can use him as Nancy's son, her brother, her cousin, her second cousin twice removed..... he has NO familial ties in his Relationships panel to any living Sim in-game.

If he was intended as Nancy's son, he would have that relationship to her. Instead they're complete and utter strangers.

Family trees were added after launch, but the game recognized brothers and sons from day one. He doesn't have that.

Not really true. Nervous Subject was abandoned by his mom too and his dad Grim Reaper and they didn't have a relationship either.

Also:

https://i.imgur.com/fq9ZGha.png

"kwanzaabot;c-17876215" wrote:

"Scobre;c-17876183" wrote:

"kwanzaabot;c-17876181" wrote:
90% of what people believe about Johnny Zest is just headcanon.

All we know is that he was disowned by the Landgraabs. Players can use him as Nancy's son, her brother, her cousin, her second cousin twice removed..... he has NO familial ties in his Relationships panel to any living Sim in-game.

If he was intended as Nancy's son, he would have that relationship to her. Instead they're complete and utter strangers.

Family trees were added after launch, but the game recognized brothers and sons from day one. He doesn't have that.

Not really true. Nervous Subject was abandoned by his mom too and his dad Grim Reaper and they didn't have a relationship either.

Nervous Subject's relationship with Olive Specter was supported by his memories. Johnny Zest does not have memories.

Johnny Zest is a blank slate. You can make him woohoo Nancy Landgraab if you want to, if the game considered them blood relatives that would be impossible.

Actually quite interesting how both their bios talk about family relations but family ties don't between Grim Reaper and Nervous Subject and Johnny Zest and the Landgraabs.
https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Nervous_Subject

True we may never know how they are related unless a Guru themselves reveal it especially with how buggy family trees have been this iteration, but then again the two Gurus that were the heads of the Sims 4 anyways left so we may never know.

https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Johnny_Zest

Probably going to be the biggest mystery like what happened to Bella Goth which later got explained in a podcast.

There are theories of Johnny Zest being the alternative universe version of Dudley Landgraab who was Malcolm's son.

https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Dudley_Landgraab

Also with the Sims 4 family trees, there are a lot of relationship ties that don't count as blood relations according to how it is programmed. The Sims 4 version is a very simplified version of the family tree: https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Family_tree
"In this version of the family tree interface, relatives shown are all direct ancestors and descendants, siblings, step-parents (if applicable), and step-children. For some reason, the game recognizes step-parent/step-child relationships, but they are not defined in the relationship panel. The same applies for great-grandparent/great-grandchild relationships. If a Sim has a relative outside of the four common generations (e.g. one's great-great-grandmother), the family tree will read "Ancestor", and vice versa for great-great-grandchildren; it will read "Descendant." This could be to avoid a proliferation of "greats". The family tree also only shows five generations, including the youngest one. Any beyond this are not visible to the youngest generation in the genealogy, but will remain visible in any above that." I remember when that got patched in there were a lot of relationship bugs that occurred and still occur at times where the game didn't recognize blood relations at all.

I do love the backstories of them all still. They go a bit deeper than some of the other more simplified ones. Like I said his mom did abandon him according to the bios.
"It should be noted that while it is assumed that the Grim Reaper is his father, it is not shown through his family tree, which simply shows Olive Specter as his mother. However, the Grim Reaper is the only person Olive Specter has a memory of WooHoo with. Nervous lacks most of his mother's genetics; on closer examination, it is clear he is simply a clone of the Grim Reaper."

Sims 3: "Nervous returns in Midnight Hollow as a toddler with his mother. He has not yet learned any of the toddler skills. In his family biography, he is hinted to be the son of the Grim Reaper, as he is described as "something to remember him by" after his mother's relationship with Grim ended quickly."

Actually would be fun to think of Johnny Zest as the more angelic clone of Malcolm.

I love johnny. recently I've been super bored with TS4 so I decided to play a townie bc I never do, and I chose johnny! I made him related to the landgraabs and gave them all negative relationships (moreso with nancy than anyone else) and so far he's been promoted twice and moved out of his trailer into a small studio apartment! I'm aiming to potentially move him to bridleton bay or newcrest which I've turned into a fun, city-like town. :] he's well on his way to completing the joke star aspiration too! I'm gonna have him get married and have some kids and reconnect with Geoffrey when he (Geoffrey) is an elder and close to death. I also had him complete the grilled cheese aspiration lol

I don't play him often, but I like the school dropout, disowned from rich family backstory. I always get him and Malcolm confused when I see them in the game though.

"kalaksed;c-16999171" wrote:
johnny's own bio says he was disowned by the landgraab family

his ingame bio:
Johnny Zest has the stage name and the dream, but maybe not the talent... Disowned by the Landgraabs for quitting school, Johnny wants to make his own fame and fortune as a standup comedian.

i've used a mod to give him ties to the family, even though they disowned him, and played him (and them) enough to ensure that they don't get along at all because of his desire to be a comedian instead of 'business' like his mother (who we all know actually runs the household. she's the landgraab. geoffrey took her name when they married. a lot of people tend to forget or ignore that), though i haven't actually had him get famous yet. i'm actually still debating whether i want him or baako jang to swap from comedian to actor path. one of my comedians should, following in the footsteps of many comedians-turned-actors in the real world

So what was Geoffrey's last name before he took Landgraab? I am tempted now to have him and Nancy divorce, and have him move out and live with Johnny Zest, mending fences that should never have been broken. It would be so cool to know what his name was originally.