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![Edit Created Officers Adjust created officer data setting. Name Full Name Gabe Newell BirthGender Male Voice Mid-Age: Clever Father Relative Personality Tenet NTRL Ideals Ambition Face Name Birth Personality Tactic Lifespan Condition REQ Loyalty 15 Tier A Tactic Trick Master Condition Lifespan 1530~1639 Active Year 1545 Lifespan 110 1534 Birth of Nobunaga 1542 Viper of Mino 1548 God of War Descends 1551 The Strussle for Power 1560 Battle of Okehazama Nagoya Nijō Nijō Nilo Nijō Ronin Retainer Retainer Retainer Retainer ゾConfirm|+] Quit](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/001/013/558/bea "All hail to the samurai Gaben")
Gaben
Part of a series on Gabe Newell. [View Related Entries]
About
Gaben is a nickname given to Gabe Newell, the co-founder and leading director of Valve Corporation. In 2008, Gabe Newell said "Gaben" while doing a commentary on Team Fortress 2, leading to a series of video mashups and songs.
Origin
On February 13th, 2008, YouTuber foodeatsppl uploaded a clip of Gabe Newell giving commentary on the Gravel Pit in Team Fortress 2 (shown below).
Welcome to Team Fortress 2. After 9 years in development, hopefully it would have been worth the wait. To listen to a commentary node, put your cross hair over the floating commentary symbol and press your primary fire. To stop a commentary node put your cross hair over the rotating node and press the primary fire again. Some commentary nodes may take control of the game in order to show something to you. In these cases, simply press your primary fire again to stop the commentary. In addition, your secondary fire will cycle you through all the commentary nodes in the level. Please let me know what you think after you've had a chance to play. I can be reached at gaben@valvesoftware.com and my favorite class is the Spy. Thanks and have fun! [1]
The word "gaben" comes from Gabe Newell's email address, gaben@valvesoftware.com.
Spread
One of the earliest known and most well-known instances of the use of Gaben is used by remix artist Mastgrr based on Fatboy Slim's 1998 single "Fucking in Heaven," gaining over 3.1 million views (shown below, left). On October 19th, 2011, YouTuber STBlackST posted a remix that gained over 1.2 million views (shown below, right).
The nickname "GabeN" followed Newell in parodies online years after it peaked in popularity. For example, on February 12th, 2017, YouTuber grandayy posted a Shooting Stars remix featuring "GabeN," gaining over 5.7 million views (shown below, left). On January 6th, 2019, theScore eSports posted an explainer of the GabeN meme, gaining over 730,000 views (shown below, right).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] TF2 Wiki – Developer Commentary
![[Game] The Gabe Newell Adventure for PC](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xib_tlLDVNA/hqdefault.jpg "[Game] The Gabe Newell Adventure for PC")
Top Comments
Danthefish
Jun 23, 2014 at 02:05PM EDT
pug on toast
Dec 07, 2012 at 08:24PM EST