NormalBoots / Hidden Block

About

NormalBoots and Hidden Block are two closely affiliated groups of popular YouTubers with video game-related content on YouTube. Members of this group include PeanutButterGamer, DidYouKnowGaming, and formerly JonTron.

Online History

Beginning

The group began as a hub where ScrewAttack and YouTube users PeanutButterGamer and JonTron could upload content and make ad revenue.^[1] The site expanded to include YouTubers Indie Games Searchlight and Cold Morning (now called comopro).^[2] (Cold Morning's video is shown below.)

In June of 2011, YouTube show Continue? joined the site.^[3] Soon after, in August 2011, YouTuber Underbelly also joined the group.^[4] Around October 2011, Cold Morning left the circle for unknown reasons, making the channel the first to leave NormalBoots.^[5] He was soon replaced by That One Video Gamer, also known as The Completionist, on November 2011.^[6] Later, on June 2012, Underbelly left the group as well.^[7] He was quickly replaced by popular YouTube channel Did You Know Gaming? in July 2012.^[8]

Shutdown

In November of 2012, the group temporarily disbanded as normalboots.com no longer provided extra benefits. On the website during the shutdown, users would be greeted by the image shown below.

Hidden Block

Hidden Block was founded in 2013 by Shane Gill from Did You Know Gaming?, and features six members: BalrogTheMaster, Brutalmoose, Caddicarus, Jimmy Whetzel, SpaceHamster, and Yungtown. Hidden Block also features an up-and-coming gaming YouTuber once a week.^[27] The group became affiliated with the NormalBoots network shortly after NormalBoots relaunched.

Reboot

On January 25th, 2014, NormalBoots was relaunched, with every member that was with the group when it was shutdown returning, except for Indie Games Searchlight. One of the main points of the relaunch was to be able to upload videos that weren't "YouTube friendly" onto NormalBoots. Interestingly, this feature was almost never utilized. With the rebirth came a contest, in which potential new members would submit videos to see if they would get accepted on the NormalBoots team. The winners of the contest were ProJared and Satchbag's Goods.^[9]

Re-Reboot

On May 17th, 2017, the people at NormalBoots announced on Twitter that they were drifting apart as a team, and needed to get back on track as a community. It was also at this time in which they launched an official NormalBoots YouTube channel. At the same time, co-founder JonTron decided that he wanted to put all of his focus on his own show, so he decided to leave the group.^[10]

Members

NormalBoots

Current

PeanutButterGamer

PeanutButterGamer is a video gaming channel run by Austin Hargrave, the co-founder NormalBoots. While the channel is most popular for its reviews, which generally are for obscure games, there are also plenty of Top 10s and hacking videos.^[11] The channel has over 1.7 million subscribers as of August 2017.^[12]

Continue?

The Continue? Show is Let's Play-like show in which Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Moschitti play a game for one episode, then decide if they want to keep playing (continue), or quit (game over).^[13] The channel has over 220,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[14]

That One Video Gamer

That One Video Gamer, also known as The Completionist, is a channel run by Jirard Khalil, where he completes a game 100%, then writes a review based on his experiences. The show was also co-founded by Greg Wilmot, who had later left the show after arguments ensued with Jirard.^[15] The Completionist is now run by Jirard and his friend Alex Faciane. The channel has over 760,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[16]

Did You Know Gaming?

Did You Know Gaming? is a channel run by Shane Gill about various video game facts and trivia. Despite being run by Shane, he has yet to voice a single video, instead relying on various YouTube personalities for the job. Shane was the last YouTube channel to join before the shutdown, and he also founded As of August 2017, Did You Know Gaming? has over two million subscribers.^[18]

ProJared

ProJared is a video game reviewing channel run by Jared Knabenbaur. He joined the site due after the reboot. Besides the main reviews, Jared also has a popular series called "One Minute Reviews" where he reviews an entire game in under a minute.^[19] As of August 2017, ProJared has just under a million subscribers.^[20]

Satchbag's Goods

Satchbag's Goods is a channel run by Satchell Drakes. He joined the site after the reboot. The channel focuses on analyzing and discussing certain parts of video games. He does also have a review show, where he lists games under "Dope", "Okay", or "Meh".^[21] The channel has over 85,000 subscribers.^[22]

Retired

JonTron

JonTron is a channel run by Jon Jafari, a co-founder of NormalBoots. While he started only doing video game reviews, he has since branched out to other things like movie reviews. On May 2017, JonTron decided that he wanted to put all of his focus on his show, and so he quit NormalBoots. As of August 2017, the channel has over three million subscribers.^[23]

Cold Morning

Cold Morning, now called comopro, is a comedy skit channel run two friends. The channel also ran a series called "Gentleman's Chat", a podcast series about video games. On March 31, 2014, the group uploaded their last video before quitting YouTube. The channel has just over 600 subscribers as of August 2017.^[24]

Underbelly

Underbelly is a video game channel run by a large group of people. It features comedic skits, and two other series called "Informative Episodes" and "Event Coverage". Underbelly quit NormalBoots soon before the shutdown. The channel has just under 60,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[25]

Indie Games Searchlight

Indie Games Searchlight is a video game reviewing channel run by Mark Carr. This channel focuses solely on indie games, because they are "outside the mainstream". Indie Games Searchlight is interestingly the only channel to be in the group when it was shut down, but not return on the reboot. As of August 2017, the channel has over 13,000 subscribers.^[26]

Hidden Block

Balrog

Balrog, formerly known as BalrogtheMaster real name Wallid Kanaan, is a YouTube game reviewer.^[28] On his show, Balrog's Nintendo Game Room, he reviews games. He began focusing on Nintendo games but has since expanded to all games. He now hosts a show called Balrog's Game Room, which has morphed into Balrog's Game Room Adventures, or BGRA. The channel had around 100,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[34]

Brutalmoose

Brutalmoose, aka Ian MacLeod, is a YouTube gamer who critiques and reviews games and movies on his channel.^[29] He mostly covers old PC titles. He has several different types of shows on his channels, ranging from straightforward reviews (Brutalmoose Originals) and "Lightning Round" in which he describes a game in under two minutes. Brutalmoose has over 350,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[35]

Caddicarus

Caddicarus, aka James Caddick, is the only non-American member of NormalBoots and Hidden Block, coming from the UK. Caddicarus' content consists of numerous shows, many of which have been discontinued. The first current show, The Caddicarus Show, consists of reviews and top 10s. The second one, Caddy, has "mini-reviews". The last one, Cinemaggots, features movie reviews.^[30] Caddicarus' channel has over 500,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[36]

Jimmy Whetzel

Jimmy Whetzel, formerly known as NintendoFanFTW, makes humorous video game reviews in the Hidden Block network.^[31] He is most well known for his work with the Pokémon series. He has over 220,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[37]

SpaceHamster

SpaceHamster, real name Jeff Fabre, is a member of the Hidden Block network, on which he posts fastly paced video game reviews.^[32] His most popular videos consist of reviewing bootleg video games. He also used to be the editor for PeanutButterGamer's gameplay channel. SpaceHamster's channel has over 600,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[38]

Yungtown

Yungtown, aka Luke Sizemore, makes video-game related videos under the Hidden Block network.^[33] Despite previously being known for only satire content, he recently dropped satire from his channel, now doing game discussions, a new show called "The Yungtown Show", and music videos in which he raps and plays music. His channel has over 110,000 subscribers as of August 2017.^[39]

Search History

External References