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Sam Hyde

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For the folklore character, see Sam Hide.
Sam Hyde
Hyde wielding a semiautomatic rifle, 2016
Birth nameSamuel Whitcomb Hyde
Born (1985-04-16) April 16, 1985 (age 39)
Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.
MediumStand-up, television, YouTube
NationalityAmerican
Education
Years active2007–present
GenresSketch comedy, Alternative comedy, anti-comedy, political satire, shock humor, surreal humor, post-irony
Subject(s)American politics, pop culture, morality
Websitesamhyde.org

Samuel Whitcomb Hyde (born April 16, 1985) is an American comedian, writer, performance artist, and actor.[1][2] He co-created the sketch comedy group Million Dollar Extreme along with Charls Carroll and Nick Rochefort.[3]

Hyde is known for his involvement in several public pranks and internet hoaxes. His humor has been characterized as anti-comedic, culturally critical, and occasionally shocking.[4] His style of humour has also been described as post-ironic with him often blurring the distinction between himself and his characters.[5]

Biography

After graduating from Wilton High School,[6] Hyde enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University. He spent one year at Carnegie Mellon before transferring to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in film, animation and video.[7]

In August 2016, Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace, a television program Hyde co-wrote and acted in along with the other members of Million Dollar Extreme, premiered on Adult Swim. Four months later, it was announced that World Peace would not be renewed for a second season. Hyde attributed the show's cancellation to his vocal support for President Donald Trump.[8]

Hoaxes and pranks

In 2013, Hyde, while dressed in a maroon-colored sweatsuit and clad in centurion-esque breastplate and greaves, delivered a prank TEDx talk titled "2070 Paradigm Shift" at Drexel University.[2] The rambling talk, characterized by Forbes as a satiric impersonation of a "Brooklyn tech hipster," received significant media attention.[1][2][3] When asked about the intent of the prank, Hyde expressed his dislike for TED talks, calling them "really self-congratulatory."[9]

Hyde similarly lampooned the American anime fandom in 2012 when he delivered a presentation titled "Samurai Swordplay in a Digital Age" under the pseudonym "Master Kenchiro Ichiimada" at a convention in Vermont. During the presentation, Million Dollar Extreme affiliate Jan Rankowski blocked the exit to prevent convention attendees from escaping Hyde's digressive, hour-long performance.[10]

In 2014, Hyde started a fake Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the creation of a so-called "pony dating simulator" for bronies, the adult male fans of the children's television show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.[2] The Kickstarter page said the simulator would comprise "a journey that spans multiple continents" and include "deep RPG elements."[11] Devotees of the show who ostensibly took the project seriously pledged a total of $4,161 to the phony fundraiser before Hyde cancelled it.[2][11]

Since 2015, Hyde has been incorrectly reported as the perpetrator of numerous mass shootings and terrorist attacks by internet trolls.[2][12] The first instance of this hoax was the Umpqua Community College shooting.[13] Hyde has also been erroneously blamed for the 2015 San Bernardino attack, the 2016 UCLA shooting,[12] the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting,[14] the shooting of Alton Sterling,[15] the suspicious death of a black man in Piedmont Park, Atlanta,[16] the 2015 Paris attacks,[2] the 2016 Munich shooting,[17] the 2016 Kalamazoo shootings,[2][17] and the 2017 Finsbury Park attack.[17] Regarding one of these hoaxes, Hyde told Forbes contributor Fruzsina Eordogh: "My wife's boyfriend (open relationship) heard it from the news first and so he and my wife's son were both scared silly for a few days before everything was explained. I also got a call from my rabbi frantically trying to talk me out of doing anything more violent until finally I managed to explain to him that it was a hoax."[2] Eordogh later issued an edit to her article claiming that Hyde's comments about his wife's boyfriend, his wife's son and his rabbi were "just a series of 4chan memes mocking progressives."[2]

In 2017, Hyde reportedly pledged $5,000 towards Andrew Anglin's, the founder and editor of The Daily Stormer, legal defense fund.[18] The Southern Poverty Law Center sued Anglin for allegedly organizing a "troll storm" against a Jewish woman in Montana. When Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times questioned Hyde about the donation, Hyde asked Pearce if he was Jewish and went on to say that $5,000 "was nothing" to him. In the interview, Hyde also stated: "Don’t worry so much about money. Worry about if people start deciding to kill reporters. That's a quote. For the reason why, you can say I want reporters to know I make more money than them, especially Matt Pearce."[18]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2013 Birdemic 2: The Resurrection[19] Beach Goer
2013 I'm a Alien[20] Alien
2013 Moms[21] Tyler
2013 Doctor Manslave [22] Prof. Ignatio Badtanman Director
2017 Smocaine 3 Sarge

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2016 Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace Various

References

  1. ^ a b "Comedian Gives Ridiculous Prank TED Talk". Business Insider. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "How 4chan Tricked The Internet Into Believing This Comedian Is A Mass Shooter". Forbes. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Adult Swim Announces New Shows, Specials, and Pilots from John Kraskinski, Brett Gelman, Dan Harmon, and More". Splitsider. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  4. ^ "The Battle Over Adult Swim's Alt-Right TV Show". The Atlantic. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  5. ^ Television (2016-12-12). "Million Dollar Extreme's Show Is Collateral Damage Of Trump's Victory". The Federalist. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
  6. ^ Sam Hyde. "lol my alma mater". Twitter.
    - Wilton Bulletin. "More than half of Wilton High makes honor roll" (PDF). Wilton Bulletin.
  7. ^ "The Alt-Right Has Its Very Own TV Show On Adult Swim". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  8. ^ "'Million Dollar Extreme' creators say Adult Swim canceled their show for supporting Donald Trump". Fox News. December 12, 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  9. ^ "WATCH: TEDx Drexel Got Pranked This Weekend". Philadelphia. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  10. ^ "GamerGate's Archvillain Is Really A Trolling Sketch Comedian". BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  11. ^ a b "Dark Skyes -- an EPIC brony dating sim (Canceled)". Kickstarter. Kickstarter PBC. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  12. ^ a b "Don't Believe Any Breaking News That Names This Comedian As A Mass Shooter". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
  13. ^ "Sam Hyde and Million Dollar Extreme Troll The Oregon Shooting". VDARE. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
  14. ^ Cox, Danny. "Sam Hyde: Gunman Possibly Identified In Mass Shooting At Pulse Nightclub In Orlando Being Ruled A Hoax". Inquisitr. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
  15. ^ Smith IV, Jack. "Neither Robert Kinnison Nor Sam Hyde Killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana". mic.com. Mic. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
  16. ^ Smith, Anthony. "Piedmont Park Hanging: No, Sam Hyde Did Not Lynch a Black Man in the Atlanta Park". mic.com. Mic. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
  17. ^ a b c Mezzofiore, Gianluca (June 19, 2017). "Never believe any breaking report on Twitter naming this comedian as the attacker". Mashable.
  18. ^ a b Pearce, Matt (2017-06-06). "Neo-Nazi website raises $150,000 to fight Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
  19. ^ "Birdemic 2: The Resurrection". 16 April 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2017 – via IMDb.
  20. ^ "I'm a Alien". 12 May 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2017 – via IMDb.
  21. ^ "Moms". 31 December 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2017 – via IMDb.
  22. ^ "Doctor Manslave". 2 November 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2017 – via IMDb.
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