Samuel Whitcomb Hyde (born April 16, 1985) is an American

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audienc ...

. He co-created the

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...

group

Million Dollar Extreme Million Dollar Extreme (MDE) is an American sketch comedy troupe. The group consists of Sam Hyde, Nick Rochefort, and Charls Carroll. The group remains largely inactive since the cancellation of their show ''World Peace'' in 2016. They are kno ...

(MDE) with Charls Carroll and Nick Rochefort. Hyde is known for his involvement in several public pranks and internet

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

es. Hyde's transgressive style has also garnered public controversy, and his comedy and political views have been frequently associated with the

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

, including for his $5,000 donation to the legal defense fund of Andrew Anglin, founder of neo-Nazi website '' The Daily Stormer''.

Life and career

After graduating from

Wilton High School Wilton High School is a public high school in Wilton, Connecticut, U.S., considered "one of Connecticut's top performers" in various measures of school success in 2007,Cowan, Alison Leigh, "Play About Iraq War Divides a Connecticut School", ' ...

, Hyde enrolled at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

for one year before transferring to the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

, where he graduated in 2007 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in film, animation and video. In mid-2014, Hyde started a web series titled ''Kickstarter TV'', where he would find projects on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

and harshly ridicule both the projects and the people who made them. In August 2016, '' Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace'', a television program Hyde co-wrote and acted in along with the other members of MDE, premiered on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

. 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

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

. In a December 2016 interview with ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'' in the aftermath of his series' cancellation, when questioned if he held a bias towards minorities, Hyde replied that he was 'probably as racist or as biased as the average regular white guy or the average regular black guy'. In 2017, Hyde pledged $5,000 towards the legal defense fund of Andrew Anglin, the founder and editor of

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

website '' The Daily Stormer''. The

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

sued Anglin for allegedly organizing a " troll storm" against a Jewish woman in Montana. When Matt Pearce of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' questioned Hyde about the donation, Hyde asked Pearce if he was Jewish and went on to say that $5,000 was "nothing" to him. 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." In 2022, iDubbbz uploaded a documentary on Sam trying to understand and communicate with him beyond the irony and acts Sam puts on. Hyde has been open about his interest in

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

and helped train Jewish-Canadian YouTuber

Harley Morenstein Harley Morenstein (born July 20, 1985) is a Canadian actor, Internet personality, and vlogger. He co-created, produces, and hosts the YouTube show Epic Meal Time and its FYI television spin-off series Epic Meal Empire. He also runs a vlog cha ...

for iDubbbz's charity boxing event, ''

Creator Clash Creator Clash is a charity boxing event between content creators. The inaugural event took place on May 14, 2022, at the Yuengling Center on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. The headlining fight of this event was ...

''. On August 27, 2022, Hyde made his boxing debut, defeating Australian social media star James "IAmThmpsn" Thompson during the '' 2 Fights 1 Night'' event.

Pranks

Hyde lampooned the American

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...

in 2012 when he delivered a spurious presentation titled "Samurai Swordplay in a Digital Age" under the pseudonym "Master Kenchiro Ichiimada" at a convention in

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

. During the presentation, an MDE affiliate blocked the exit to bar attendees from leaving Hyde's hour-long performance. Similarly in 2013, Hyde, while dressed in a maroon-colored sweatsuit and clad in

hoplite Hoplites ( ) ( grc, ὁπλίτης : hoplítēs) were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers used the phalanx formation to be effective in war with fewer soldiers. The ...

-esque breastplate and

greave A greave (from the Old French ''greve'' "shin, shin armour") or jambeau is a piece of armour that protects the leg. Description The primary purpose of greaves is to protect the tibia from attack. The tibia, or shinbone, is very close to the sk ...

s, delivered a prank

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sa ...

talk titled "2070 Paradigm Shift" at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, ...

. The talk, described by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' as a satiric impersonation of a "

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

tech hipster," received significant media attention. When asked about the intent of the prank, Hyde stated his dislike for TED talks, calling them "really self-congratulatory." In 2014, Hyde started a fake

campaign to crowdfund the creation of a "pony

dating sim Dating sims, or , are video game subgenre of simulation games with romantic elements. Dating sims are often dialog-heavy and focus on time management. The player must befriend and carefully build and maintain a relationship with one or more ...

ulator" for

bronies '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' is an animated television series produced by Hasbro as part of the ''My Little Pony'' toy franchise, which is tied in with the 2010 relaunch of dolls and play sets and original programming for the Amer ...

, the adult male fans of the children's television show '' My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic''. The Kickstarter page said the simulator would comprise "a journey that spans multiple continents" and include "deep RPG elements." Devotees of the show who ostensibly took the project seriously pledged a total of $4,161 to the fundraiser before Hyde cancelled it.

Shooting and terrorism hoaxes

Since 2015, Hyde has been frequently misreported as the perpetrator of numerous

mass shootings There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 20 ...

and terrorist attacks by

internet troll In slang, a troll is a person who posts or makes inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a forum, a chat room, a online video game), or in real life, with the i ...

s on websites such as

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. The hoaxes, which typically included photos of Hyde brandishing a semi-automatic weapon and with a slightly altered name to appear more "authentic", reappeared so often on social media that ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' characterized "Sam Hyde is the shooter" as "an identifiable

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

." The first instance of the prank was the Umpqua Community College shooting. CNN mistakenly included Hyde's image on their coverage of the shooting. Hyde was also labelled as the perpetrator in high profile shootings such as the Orlando Night Club shooting, Sutherland Springs church shooting (where he was misidentified by Representative Vicente Gonzalez) and the Las Vegas shooting in 2017. Hyde has also been erroneously blamed for many other small scale and large shootings. Hyde's image was shared across social media as being the driver of the car in Waukesha, Wisconsin, that drove into a Christmas parade in November 2021. In February of 2022, an edited image of Hyde was misidentified as the "

Ghost of Kyiv The Ghost of Kyiv (, ) is the nickname given to a mythical MiG-29 Fulcrum flying ace credited with shooting down six Russian planes over Kyiv during the Kyiv offensive on 24 February 2022. Various reports, including the Security Service of U ...

" (a Ukrainian fighter pilot who supposedly shot down six Russian planes on February 24, 2022) in popular social media posts including that of Representative Adam Kinzinger. The alleged pilot was given Ukrainian style names 'Сэм Хайденко' am Haydenkoor Samuyil Hyde. The 2022 Buffalo shooter also claimed the image of Hyde as his own in his manifesto. In July 2022, multiple popular posts on social media falsely labelled Hyde as the gunman in the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

of former Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

Boxing record

Publications

Books * ''How to BOMB the U. S. Gov't: The OFFICIAL Primo(tm) Strategy Guide to the Collapse of Western Civilization'', with Nick Rochefort and Charls "Coors" Carroll. COM98 LLC (2016). .

Filmography

Television * '' Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace'' (2016, 6 episodes) – various,

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, producer

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, Sam 1985 births Living people People from Fall River, Massachusetts American male comedians American male film actors American male television actors American television writers American performance artists American sketch comedians American stand-up comedians Carnegie Mellon University alumni Far-right politics in the United States Rhode Island School of Design alumni Comedians from Massachusetts Screenwriters from Massachusetts 21st-century American comedians American male television writers Internet hoaxes Internet memes YouTube boxers American conspiracy theorists Wilton High School alumni Alt-right