Trivia / Hat Films

For trivia items pertaining to the Yogscast in general, go here.
For trivia items pertaining to the Yogscast Minecraft Series, go here.

• Approval of God:
  • Trott was quite complimentary of the "Sips Sings" video featuring the trio and Sips. He also tends to reblog a lot of fanart on his Tumblr.
  • Their pack opening video got a tweet of approval from PewDiePie.
  • Rockstar Games responded to their "Stunt Lads" pilot for Grand Theft Auto V with a tweet of approval. It's even ended up in some of their magazines.
  • Ross has also reblogged the odd bit of fanart on Tumblr, but unlike Trott he isn't on it as much.
• Artist Disillusionment:
  • Downplayed. Ross and Smiffy have criticised fans that treat Trott the way that they do at conventions (swearing at him and insulting him), but are seemingly aware that fans aren't doing it out of spite and are copying the behaviour they see onscreen.
  • Ross has made his disdain known for ProblematicYogscast in one or two instances.
  • The subreddit became so cluttered with spam at one point that Ross repeatedly expressed his annoyance, as did Trott on occasion. The issue has since been resolved, however, and they're usually happy about it nowadays, bar the odd complaint such as calling their clip shows "lazy".
  • Trott's girlfriend Katie has expressed her annoyance with the trio sexualising people she knows, as well as the abuse she received at the hands of YouTube commentators when she tried to moderate a chat during a livestream. It eventually got so bad that she publicly vowed to never moderate any further streams and for a short while fans believed she'd outright deleted her Tumblr.
• The Cast Showoff: The trio are all talented musicians, and they often get to show off their skills. The trio sometimes compose their own music for projects such as trailers, while Ross is talented with the piano (but can't read music) and beatboxing, Trott is good at electric guitar and backing vocals, and Smith is talented with the guitar and vocals.
• Colbert Bump:
  • They had a fairly notable growth in subscribers after doing official Minecraft trailers, although after that growth remained fairly steady.
  • Since joining the Yogscast in 2013, their viewcount and subscriber numbers have skyrocketed. For context, when they joined in mid-August they had somewhere around 290,000 subscribers- by the end of 2013 they had over 500,000. At the time of writing they have 836,000+ and are among the fastest growing channels in the network, behind Sips and the main channel.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Trottimus has a bit of a love/hate relationship with his Minecraft walrus skin; the walrus has become a beloved Mascot amongst their fans, the "Hatters", but Trott has admitted in several episodes that he's tired of being compared to the animal. The sheer flood of people spamming walrus pics on Reddit or Twitter probably hasn't helped.
  • Within days (or the span of two episodes) of creating Colin the annoying journalist, Trott went on to declare him the most annoying thing he'd ever devised for their videos.
  • Ross and Smith have been fairly open and critical◊ about having been in very little of Trials of Derpulies despite having put two whole days aside to work on it. Given that they've had by far the lowest screentime out of the three teams, particularly for Episode 6◊, one can scarcely blame them for being so frustrated. Granted, it's unclear if they're being serious. Ross has gone on record to say that he enjoyed recording the show but has expressed extreme displeasure with how the editing makes them look moody, since it cut out them having fun.
  • When asked by a fan whether or not their attitude to any of their prior works had changed, specifically in a February 2016 livestream, Ross and Smith were very negative towards "From Ashes", saying that they found it a lot of effort for relatively little reward.
• Fake American: Turps pretends to be American in the trio's "Stunt Lad Show", since he's playing an agent.
• Fan Community Nicknames: Fans of Hatventures and members of their Minecraft server have more or less embraced their given title "Hatters". Those who are fans of the trio, plus Sips and Turpster, have identified as "dick rippers".
• He Also Did: Smiffy's past as a member of a bluegrass band was initially something of a surprise.
• The Pete Best:
  • Only the more hardcore fans remember Nathan Asheman, Trott and Ross' friend at university. He appeared for most of their initial sketches, but then left in early 2011 to be replaced by Smiffy.
  • There was also another unnamed member of HAAT Films, hence the four letters, but he never appeared and was seemingly thrown out, causing the acronym to be shortened. Given the fact that the anonymous person was inspiration for the "Director Trott" video, it seems that they had a bad falling out. They mentioned in later episodes that they did eventually reconcile with the unnamed member.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • For Trials, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V, since they've been asked to help with promotion in the form of trailers and game promotion.
  • Trott is a fan of Red vs. Blue, and the trio were later interviewed by Rooster Teeth at E3.
• Series Hiatus: The 2015 edition of Hat Pack was a regular series for the first twenty-four episodes, but then the group mentioned the possibility of it being livestreamed instead- which hasn't happened at the time of writing. This was delayed due to the trio's visit to the USA and recording bulk content for their absence, however, and by the time they returned they felt that fan response was lukewarm, plus they felt burned out on Minecraft. They've said that maybe more will be done in the future.
• Schedule Slip:
  • Another Minecraft series called Minecraft Origins was supposed to be in production and the trio were also accepting applications from viewers who wished to try their hand in building for the series or voice acting for other characters. The idea was proposed in February 2012, but due to various events, such as the group recording other games and moving in together in a new apartment, Origins was put on hold. They officially announced it as cancelled in January 2015.
  • The 2015 edition of Hat Pack was a regular series for the first twenty-four episodes, but then the group mentioned the possibility of it being livestreamed instead. This was delayed due to the trio's visit to the USA and recording bulk content for their absence, however, and the series is now on hiatus.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Origins is clearly the biggest example, since they had announced it but seemingly didn't follow through with it.
  • The trio considered a The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim series, but felt that it would be boring to have one of them play while the others commentated. They then discussed the idea of having a highlights reel from each of their separate playthroughs, but this was sadly never pursued. They eventually did a similar one-off idea for Fallout 4.
  • Their Rocket League videos were initially just part of their "Havin' a Bash" series, but fan reaction was so positive that it has since become a regular series.
  • When asked whether they nearly had to end the video-making early on, Smith said that he nearly had to quit because his work was starting to clash with his job; the group ultimately chose to make Hat Films their day job and the rest is history.
  • When they joined Rooster Teeth onstage for E3 2015, the trio were meant to be playing Grand Theft Auto V with Ashley and some of the others, but numerous technical problems on RT's end meant that they simply ended up having an informal interview.
• Why the Fandom Can't Have Nice Things:
  • Trott's real-life girlfriend Katie had to temporarily disable anonymous questions because of people sexualising the trio and then sending her abuse when she politely asked them not to. She eventually turned them back on.
  • As of November 2015, Katie came close to outright deleting her Tumblr due to a mind-blowingly stupid post that accused her of being insecure due to being harassed CONSTANTLY whenever she tried moderating Hat Films stream. She has also vowed that she will never moderate another Hat Films stream for the exact same reason.