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"Hello, Internet. Welcome to Game Theory."

Game Theory is a comedy Analysis Channel created by Matthew Robert "MatPat" Patrick, where he engages in Wild Mass Guessing by analyzing video games to provide answers on a wide variety of questions, from scientifically determining if something in a video game could be achieved in real life (e.g. could someone survive being headshot à la Fallout: New Vegas?) to tackling some of gaming's biggest questions (example: what is the Pyro's gender?) to some game changing accusations. (e.g. should Dr. Light be considered a villain?) The show is accompanied by pictures and diagrams, which often aid with what he is saying, or they are just there for visual puns. There are a lot of puns.

MatPat has also created side channels branching off specifically from "Game Theory", including GTLive, which posts live streams of Matt and Stephanie playing video games, and Game Lab, a Mythbusters style show where MatPat goes on camera to test the episode's topics exclusively on YouTube Premium, with the pilot episode available for free.

Game Theory is a part of the Game Theorists, a group of game-based shows that analyze video games for a certain reason. For more members of the group, see Game Exchange, Digressing And Sidequesting. Another Spin-Off, The SCIENCE!, is a show by fellow host Austin Hourigan, which picks video games apart with science and logic. It started airing on the YouTube channel ShoddyCast on January 29, 2016, before being picked up by Game Theory's YouTube channel on December 21.

Not to be confused with the fanfic of the same name. Nor should it be confused with the study of strategic decision making.

On January 9, 2024, MatPat announced that he would be stepping down as the face of the channel network in the coming months, but would remain in the background while other members of the channels would take over as hosts for future videos. He released his final ten theory videos from January 12th to March 9th, when he officially retired from hosting. On March 16th Tom Robinson took over as the head writer and host.


Game Theory provides examples of:

  • Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Touched upon in his War Thunder Tanks video when he finally reveals a real life attribute that is not accurately represented in the game (that being the very significant rates at which the real tanks break down just from locomotion without even seeing combat), only to then state that the developers did spend some time deliberating as to whether or not they should add that trait into the game and ultimately decided that having your tank cripplingly malfunction at random was not fun.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: Downplayed, lampshaded, and later subverted here.
    MatPat: The Binding of Isaac. Man, this game is depressing, disturbing, dark, even some adjectives that don't start with D, like uh… baffling, obtuse, just plain weird.
  • All Just a Dream: One of his FNAF theories suggests that the entire tetralogy is the coma-induced nightmares of the fourth game's protagonist.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Hoo boy. invoked
    • Princess Peach is actually paying Bowser to kidnap her.
    • In a two-part episode, he described Mario as an animal abuser, misogynist, sadist, and mass murderer.
    • He theorizes that The Angry Video Game Nerd (the character, not James Rolfe, who plays him) has a serious mental condition.
    • In his Toad's Deadly Secret episode, he proposes that Peach is the true Big Bad of the Mario franchise, using her parasitic followers to run the goombas out of their native homeland, with Bowser as the tragic, reluctant Big Good just trying to combat a parasitic threat.
    • Handsome Jack of Borderlands 2 already got a decent amount from fans, but Matt also theorizes that Jack actually has borderline personality disorder and gives examples meeting 7 of the 9 criteria.
    • Bowser's habit of kidnapping Peach is actually an attempt to give his son and seven adopted children the complete family Bowser wishes he'd had growing up.
    • In his analysis of Until Dawn, he comes to the conclusion that Josh has been experiencing poor mental health care, and, based off his symptoms, should be treated for schizophrenia.
    • Villagers in Minecraft aren't buying back the crops you stole from them, they're paying you to harvest food that would take them a full day of work.
    • In his analysis of Red Dead Redemption 2, Austin comes to the conclusion that Arthur Morgan's tuberculosis, which he got from Thomas Downes, has a latency period that could have stayed for years, but Arthur chose to hasten the tuberculosis process into a matter of weeks with his smoking, drinking beer, and getting beaten by physical trauma and malnutrition, all of which are risk factors for TB:
      "Everything [Arthur] chose to do with his life was a risk factor for disease, and pretty much guaranteed that the instant he was exposed to the bacteria, he was going to not only get infected but die. [...] This means that Arthur 100% caused his own death. No, he didn't know that smoking would make things worse and everybody at the time was drinking like a fish, but it was his life that put him in this position in the first place. His life, his choices... those put him in harm's way, and made his death inevitable.
    • Due to Your Mind Makes It Real, Luigi being brainwashed- er, sorry, hypnotized into becoming Mr. L in Super Paper Mario enabled him to show how he really felt Beneath the Mask of his usually cowardly facade.
    • Sarah, the protagonist of Just Dance 2023's story mode, is hesitant to play not out of shyness, but because she knows she has a tendency to become overcompetitive and obsess over dancing perfectly (just like the Big Bad, Night Swan), mistreating her friends and ruining their fun in the process. Under this view, her battle against Night Swan can be seen as a battle against her own negative qualities.
  • ...And 99¢: Coincidentally, MatPat's calculations for the cost of Minecraft's Diamond Armor and New Super Mario Bros. 2's Gold Banzai Bills both end with 98 cents.
  • Angrish: Says this out during the Humans are Pokémon theory, during his reaction to the Wheel of Gaming's flipper lands on "Pokémon" the third time.
  • Armor Is Useless: In the Minecraft episode, diamond armor turns out be Awesome, but Impractical. Sure, it looks awesome, but it would weigh about 1100 lbs (over 500 kilograms)… and because of the fact that it would be very easy to cut the armor by slicing it along 90–degree planes relative to the surface of the armor, due to the diamond's cleavages (that all crystals also have), making it easier to slice through the hard armor, you would risk wasting a few billion dollars when hit with a sword.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Artistic License – Biology: Lampshaded in Matt's video on Jurassic World, regarding the Indominus Rex's ability to hide its body temperature (due to tree frog DNA) and change color to camouflage itself (due to cuttlefish DNA). He points out that these abilities work opposite of each other: the tree frog's body heat regulation works by making its skin tone lighter-and thus more visible. Matt instead posits the idea that the I. Rex's escape was due to Dr. Wu sabotaging the cameras, so that he and Hoskins can have a chance to showcase the I. Rex as a weapon.
  • Artistic License – Chemistry: Matt pointed out that the ingredients for human transmutation do not match up with the actual mass of elements found in the body as well as the cardinal sin of scientific calculations — inconsistent measurement units (going between grams and kilograms in the same list).
  • Artistic License – Law: Zig-zagged; In MatPat's video about Ace Attorney, he starts off looking at it from the perspective of the US courts. The Ace Attorney series' legal system is based on the Japanese one, with elements of the US system. Since he brings this up partway through, and debunks his previous points, it's clear that he did it on purpose to add a twist. However, he then goes on to accuse Phoenix of tampering with the crime scene in "Turnabout Sisters" despite the fact that he disclosed all of his actions to Gumshoe and so wouldn't get in trouble.
  • Ass Shove: The line "Let's diagnose" in the AVGN episode is accompanied by a picture of the host giving the Nerd a prostate exam.
  • Author Tract: The Wii U-centric theories are this regarding MatPat's opinions on the console, although a more obvious example would be the sociopathic Mario theory.
  • Beneath the Mask: According to MatPat, Luigi's hynposis-induced persona, Mr. L from Super Paper Mario, is effectively our green-clad plumber free from his inhibitions, unafraid to show how he truly felt about Mario and Peach, among other things.
  • Berserk Button:
    • YouTuber "TheJWittz", having done 375 videos about Pokémon at the time, was furious when MatPat complained to him about having to do more than six Pokémon videos.
      TheJWittz: Six? SIX? Try three-hundred and seventy-five! Video after video, week after week. Creepy Pokémon, cool Pokémon, sexy Pokémon, weak Pokémon. Pokémon games, Pokémon manga, Pokémon CARDS. Blue, red, white, black, X & Y? PURPLE!? I can't talk without saying Pokémon puns anymore!
    • MatPat wasn't necessarily happy about the secret wall code in Five Nights at Freddy's 3.
  • Big Bad Friend: The theory posted that Phone Guy is the Golden Freddy Murderer after seeing Five Nights at Freddy's 2. Despite Five Nights at Freddy's 3 supposedly refuting that theory, he instead managed to solidify his theory with it, though the "Golden Freddy" part is disproven. After later games further refuted the theory and it was eventually that the killer is William Afton, one of the founders of Fazbear Entertainment, MatPat dropped it, however.
  • Blah, Blah, Blah: Downplayed, when Mat is reading out complex math formulas, he speeds up the talking to give the viewer a general idea without boring them.
  • Bigger Is Better in Bed: MatPat deduces that Luigi from Super Mario is blessed with a 7 inch penis, while his brother, Mario, has the smaller 2.5 inch penis. He humorously theorizes that Luigi's "package" is the reason Daisy stays with him and why Mario is aggressive to him.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • Invoked. MatPat calls Scott Cawthon out on making the key-pad tiles in Five Nights at Freddy's 3.
      MatPat: Scott, seriously? Seriously, Scott? Oh look! Here's a wall. Let me just dial in my phone number. Beep boop boop beep boop boop! What?! When did we jump from a point-and-click horror game to magical fantasy? This thing is like Platform 9 and 3/4, I expected Harry effin' Potter to Apparate into Pirate's Cove or something.
    • After FNAF2 was announced, MatPat never brought up his FNAF1 Theory.
  • Big "NO!": Suffers one in The Stinger for the second half of part two of his FNAF 3 video when he learns how Five Nights at Freddy's 4 was announced just a day after posting the first part of the video.
  • Boom, Headshot!: There's a scientific look into how the Courier survived their headshot. Long answer: Yes, but only under certain conditions and the Courier likely wouldn't be the same afterward. Short answer: Doesn't matter, because Benny actually fired twice, with the second aimed at the temple, aka the squishiest, most vulnerable part of the head.
  • Break the Cutie: Matpat's experience with Five Nights At Freddy's became this as he spoke fondly of the lore in his FNAF 2 episode but he jokingly states under the title of the playlist "All the theories on Five Nights at Freddy's, FNAF 2, FNAF 3, and FNAF 4, AKA: Why MatPat has developed an anxiety disorder".
  • Butt-Monkey: Ronnie of Digressing and Sidequesting is frequently mocked in Game Theory videos and end slates. These became far less funny after Ronnie's suicide.
  • Call-Back:
  • The Cameo: After several years of Five Nights at Freddy's theories, Scott Cawthon himself appears at the very end of MatPat's final theory video to invite him into his house.
    Scott: I've been expecting you. Come. We have much to discuss.
  • Cannot Tell a Joke:
    • Happens in the "Surviving the Assassin's Creed Leap of Faith" Episode after disproving its chance of survival. Which also somehow involves the AC world's gravity being greater than ours.
      MatPat: Leap of faith? Hah! They wish they had the chance! More like tumble of… fatigue. I don't know, I can't come up with any good punchlines this week.
    • And again in episode about Majora's Mask moon.
      MatPat: It's really just a little baby moon, little moon-in-training, Goodnight Moon, Moon Jr... Junior Mints, Moon over Miami, moon, moon... there's a joke here, and I can't figure it out.
  • Canon Immigrant: In "FNAF, The Origins of EVIL", he suggests Chica was originally one of the Mediocre Melodies before joining the Fazbear Band as a result of the merging of Henry Emily's and William Afton's restaurants.
  • Catchphrase Interruptus:
    • In the video on Polybius and MK Ultra, where MatPat changes to "a conspiracy theory!" before cutting out the video with static.
    • In his 102nd video covering Part 1 of him solving the mysteries of Five Nights at Freddy's, cutting off his "Thanks for watching!" is the Phantom Freddy from the third game before static, then his advertisement of NatureBox.
    • Every GT Live stream cuts off the word "theory" in the "Hello, Internet. Welcome to Game Theory" opening.
  • Character Catchphrase: In addition to those listed under Signing-Off Catchphrase below...
    • "Hello, Internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that (insert intro joke)."
    • "That's just a stream. A live stream!"
  • Crossover: There are a number of guests that appear in various episodes.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: MatPat was extremely pleased to appear in YouTube's 2015 rewind for "a glorious 22 frames, 0.92 seconds".
  • Dare to Be Badass: After examining the misleading advertising of Evertale and finding that not only did the truly massive number of ads have lore, but compelling lore, Mat's takeaway basically amounted to this - he suggested that rather than the microtransaction-laden gameplay they came out with, the developers get to work actually developing a game more in line with their advertising.
  • Dead All Along:
    • The center of the Link is Dead episode.
    • Rosalina Unmasked suggests this of Princess Peach, or at least an alternate version of her as well.
  • Deal with the Devil: The Hello Neighbor theory is that the Neighbor is committing unholy rituals with victims trapped in his basement as payment for whatever he got in exchange for such a deal.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Towards the end of "No Cowboy is Safe! Red Dead's Biggest THREAT!", Austin gives a powerful message for those affected by tuberculosis:
    We should do what we can to help those of us who are in need; like Arthur Morgan trying to forge a future for his adopted family, we should do what we can to help those of us who are in need! [caption says, "I literally noticed just now that I repeated myself. Imma leave it. I'm only human."]
  • Deus ex machina: Repeatedly lampshaded in the Composite Superman episode.
  • Discussed Trope: The focus of some episodes is to determine if some concepts, like a flying city, diamond armor, or the Morph Ball are actually feasible.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: This episode argues the biological advantage in the Dead or Alive franchise's skimpy costumes, and their capacity to create imbalance in tournament play.
  • Drunk on Milk: Well, more like "addicted to milk", in the Candy Crush Saga episode he claims to have an addiction to Diet Coke.
    • Has reached the Running Gag status by now. "#NotSponsored, #JustAnAddict."
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • MatPat says outright that the show was inspired by Extra Credits, and before he found his own voice, artifacts of that style can be seen in the presentation.
    • The Theme Song "Science Blaster" wasn't featured until his BioShock video. Until then the first episodes had a slide show of various game consoles, with each episode having a unique song related to the theme of the episode. The intro initially featured Mario looking popping up of Mat's head, until "Mario, the Problems with Princess Peach" had him leap out of the Game Theory logo instead. "Polybius, MK Ultra, and the CIA's Brainwashing Arcade Game" is the video to first introduce the longer run through the various game system logos, as well as replace the checkered surface with a reflective one.
  • Epileptic Trees: invokedThe whole purpose of his theories.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: invokedIn many theories, MatPat uses obvious or supposed symbolism as evidence.
  • Expy: The speculative theory on Assassin's Creed Syndicate is that the game's recurring enemy The Blighters, are modeled after various real world London gangs of the time such as the Elephant and Castle Mob and Forty Elephants Gang.
  • Fake Boobs: There is an entire episode about which video game characters have fake breasts and which ones have natural breasts.
  • Fake-Out Opening: The satire before the FNAF video.
  • Fan-Disliked Explanation: invoked Discussed. MatPat suspects that, based on strong evidence, Scott's original plan regarding Five Nights at Freddy's 4 was that it and most of the series was All Just a Dream, only to ultimately leave said point unrevealed and discarded due to the likelihood of fan backlash.
  • Fetish: When The JWittz rants about all the different types of Pokémon he's made videos about, he mentions "Sexy Pokémon". MatPat promptly types the phrase into Google.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In his Minecraft Diamond Armor theory, after he talks about crystals having four planes of cleavage and says "we're not talking about the Pamela Anderson Bermuda Triangle brand of cleavage here," two "editor's notes" briefly appear on screen, the first saying "Wait!? We're not?" and the second saying:
    Matt, I just spent, like, 25 minutes Photoshopping Katy Perry's pom-poms onto crystalline solids and you're telling me we aren't even talking about ta-tas?
    My roommate walked in on me! Imagine having THAT conversation...
  • Freudian Excuse: Part of the "Bowser's Broken Home" theory posits that Bowser is villainous because he grew up an orphan, using real-world studies regarding criminals with parentless upbringing.
  • Freudian Slip: Matt sure has a hard time saying "Kremcroc."
  • Girls With Mustaches: In his video on who most likely would and wouldn't survive the Covid-19 Coronavirus, he mentions that facial hair interferes with medical masks. He cites the fact that Princess Peach does not have facial hair as one reason why she is likely to survive (in his opinion), while briefly remarking that it's possible that she does but shaves it off regularly. While saying this, he edits an image of her to give her a blonde goatee.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: MatPat actually apologizes for saying the word "poop" in one episode.
  • Hive Mind: The Zerg episode focuses on the functions of a hive mind, or swarm intelligence, and goes on to theorize that humans operate on the same mentality as the Zerg thanks to the Internet.
  • Hostile Show Takeover: Subverted. While PeanutButterGamer interrupts an episode about Majora's Mask (MatPat blames a YouTube glitch), it's by no means hostile, or even intentionalnote  on PBG's part.
    • In fact, the only real moments of hostility (if you can call it that) are when PBG jumps the gun and trys to say "A Game Theory!" before the proper point.
  • Hurricane of Euphemisms:
    • At the beginning of the boobs episode, he sings a song of these to the tune of Offenbach's "Orpheus In The Underworld Overture".note 
    • Throughout the 2018 April Fool's episode, Does Luigi MEASURE Up?, he does the same for "penis", from "ye olde dinglehopper" to "little cannoli".
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Discussed in "No Cowboy is Safe! Red Dead's Biggest THREAT!", when Austin points out a tidbit about drinking beer in the late 1800s in one of RDR2's Funny Moments:
    "Arthur also drinks quite a bit, with an entire mission, easily the best part of the game, being dedicated to getting blackout drunk. This isn't an anomaly, and it in fact would be much more surprising if Arthur Morgan wasn't a bon vivant. In the 1800s, the average man [caption says, "Hi Jim!"] consumed seven gallons of ethanol (pure ethanol amounts, mind you!) per year, which translates into over four-and-a-half beers per day, or over 1,659 bottles of beer per year: over 155 gallons of beer per year! And you wonder why prohibition has existed!"
  • It Was His Sled: In-Universe. Austin's Red Dead Redemption II review video says, "No Cowboy is Safe! Red Dead's Biggest THREAT!" for a reason: Since he played the game to its completion at High Honor, he decided to do this video after studying the research on tuberculosis and its risk factors by looking them up on websites and on Wikipedia. The video itself has a Spoiler Opening, revealing the plot point as Austin narrates:
    "...what I'm talking about today, this is the real stuff! I'm talking about things that affect real people every day across the world. I'm talking about the most deadly threat to human existence, something that's been stalking and killing us ever since our birth as a species; a predator that's been growing alongside us, evolving and killing more of us than any other single cause of death; one that's been able to learn over time how to become immune to our best and strongest weapons against it. It's currently THE most deadly disease on Planet Earth, and it killed Arthur Morgan! I'm talking, of course, of the disease tuberculosis."
  • Jumping the Shark: MatPat makes this joke about Scott Cawthon with his Fazbear Frights books in "FNAF, Return To The Pit (3 New FNAF Theories)", showing Scott's avatar jumping over a shark in the time travel ball pit.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: MatPat has a cat named Skips, though he also nicknames it CatPat in the livestream.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you saw the thumbnail for the second part of the Rosalina Unmasked theory before watching the first, then Princess Peach being Dead All Along won't come as much of a surprise to you.
  • Later-Installment Weirdness: The show removed the famous "Science Blaster" intro theme song after the Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach triple theory and the first episode remaster featured a compilation of the various intro videos throughout the show's run. The intro song only briefly returned during the final ten videos of MatPat's tenure.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: MatPat acts terrified in the satirical beginning of the Five Nights at Freddy's episode, but once he actually gets jump-scared, he stops being scared of it in the slightest. Until Golden Freddy shows up, at least.
  • Magic Feather: One of the Zelda episodes focused on the various strength and health items, and then goes on to explain the Placebo Effect.
  • Massively Multiplayer Crossover:
  • Messianic Archetype: Discussed in Chrono Trigger episode, where MatPat claims that the whole game is actually a retelling of the Bible.
  • Metaphorgotten: In "Batman + Superman + COW = ???":
    MatPat: And it looks like now I've finally become the comic nerd I was always destined to be. Not the comic nerd I deserved, but the comic nerd that I thought that I needed to deserve to have... Batman dark knight!
  • "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: In his first FNAF video:
    MatPat: Hello, internet! Welcome to Game Theory, where fear is our middle name. Matthew Fear Patrick! It's a very strange name.
    • Also in the video about the Bee Movie meme where he says that "impossible" is his middle name. "Matthew Robert Danger Impossible Patrick".
  • Missing Steps Plan: Here in the dating sim episode.
    STRATEGY
    1) Spa
    2) Bathing Suit
    3) ....
    4) PROFIT
  • Monty Hall Problem: Half of "Monty Hall, Plinko, and Probability" concerns this and how by switching your door, you're 2/3rds more likely to win.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • The Five Nights at Freddy's episode. Who expected him to bring up a real life murder incident that took place at a Chuck E. Cheese?
    • At the end of the 2nd part of the Watch_Dogs episode, where he ends on a dark note about how vulnerable we are to hackers, so much so that they could kill people… immediately follows it up with a light-hearted advert about a shaving website.
  • Multiple Endings: "MatPat's FINAL Theory!" has six different endings, which viewers can uncover by searching for the different clues throughout the preceding videos (though the links to each ending are still included in the video description). The six endings are (in order):
    • Lore Keeper Ending (the standard ending): MatPat and Stephanie leave the studio to go on a road trip, so that Matt could take care of some unfinished business. They make their way to the residence of the one and only Scott Cawthon, who tells Matt that they have much to discuss.
    • Chaos Ending: Matt and Steph head to the beach for a much-needed vacation, assuring that the team will be fine during their absence. Unbeknownst to them, the entire office has fallen into absolute anarchy.
    • Meme Ending: A parody of Nyan Cat, in which Matt, Ness/Sans, the Pope, and DJ Music Man fly across the sky while encountering a slew of memes from the channel's past.
    • Insanity Ending: After the episode wraps up, Stephanie finds a frantic Matt in a Room Full of Crazy, madly obsessing over the mysterious FNAF box.
    • Horror Ending: The video suddenly delves into Analog Horror, with Matt and Steph getting Killed Offscreen by some unknown entity. And whatever it is, it's gunning for you next…
    • True Ending: Instead of a skit, we get a clip of the team wrapping up the shoot, followed by one final farewell message from MatPat.
  • Nine out of Ten Doctors Agree: In one episode, he calls GT the show "Ten out of ten doctors agree... they don't watch."
  • "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: He frequently puts these in his theories to demonstrate that his explanations are supported by the math. In "Mario's Lunar Apocalypse", however, he goes so far as to apply this to the entire theory, implying that he's dead serious about Mario's planet facing a lunar catastrophe in its very near future.
  • Occam's Razor: Said ad verbum during several episodes. For example, he uses this principle to say that instead of Raticate dying, the rival simply stored it away and replaced it with a better Pokémon.
  • Overly Long Gag: In an episode discussing whether Pokémon supports animal abuse, the screen stops on a shot of a cricket match. While MatPat is talking, the subtitles comment that he's never stayed on one shot so long before. They then go off on a random tangent for about a minute, before reminding you that MatPat is still talking in the background and you should probably rewind to hear what he said.
  • Paranoia Gambit: Claims in a FNAF video that he's not going to use any more Jump Scares, before invoking the trope.
  • Parody of Evolution: In "No Cowboy is Safe! Red Dead's Biggest THREAT!", Austin uses Zallinger's "March of Progress" to describe the evolution of tuberculosis, placing a TB cell on top of a head of each creature in human evolution, ending with the current Homo sapiens itself.
    "So, this is a disease that's been hunting us basically as long as we've existed, and in all likelihood co-evolved alongside us."
  • Path of Inspiration : One episode was dedicated to examining the religion-themed antagonists from the Final Fantasy games.
  • Poe's Law: While they tried to defy this with the opening of the Five Nights at Freddy's episode, (where MatPat deliberately made it blatantly obvious that he was faking it), some people who failed to sit through the first two minutes apparently believed it.
    Game Theorists: YouTube Rule #13: Make sure all obvious satire in a video comes with a large red label on screen that says "OBVIOUS SATIRE." *cough* first two minutes *cough*
  • Pun-Based Title: Game Theory is a pun on a mathematical concept that allows a person to build a winning strategy based on previous outcomes. In fact, MatPat's final video is dedicated to pointing this out and how the concept factors into the channel's growth.
  • Relax-o-Vision: In "Is Link the STRONGEST Video Game Character?", when MatPat discusses "Kratos's latest beatdown where he takes a mythological creature and manually separates torso from cranium," he shows a bunny eating because "literally nothing Kratos in his games is brand-safe for us to use here."
  • The Reveal: Subverted. Near the end of the two-parter concerning Rosalina, Matt thinks a little more and starts to think that she isn't Peach and Mario's daughter, but Peach and Luigi's… before dismissing it. Though his latest Mario Timeline episode seems to imply he accepts this theory.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: Performed whenever the Wheel of Gaming is involved.
    MatPat: Wheel of Gaming, spin around, give a franchise that is profound.
  • Running Gag: MatPat is really fond of them.
    • Ever since the episode where it was the main topic, MatPat has frequently used his claim that "Wario is 10 feet tall" to highlight inaccuracies in his videos, and also for general Self-Deprecation.
    • He frequently expresses his goal of beating PewDiePie in subscribers.
    • As of his theory on Video Game Movies, he also likes to randomly throw a fez on characters and graphics.
      • Though, supposedly, this is done not as a random joke, but for copyright reasons - by doing this to the images, he avoids any potential lawsuits that might occur from using them in unaltered form.
    • His fear of, out of all the scary things in there, the fan in his Five Nights at Freddy's theories. Moreso when it's now purple in the fourth game.
    • And before finally doing it, mentioning the dating sim episode.
    • In the Five Nights at Freddy's videos, "Psychic Friend Fredbear" has its own jingle, sometimes played multiple times in one video.
    • Failing to have a decent drum roll sound effect when revealing a final calculation (and sometimes having to settle for a different sound effect, like a slide whistle or an air horn).
  • Rule of Sexy: Mentions the controversy about Smite and its original character model for Kali (and other characters) being overly sexualised to draw the attention of males.
    • Justified, as MatPat goes on to argue, in that most mythological art of female goddesses are practically half-naked. Kali's already been showing her boobs since BC times, so Smite isn't really giving us anything we couldn't have seen after a quick search on the internet.
  • Rule of Three: During his Humans are Pokémon theory:
    MatPat: Wheel of Gaming, spin around, to give me a franchise that is profound.
    (Wheel of Gaming lands on Pokémon)
    MatPat: Huh. Uh, sorry, no, we've done more than enough Pokémon episodes, thank you very much. Let's try this again. Wheel of Gaming, Spin, Span, Spun, land on a series that's super fun.
    (Wheel of Gaming lands on Pokemon again)
    MatPat: Ha Ha, very funny, Wheel of Gaming. Wheel of Gaming, I'm getting weary, give me a game to do a theory.
    (Wheel of Gaming lands on Pokemon the third time)
    MatPat: (Angrish)
  • Sand In My Eyes: MatPat goes through this when bringing up Latios' death in the Raticate episode.
    MatPat: That Latios scene man... oh... seems someone is always cutting onions when that scene is on. (tearing up) So strange how that works. I don't even like onions!
  • Self-Deprecation:
    • In his Fallout: New Vegas video, after saying that 10 percent of people shot in the head survive, he remarks that "you have better odds of surviving a headshot than I do of writing a decent joke for this show."
    • This gem from "Problems with Princess Peach" episode:
      MatPat: Hello, Internet, welcome to Game Theory, hailed by critics as "Fast edits with mildly impressive Photoshopping".
    • He's repeatedly referenced his error in evaluating Wario's fartillery, in which he says that Wario is ten feet tall.
    • Ronnie while talking during Digressing and Sidequesting has a Greek Chorus calling out most of the flaws in what he says.
    • Game Theory's 2015 rewind was just a montage of MatPat saying "FNAF", "Freddy", "Scott", and "Purple Guy".
    • At the beginning of "The Tragedy of Deltarune", MatPat makes a Self-Parody of the infamous "Sans Is Ness" theory, then locks it in a vault with the channel's other unpopular theories. The vault is even sarcastically labeled as containing the best theories.
  • Shipper on Deck: Throughout the streams of Life Is Strange MatPat is desperate for Max and Warren to get together. Stephanie on the other hand is desperate for Warren and 'Drone Girl' (Brooke) to end up in a relationship.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sick Episode: Dan fills in for MatPat on the video for Choo-Choo Charles due to MatPat contracting a sickness.
  • Signing Off Catchphrase: "But hey! That's just a theory: a Game Theory! Thanks for watching."
    • He also sometimes uses variations of this when mentioning other theories like "string theory", "scientific theory", "crime theories", and so on.
    • When doing two-parters, he ends with "In the meantime, that's just a theory!"
  • Soft Water: Defied in "Surviving the Assassin's Creed Leap of Faith", where he notes that the surface tension of water makes hitting it at high speeds just as bad as hitting concrete, and hay would actually break the assassin's fall better.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Toward the end of "No Cowboy is Safe! Red Dead's Biggest THREAT!", a song called "Can't Get Through to You" by Nemi plays in the background while Austin speaks about how people around the world are dying from tuberculosis every year, but that donating to charities like TB Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation can help save a life and work on new cures for TB. The video itself ends with a wounded Arthur Morgan watching the sunrise on the mountaintop as he passes away from TB in one of RDR2's High Honor endings, all set to the tune of the same song.
  • Special Guest: Dream appears in the Minecraft Warden theory video as one, with GeorgeNotFound and Sapnap making brief cameos as well, being the Hunters chasing Dream down.
  • Stock Epileptic Trees: Many of his theories are some of these:
    • Link being in purgatory.
    • Mario being the villain.
    • Kirby being a heartless force of destruction.
    • The Animal Crossing characters all actually being humans viewed Through the Eyes of Madness.
  • Stunned Silence: Matpat is visibly taken aback when Stephanie sees a rocket-propelled-grenade in the Henry Stickmin Series and immediately thinks it's a harpoon. He sits in silence for a second, and then gives her a hug.
    Matpat: I love you, and as your husband, I'm not supposed to tell you when you're wrong...but you're wrong.
  • Stylistic Suck: The opening of his video on Five Nights at Freddy's plays out like a really bad Let's Play.
    MatPat: (whispering quickly) I am so scared right now, I am so scared, can't you tell how scared I am right now?
  • Subverted Catchphrase:
  • Subliminal Seduction: Proven to be laughably ineffective in an extremely early episode on Pokémon with his main evidence being "Gotta Catch 'Em All" and "I Love Satan" aren't even close to having the same syllables whether forwards or backwards.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Matt's thoughts about Josh from Until Dawn.
  • Take That!:
  • Take That, Audience!: MatPat regularly uses gags involving comment sections in videos, often hypothetical ones that he can often use for Self-Deprecation or for guessing what people will attempt to debunk him with.
  • Take This Job and Shove It: MatPat's reaction to the wheel of gaming insisting he make a seventh video about Pokémon.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: invokedOne of the videos shows that the games that sell best are usually not too different from the ones we've already tried, and that the games praised for being "innovative" rarely sell as well.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: invokedDiscussed in "The Scariest Game That Doesn't Exist!" with Evertale. The lore that goes into all of the advertisements is intensive, engaging, and well thought-out, which would make for an amazing game... if the ads weren't a complete lie to cover up what the game is actually like.
  • Think of the Censors!: Even the very title of "Who Will Survive [CENSORED] Virus?" says it all. Apparently, YouTube will not have its monetized creators taking the name of the coronavirus in vain.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: From the beginning of "Is Link dead in Majora's Mask?" episode:
    MatPat: Wheel of Gaming, turn, turn, turn, tell me the fanbase I should burn.
    (wheel stops on The Legend of Zelda)
    MatPat: Oh, geez...
  • Trademark Favorite Food: MatPat loves Diet Coke.
  • Triumphant Reprise: MatPat's final sendoff in "MatPat's FINAL Theory!" is accompanied by a slow but rousing and epic rendition of "Science Blaster", the series' opening theme.
  • Two First Names: The host of the show, Matthew Patrick.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Invoked when MatPat made an episode on how many LGBT characters are portrayed; as villains, mentally unstable, inhuman.
  • Unrealistic Black Hole: "The Pokédex is Full of Lies!" is dedicated entirely as an analysis to debunk this trope.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: According to the "Who is Mega Man's TRUE villain?" theory, due to Dr. Light's inability to program roboethics, Dr. Wily managed to manipulate the robots into serving him, by convincing them that by the time they have finished their work, they would be scrapped, and thus, joining him in his quest for world domination is the only way to survive, resulting in the events of the original Mega Man series.
  • Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Half of the "Five Nights at Freddy's" episode posits that the game is based off of a real life incident that took place at a Chuck E. Cheese on December 14th, 1993.
  • Villain Protagonist: The story in the Ultimate FNAF Timeline Miniseries is told from the perspective of William Afton in the first and second episodes and Mrs. Afton (the proposed Greater-Scope Villain of the modern era of the FNAF series) in the fourth episode.
  • Visual Pun: Multiple ones per episode too.
  • Voice of the Legion: During the final episode of the Fran Bow livestream, when Mabuka, Queen of Darkness appears, Matt and Stephanie spontaneously decide to Speak in Unison. The effect is very unsettling.
  • Worthy Opponent: MatPat and Scott Cawthon can be considered this as both sides have had an impact on the other. ''Five Nights At Freddy's can be seen as MatPat's magnum opus and both him and Scott have mentioned the other with MatPat trying to solve the mystery and point out flaws while Cawthon adds more complications to the lore and does credit Game Theory in a post about FNAF 4's ending.


But hey, that's just a theory! A Game Theory! Thanks for watching.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Game Theory Web Show, The Game Theorists

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The Angry Video Game Nerd

MatPat speculates that the Angry Video Game Nerd has schizophrenia. Drawing from various gags and plot points in the series, he pinpoints the Nerd's clashes with video game villains as delusions that others are conspiring to harm him, speculates that the Glitch Gremlin and his effects are audiovisual hallucinations, notes his violent impulses in his brawls with Bugs Bunny, and describes his alliance with Super Mecha Death Christ and belief that only he can defend the world from bad games as delusions of grandeur.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (9 votes)

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