Matthew Robert "MatPat" Patrick (born November 15, 1986) is a YouTuber known for creating several Analysis Channels where he engages in Wild Mass Guessing. The shows are accompanied by pictures and diagrams, which often aid with what he is saying, or they are just there for visual puns, which there are a lot of.
Over the years, MatPat has created four channels regarding different topics, all theory-related, each one's logo having a different segment of the "Theorist" circle colored in with a different color:
- On Apr 14, 2011, MatPat began "The Game Theorists
"note aka Game Theory. It serves as the top left "Green" segment of the circle. - On June 2, 2015, MatPat created the channel "The Film Theorists", aka Film Theory. It serves as the top right "Red" segment of the circle.
- On July 23, 2020, MatPat created the channel "The Food Theorists", aka Food Theory. It serves as the bottom left "Yellow" segment of the circle.
- On February 18, 2023, MatPat created the channel "The Style Theorists", aka Style Theory. It serves as the bottom right "Blue" segment of the circle.
On January 9, 2024, after 13 years of being the "Theorist", MatPat announced his retirement from YouTube effective from March 9. Though he remains involved with the Theorists, he no longer hosts episodes. He released 35 final theory videos with himself as the host (ten for Game Theory, ten for Film Theory, ten for Food Theory, and five for Style Theory) before retiring. His successors as host are Tom Robinson for Game Theory, Forrest Lee for Film Theory, Santi Massa for Food Theory, and Amy Roberts for Style Theory.
MatPat's wife, Stephanie Patrick (née Cordato), is also an integral part of the "Theorist" brand, serving as co-founder of the brand's properties and COO of Theorist Media (a digital production studio and consulting firm of which MatPat is another co-founder and CEO) in addition to numerous other appearances. The two met in 2006 while studying at Duke University and married in 2012; their first child, a son, was born in 2018.
General tropes:
- Always with You: Matthew reassures in his final theory that despite him not being the host of the channels, he'll come in from time to time, collab with other channels along with revealing the "Wheres MatPat?" website will be a weekly newsletter/fanmail so fans can keep in touch with him.
- Artifact Title: Originally "The Game Theorists" and "The Film Theorists" where referred to such due to having secondary shows.
- "The Game Theorists" had Gaijin Goombah's "Culture Shock", Kenny and Drake's "Smash History", and Ronnie's "Digressing and Sidequesting". The former ended in 2015 and the latter two ended in 2016. Austin Hourigan's "The SCIENCE!" began in early 2017 only to end in late 2020.
- "The Film Theorists" originally featured "Frame by Frame" and "Did You Know Movies", both were removed in 2017.
- Censored for Comedy: Earlier Game Theory/Film Theory consisted of Matthew saying a censored "fuck" or "shit" during episodes for this effect
- Consummate Professional: For 13 years straight, he did not let anything get in the way of his work. He worked while sick, while on vacation, while on holidays and even when he was working on something else. The only time he didn't voice over an episode was one Food Theory about cooking with Mountain Dew due to losing most of his voice which almost didn't stop him until the team stepped in to make him take a break.
- Fan Boy: As the theorist, he's proclaimed himself as a fan of various things in pop culture such as, Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, Breaking Bad, Gravity Falls, Back To The Future and of course Broadway
- Ascended Fanboy: In 2023 his life-long dream of working on Broadway became true when he got to be a producer on Grey House
- Friendly Rivalry: He had one with Scott Cawthon for 10 years, Scott would always tell Matthew when his theories were wrong and the very few times he did tell him they were right was just a way to screw with him. Matthew tells Scott that he's the reason for his Diet Coke addiction and pokes fun at Scott in his videos. However the two are genuinely on good terms, Scott congratulated Matthew and Stephanie when they announced they were having a kid, He made a game for Him, Markiplier and Dawko for a St. Judes charity live stream and promised the three of them if they found all the money in the game, he'd donate $500,000 (he still donated despite them not being able to). When Matt annouced his retirement, Scott told him that YouTube isn't going to be the same without him and that he was one of the very few people fans could say that about. On March 9th 2024, Scott then appeared in Matt's final theory at the end, inviting him in his house implying that he finally tells Matt about the FNAF lore.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: He got a perfect 1600 on his SAT, went to duke, majored in psychology with a concentration in neuroscience and has a 140 IQ. He's also an extremly kind-hearted person who many fans and youtubers consider the most genuine person they've ever met. He also raised millions of dollars for various charites such as St. Judes, Comic Relief and Anti-slavery international.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In more recent years, Matthew doesn't even say "hell" in his videos or in real life, he also considers "dammit" to be a swear
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Despite ironically being allergic, Matthew not only loves Cats more than dogs he owns a cat named skip (hypoallergenic of course)
- Platonic Life-Partners: He's best friends with Rosanna Pansino, so much so that they consider themselves brother and sister instead of best friends
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While covering "The Man in the Suit" on Film Theory, MatPat, having heard of the creator "Unknowingly" being harassed by a toxic portion of the Godzilla fanbase, decides to get something off his chest regarding toxic fans he'd been holding back for years. The reason he decides to say it now is due to his decision to retire from being the host and having nothing to lose from partially invoking Take That, Audience! at this point.MatPat: The long and short of it is that my time as the "Film Theorist" is coming to a close, and so, you know what, I'm just going to tell it like it is. And toxic fans, you suck. You have ruined so many series for so many people. You are the worst. Go home. Let people enjoy what they want without trying to gatekeep it. And everyone else out there, don't feed the trolls. Ignore them. They'll go away to their lonely little holes. — Whew, kept that one pent up for a while.
- Trademark Favorite Food: MatPat loves Diet Coke.
- Two First Names: Matthew Patrick and his wife Stephanie have a surname that doubles as a given name. His Stage Name is a play on this as he uses the diminutives of both names to form the monicker "MatPat". It also double as a Rhyming Name.
