Trivia / Game Theory

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: When making a theory for Pokémon Detective Pikachu MatPat throws out a joke theory that would later become true. Specifically, that Detective Pikachu was Tim's father all along.
• Approval of God:
  • Surprisingly enough, given the episode's rather mixed reception from the fanbase, as well as the fact that many viral game creators (even ones he's friendly with, such as Scott Cawthon) usually tend to correct MatPat on any mistakes he's made in the theories, ninjamuffin99 had nothing but good words for his Friday Night Funkin' theory, stating that he enjoyed seeing the speculation about the game from MatPat's point of view and also appreciated him for compiling footage of many of the livestream lore-drops within the video, even outright defending him by shooting down any theories that his appreciation was ironic or that MatPat's ideas were too far-fetched.
  • Food Theory included a video about, how all things, the Grubhub universe in its animated commercials was a future version of the Jimmy Neutron universe. A couple months later, Grubhub sent Mat and Steph a package with a mix of blatant and subtle hints that Mat was on to something.
• Colbert Bump: MatPat would often host shows made by Gaijin Goombah, Ronnienote, Drake, and Kenny on his main channel. He also had Weekly Tube Show, Egoraptor, Furst, and JonTron script and narrate the "Did You Know Movies" videos on his Film Theorists channel. As one of the most popular video game youtubers, MatPat's collaborations helped further popularize or at least drew attention to his fellow youtubers.
• Creator Backlash:
  • MatPat feels this way about his boobs episode. It's one of the two you can't watch on the mobile app, along with "Zelda, Potions, and Power Bands", his embarrassment is obvious in his GTLive stream reacting to old videos. MatPat's wife Steph is also very ashamed of the boobs episode as he actually showed it to her before he uploaded and she said go for it.
  • Any theory made during the early years of the channel (generally the first 3 or so) are, with some exceptions, this.
  • The "Sans is Ness" episode has also become this due to MatPat both realizing how ridiculous it was and receiving large amounts of hate when it was released.
  • He isn't proud of his Persona 4 episode, both due to it being intensely rushed, and his intro, which came off as both demeaning to the fanbase and intensely defensive to his own faults. In his apology statement for that, he compares it to another episode he isn't fond of for the same reasons: the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney one.
• Dear Negative Reader:
  • During his Undertale video about W.D. Gaster he spends four minutes at the start addressing how his Undertale videos have became his least favorite videos due to the excess of hate he's received for them (when previously, both of the videos should have been his favorites, and were prior to the criticism). He states that he understands that there are a lot of people who don't like him, but he expresses his personal hurt over people attacking him when he strives to be as reasonable as possible and advertise imagination and critical thinking when it comes to video games.
  • Game Theory: Why You HATE My Theories (FNAF) sees MatPat address on a broader scale how fans in general have been bashing theorists (not just his videos, but other popular theorists like FuhNaff and RyeToast), yet they would arrive at similarly farfetched ideas by the same steps MatPat was using. Notably, he points out that people once bashed him for using the FNAF books to make theories but now were upset when people didn't read them, how people used to be upset at the Dream Theory when nowadays the theory is seen in a more positive light for the series at that time, and how despite all the criticism of the "Gregory is a robot" theory, it has been increasingly growing stronger with more evidence from how Tales from the Pizzaplex featured other robot children. He even points out, like in his video on Dream's speedrunning scandal, that the process behind his infamous "Mario is Mental" theory, being built from simple points (Mario abusing Donkey Kong and the brief Sibling Rivalry scene with Mario grinding Luigi's shoe in Mario Power Tennis) is not that different from the way most other people build their theories from (even referencing how Cassie's father being the now grown up Bonnie-masked bully used the same logic as Gregory being the reborn Crying Child).
• Defictionalization: Somebody actually made the "Weegee's Birthday Surprise" game mentioned in the amiibo video. It's as bad as you'd expect.
• Dueling Works: With Gnoggin and Vsauce.
• Follow the Leader: Besides the aforementioned Gnoggin, other YouTube channels have appeared offering their own speculative and tangential learning videos. That said, MatPat doesn't mind people copying his format and views the competition as a positive force that encourages himself to work harder.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: His L.A. Noire video, thanks to one of those pesky WMG copyright claims.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance:
  • While his Game Theory videos have more views and are better known, many fans consider MatPat's Film Theory videos to be of better quality with better humor and research. Even when his theories are wrong, they offer insight into the deeper themes and philosophical ideas of the works that he covers, making the episodes more substantial and meaningful.
  • One of the two starting points that MatPat used to build the infamous "Mario is Mental" theory is the scene in Mario Power Tennis where Mario steps on Luigi's shoe. While the other one, where Mario abuses Donkey Kong in the Game & Watch title Donkey Kong Circus (a piece of Early-Installment Weirdness but one that showcased Mario's crueler side in earlier years), is easier to build the theory from, lightly grinding your brother's shoe is something fans hardly consider the most sinister thing out there despite MatPat frequently emphasizing it in his videos at the expense of the scenes that indicate Mario does actually care about Luigi.
• Milestone Celebration: When he hit 1,000,000 subscribers, he did a theory about why you play video games.
• Production Lead Time:
  • The likely reason why he posted his Five Nights at Freddy's video (theorizing that Mike Schmidt is the murderer, that the evil animatronics don't exist, and that the entire game is his guilt-ridden nightmares in his final days on death row) two days after the trailer and Steam greenlight information for the sequel rendered it impossible. He seems to have since quietly abandoned the theory entirely and makes no mention of it at all in his Five Nights at Freddy's 2 video. It eventually was given a brief nod when Ultimate Custom Night came around, due to a popular theory that the game is William Afton's Ironic Hell turning out similar to MatPat's old theory.
  • It happened again with the same franchise when Part One of what was supposed to be a unified, loose-ends-tied-up theory for the trilogy went up 24 hours before the creator confirmed Five Nights at Freddy's 4.
• Trolling Creator:
  • MatPat was fond of poking fun at the fact that his viewers are starting to get frustrated with the fact he hasn't made a part 2 of his Watch_Dogs game theory, preferring to jump to Mario and Zelda, and even claiming it's what the fans want with an alleged poll. He eventually did release part 2, though.
  • At the beginning of his theory about Bullet Bills, he says that there won't be any more PewDiePie for the rest of the episode. 9 minutes and 49 seconds into the video, a picture of him briefly pops up in the top right corner.
  • After promising he would do it, MatPat took 2 years to release the dating sim episode.
  • It took Mat over 2 years to publish Doctor Who Part 3.

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