After doing my interview with CorruptionSound last May, I decided to get further in the know-it-all of the YouTube Poop community. After a little searching, I found a fairly underground editor known as MattVariety.
MattVariety is a pooper––also known as Mashu on the YouChew forums––who is best known for being associates with TheRazorEdge and for his avant-garde style of pooping. In this interview, he states that TheRazorEdge helped him transition his style from generic SpongeBob poops into the unique experimental works he makes now.
His videos are slow-paced and have a distinct creepy atmosphere to them. Some examples of how he does so is using effects and even hidden messages that give the videos an illusory environment consisting of lovingly made throwbacks to internet originals such as the MarbleHornets series. Find out more about him in this article and get affiliated with this guy.
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I've noticed that you have had a theme of slow-paced and sort of atmospheric mood in your videos. What influenced you to do that?
Well, a lot of the influence that derives from my videos are from psychological horror-related sources. One of my favorite horror games of all time would have to be Silent Hill 2, primarily because it just fits that niche of uneasy mystery very well. I do my best to recreate that sort of eeriness in my own videos.
Oh, I thought it came from the MarbleHornets/Totheark series.
Well, that too; actually, if I had to say, that would be my original go-to influence. Over time, though, my style evolved more into what you see now.
What are your hobbies outside of pooping?
Mostly just screwing around with gaming and programming. I also spend a decent amount of time listening to music, which is another source of ideas for my videos.
What word would you use to describe your poops?
Probably "subtle". Subtlety is something that I've grown to implement more into my videos, and, as you'd expect, while it doesn't make an immediate impact, personally I believe it's just the little nuances that creep out at the viewer that really adds up, like a hidden message here, or hints of foreshadowing there.
One of Mashu's videos from 2012.
At/from where do you get the ideas for your poops?
Usually I'll just pull out some atmospheric music like Aphex Twin or some of Radiohead's later stuff and just think of shit that would freak out my viewers. It's not really much of a grounded external idea sort of thing. I also actually have a plot going in my head that all of my videos run on and hint at (again, that's where that subtlety factor comes in; I never try to outright show it off). I also have a complementary blog form of it, so if you like my videos and want to learn more about what they're "all about", you can check it out here. Shameless plug, I know.
Have any of your videos pleased you/met your expectations?
A lot of my earlier videos I feel were awkwardly placed between that creepy style I was explaining earlier and general absurdist humor standard of that of a 12 year-old. As of lately, they're gone much more towards horror, though I'll occasionally break out the good ol' CDI poop now n' then. One issue that I tend to have when making my videos, however, is finding decent sources. Often times I'll just pull out videos of someone walking into a forest or traveling in a car. It's at that point it makes it hard to break from YouTube Poop and into the genre of videos that I make now, because with your everyday YTP, you can just download a video of, say, Hotel Mario or the Cory In The House intro and fuck around with it. With this, it's like you have to be more creative of what exactly to edit. Plus that atmospheric sort of creepiness isn't as exciting as an average YTP, which tends to be the medium I compare my videos with, so I'm usually biased against my own works.
I was rather intrigued by your tennis match with Therazoredge, where you used each other's videos as your sources. Where did that idea originate?
It was sort of a spontaneous idea, most likely related with the previous endeavor with trying to find decent sources to edit, hah. At the time, I was examining the process of "re-pooping", or taking someone's YTP and making a YTP out of it. I thought, hey, why don't we integrate this with Tennis?
Since you have a broad interest in music, do you ever make any?
You know, I've tried, but it's always turned out to be quite shitty. I unfortunately don't have a very keen knowledge on musical theory, so while I have some good ideas, I can never really put them out in a way that doesn't sound like an 8 year-old child jamming on a keyboard.
Are there any poopers that have inspired you and have helped to augment your style?
One that's probably rather obvious would be Therazoredge, as he was pretty much the person who motivated me to translate my videos from generic Spingebill videos to more of what I make now starting around, I dunno, I think it was 09? '10? Other than him, I can't really think of many YTPers specifically that inspired me, I guess it's been more of an original sort of thing, as arrogant as that sounds.
An older video of Mashu's.
What are your favorite effects/filters to use in your poops?
I'm a personal fan of Black Restore (really gets that creepy, dark look going on), Bump Map (nice for adding an artificial spotlight to make a more cinematic feel to the video), Color Curve (great overall color restoration effect), Film Effects and Film Grain (also creates a lovely cinematic feel), Gaussian Blur (good general blurring tool), Median (creates some really cool shit), Sepia (cinematic tool), Starburst (same as Median), Threshold (ditto), and Unsharp Mask (ditto). I've also recently used NewBlue, and honestly, I think there's too many to count of them that come in handy for me.
Are there any people outside of YTP that influence you?
I can't think of any people in particular, though the above mentioned Marble Hornets team does come to mind.
Is there anything you want to say before we are done?
Well, I'd just like to say thank you for interviewing me, makes me feel a little special really, hah.
---
You can check out Mashu's YouTube channel here, and his complementary Gray Snow tumblr account here.
MattVariety is a pooper––also known as Mashu on the YouChew forums––who is best known for being associates with TheRazorEdge and for his avant-garde style of pooping. In this interview, he states that TheRazorEdge helped him transition his style from generic SpongeBob poops into the unique experimental works he makes now.
His videos are slow-paced and have a distinct creepy atmosphere to them. Some examples of how he does so is using effects and even hidden messages that give the videos an illusory environment consisting of lovingly made throwbacks to internet originals such as the MarbleHornets series. Find out more about him in this article and get affiliated with this guy.
---
I've noticed that you have had a theme of slow-paced and sort of atmospheric mood in your videos. What influenced you to do that?
Well, a lot of the influence that derives from my videos are from psychological horror-related sources. One of my favorite horror games of all time would have to be Silent Hill 2, primarily because it just fits that niche of uneasy mystery very well. I do my best to recreate that sort of eeriness in my own videos.
Oh, I thought it came from the MarbleHornets/Totheark series.
Well, that too; actually, if I had to say, that would be my original go-to influence. Over time, though, my style evolved more into what you see now.
What are your hobbies outside of pooping?
Mostly just screwing around with gaming and programming. I also spend a decent amount of time listening to music, which is another source of ideas for my videos.
What word would you use to describe your poops?
Probably "subtle". Subtlety is something that I've grown to implement more into my videos, and, as you'd expect, while it doesn't make an immediate impact, personally I believe it's just the little nuances that creep out at the viewer that really adds up, like a hidden message here, or hints of foreshadowing there.
One of Mashu's videos from 2012.
At/from where do you get the ideas for your poops?
Usually I'll just pull out some atmospheric music like Aphex Twin or some of Radiohead's later stuff and just think of shit that would freak out my viewers. It's not really much of a grounded external idea sort of thing. I also actually have a plot going in my head that all of my videos run on and hint at (again, that's where that subtlety factor comes in; I never try to outright show it off). I also have a complementary blog form of it, so if you like my videos and want to learn more about what they're "all about", you can check it out here. Shameless plug, I know.
Have any of your videos pleased you/met your expectations?
A lot of my earlier videos I feel were awkwardly placed between that creepy style I was explaining earlier and general absurdist humor standard of that of a 12 year-old. As of lately, they're gone much more towards horror, though I'll occasionally break out the good ol' CDI poop now n' then. One issue that I tend to have when making my videos, however, is finding decent sources. Often times I'll just pull out videos of someone walking into a forest or traveling in a car. It's at that point it makes it hard to break from YouTube Poop and into the genre of videos that I make now, because with your everyday YTP, you can just download a video of, say, Hotel Mario or the Cory In The House intro and fuck around with it. With this, it's like you have to be more creative of what exactly to edit. Plus that atmospheric sort of creepiness isn't as exciting as an average YTP, which tends to be the medium I compare my videos with, so I'm usually biased against my own works.
I was rather intrigued by your tennis match with Therazoredge, where you used each other's videos as your sources. Where did that idea originate?
It was sort of a spontaneous idea, most likely related with the previous endeavor with trying to find decent sources to edit, hah. At the time, I was examining the process of "re-pooping", or taking someone's YTP and making a YTP out of it. I thought, hey, why don't we integrate this with Tennis?
Since you have a broad interest in music, do you ever make any?
You know, I've tried, but it's always turned out to be quite shitty. I unfortunately don't have a very keen knowledge on musical theory, so while I have some good ideas, I can never really put them out in a way that doesn't sound like an 8 year-old child jamming on a keyboard.
Are there any poopers that have inspired you and have helped to augment your style?
One that's probably rather obvious would be Therazoredge, as he was pretty much the person who motivated me to translate my videos from generic Spingebill videos to more of what I make now starting around, I dunno, I think it was 09? '10? Other than him, I can't really think of many YTPers specifically that inspired me, I guess it's been more of an original sort of thing, as arrogant as that sounds.
An older video of Mashu's.
What are your favorite effects/filters to use in your poops?
I'm a personal fan of Black Restore (really gets that creepy, dark look going on), Bump Map (nice for adding an artificial spotlight to make a more cinematic feel to the video), Color Curve (great overall color restoration effect), Film Effects and Film Grain (also creates a lovely cinematic feel), Gaussian Blur (good general blurring tool), Median (creates some really cool shit), Sepia (cinematic tool), Starburst (same as Median), Threshold (ditto), and Unsharp Mask (ditto). I've also recently used NewBlue, and honestly, I think there's too many to count of them that come in handy for me.
Are there any people outside of YTP that influence you?
I can't think of any people in particular, though the above mentioned Marble Hornets team does come to mind.
Is there anything you want to say before we are done?
Well, I'd just like to say thank you for interviewing me, makes me feel a little special really, hah.
---
You can check out Mashu's YouTube channel here, and his complementary Gray Snow tumblr account here.