Hello Neighbor @ MatPat

Submission 24,679

Part of a series on Hello, Neighbor. [View Related Entries]

About

Hello Neighbor @ MatPat refers to three tweets in which tinyBuild, the developer of the video game franchise Hello Neighbor, tagged YouTuber MatPat so that he would pay attention to their YouTube series. The tweets were screenshotted by several users and have since been used as a reaction when someone comes off as begging to be noticed, also inspiring memes and references. The catchphrase "I think MatPat will enjoy dissecting this frame by frame" gained particular virality.

Origin

Between 2016 and 2018, YouTuber^[1]^[2] MatPat uploaded a series of Game Theory videos about the indie survival horror video game Hello Neighbor, developed by tinyBuild. Two of the videos received over 13 million and 7 million views, respectively, contributing significantly to the popularity of the game, which received negative criticism and user reviews upon release^[3] (shown below, left and right).

On April 12th, 2020, TinyBuild announced^[4] the upcoming release of the Hello Neighbor animated series. In the Twitter thread, TinyBuild tagged MatPat in three separate tweets, asking the YouTuber to pay attention to the series (tweets have since been deleted). On April 13th, 2020, Redditor^[5] NerdyNutcase posted a screenshot of the tweets to the /r/sadcringe subreddit, writing, "The Hello Neighbor development team BEGGING matpat to notice their show." The post received over 21,000 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). Later on the same day, Twitter^[6] user @Popgoes6 made a similar post, which received over 600 likes (shown below, right).

Spread

On August 25th, 2020, iFunny^[7] user fReE_MoViE posted a meme about the tweets, combining them with a clip of MatPat mocking the game (shown below). The post received over 360 smiles on the app in two years.

The tweets did not achieve viral status until May 21st, 2021, when Twitter^[8] user @Thafnine posted a cropped version of NerdyNutcase's screenshot, with the post gaining over 710 retweets and 7,500 likes in one year (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter^[9] user @SgtPinecone posted the first notable meme based on the tweets (shown below, right), with the post gaining over 190 retweets and 1,600 likes.

Through 2021, several more viral posts about tinyBuild's tweets were made on Twitter,^[10] with users starting to utilize the screenshot as a reaction to instances when someone came off as begging to be noticed. For example, on September 1st, 2021, Twitter^[11] user @jordizzle used the screenshot to make fun of MatPat tweeting at Jeopardy! to make him the host of the show. The tweet (shown below, left) received over 760 retweets and 6,800 likes in seven months. On October 5th, 2021, Twitter^[12] user @datbx_ used the screenshot to make fun of Blizzard and Overwatch (shown below, right). The post garnered over 4,300 retweets and 30,800 likes.

Through late 2021 and early 2022, tinyBuild tweets have been used as a reaction in multiple viral tweets, also inspiring memes and references. The phrase "I think MatPat will enjoy dissecting this frame by frame" from the second tweet gained particular virality during this time.