[electronic music playing]
[Vik] When we all started at school,
they would laugh at us.
They would say, "Why do you sit at home
and talk while you play games?
That's so weird."
And to now where you say,
"I'm a YouTuber. I'm making videos."
people go, "Ah! That's so cool."
[JJ] If you told me ten years ago,
we're gonna be here,
I would've laughed.
Ten years ago, I was just this kid
in my bedroom with a dream thinking,
"Oh, it'd be cool
to just make a few videos online
and see where it gets me."
Hey, guys. Ah, and...
[all] ... welcome to The Sidemen Channel.
[cheering]
The Sidemen are a group of YouTubers
that are just smashing it right now.
[laughter]
The Sidemen pioneered the idea
of a YouTube group.
I don't think there's anyone
doing it bigger or better than them.
[man] They get 300 million plus views
every single month.
They get over a billion impressions
every month.
244 million followers, and that is huge.
It goes to show
how powerful a group can be.
[crowd cheering]
The feds are gonna lock us up.
- They're gonna lock us up.
- We're totally getting arrested. [laughs]
[Tobi] You can't plan relatability.
It's a group of friends
organically having fun on camera.
Here we go!
[Tobi] Something that you can't fake.
You have this group of seven young men.
They all have such distinct personalities.
When they all come together,
it's just this amazing magic.
[gasps]
Say it again!
[cheering]
[man] We had experts come along
and the one resounding thing
that they always say is,
"Everything we do shouldn't work."
It shouldn't work, but it does.
The highest earning video is $587,000.
It makes sense. It is on 92 million views.
- Shout for KSI.
- Making way for the Sidemen.
[man] The fact that KSI has blown up
is really helpful for the Sidemen.
Thank you for having me.
- Ultimately, it's a great marketing tool.
- KSI!
[MrBeast] A lot of people
want mainstream acceptance,
and they want acceptance by Hollywood.
But who the hell cares?
If you're a YouTuber getting
20-30 million views a video,
you're getting more views than, you know,
the last ten movies to come out to buy.
Who cares what Hollywood thinks?
Yo.
For f*ck's sake.
Everyone recognises that people
are watching channels on YouTube.
They're not watching
the TV screens any more.
[man] Behaviour changed
because technology changed
and kids are the first ones who adapt.
Do you think that the Sidemen Sundays
would be as popular if they were on TV?
- No.
- No.
TV's dead.
[laughs]
An online creator is able to give you
as much or as little of themselves
as they want, and it's not filtered.
And that is a level of engagement
that hasn't ever existed before.
I've been running myself into the ground
till like 4:00 or 5:00,
and like I do not feel okay.
What the Sidemen have is so much lore.
We've got ten years' worth of experiences,
emotional ups and downs,
where they're falling out
or not getting on as well.
...but I'm going home.
I'd rather get in the cab and f*ck off.
Or the dynamics in the group are shifting.
I am no longer with the Sidemen.
But again, it's still content.
[cheering]
[Tobi] Bro, what is this?
It's a bit mad with fans,
like there's places we can't go.
[cheering]
We've kind of been swarmed
and locked in a little bit.
They're gonna hate me for saying this,
but it's like the One Direction
of YouTube.
Yes. You might watch my videos,
but no, you're not invited to my house.
We had some kids run in
and kind of interrupt us mid-filming.
[shouting indistinctly]
[Josh] I don't know
how much more mental it can get
and I don't wanna find out,
to be honest.
[engine whirring]
We're dancing, bro. Jeez.
- [interviewer] How you doing, man?
- I'm good man. Good to be back.
- What you been up to since the...
- What have I been up to?
Bro, I've been, erm, well,
I went Seychelles for a little bit.
Er, about nine days. That was quite nice.
And now, I'm out here at Sidemen,
and, er, we've got a crazy sh**t
Takeshi's Castle style sh**t.
- [interviewer] Mmm-hmm.
- And, er,
I've seen a few of the sets.
It looks mental.
All right. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, bro.
Look at this set.
It looks so much better in person.
[laughs] Bro, our production.
We keep going up, bro.
Come on.
- Brother, how you doing?
- Welcome on set.
You have lost a little bit of weight.
- Yeah. Can I play in the charity match?
- No.
No, no, but...
- Like...
- Being strong.
- I've been trying.
- Fair play.
- Thanks, man.
- Jeez. This looks incredible.
Yeah, I know.
It looks sick. This looks very sick.
Lovely stuff, mate.
This isn't green.
This is a bit bougie, innit. [laughs]
Yeah.
We levelled up a little bit. [laughs]
Me, Vik, and Tobe are together on
this one. They're collaborative efforts.
It's our most expensive
and largest video ever.
Not too bad. Looks pretty good.
I disagree with what he's saying.
Oh. Nice to meet you. [laughs]
Nice to meet you, too.
What are we filming for?
- Er, this is our doc, right?
- Oh, really?
[Vik] We've always had our eye
on Takeshi's Castle for the longest time.
We grew up watching it as a game show,
and this was the most fun thing
that we could land on
that would kind of mesh
what MrBeast does and what Sidemen is.
So hopefully, it all works out, erm...
Well, thanks for the life story, Vik.
I appreciate that.
We're making...
We're making a long-form video, Harry.
- [Simon] My honest opinion.
- [Vik] Go on.
I wouldn't have chosen this one.
- Fair.
- [laughs]
Well, it was a balance between
what can we build without it
costing another hundred grand,
and what will be entertaining to watch.
To be fair, this actually cost a lot.
This floor cost like 50 grand.
What? What? This?
- It's all printed, like...
- It's a mat.
No, hang on a minute.
I could've print this for half the price.
[Simon] Twenty grand.
He would've hand-drawn it.
[Vik] You can do that next time.
[Harry] Oh, I bloody well will.
- Okay. Something like that.
- For 50 grand?
- Forgive me if I'm wrong.
- Fifty grand?
- I can see the seams.
- TP.
It's not even lined up.
Okay, guys, all cameras rolling, please.
[indistinct chattering]
Three, two, one, go.
[all screaming]
Awesome. Yes, now.
- [interviewer] Is this, er...
- Round two.
We're doing... We're doing... Sorry.
No. It's all right. It's all right.
- I just wanted to cut him off.
- What was your question?
I was gonna ask is this how it goes
or is the flow better for you guys?
Oh, no. No, this is... This is always...
- It's always f*cking...
- Okay, good.
It's always a sh*t-show.
No. No, mate.
[cheering]
[man] Go Sidemen.
[Josh] When we started Sidemen Sundays,
they were pretty much always in our house,
and there may have not even been
a cameraman.
Now we have productions
with tons of staff on,
have whole sets being built.
- [yelps]
- [laughing]
[Josh] There's green rooms.
There's catering.
There's all sorts going on.
- [man 1] Ooh!
- [man 2] Oh!
[man 3] There's a big hole.
So now it feels like
it's a fully-fledged production
where before it was kids with cameras.
[woman] Tobi, eight. Take two.
See that's so surreal.
I used to fake that as a kid, like,
emulate what I see on TV
and now it's happening. f*ck.
[laughs] Mum, I made it. [laughs]
[Josh] The core Sidemen members
is me and Tobi who went to school together
and then you have JJ and Simon
who went to school together.
Me and JJ were friends through YouTube.
Funnily enough,
I was b*ating KSI at one point. [laughs]
I've got something different.
We're doing a set-up video
for the first time ever.
[JJ] Josh was one of the first
OG YouTubers.
He was getting crazy views,
and, yeah, he was seen as that guy.
He was the person I looked up to.
I was like, "Whoa,
it's Josh, like Zerkaa HD."
Hey, what?
Why's he taking that down? No.
- Help.
- No. No.
[Tobi] Me and Josh
used to play FIFA together.
He was, like, top 200 in the world.
The numbers were astronomical
for that time.
100,000 people watching your stuff.
It was mind-blowing.
[Simon] I heard of YouTube so late,
and it was because of JJ.
Word kind of got around
that he was posting videos,
but no one could really believe it,
'cause at school he was, you know,
this very quiet, shy, reserved guy.
Then you'd go on YouTube...
[screams]
He's there going [speaks indistinctly]
It was just surreal to see.
- Grade Five, m*therf*cker.
- [laughs]
[JJ] I met Simon through school.
In Year 7, we hated each other.
We would always be fighting.
Then for some reason, in Year 8 onwards
we just were cool. [laughs]
We forgot about everything,
and we were bless.
[Josh] Ethan comes into that story,
this was, like, 2012
and on my birthday
I was watching Twitch streams,
and he was streaming FIFA and enjoying it.
You could tell like,
"Oh, he's, like, a London lad."
[cheering]
It was good vibes, good fun. He's fun.
I got on with well very quickly.
There's a lot of, like,
common interests we had.
People didn't care about
how many goals we scored in FIFA,
they cared about the commentary
and the fun and the jokes.
[laughs]
I'm playing FIFA
[laughs]
[Josh] One night,
something's wrong with YouTube,
and when things go wrong,
me and Vik would talk.
But at the time, I was
in another Skype call with the other boys.
And we were chatting about it,
and Vik was chatting to me, personally.
So I was like,
"Oh, Vik, just come in the call."
It's bizarre when you think
you can pinpoint individual sentences
that changed the course
of the next ten years of all of our lives.
[Vik] Harry joined the Sidemen
because he was blowing up crazily.
[laughing and cheering]
Ah.
He was a superstar before the Sidemen.
[Vik] He was the young FIFA guy
that made his own comment.
Oh, my f*cking... What the f*ck! I am done!
Oh, sh*t! Oh, that's properly f*cked.
My unique selling point
was that I was really bad at the game,
but I enjoyed
the whole video-making process.
He came and he stuck and, erm,
he's like, sort of,
forever been under the wing.
At the end of the day,
we were just friends.
People ended up connecting with us
'cause of our connection on screens.
It's quite cute, really. [laughs]
[Bradley] The first Sidemen house
is a fun one.
It's just of me, Simon, Vik and JJ.
And from the get-go the attitude was,
"We're here. We're working.
We're going for it."
- Kitchen! Fridge!
- [clattering]
- Zebra in a box.
- Hello.
The first Sidemen house was known by many
as the factory.
And believe me, that was...
that was an assembly line of content
all hours of the day.
We'd eat dinner, film, finish filming,
go downstairs,
film something else in the kitchen,
wake up, edit, edit, edit.
And then go back into that same routine
every day.
These guys are sitting in every day
playing video games.
I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Like these guys continuously working.
And, yeah, I... Look, I don't think
it is healthy to work as much as they did.
These guys are confined in their rooms,
sitting, playing video games non-stop.
But you could argue
like that was the difference maker
between them being where they are now
and... and maybe a different outcome.
[Harry] You boys have no life!
You don't do anything!
You sit in your bedrooms
all day, getting old!
Your... your lives withering away!
What are you doing with your...
go do something!
Why? Why? You can't just stare at a screen
till you're 60?
Live! Experience the life!
Visit a country. Do something.
[Josh] I can't.
[Harry] Do anything, bro. Go on a hike.
[all laughing]
[Simon] At the start,
I didn't see it as a job.
I was, literally, posting every day
because I wanted to.
I'm literally living with my best mates,
and everything I'm doing is fun.
So why not just do that all the time?
Best episode is definitely the one with,
er, the-- [yelps]
What the f*ck? For f*ck's sake. [laughs]
Do what? [laughs]
[screams] Oh, sh*t. Oh. Ah. Ah.
It was relentless. It didn't stop.
But everything was paying off so well
and the space was, compared to now,
it was so unsaturated,
that the more content we could make,
the more views we were gonna get.
There was no level of quality
that had hit the platform
in the same way that it has now.
So, for us, it was a win-win-win.
[Rechtman] It was fascinating
to be part of YouTube early on
and seeing those talented young people
creating the future back then.
And many people didn't understand,
including myself.
It was unique.
It's seldom you have that feeling.
When something is created
that is beyond those people creating it,
they didn't even understand
what they were creating.
[Whittock] The main difference
between YouTube
and the traditional media companies,
it's an issue of control and gatekeeping.
So the broadcasters would always,
in the past,
have been the people who would decide
who's on TV,
what they're doing on TV.
YouTube completely turned that
on its head.
It effectively said, there's no barriers
for you to get your content out there.
You can do what you like.
There's not gonna be a producer
or a commissioner
telling you exactly how to do that.
That's where things have been interesting
over the last 15 years.
[Josh] It was like a perfect storm really
because every success you was having
was new.
It was exciting,
and you was on the treadmill.
But when you're on it, it's so natural.
You could be on the fastest setting,
and you're going,
and nothing can stop you.
You're just going, going, going.
[Harry] The Zerkaa name
holds a lot of weight.
If we're taking about Sidemen stuff,
I wanna hear what Josh thinks about it
'cause I just feel like he's a very
tuned-in guy about that kind of stuff.
He's also just a nice guy.
He's a friendly guy.
[Tobi] Josh has been the same
for as long as I've known him.
Very fun, but at the same time
very calculated and smart
and he thinks about everything
that he does.
One thing that nobody knows about you.
- Oh. One thing.
- Nobody though?
Nobody. You're revealing a secret
to the world
- for the first time, exclusive...
- We know.
Premiere.
Things you don't know about me.
Erm, ah. I suffer from crippling anxiety.
I... sometimes have panic att*cks
in the shower 'cause of fear of death.
[Josh] My anxiety,
it's a mixture of things.
It makes me very hyper-aware
of everything.
I'm very calculated in what I do.
But that doesn't come because I want to.
It comes 'cause of how I think.
It works for me,
but, obviously, it's not an ideal thing
to be doing I guess.
It's weird though, right?
Like, it's a weird discussion
'cause obviously like,
"Should I feel bad about that?
Is it a good thing?"
I... I'm very anxious,
so it made me very good at work.
The way that I've always dealt with things
is... was through gaming.
It's like a whole world
you can go and escape in.
And the greatest example that I use
is the reason why I'm here today
is because, when I was younger,
my parents got divorced
and when there was arguments going on
or stuff going on,
sat in my room,
played Call of Duty all night
which led me to go down the path
of playing Call of Duty competitively,
which then led me to be a YouTuber
which is where I am today.
So, in the weirdest way possible,
those arguments and my parents
breaking up,
was one of the best things that happened.
- [Josh] It's mental.
- [man] It is insane, innit. [laughs]
- Actually insane.
- Got a little inside theatre.
Bro's got a cinema in his house.
- This the master bedroom?
- [man] Yes.
[woman] So if you want tonight, er,
press the button, put the shades down.
[Josh] It's actually scary.
I know everywhere here way too well.
[interviewer] You've picked the locations
'cause of GTA?
Yeah.
Do you know how sad it is
that I know GTA road names off by heart?
- [interviewer] That's pretty--
- Like the whole city. It's f*cked up.
I tried to catch the spares,
so I don't catch nothing.
- Harry, anything?
- I'm ready to have a great day.
All right, guys, gather up.
Maybe, just saying,
we just get the sh*t and then
we'll just cheat it in the edit,
so it looks like at the same time.
- Ready?
- All right. Let's get it.
[laughs]
- Welcome to LA, boys.
- [cheering]
[JJ] This time, we're in America.
Basically, we're trying to get
that MrBeast American audience.
I feel like we've had everything but that.
We've definitely conquered the UK.
We've smashed it in Europe.
We, kind of, just need
that American audience
and this is a great way to do it,
us being out here,
showing, you know,
the love that we have for America
and also making good videos out here.
I'm excited, man. I feel like
this is gonna take us to the next level.
It's finally here.
- [laughing]
- [indistinct chattering]
- Okay can you... bro.
- [laughs]
- You don't know what we're doing.
- What do you mean?
Like we don't know what we're...
what this is?
Oh, what you do?
Walk up, say your name, your age.
Ten shakes, ten guys.
- Do we have to make up the lines?
- Yeah.
- I've gotta get to work, bro.
- Why'd you have to work?
- I...
- What do you mean?
I don't have any lines, dude.
[Tobi] The US trip was something.
We filmed like three videos out there.
Er, I'm KSI, 29 and, er...
- Okay.
- [whooping]
Spent something around
half a million dollars on that trip.
So there's a lot of money
going into these projects
which is, in return,
a lot of pressure to deliver.
It'd be in Hollywood.
It'd be near our hotel.
Mate, and also,
the quicker you get stuff done,
the less traffic there'll be coming back
from Venice Beach to Hollywood.
All right.
So just make sure
they just don't go mope about...
Yeah, that's good.
That's good content, anyway. All right.
Er, I'm just tired. [laughs]
- [Josh] No one's had any sleep.
- No one's had sleep.
It was all a bit like chaotic and...
and crazy.
It's a ropey one. It's, er,
a lot of pressure on this video.
And you think, "Oh, yeah.
LA's a great place to film."
Erm, turns out it's not.
America is a, sort of, awkward place
to film 'cause they all know.
They get it. They understand filming,
so like, "Right. You guys earn money.
We will charge you this much, use this."
And it's just ridiculous rates
all the time.
Whatever happens, you roll
with the punches and make it work.
That's what we do.
We make stuff work
regardless of the circumstances.
[Zeitoune] A lot of people underestimate
how hard it is to be successful
as a creator.
And I get really frustrated with
how dismissive people are of creators
thinking, "Oh, it's easy."
They're in their bedroom,
and they just talk nonsense.
That is rubbish.
It is so hard to get cut-through,
particularly on a platform like YouTube
where there are 600 hours uploaded
every minute.
I do think it's good. How are you?
Jump in the middle.
Okay.
- Thank you, man.
- Thank you, guys. Thank you.
[indistinct chattering]
Nice to meet you guys.
Oh, my God.
I don't wanna make you feel old,
but back when I was younger, dude,
I still watch y'all today.
- I'm kind of shaky, so...
- Thank you very much.
[laughs] You know, thank you. Thank you.
[Simon] Fans feel like they know us better
than traditional celebrities
'cause they are seeing us as us.
When you see a footballer,
you see them kick a ball.
You don't see any personality.
When you see an actor,
they're being someone else.
When it's us, you're literally seeing...
you know, you're seeing Tobi be Tobi.
That's it.
- How are you? Feeling good?
- Good.
Good man. Good chilling.
- Yeah. Can I get a picture?
- Of course you can, brother.
- Bet you didn't expect to see me.
- Yeah. Nope!
- [laughs]
- Honest... Honestly no.
- You filming YouTube?
- Yeah, bro. We're doing a road trip.
- I'm in the middle of the desert, bro...
- And someone's clicked you.
That's so crazy, man.
You lot are crazy.
I f*cking love you lot so much, man.
[screaming]
[Tobi] They're running to me.
This is not safe.
Ah.
Hello, everyone.
Our first event as the Sidemen Insomnia
was a real eye-opener.
It legitimised what we did.
It turned those numbers and those comments
into real faces, real people.
It really started to make us understand
the power of the Sidemen brand,
more so than we did up until that point.
[announcer] The one, the only the Sidemen.
Sidemen, everyone. Whoo!
[upbeat music playing]
[cheering and shouting]
That was the first time, I think,
we realised that it was like a big deal.
Felt really weird
'cause we do everything online
and then you go to this place
and you're meeting these people.
It was really weird.
And back then, that was mental.
[cheering]
[Sam Uwins] They ran a merch stall
at Insomnia, and they ran it as cash only.
This is... this is how humble
their background was, right?
They literally had printed some t-shirts
and hoodies, took them to this event
and Josh said he had a rucksack
with 100,000 in cash.
It was at that moment, for me,
I was... you know, brought to my attention
how powerful these guys are
in that community.
All right. That's the end of Insomnia!
[cheering]
- Yeah. Thank you, guys.
- [cheering]
That's a wrap.
[Rechtman] In the early days,
monetisation made it possible
to create this industry.
I was a broke-ass uni student, right?
I was living off of Subway points.
I promise you, like my Subway card
was the most valuable thing in my wallet.
When I'm seeing that the stuff
that I'm doing on YouTube
has the potential to get me some money
that I can use to pay off these expenses
that I have while I'm studying,
I'm like, "Okay, cool.
That is a motivating factor."
It was like, "Hang on a second.
The more I can crank
this number of views up,
the more money I get in my bank
at the end of the month.
The more validation this has,
the more cool things
that I can buy and do."
You uploaded these videos
on a weekly basis,
and you got more and more audience,
and suddenly, the algorithm recognise you
and you start making money on advertising
that YouTube was selling.
And the big ones were making millions.
- [engine revving]
- [laughs]
[Harry] I got a bloody Lambo
when I was like 18
'cause I was making decent money
back then.
Obviously a horrendous
and fiscally irresponsible idea
because the insurance itself
cost more than the car.
Look what I've done already.
It was ridiculous.
I bought a pair of shoes that was $30,000.
- Ah!
- [man] Mate.
$35,000.
Ta-da.
Bought a gold PS5.
[woman] Looks like you're holding a baby.
- No. I'd take way more care with this.
- [laughs]
Baby ain't worth $8,000.
Oh. Whoa. [laughs]
[JJ] Buying a Lamborghini
and then colouring it purple Tron
even having, like,
Need For Speed LED lights underneath.
I mean it looked cool as f*ck
but the amount of attention that I got...
[laughs] was incredible.
[engine roaring]
When I was younger, I'd always be like,
"I need this amount of money."
And when I've got this amount of money,
I can just stop doing YouTube
and just live my life and travel and...
because that's really what I wanna do.
I wanna have fun and do stuff.
But then I realised,
I should really be saving
in case I've got like a family
in the future.
And I wanna like put my money
to a good cause
and like do like actual
good stuff with it.
[Tobi] Harry is unapologetically himself.
And he's just so weird.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- [bleep]
- He's so weird.
- [laughter]
But normal at the same time.
People know he's outrageous.
People know he says outrageous things.
He's free to be that.
Ah.
[exhales]
- [yelps]
- Ooh.
So what this intro was meant to be
was me hitting the bucket of drinks
all over my mum.
But instead...
[yelps]
[Harry] I was really lucky
to grow up in Guernsey
because it's just like the perfect little
adventure playground for a kid.
I used to build like treehouses and stuff.
I used to just, I don't know, muck about.
I was bit of a weird kid
so I didn't have a load of friends
when I was growing up there
but I think being the weird kid
pushed me into doing YouTube.
As soon as YouTube was like a half-thing
like people were posting, I was on there.
And I know a lot of the guys
are OGs on YouTube,
but I promise you I wasn't far behind
because I was posting, like...
not even like proper videos,
Just like me editing
like special effects of stuff.
Hey, guys.
This is gonna be a quick... [sputtering]
unedited vlog...
For Adam on your PC
for his Christmas collab video, erm,
pretty much all I have to say is
Merry Christmas.
I hope you get all the presents you want.
And if you don't, then sh**t Santa.
[Randolph] Harry Stevens
on camera really. He's very lovable.
Now we're talking.
Like a Golden retriever, like a Labrador.
Like that type of energy.
He's just cuddly, you know?
So he's a great guy.
Very hard worker as well.
People think maybe...
they would think that he's, like, lazy
'cause he doesn't post all the time
but he's not.
When he sets out to do something,
he does it to the best of his ability,
and he creates the best content.
A hard work ethic is really the glue
that binds the seven of them together.
The fact that they keep doing it
with such a smile on their face,
loving what they do,
is a testament to their friendship
but also that work ethic
which really has enabled them
to get to this position.
'cause not many people are here
after ten years,
more relevant than ever
and growing at a pace
that you would assume this was
their first year, not their tenth.
[Simon] What do you think motivates us
to keep going?
Legacy.
- I mean for me it's always legacy, but--
- [Vik] Ego.
I think deep down we've worked so hard
to get to the top that...
- We don't wanna let it go.
- We can't let go now.
[Vik] Don't wanna be washed.
That's the same reason
why I assume you still post videos
'cause you could stop tomorrow,
- and you would slowly like--
- He has.
- [laughter]
- [Vik] He stopped two years ago.
- Sidemen.
- No. But you could stop Sidemen.
- You could stop Sidemen. You could chill.
- I'm down for that. That's a great plan.
So why don't you leave?
He's like, "Can't wait
for this thing to end."
Yeah. I think... I think I'm close.
- [laughs]
- I think I'm... I think I'm close.
We all laugh when he says it. Yeah...
No. I always hear the...
you can hear the truth in his voice.
The truth in it every time.
- But like what is...
- It gets stronger every time as well.
What keeps you going
from stopping tomorrow?
Because I enjoy it still.
I enjoy, er, I enjoy it.
But also I enjoy the... It's... this stuff.
[laughter]
This is like... and like the sh**t...
the sh**t I enjoy, it's just...
It's everything
where you are technically in charge.
I guess so. Yeah.
If this was to come to a vote,
you would've said no.
- What do you mean?
- Like this.
- To do this whole piece.
- You'd give a no, innit?
You're all lovely people, but yeah.
[laughter]
- It's not... yeah. I don't know.
- It's fair.
What? So what are you guys gonna...
What's your plan?
- So I see YouTube as the core, the heart.
- [Simon] The foundation.
- Without YouTube... everything dies.
- [Tobi] That's so smart, man.
So I wouldn't be able to box,
I wouldn't be able to do music
without YouTube.
So I always feel like
I have to post content there
to make sure everything else thrives.
[bell dinging]
[cheering and shouting]
[chanting] KSI. KSI.
[ring announcer] From London, England,
the social media legend, recording artist,
actor, songwriter, rapper,
the undefeated
Misfits cruiserweight champion,
the nightmare,
KSI!
[commentator 1] Gonna go for six rounds.
KSI and Temperrr.
[commentator 2] This right here
is where the fight's gonna be decided.
KSI said this week,
"I'm willing to eat those
to get to where I wanna get to."
Tommy's gotta stay on his bike.
Don't get lulled
into playing a trade game.
[crowd gasps]
Ooh.
[commentator 1 speaks indistinctly]
[commentator 2]
Yeah. Those sh*ts land and they hurt.
Gotta work angles if you're Tommy.
He can't att*ck in straight lines.
KSI could step back and land a b*mb.
[cheering]
[commentator 1] Can he get up?
[commentator 2] Oh, can he get up?
It's done!
- It's done!
- [commentator 1] That's it!
[commentator 2] KSI! What a knockout!
- What a knockout.
- [commentator 1] Oh, my God.
[ring announcer] The winner
by a knockout victory,
still undefeated
and still
the Misfits cruiserweight champion,
KSI!
[indistinct chattering]
[cheering]
[Simon] As soon as he walks out,
I get incredibly nervous.
When he gets punched a little bit,
everyone in the Sidemen and troops
and everyone like that just goes, "No."
And we fear. But in my heart,
I'm just like I know he wins.
Stop boxing. We have videos to make, JJ.
f*ck.
We've got videos to make,
and you're doing camp for six weeks
at a time. f*ck.
[JJ] Life was interesting
with me and my family.
You know we weren't super rich.
Both my parents were, I guess, immigrants.
They came over from Nigeria
and just put a lot of work
into me and my bro.
- [air horn honking]
- Get out.
Hey, guys. Olajide BT,
and today I'm doing a Q&A Sunday
with my bro. Say "hi."
You're such an idiot.
My earliest memory of Deji
was when he... [laughs]
he couldn't... [laughs]
couldn't hold his piss
and my mum gave him a bottle.
So he tried peeing in a bottle
and his d*ck fell out,
and he just starting pissing all over me.
Yeah, I was, that was an experience.
[laughs]
[Randolph] JJ went from this super nerdy,
like, super shy guy
to one of the most famous people
in the country maybe in the world.
You know boxer, rapper,
and also he carried the entire UK scene.
The UK would not be like this
without JJ on YouTube for sure.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
JJ is... he's a funny character.
[shouting]
[Tobi] He's the most egotistical person
and the most humble person simultaneously.
What's up, bro? [laughs]
And when that camera is on,
his character is in full flow.
So, everything that you know about JJ
is elevated probably
like five times minimum.
- Oh, my God! [screams]
- Open the window.
No! There's a bug, bro!
Ah! Get it... get it out, bro.
I'm-a die. I'm-a die. I'm-a die, bro.
Oh, no. Get out! Ah, sh*t! sh*t!
I think my parents' work ethic
is definitely a huge reason
why I'm so successful.
I'm just always grinding.
Like I always have said
that I'm not talented.
I'm just a person
that just works extremely hard.
There's a saying where
if you put 10,000 hours into something
you become a master at it.
And you know I've definitely
had 10,000 hours on YouTube
and that's why I'm in the position I'm in.
The rocks on my wrist
That sh*t you can't resist
Cash flow, greater than the haters
Hating on my gist
Riding in your face, looking like
I found a damn genie
While I'm in my Lamborghini
La-Lamborghini, La-Lamborghini
Bitch, I know you see me
In my Lamborghini
In 2017, I definitely felt like,
as a YouTuber
there was just no way
you could do music properly.
People struggled to differentiate
between a musician putting out,
you know, heartfelt music
and music that was important to you,
and then also a YouTuber
who's able to make funny random videos.
La-Lamborghini, La-Lamborghini
Ride so quick
You would think I'm Houdini
So I was kind of battling with that aspect
and decided I wanted to become a musician
and really focus on music.
[exhales] Er... [clears throat]
Obviously this is, er...
this is not an easy, er...
this is not an easy video to make.
I am no longer with the Sidemen.
I think I was just on my computer,
and it came up.
And then the group chat
started popping off like,
"What's going on, JJ?
Why, er, what is this video?
"Like are you serious? Are you not?"
[JJ] Obviously, I love the guys.
Guys will always be in my heart.
But, er, you know,
all good things come to an end I guess.
JJ is a very trusting guy.
And I know that he had countless people
telling him to leave Sidemen,
"Come to LA. You can be way bigger."
Blah, blah, blah.
Selling him like a proper dream.
So it was a nervous time for all of us
in terms of would he... would he leave?
Why I'm leaving Sidemen? Er...
mainly because of Ethan.
I'd say he was the main reason
I'm leaving.
Can't stand him.
I could see it coming
because it makes sense
why he singled me out
because I'm an easy target
in the sense of like,
I dish it out to everyone, anyway.
At that point that was the, the low point
in the Sidemen arc, I would say.
We were starting to make videos
less together.
JJ was taking his music more seriously.
And it could've been the point
everything fizzled out.
Yeah
f*ck the Sidemen
n*gga living better, I don't need them
Ethan looking bigger
I can see them
Talking about them tits
Go and feed them
Babies with your titty milk
Bitch, don't f*ck with me
[laughs]
I woke up in bed
with my girlfriend at the time, who said,
"Hey, have you seen
what JJ's just uploaded?"
So I wake up like this.
I'm watching it on my phone thinking,
"What on earth's happening?"
I do have some sort of like pride
in myself a little bit like,
"I will do something." [laughs]
I will perform to what you want me to
if you think I'm not going to
'cause I bet he didn't expect me to have
a whole thing out 24 hours later.
And that's what I really liked about it,
him releasing that
because you can tell by the songs,
music's not my forte in the slightest,
right? [laughs]
But the fact that he might wake up
and go on his phone and go,
"Really? Like Ethan did that?"
That's the... that was the W for me.
[laughs]
What the f*ck is this sh*t?
Man, you know I've gotta react to this.
No, Ethan, stop that
Please stop that
I beg you stop that
Erm, no sorry
You asked for this, ready?
Erm, no, sorry. f*ck off.
Never made a diss?
What the f*ck is this then?
"Behzinga Drama,
KSI and Ricegum diss track."
It's like... [laughs]
The diss track thing. My eyes lit up,
like it was a perfect opportunity.
Like I'd always liked doing like...
we used to in these Skype calls
we used to have.
We used to just sit there
and do rap battles.
So we'd sync up a b*at.
We'd all be hearing,
and we'd just like rap at each other,
which I always really enjoyed.
As soon as I figured out
diss tracks were happening,
I was like,
"I could do a diss track here."
It's the best diss track I've ever heard.
The first time I heard of the Sidemen
was actually Harry's diss track against JJ
'cause we were beefing at the time,
and Harry made the diss track.
I thought it was awesome.
When I first heard Harry's diss track,
I was pissed because he went in,
and I was like,
"Bro, what the f*ck are you doing?"
I was in America at the time,
and I was like so angry.
So I was like, "All right. Calm, bless.
Like we're gonna go down this route."
And then that's when I decided
to make "Little Boy". [laughs]
You know what, that's probably...
that's one of the first times JJ
actually started to shine as like raw.
His words and his music,
is actually hitting, you know?
It's hitting like...
Even though it was comical, it was fun,
it was just in jest,
it actually started to let them
shine through
as like, "We're making music, you know?"
Like, "We're dissing, saying things,
hitting with music,
thinking about what we do,
thinking about the b*at,
the b*at switch, the cut-outs, the video."
[Jme] If there was no diss tracks,
JJ might not have taken his music
as seriously as he's taking it now.
That was a sick time. Can't be done again.
You know what? I was surprised
to hear Simon spit that quick.
He done a sick job.
And that video, we filmed it in, like,
an evening at some petrol station
and then I had the edit up
ready the next day.
And I remember the moment
of when he clicked the "upload" button.
And then as soon as you hit refresh to see
how many views you've got. It said 40,000.
I'm not kidding.
It was literally 30 seconds.
That's insane.
I think it was just a good way
that we could all have fun, get views,
and that's about it really, to be honest.
But then it ended up spiralling.
Okay. "You're a korma, I'm a vindaloo.
When you're a bad boy,
Yinka grabs the shoe." [laughs]
"While you're out trying to f*ck groupies,
I got your mum twerking
for my rupees." [laughs]
It's impossible to put a value
on how lucrative the diss tracks
ended up being
by the complete coincidence
that we fell into them.
But I would say
on the diss track videos alone,
it was probably
half-a-million pounds' worth of revenue.
And then if you talk about
how much viewership and attention
it drove towards us,
several times that in the long run.
It rallied all of these fans.
It created this huge content opportunity
that actually made the Sidemen bigger
than it had ever been.
[JJ] Ultimately, I'm still in the Sidemen
because they're my boys.
Yeah I know it's hard work making,
you know, my dreams come true
as well as doing stuff with the Sidemen
and making our dreams together come true
but it's what I'm willing to do
to make sure me and them are good.
Yeah. Just 'cause they're my boys, man.
[laughs]
[Josh] With the cheap
versus expensive videos,
it becomes very personal
'cause it's very hard to see past the fact
that one team are having a great time...
[cheering] Oh, this is my holiday.
They've got lots of cool experiences.
Oh, yes.
And you're stuck on the bad team.
Have we got some bug spray?
- That bag.
- I want it. Where is it?
Behind the scenes with the boys,
it turns into like, "What the hell?"
[Vik] So literally we've been given
a camping spot
that is just riddled with...
with literally stinging nettle.
[Josh] The audience don't wanna see
the bad team have a great time.
They wanna see the bad team suffer
'cause the suffering is the content.
[Ethan] I've more than accepted fate.
We are in a f*cking sh*thole.
We are camping on rock.
We have a rock formation
in our f*cking tent.
Can we do a hostile takeover
of the other campsite?
Are you eating already?
[Ethan] f*ck off. I'm in my happy space.
I'm eating a sausage in a forest.
[Josh] Okay. So we've returned to,
now, the bad team.
Now to get abused and att*cked
for making them be on the bad team.
Er, piss off.
[laughs]
- Is he here?
- Yeah, he is here.
Piss off, you f*cking big head.
God, what a spot.
Does he want us to reply to him?
Oh, no. You don't look very happy.
This is the worst one you've ever done.
- Why?
- It's awful.
Sit down.
- I got a present for you.
- No, no. Take a seat.
- Oh, it's like a council.
- Yeah. Take a seat.
- Welcome to, er--
- Hang on, two secs.
- Welcome to Team Tent.
- Team Tent? Nice.
Team Tent up in this bitch.
[Josh] I actually went and visited
the, er, bad team
and their moods were not... [laughs]
in the greatest of ways.
- Sack these ones off.
- What the f*ck is this game?
Ethan as well 'cause at that time,
Ethan hadn't really experienced
being on a good team
so I feel like it's, er,
bottled up frustration had occurred
from being on the bad team.
What does the new card say, er, this is...
"Congratulations you've come out on top
from bad to good. Get ready to swap."
Oh.
So you're happy now, yeah?
Go nuts, bro.
We've been eating dog food, bro.
We've been through the worst of it.
[Josh] Listen, I'm trying to work
with you.
- But I'll...
- [Josh] One of you come.
We've done the worst.
What's the point in swapping?
- [Josh] Tobi, go.
- Why are you...
How are you... how are you upset
about getting a good deal?
No, 'cause it's pointless.
They come here and do everything?
- One person.
- I don't care.
- Bro, just go. Ethan, just go.
- I ain't going.
No. Me and Behz aren't going.
- Vik... No.
- We're in this life. Tobi, go. Tobi, go.
No. This is good.
'Cause look, look, look, you, look get...
They ain't eating the dog food.
They gonna come... listen, I'll get vexed.
They're gonna come here.
They ain't been eating the dog food, bro.
- Just work with him.
- You, go.
- Me and Behz can't go.
- Why is this so hard?
We've done it already!
- What's the point in swapping?
- 'Cause you get... a great night.
We get a great night, but I'm going home!
I'd rather get in the cab and f*ck off!
[laughter]
I'm so glad I've seen this footage.
This is amazing.
Yeah, it's funny.
That was my hot-headedness.
- It's fine it got 30 million views.
- You've done well, mate.
Oh, damn.
That's the only one, I think,
I've ever had with you ever.
- What like argument that--
- Yeah, yeah. Like proper argument.
No, no. Let's be honest.
We've fallen out a few times.
- I feel like you're always involved.
- [JJ] Not always.
Even if he's not involved,
he gets involved. He loves it.
- We didn't even know.
- I did. I...
It would involve you, me, or you.
Yeah, yeah. [exclaims] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's us three. Little trifecta.
Harry, have you ever--
No. But I love
watching it from the outside.
- [laughter]
- I love a little bit of that.
He's... he's like a pot stirrer.
He's like a pot stirrer. I'm like...
I try and be like... I try and help guys.
Just like a counsellor.
I try and explain and it doesn't work.
Vik does the same. Tobi does the same.
- He just sits there and goes, "Ooh."
- [laughs]
We're seven very different personalities
but somehow it all just works naturally.
"Your nose looks like
it's on a snapchat filter 24/7." [laughs]
[laughter]
"Hey, Slender,
how comes you have cum in your hair?"
[laughter]
The interesting part
of being on social media
is that you have an ability to be able
to see and respond very quickly.
But with that, trolling and mental health
has become a real topic of conversation.
"What is the difference
between Vikkstar and a tree?
"Nothing. They're both hollow
on the inside and brown on the outside."
[laughter]
[Ravindran] Instant feedback
can be really toxic.
It can be very, very detrimental,
especially when you consider the age
of a lot of these creators.
Well, this one's just foul.
He's like the at and the...
the at might as well be a tweet itself.
- Behzinga, a fat c**t, says...
- [laughter]
See? I'm done already.
- [laughs]
- [JJ laughing]
[laughs] Oh... @behzinga.
"You are so fat it's embarr-is-ing.
I laughed so much when I heard
that you cried every day after school
because you were bullied,
just because you are so ugly and fat.
Ha, ha, ha." [laughs]
[laughter]
[Ethan] It's 4:50 in the morning.
So, yeah, it's been a long day.
From my lighting, I look okay,
but I don't know, now I look like sh*t.
I look like utter sh*t.
[Simon] Ethan got
a lot of negative comments.
People online find your weakness
and pounce on that.
So I imagine it would've been really hard.
You could get 368 comments, right?
Seven of those will be horrific,
hateful comments
but the other 300-odd are really nice,
but your brain completely blanks them
'cause you pay attention to the seven
that are ripping you down.
[Tobi] I wouldn't say I was aware
that Ethan was depressed about his weight
back in 2018.
But I feel like there was some more signs
that he wasn't the happiest.
Oh, no. Oh, no.
When you're happy with yourself,
making three videos a day is a breeze
because you're doing something you love
and think,
"Yeah, cool.
I can't wait to click upload."
When you're not happy within yourself,
it's almost like people expect
three videos a day.
I don't feel good enough
to post three videos a day,
and it's only so long
you can burn that end of it
before it bites you
and that's where I think I...
I got to a point where
I just wasn't happy at all.
[Simon] When Ethan was at his lowest,
he kept everything to himself a lot.
So I wish he'd spoken to us
'cause we could've helped
in any way we could.
In my head, like I feel like
I should've picked up
on things a little bit earlier
but, at the same time,
I was out a lot, drinking loads,
so that was pretty normal for me.
He was drinking a lot
but wasn't really going out as much,
so he would just stay at home
and drink while playing video games.
It definitely got to a point
where like look we...
we've gone through a whole bottle of JD
in one night.
Like that was probably where
I started raising eyebrows.
[Ethan] Bottles of Jack Daniels
were going quickly.
I think like 250 quids' worth of weed
a week. That's nuts.
I said, "Listen it's fine.
Like, I'm okay. I'm in control of it."
Bollocks.
I wasn't in control of it at all.
I'm exhausted and... and the expectation
is getting the better of me, I think.
I think it's just getting
the better of me.
I've been running myself into the ground
till like 4:00 or 5:00,
half past 5:00 in the morning
and like, "I do not feel okay."
[engine whirring]
I knew I was a burden,
like a sh*t person to be around.
So it was tough, mentally.
I've had like the thoughts of like,
"Oh, this is sh*t.
If I whack myself off,
then this all ends."
It's really dark, right,
'cause I know there's a big bridge
with like concrete pillars on it.
So that was like,
"Oh, I know where I could do it."
And that's a horrible thought process.
It was more like, "That's it. Cool. Done."
I had a knocking at my door
at, like... literally like 3:00, 4:00 a.m.
And it was Ethan's girlfriend at the time,
and she's telling me that he's, erm,
been drinking and he's gone out,
and he's taken the car,
and she doesn't know where he is.
He's not answering his phone.
And I'm like...
I didn't know what to do really, er, like,
"What do I do? Do I call the police
and tell them my friend's drink driving?"
Like I'm trying to find out where he is.
I was kind of just in a state of...
I don't know, confusion, really.
I mean, at that point,
you know, we're all...
we're all fearing for our... one of our
best friend's lives kind of thing. Erm...
[Ethan] I just broke down.
I just broke down and just said like,
"I can't do it, man. I can't do it."
It's like a relief moment like,
the crying on my friend,
it's like a relief moment.
Like you can finally start getting
across to someone that,
"I'm so done, man. I've reached my limit.
I need help."
And that's, again,
it comes with the pride thing.
You've gotta be able to drop this pride,
this act, this ego of thinking,
"Oh, it'll get better. I'll be all right.
Oh, you'll be fine. I can get through it."
So just speak to people.
You have to do it.
You have to open up.
You have to speak to people.
Ethan's story made the friendship group
a lot stronger,
erm, because we were now more aware
of things going on.
Because before that,
you hear about these things,
but you're not really tuned in.
You don't think it's gonna be your friends
that are going through this.
So I think that was... a big wake-up call
for everyone, honestly.
- Mate.
- [man] Yes, bro.
[laughs]
Right, turn side on.
- This way? Back.
- Yeah.
Here we go. How big is Behzinga? 103.1 kg.
[woman] With Ethan,
I was personally inspired by his journey.
He went through a lot of personal growth
during that time
and I think what's been really fundamental
is his ability to be able
to really be raw with it.
[shouting]
Nine, eight, come on. Come on, come on.
Keep pushing.
Push, push. Don't stop.
Six, five, four, three, two, one.
Time. Well done.
Not a joke.
[woman] To see someone pull through that,
and what we have seen
in the past couple of years as well,
is that a lot of men
don't get the support they need.
And I think to see that
shows that the new generation
have something relatable to look at
and see that
if they were ever in that situation,
there's always a way out.
Well, hello. Welcome to 2019
on the Behzinga channel.
How are you? I hope you're, er,
gonna have a great year.
I messed that up with my mouth
but we're here.
- [Josh] Let's say Ethan got big again.
- Yeah.
- Don't worry, he is. [laughs]
- [laughter]
How do you... but now... knowing
things he's gone through as well, like--
Yeah. No, I... no, no, no.
I know he's gone through...
[Josh] He's gone through a lot of pizzas.
[laughter]
- I can hear his mind working.
- [laughter]
- You lot. [laughs]
- [laughing]
I think it's like... just British culture
at the same time as well,
like we're all brought up on
bringing each other down.
- You tease your mates.
- Yeah, like lad humour. Is that right?
[laughs] That's so sad.
I tell you the difference, yeah?
Straight up as the person who it is. Okay.
You lot, I know at the end of the day,
if someone come up to me
and said the stuff that you say...
- You'd say...
- Oh, no. Don't get...
- They'll get slapped.
- You say, "Who do you think you are?"
So it comes down to the YouTube audience
thinking they are one of your mates.
So the major problem from it
came these random people...
All the time.
Anywhere, bro,
on the field playing football.
- Fat [mouthing]
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're thinking, "You don't even know me."
But our... our humour is now...
everyone sees it,
- and they think they're in on it.
- They're a part as well.
- They feel part of the group.
- In real life,
I'd be anywhere, bro.
Er, or like I'd be going somewhere,
"Oh, you fat, whatever."
And it's like, "What do you want me to do?
"I don't know you."
I don't know you, yeah.
- You've just met me and abused me.
- It's true. Yeah, actually.
Imagine I come up to you and just went,
"You fat loser."
You'd be like,
"Ah. All right, bro. Chill out."
[Tobi] sh*t, yeah.
- Now as we're actual adults now...
- [all] Yeah.
...I think when someone is clearly not
in the space, their minds are normally in,
people do even in group chats
will just say like, "Everyone good?"
And it can be a one question,
but that's all it needs.
To be honest, it's like maturing, I think.
But also we grew up in a generation
where mental health wasn't talked about.
At school, you wouldn't talk about it.
You'd never have like...
No. Not a chance.
We've never been taught any of this stuff
and then we're dealing
with millions of people watching us.
How do you teach someone...
You don't. You can't be online
and have really thin skin.
We learnt that quick.
You've gotta realise that this is
part and parcel of broadcasting yourself.
Did anyone go like therapy or anything?
I've been to therapy. Yeah, yeah.
When I went to therapy,
I literally just spoke.
It was someone to listen,
and as I'm talking and saying how I feel,
I'm also processing it and understanding
and then dealing with it.
You find yourself
answering your questions.
Basically I figured it out for myself.
Yeah, yeah.
So you find benefit
from therapy, right?
Yeah. No, I thought therapy
was extremely helpful.
She gave me the key to open these doors
and I was like, "Oh, wow."
I realised, "Oh, okay.
I now know what I want to do,
and how to get there,
and you know, what's... best for me.
And you know, er, something as simple
as saying "no."
Like I've said "no" to so many things now
because I'm like,
I don't have to say "yes."
- I don't have to always please people.
- Mmm-hmm.
The reason why I would always say "yes"
is because in my childhood,
I'd always say "yes" to my parents.
Like no matter what.
If I didn't wanna do it,
I have to say "yes" because I'd get b*at,
or something like that. [laughs]
So now, I literally just say "no"
and I understand I need time for myself
to do things.
- Prioritising myself.
- Yeah, exactly.
We've all got better
at the balancing act.
I think talking about your mental health
has become a big part of online especially
because people are starting to understand
that these people that you idolise
are normal people,
and they have real feelings.
[indistinct chattering]
[Tobi] We're here for our second physical
Sides location launch.
- First one is at BOXPARK, Wembley.
- [Josh] Mmm-hmm.
This one is Gravity Wandsworth,
a place I am very fond of.
Come here a couple of times in my own time
to bowl, electric go-kart.
But yeah, got a couple supporters
coming down to get some free food.
Free food always tastes better,
by the way. Always.
- How are you?
- I'm good. You?
Good, good, good.
[Tobi] If you're not learning,
you're not living.
[Josh] It's a good one.
That's a good saying, innit?
I came up with that today.
- Why are you shaking your head?
- How?
I'll dash this at your head.
What's your favourite?
Live like others can't, so in time,
you can live like others won't.
Live like others can't. [laughs]
Wrong way round.
Wrong way round, by the way.
[laughs] You said that way, didn't it,
or did I say it? I can't.
[laughs]
Honestly, well, you could...
well, you could do that also.
Next time, just don't be poor.
That's what you just said, bro.
You said live like others can't. [laughs]
- [laughs] Won't say it again now.
- What's your...
No. It's to live like others won't.
So in time you live like others can't.
You know you put in the work,
do things that people won't do.
- Eventually, hopefully, fingers crossed...
- Inshallah.
Then you can, you know,
live life like others can't,
because they didn't put the work in,
didn't do the groundwork.
These waffle fries are incredible,
by the way.
I'm not even chatting. Can I swear?
- Wow.
- I can swear, I'm not even chatting sh*t.
- Do you want a waffle fry?
- [laughs]
No, but seriously, does anyone want any
'cause it's f*cking incredible.
I guess you point it out.
Literally everyone's looking at us.
I get so paranoid
Not surprised.
- [cheering]
- Hey, it's a lot of people.
Oh, sh*t. It's insane in here.
It's this incredible moment where
you get the real-world manifestation
of those likes, those comments,
those views
and you realise just how powerful
this incredible content publishing machine
the boys have created really is.
[cheering]
[boy] The Sidemen, they've inspired me
since I was like eight years old.
I've been watching them for a long time.
They're just fun to watch.
They make videos on, er, different types
of topics and they're just fun.
[man] They're just good.
Like they've just got the whole scene,
the whole YouTube scene.
[cheering]
They're those type of content creators
that put a smile on my face.
I literally look so forward
to watching their videos like every day.
[boy] Watching Sidemen videos,
obviously it's all banter and jokes,
but then there's also lessons
that you learn.
You kinda see the friendship,
the teamwork, the whole communication.
They have this fun side to them,
so I wanna follow that, too.
[crowd laughing]
Is this... is this safe?
[shouting and cheering]
[Tobi] To us, we're messing around.
We're having fun.
We're creating content.
We're doing something cool. It's cool.
But you also sometimes forget
that for someone else,
that's their escape from reality
or that's the thing that's gonna get them
through the day.
And that really comes to light
when you speak to some supporters.
I feel like the biggest thing
that separates us from a lot of creators
is people really connect to us
as a friendship group.
A lot of them say they feel like
they're the eighth member.
[Randolph] Tobi, honestly, is one of
the nicest people that I know in life.
Not just in the Sidemen.
He's one of the nicest people that I know.
In his nature, he's kind.
In his day-to-day life, he's just kind.
He always thinks
of the nicest thing possible.
[Tobi] It makes me feel like
my parents raised me right,
but it's also just the way I am.
I've always been that way.
I don't know any kind of other way to be.
I have nothing but the utmost respect
for both my parents.
My dad was working three jobs at a point.
He'd go out at night.
I wouldn't see him 'cause he'd be sleeping
and I'd be at school and whatnot.
Or he'd be working another job,
his second job, his third job.
I've always got a joy
from helping other people.
I love this guy.
I like to see the people around me happy.
It makes me feel happy.
Okay. Open your eyes, Simon.
- Oh! [laughs] Unreal.
- Good man.
- How do you feel?
- A million likes. [laughs]
[laughter]
Hey, cut the video, man.
In the position I'm in now,
to be able to help my family
when they need it
or my friends when they need it
or complete strangers sometimes,
it feels like I'm contributing
something to the world.
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
- [man] What do we want?
- Justice!
- [man] When do we want it?
- Now!
[Tobi] Since the George Floyd incident,
my mind has been going non-stop.
I've been struggling.
You're tired of hearing
about our r*cist experiences?
Imagine, imagine how tired we are
of experiencing it. Imagine.
And I'm one of the lucky ones.
I'm one of the f*cking...
I'm so blessed, you lot.
I can't tell you
how f*cking blessed I am. [cries]
[cries]
It was heartbreaking to see Tobi like that
'cause Tobi is always bubbly.
So to see him in that kind of mood
and, talking about this kind of stuff,
I remember trying not to shed a tear
watching Tobi on the stream.
That might have been the moment
when he realised,
"This stuff happens to me, you know,
similar, and I've never spoken about it,
now the whole world's talking about it
when it's ended fatally."
So, maybe, it was a good time to share.
It doesn't surprise me.
Tobi will speak his mind
when he wants to speak his mind.
If I tell you the amount of sh*t
I've been through,
you wouldn't believe it.
Imagine the unlucky ones.
Imagine the ones that are dying
at the hands of these...
I ain't wanna call them humans
'cause they're not human, man.
They don't act human, they don't.
They f*cking don't. [cries]
I'm so sorry for breaking down.
I really didn't wanna break down.
I really, really tried to compose myself.
I've... I've lost my sh*t, man.
The response that I got from that
was amazing.
Yeah that's just one example of me
talking about something serious
and it having an impact.
But it's in my nature
to talk about that stuff
because I guess I wear my heart
on my sleeve.
I'm not afraid to show my emotions
or how I feel about certain things.
I share my feelings with my audience
'cause that's how they connect.
That's how they view you as a human.
[dramatic music playing]
Oh, God. First player off the bus.
Come on.
Jeez. Let's go.
[indistinct chattering]
[man] We've actually just flown in
from Singapore to catch this match
'cause we've been Sidemen fans
for a really long time.
It's pretty exciting for us.
USA. New Mexico, USA.
Erm, Essex. So northern Essex.
Sidemen Sunday, every Sunday,
telly goes straight on to YouTube.
After like a stressful week,
you've got Sidemen Sunday coming.
You can eat your takeaway, put it on,
and you'll be... escape from the world
and just have a laugh,
and we always watch it every week.
I've watched them for so long and like...
they're just so creative in what they do
and every video's just, like, amazing.
I love the one where the Sidemen
became parents for 24 hours.
That's one of my favourites.
Personally, I'm here to see
Miniminter and KSI but for you...
Well, for him, he's more of a Simon fan,
but I'm actually here for Speed
from the YouTube Allstars,
I really love Speed.
So. I'm really hoping he'll score some...
quite a few goals.
Oh!
Yeah.
Oi, Speed. What are you? Striker?
- Left wing.
- Left wing, cheese.
[laughs]
- Oh, my God. Look at it, man.
- Ooh. Oh, my God.
[indistinct chattering]
- [Vik] Chris joined our side.
- Come on.
- You've been getting a bit of flak.
- Yeah. It wasn't even my decision.
No it was actually our decision
to bring Chris over to,
what we believe
is balancing out the teams.
- If we've done that or not, who knows.
- Yeah.
It's always so difficult to tell
'cause there's loads of people
that you've never seen play before so...
- Yes. Exactly.
- You definitely rigged it for them.
I've never played soccer, football,
whatever so.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
So, if it was even, you've just taken...
Stop saying this.
[laughter]
f*ck KSI.
- Football.
- [player] Let's go, boys.
[booing]
About to bust your ass. Bust your ass.
- Come on then, huh?
- Bust your ass.
I don't give a sh*t, bro.
I don't give a sh*t, bro.
[shouting indistinctly]
[barking]
We're about to bust their ass, man.
It's over.
[indistinct chattering]
[Stuart Jones] In the match in 2022,
the match sold out within one evening.
It would've sold out immediately,
but we broke the servers
when tickets went on sale.
There was 170,000 people
trying to buy tickets.
[Tobi] It's the first charity match
we've done in four years.
It's the first event that we've had
as a group since before the pandemic...
Let's go, boys.
...where we've got to be with
such a large amount of our audience.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator 1] The crowd's
welcoming these players.
It's getting lively here at The Valley.
1.3 million people watching this.
[commentator 2] It's exciting.
We might have two, three,
four million people watching at once.
[commentator 1] Oh, it's unbelievable.
Those numbers are simply sensational.
- [whistle blows]
- [commentator 1] Captain takes it quickly.
Remember he scored his goal, I think,
in the first two minutes.
- [commentator 2] Yeah.
- [crowd gasps]
They're underway.
This is not gonna be a nice game.
Speed is celebrating.
First blood has gone to Speed.
[commentator 1] It's what we're gonna see.
It's little battles all around the pitch.
[commentator 2] Chunkz can hit one here.
He's hit one. Pieface. [cheering]
Goal! Oh, my word!
Take a bow, Chunkz!
[commentator 1] It's still going
for the YouTube all stars.
Could be a chance for Niko Omilana!
It's in! It's two-nil to the Allstars!
We'd all said all we want is goals.
Even if we lost eight-five,
we just want goals.
[commentator 2] Simon! Can he get it
to Vik? He's through.
Go on, Vik.
Chance for the Sidemen!
[cheering]
[Vik] Everything became
a little bit poetic.
We were back on track. Morale was up.
The stadium was happy,
and we were set for a good game.
- Randolph to Simon. One-two.
- Oh, that's gorgeous.
- It's gotta be a goal! Oh, it is!
- Two-two!
[commentator 1] What a game!
It's the sh*t.
[commentator 2] Oh, my gosh.
Instantly, we're like, "Okay.
Well, this game is already a classic.
It's already amazing."
[commentator 1] Oh, will it in?
What a game!
You can't take your eyes off it!
Now Jizzle outside the box!
Oh, what a ball that is. Wow. Wow.
We could be going to penalties here.
Seven apiece.
- Hang on! Hang on! Oh, my God!
- [commentator 2] Oh, my God!
Miniminter gets his hat trick
and what a way to seal it.
But the referee is gonna
bring the whistle to his lips...
- And it's all over!
- [commentator 1] It is full time. 8-7.
One of the best games we've seen
on YouTube.
[Simon] I'd love to have gone to penalties
just for how much of a spectacle
that would've been.
But at the same time, I'm not gonna
complain about scoring a winner
in front of 2.5 million people, am I?
[cheering]
[Zeitoune] It has been absolutely
fascinating and heartwarming
to see how much this match
has been discussed
and how much the content
of people discussing the match,
has trended.
And even if you look
at the number of concurrent viewers
they had on that match
that probably surpasses
the concurrent views
on huge events that we have
like the Champions League final,
like the funeral of the Queen, you know?
Those numbers are absolutely staggering.
[cheering]
So far it's one million,
seventy-four thousand, three hundred and--
[cheering]
[Ethan] I don't think we really understood
how big this one was gonna be.
So to be able to say, er...
we raised over a million pounds
for charity is absolutely gigantic.
And that goes to really good charities,
and good to have a charity partner onboard
that is one of the group.
We're trying to organise some events
for this coming year
to raise money for M7 Education.
If you guys do wanna know more about M7,
I'll stop talking about it now,
but I'll leave a link to it
in the description down below,
and you guys can go check it out
and donate if you want to.
You're a horrible person if you don't.
So my brother worked at a bunch of schools
that couldn't afford to go
on school trips.
So I'd always said to him
that I wanna start a charity.
When you get into a position where you can
do good, use it.
So M7, for those that don't know,
we find schools that are in areas
where the students might not be able
to afford to go on school trips
- and have these educational experiences.
- Hmm.
And it's all funded through you.
Like the whole... and as of last week,
I'm pretty certain I can say,
got charity status.
- Let's go.
- Finally, a charity...
For me it was... when I went to school,
I was lucky enough to go on school trips.
So I always remember those way more
than the rest of the school year.
So we signed up over a thousand students
to go on school trips.
- Wow.
- Which is pretty awesome.
Thank you, M7 team! [cheering]
Being able to give, however many kids,
the chance to go on those school trips
and make their own memories is...
seemed like a no-brainer
for me and my brother.
[Randolph] The misconception
about Simon is that...
he always tells me he's self-conscious
or he's not sure that he has something.
So Josh has got like his clothing brand,
JJ's got his music,
Simon's always asking what's his?
Well, his is just hard work
and consistency.
He like posts about six videos a day
on about 15 different channels.
He's just like relentless with it.
So every day, non-stop hard work.
He never misses a day.
He never misses the content.
So he just works super, super hard,
and does deserve credit.
Yo! What's going on?
Welcome to another Reddit video.
That's right. I am posting videos.
Remember my favourite post or comment
will win $1,000.
He's stubborn with...
his work ethic has never changed.
It's like, "We need to get this done
and that's that."
Like he'd run the More Sidemen channel
for years.
Without him being on that channel
and taking responsibility,
I don't think it is where it is today.
So his stubbornness pays off for him
because he has the right mindset
about things
and when he's made his decision,
he's made a decision.
So it's not a bad stubborn Simon
when you do see this.
It's a good stubborn.
You're good. [laughs]
I don't know how Simon does it, man.
Simon's got all the money in the world.
He's got the Sidemen stuff doing well,
and he still grinds.
Every day he's posting,
like, multiple videos.
[Zeitoune] Consistency really does matter
on the platform.
And when you have these super fans,
they have expectations
of when you're going to deliver
the content that they want.
And so it's an anticipation.
It's an excitement.
Tanya Pile, slate five, take one.
So the boys are, obviously,
the creative brains.
They will come up with what videos to do,
and they'll chat to me about
what they would like that video to be,
and then I do my best to make it happen.
How's it going, guys?
And welcome to Sidemen hide and seek
on a jumbo 747 plane.
[cheering]
[screams] Hey, yo! I can't do this.
I can't.
f*ckin' hell.
[Pile] As time's gone on,
got bigger studios,
bigger locations, more travel.
They're always wanting to be
one step ahead,
and it's really exciting, and we're always
like, "What can we do next?"
I'm like, "How much bigger can we go?"
Before lockdown, we had...
I don't know how many million subscribers.
We've got like 17 now.
So like lockdown was huge for the Sidemen.
Whoo!
[Ethan] Because we was
that one consistent thing
in people's lives that they could watch
every Sunday
and then more Sidemen throughout the week.
[Harry] I think probably after Covid,
and everyone had like two weeks inside
just watching our videos,
that's when it got a bit mad.
I don't know if you can hear me, but
my balls are squished into my trousers.
I'm really proud of the growth
over the last few years.
It's been phenomenal.
- One, two, three!
- [all] Sidemen!
Contrary to belief,
we actually don't really pay attention
to trends or to dates that much.
I think the, the bliss and the blessing
of Sidemen is it's long-form content
that you get to really see
an insight into us
and you get the true us.
If you was to focus on analytics and data
too much,
you'll get a different product.
You'll get a 16-minute video
which is very much in your face.
You'll get a lot of great concepts,
video and views,
but you'll lose a lot of personality.
So, there's not many channels like ours
where you can get away with
a two-and-a-half-hour long video
and get 90 million views.
We've had experts come along and people
who work with the likes of MrBeast.
The one kind of resounding thing
that they always say is,
"Everything we do shouldn't work."
And that makes me laugh, right,
'cause it's like... [laughs]
"It shouldn't work but, it does."
There's been a lot of group channels
that have tried and failed.
We've got systems in place
that make things that always worked.
They've got these mad systems in place
that I don't think many other, er,
YouTube boy bands, er, have in place.
[laughs]
[man] Run!
If someone's like 15 minutes late
for a sh**t,
then that means that they're gonna get
a yellow card.
[Josh] I remember at one point
it being a frustration for me and Simon
that certain people
who do less than others.
And I knew that. I'm a control freak.
So I'm an enabler.
So I allow people to do nothing
because I'll do the work.
So... that's kind of like where
a lot of systems probably came from.
- The card system?
- [man] Yeah.
It holds people responsible.
That's what it does.
If you're half an hour late
to a real life sh**t,
you get a yellow card.
If you're 15 minutes late
to an online sh**t,
it's a yellow card.
If you're not wearing Sidemen clothing
at a Sidemen sh**t, it is a yellow card.
And we have a tally of how many videos
we've all taken charge of on the channel.
So if you get two yellows...
[imitating buzzer] video gone.
Oh, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
- No, no, no.
- No, no, no.
- You can't take five minutes to reply...
- f*ck it. Yeah.
- ...location.
- Stop. No. We've literally just...
Fam, we told him to turn.
He didn't f*cking turn.
- We were here I swear.
- No, no. It's a yellow.
- No. It's not.
- It's a yellow.
It's not a yellow. I'm here!
- The majority decides end of the day.
- I'm here, bro!
- You can't argue with the majority.
- What? No.
It's a majority decision. It's a yellow.
Yeah but then... Because you're...
Oh... Oh, he changes even though it's not.
Majority decision.
Yeah, we managed to be, what,
a couple seconds late.
Er, I got very angry.
'cause no one wants a yellow card
because it means you have to do more work.
Yeah, I know. But it's just like...
All right. All right.
Calm. Calm. All right.
When it was introduced,
it was alien to people.
When you talk about it to people,
it seems like someone's at the top
controlling us.
But it's just a democratic choice
that works.
It means that there's fairness
across the group
there's a spread, er,
across everything we do.
The way I see it from you two right now,
you're doing the,
"Oh, but it's not fine for me."
- Do you... remember the Easter egg video?
- Other people... Yeah.
I was there at one minute past...
I will back you on...
Boys, calm. It's a yellow.
- A-okay behind the scenes this is.
- [laughter]
- [air horn honking]
- We need to film, come on.
Within the Sidemen, obviously,
we have seven people
and we have a sentence that rules all.
The majority decides.
I think it's nice to have a voting system
and then for it not to become
an emotional debate.
It's just like, "It got voted.
I was outvoted.
Fine. Let's proceed
as you guys think best."
I think YouTubers of that period
that it went from YouTubers made merch,
then they made books.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- And then music came into it a little bit.
And then more recent times,
YouTubers are trying expand horizons
like, "What business can we make?
We could be next big things."
So then, we've always had all these ideas.
It's like you said... how do you build
a team to launch these things.
Ideas that are relative to us
like doing mukbang, food round,
drinking videos,
it's stuff that's relative to us
that we have an actual interest in
that will outlive just us as creators.
- I hate business.
- You hate business?
- [Ethan] I hate business.
- Do ya?
Yeah. I really like videos.
I don't like business.
- But you like money so...
- No. I like the result of business.
- What does it mean by hating business?
- I don't like sitting in a meeting.
Yeah. I get it. I get it.
You know what? I agree with that.
Yeah. I like creating the video.
But I think you also...
like there is a huge side of just creative
to a business.
Hmm.
I think the next trend for us is...
what I mean--
You never know the next trend.
No. I was gonna say entrepreneurs...
[laughter]
- Entrepreneu-la-la-la-la-eur.
- It's entreprenueralship.
- There we go.
- So that's not content.
We're not making our YouTube videos
about our companies. So...
In YouTube, you never know
what the next thing is.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- There's a quote.
You either ride the wave,
or you get washed up.
[all] Ooh!
[laughter]
Hey, Josh.
Do you like it?
- [Pile] Oh, you look good. [laughs]
- Thank you.
[Pile] That's so deadly.
- I actually need you as a reference.
- Okay.
What is that little extra thong? [laughs]
The thing at the back? I love it.
Got a little G-string on.
Some will be easier.
[Tobi] Vik is a very business-savvy guy.
He's got a lot of investments.
Pretty sure he's got seats
on the board of multiple companies.
He's about his money.
He's a very, very business-minded man.
[Vik] I grew up in a fairly typical
Indian family setting.
By the sense of the traditions
that our family is very important.
You must work very hard,
and it is important to succeed.
I was part of a local swimming club.
They had me take lessons for the drums,
for the piano, for the violin,
always pushed me
to work really hard at school.
I am now really, really grateful for that.
And I think a big part of that for them
were these were all of the things
that they weren't able to do growing up.
- Hey.
- Nice to see you.
- And you.
- Hey, man. How you doing?
Being able to have
those conversations about,
"Hey, we're actually looking
for equity now
because we understand
that what we're doing for your business
isn't just gonna help tomorrow,
but it'll help for the next ten years
of your business."
I always had a bit
of an entrepreneurial spirit behind me.
When I was in primary school,
I used to sell rulers.
When I went to secondary school,
I started selling sweets to students
and that allowed me
to buy my first set-up.
I've always had that innate desire
to use my own brainpower
to generate a revenue
and some form of worth as it were.
One of my granddads,
his entire dream in life
was to become a successful businessman.
He had all of the books about
how to live in prosperity,
how to be a millionaire
and shame he's not still around today,
but, I think, he'd very happy
with what I've been able to achieve.
[people cheering]
Right Let's get it.
Ministry, are you ready?
Vik is multi-faceted. Like, he's so smart,
but he's also a lot of fun.
One, two, three Let's go.
[dance music playing]
He's driven and he gets it done, man.
That's one thing I'll say about Vik.
When he sets about a task,
he will get it done.
To go from a creator to a giant business,
you've gotta be a creator first.
And a lot of people try to skip that step
or do it too early.
I think for them, it's pretty easy
because they've got
seven influential people.
Then when you combine them together,
it's just cool what they do.
And so, you naturally
add their products to the mix.
I don't think there's that many people,
that have the ability to move product
like that on social media currently.
It will go up in the future,
but you could count 'em on your hands,
the ones that can move product,
and, obviously, they're one of them.
So it's very cool to see.
The interesting one was
the paid for premium subscription service
that we also launched called Side+.
[Josh] Currently, we offer like a podcast
and behind the scenes.
[Vik] One of my favourite things about it
is it's also a very powerful statement
about what we're able to build
and how the platform we have now built
can exist outside of YouTube.
And I think it gives us
a very powerful position
to proving that we can drive
more revenue off YouTube
than we can on YouTube,
which is fantastic.
Side+ won't ever exist
without the Sidemen YouTube channel.
A lot of people were worried
they're moving to a platform
where we have to pay to watch them.
But the reason we made Side+
was to now fund the Sidemen videos.
And also, it's a chance for us
to interact with fans through giveaways.
We can do meet and greets.
We can do the spending stuff.
And because of Side+,
Sidemen can go further.
[music playing]
Class.
So one, two, three. One, two, three.
- Just let him play with it for a bit.
- This is sick man.
Merry Christmas,
T-man jacking presents
f*ck your life, this ain't Evanescence
I don't want socks
Man don't want Crocs
Man to describe your mum
Bend it over, slide in and show man
How to stuff that turkey
Ah, er, ah, ah, ah.
Banged up
Let's get banged up da-da-da-da
- [laughter]
- [Vik] What's going on?
[laughs]
- That was sick.
- [laughter]
It didn't really have the effect
I hoped it would.
[man] You have a format
going on for years,
cheap versus expensive.
It's a staple of the boys' content.
This time, instead of being hotels,
or, you know, holidays or road trips,
it was Christmas song.
Empty your sack all in my cr*ck
Light up an elf
Put him in a pack like FIFA
Smoke Rudolph like reefer
When I meet your dad, I'm like...
[man] You've got "This or That"
which is a hilarious $100 track.
You can tell it's made for a $100,
but it was brilliant in its own way.
Then "Christmas Drillings."
Christmas Drillings make a k*lling
Spending all your P
Don't look under the tree
Ain't no presents till your birthday
[man] You had JME,
produced by Ny, JJ, Tobi, and Vik.
Vik delivering probably
the most surprising hottest verse.
It's a one, two, three
When I cut down your Christmas tree
Gonna take this flow out in the snow
Like skid row, f*ck mistletoe
And off the back of that,
I remember Aaron messaged said,
"Guys do you wanna go
for a Christmas number one with this?
"Do you wanna actually try?"
And then I remember JJ, Tobi
and a bunch of them in the song were like,
"Yes. A hundred times yes. Please.
Let's try. Let's give it a go."
- We're doing this all without a label.
- Yeah. That's...
- Power to the people.
- That's exciting.
I definitely think the whole
music-industry people understand
that you have to be doing it
through the label,
but we'll show 'em.
And I think the... our whole journey,
unintentionally,
has been about us saying,
"We'll do it ourselves."
We'll do it ourselves.
"We'll do a charity match,
sell out a stadium."
And we had like stadiums saying to us,
"Oh, you can't fill out the stadium."
[Harry screaming]
Yeah. Do you mind?
Yeah, yeah. Harry.
We're kind of doing a, er...
We're doing...
- Yeah, you could...
- Yeah, do it quietly.
- [screaming]
- Okay, cool.
[screaming]
- This is the chaos.
- This is the sh*t house...
How we get anything done is a miracle.
[screaming]
- [screaming]
- How are we...
[Tobi] If we're wanting attention,
this is one way to do it.
We did this without expecting anything
from it.
We're just making content for fun.
When you have a audience of our size that,
you know, the charts are possible.
But to chart at Christmas,
when the competition is so high,
would be ridiculous.
It is ridiculous
to even be in the conversation
for Christmas number one is like...
It's out of this world, man.
"Christmas Drillings!"
What we saying people?
[laughs]
Lord. Big boy on the mic.
[continues indistinctly]
Oh, go on, people.
Jeez. We are here in London
having the time of our lives.
Jeez, Sidemen storming London.
It's mad.
[upbeat music playing]
Oi, oi, oi!
We wanted people to know that we believe
this song should really be number one,
and we wanted to drive that energy
to try and generate
those moments on social
where fans are creating TikToks,
they're creating Instagram stories,
support "Christmas Drillings."
[man 1] Yeah!
[man 2] "Christmas Drillings"
pick up the run.
"Christmas Drillings" still number one.
[man 3] It's everywhere.
You cannot miss this vibe.
[Tobi] We got a mad bus
for this. It's crazy.
We're trying to get our Christmas tune
to number one.
Are you all ready? Shout Noel.
[cheering]
[shouting indistinctly]
[laughing]
[vocalising]
Oh, this is mine.
Oi! What's going on? Sorry.
[crowd cheering]
[man speaking indistinctly]
Buy the song,
and don't get us arrested, please.
We won't get the Christmas number one.
We'll be in prison.
[man] Please clear the road.
[JJ] Please clear the road.
- The feds are gonna lock us up.
- We'll totally get arrested.
[laughs]
- What do you think of Tottenham?
- [crowd] sh*t!
- What do you think is sh*t?
- [crowd] Tottenham!
- Thank you.
- [crowd] That's all right.
- [laughs] That's f*cking amazing.
- Come on.
[crowd cheering]
I'll put you out of your misery.
No surprises.
because you guys are
the UK's Christmas number one!
- [cheering]
- [presenter] Come on! Congratulations!
Getting that track into the charts alone
and doing what it did,
was a huge community effort
which actually goes
very much against the industry,
against capitalism in a sense,
very much the community
versus the big corporates
which I genuinely feel also resounds
really well with the Sidemen, in general.
Like this community got this track
into the charts and b*at Mariah Carey.
[laughs] 'Cause without a record label,
without pulling any strings,
without getting on any playlists,
over the radios,
without paying huge amounts of money
to do all the things you need to do,
this was pure community.
And that's really special.
I don't think that the mainstream media
will ever accept online content creators.
I think that there's still
a lot of rigidity
in the traditional media landscape.
There's a tremendous lack of diversity
that really prevents the forward thinking
that's required to see the innovation
and the potential in the online community.
It's kind of like
old money versus new money. [laughs]
And there's just... I see that distinction
so clearly sometimes in my job,
where you see the, sort of,
very exciting digital frontier
and then this massive divide with this,
you know, with legacy media,
that's just unwilling to change.
[indistinct chattering]
[JJ] I think we've all changed
over the ten years.
I think it's hard to say
who's changed the most.
I mean, physically,
Ethan's changed the most.
[laughs]
Mentally, I think it's gotta be Ethan,
especially having a kid now.
Yes, the first one of us to have a child.
It's mental, you know, because...
say we're watching the TV
and I put a Sidemen video on
and she's gonna say, "Daddy's on the TV."
And she's gonna have to grasp the fact
that, "Yes, your dad does this."
People comment on that.
It's gonna be really interesting.
Not sure how I'll work it out.
Hopefully, I've got a little bit of time
to buy. [laughs]
[Tobi] When families get involved
and you start having more and more babies
come in to the group,
that's another responsibility
that you've gotta deal with.
It's another thing to take your time,
and that is a priority,
family should always be your priority.
But if there's one thing
that history's proven,
is that we're good at evolving.
[laughter]
[Vik] For me, I've always found it
really important
to slowly build and create a world
for myself
outside of content, outside of work.
That makes us better as content creators
because it gives us
a wider experience of life
and that's the key, I think.
I think my advice for any future
YouTube groups
is don't look at the Sidemen and go,
"I wanna be the next Sidemen."
You can look at it and take aspects, cool.
But ours worked because it was natural.
We weren't trying to be someone else.
We literally were just us.
[laughter]
I know a lot of people look up to me.
So, I try to be the best human I can be.
But I'm a human.
So, I'm gonna have flaws.
I'm not gonna be perfect.
You know, I feel like a lot of people
just through what I've done,
have been very inspired and influenced,
and it's so sick and cool to see.
The interesting one to see will be
how YouTube and this space develops,
and how we develop with it.
It's like a shift.
You have the television k*lling radio,
and now you have
like the internet k*lling television.
We're front and centre of that.
And there'll be a lot of massive things
that will occur in these next ten years
that will make everyone realise
that has happened.
I think if we fail, we've had a stinker
because it's like all there for taking.
We're all very well known.
We're as big as we can be.
And we're full of like people
that are actually pretty switched on.
So, I think, we're destined for greatness.
But it's not really my forte.
So if we are, we are.
If not, I'm happy with what we've got.
[upbeat music playing]
["Destined for Greatness" playing]
Sidemen Story, The (2024)
Moderator: Maskath3