Sam "Strippin" Thorne is a veteran YouTube LetsPlayer and Twitch streamer.
He got his start as a member of the Yogscast and is currently independent after leaving the team on good terms in 2015. He was a longtime community member, turned admin, turned content producer after Lewis Brindley hired him for a job. He's renowned for his real life strength and badassery. His content focuses on a variety of games, including Minecraft and Dark Souls. Nowadays streaming is his main focal point, with YouTube serving as an archive of his streams and past videos.
While he initially worked at Yogtowers, he has moved to the USA as of January 2014 to be with his girlfriend Dodger, although he remained a member of the Yogscast until December 2015. He's also the oldest brother of George Thorne, an English footballer who has played for West Brom since 2009.
In 2015, Strippin moved back to the UK due to issues with his visa, and began regular streaming on Twitch. He announced his departure from the Yogscast in December that year. He also proposed to Dodger around the same time (she said yes) and the two married on June 22, 2017.
He can be found on Twitch
, Youtube, Twitter, and a seldom-used Tumblr page.
Tropes that apply to Strippin:
- Amusing Injuries: During his minigolf challenge with Martyn, his forfeit at the end was to be slapped with a large fish. It looked painful... which makes it even funnier.
- Ascended Extra: Initially, Strippin was a volunteer worker on the Yogscast website, later becoming an admin and helping Minty (one of the fellow members) work in the office, though he wasn't well known at the time. Later, he joined Sparkles* and Martyn for the various livestreams in 2012, launching his own channel. The rest is history.
- Badass in Distress: In YogNews, Turpster locks him in a car boot for a few episodes to try and take over his hosting duty. Towards the end of those few episodes, he breaks himself out, cuts his bonds and gives chase to a now terrified Turps.
- Big Eater: Self-confessed like Simon Lane, although he does much more exercise and has a bit more leeway in this regard.
- He even refers to himself as a food disposal unit on his Twitter page. Alsmiffy from Hat Films outdoes him in this respect, as their eating contest proved.
- It appears that moving to LA means that his tendencies to eat too much are catching up with him, as revealed in this vlog. While he's still in good shape, relatively speaking, he's put on more weight and become incredibly self-conscious.
- The Big Guy: One of his roles in House Biscuit during the Polaris Civil War, as TB recruited him supposedly just to kill stuff.
- The Brute: From the perspective of the Angry Army during the Polaris Civil War, as TB supposedly recruited him for the sole purpose of killing stuff.
- The Chew Toy:
- His losing streak in the Saturday challenges are quickly making him this. Out of the Dream Team, he also got most of the verbal flak from Sparkles* and Martyn.
- When joining Sips, Hat Films and Turps for Garry's Mod Murder!, he almost never gets to be the murderer (the one time he does, he tries acting natural but gets shot because Smith came to a decision anyway), often spawning in the same room as the murderer and dying instantly. Similarly, the one time he gets the gun, he accidentally kills the wrong person and then gets stabbed while blinded. He gets a little more respect in Prop Hunt.
- Comedic Sociopathy: He's trolled his mum a few times by pretending to talk to ghosts of his family as a child. His mum believes in ghosts.
- Cool Uncle: He claims that he's an uncle and enjoys playing video games with his nephew.
- Crossover:
- Aside from the other members of the Yogs, Strippin has made videos with TotalBiscuit, Jesse Cox, Press Heart To Continue, Ali-A, Wowcrendor, CinnamonToastKen and more. He's also played with Markiplier and PewDiePie on occasion.
- While Hat Films went on to join the Yogs, they appeared in "Strippin Sings" and "The Burger Challenge" before officially becoming members.
- He appeared in an an episode of Game Theory, alongside Mari and Jovenshire of Smosh Games and Kellie, AKA "TheNationalDex".
- Strippin, along with Beckii Cruel, Martyn and Kaeyi, lends his voice to the Area 11 track "System;Start".
- Aside from the other members of the Yogs, Strippin has made videos with TotalBiscuit, Jesse Cox, Press Heart To Continue, Ali-A
- Crowbar Combatant: In the Rail Bros series.
- Deadpan Snarker: Quick to snark at others, which doesn't translate well in the USA, or so he claims.
- Didn't Think This Through: Some of his challenges that he proposes for the Saturday challenges fall into this, such as challenging Teutron to a blindfolded art contest.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Approximately halfway through episode 19 of his Dark Souls II playthrough, he takes a moment to appreciate a glitch that made the skirt of one of the more feminine enemies malfunction.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: His "coming out" as a nerd to his father, who then kicks him out.
- The Dog Bites Back: His YogNews persona does this to Turps. After being locked him in a car boot for a few episodes, Strippin breaks free and gives chase to his now-terrified captor. He later decides to forgive him.
- First-Name Basis: He and Dodger consistently refer to each other by their first names. This is zigzagged with everyone else; Turps and Hat Films have used his real name and his alias, and with other members of the Yogscast it tends to vary. TotalBiscuit frequently refers to him as "Sam" unless he's introducing him to an audience.
- Gentle Giant: Despite being slightly boisterous and sarcastic, he's actually a fairly mellow guy in real life, particularly around cats.
- Genre Savvy:
- When he and Benji are building a treehouse in Rail Bros, he questions as to whether or not their building one is a good idea, given how Benj often falls to his death in Minecraft. Sure enough, Benji has fallen to his death less than a minute after.
Strippin: (in between fits of laughter) I totally called that!- When playing Trouble in Terrorist Town as part of the Christmas livestreams, Lewis RDMs him. After this, he becomes considerably more reluctant to lead the way whenever Lewis is behind him.
- Godzilla Threshold: Joked about during a trailer for the "Dream Team" livestream for 2013, when he's being told to stream. Turps desperately says that nobody else is left and that he's their last resort option.
- Handicapped Badass: Downplayed. He's partially colour-blind, which makes playing some games a little difficult. Nevertheless, he manages to do pretty well at them.
- Happily Married: To Press Heart To Continue, as of June 22, 2017.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With both Martyn and Sparkles* as part of the Dream Team. This also applies with his friend Benji from Rail Bros.
- Hidden Depths: Apparently, he was a very smart kid at school, but hated it and dropped out during sixth form. He's also not a bad singer, can play the guitar and worked as a fisherman in Hong Kong, among other bizarre jobs he did after school.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Two examples, although it should be noted that most of his family are pretty tall.
- In Yognews with Kim Richards, he absolutely towers over her, and the intro shows this by showing them supposedly standing at equal height... then zooms out to show she's standing on a massive prop. He towers over pretty much everyone.
- Especially Dodger, who literally has to stand on a box to shoot some of her videos on Polaris.
- The Hyena: When playing Deadpool, he's absolutely laughing his head off, though to be fair that might just be because the game is just that funny.
- Jack of All Trades: Aside from gaming, he worked as a ski instructor, had a job in a gym, worked as a fisherman and as a waiter, with a modelling career as well. He also somehow learned how to play the guitar (although he can't read music) and sing.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: He loves cats, particularly Eddie and Dodger's cats. Dodger has said that it seems to be a reciprocal thing, as she reckons that if her cats had to choose between him and her, they'd save him.
- Lethal Chef: Strippin refers to himself as not being a good cook from time to time, showing his disgust at his attempted protein cookies. As the end-of-livestream challenge for his and Sparkles* time hosting the stream, they try eating them. You can see the results in GIF form here.Sparkles*: That's the most horrible thing I've ever eaten!
- Moment Killer: Whenever he and Dodger are having a heartwarming moment, you can always rely on Jesse Cox or Sparkles* to try and ruin it.
- Mr. Fanservice: Living proof that Nerds Are Sexy. He actually did work as a model, as well.
- Especially if you give them small, cute things.
- Promised he'd removed his shirt on a live stream if fans raised £80,000 for charity. It was reason enough for them to do it. They were all asking for him to do it again in 2013, although as the donations were going better he was a bit more reluctant and didn't actually have to.
- A Running Gag when he was away one week for Yognews had multiple people taking his place and jokingly claim that all he said was "I'm handsome", or something along those lines.
- Especially if you give them small, cute things
- Naïve Newcomer: In Garry's Mod Murder!, played on Sips' channel, he struggles to adjust to the gameplay and has difficulty keeping up with the others, who have all played that gametype since early 2014. He does a little better in Prop Hunt.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Aside from his well-built physique, he actually used to be a model.
- Nonindicative Name: The channel's called "Strippin" just because* , not because Strippin is a stripper. Similar jokes exist on the Yogscast official wiki.
- One-Man Army: For the Polaris Civil War, TB recruited him to House Biscuit supposedly for the sole purpose of killing things. During a game of Chivalry, he utterly massacred Angry Joe's team; the others definitely helped, but Strippin definitely carried TB's team to victory.
- Power Trio: The Dream Team with Martyn and Sparkles*.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Despite being one of the more masculine and laddish members of the Yogscast, Strippin is a huge fan of Frozen (2013) and his icons tend to be of him wearing pink clothes.
- Self-Deprecation:
- At the end of the Q and A video he did with his sisters, he includes footage of them mocking his constant
Schedule Slip moments and his general presentation style. - Generally tends to mock his Big Eater tendencies, as well as his being colour-blind.
- He mocked himself for putting on weight after moving to LA, although his weight has since gone down again.
- At the end of the Q and A video he did with his sisters, he includes footage of them mocking his constant
- Sixth Ranger: Joined Sips for a series of Garry's Mod Murder! and Prop Hunt videos in November 2014, playing alongside Hat Films and Turps as well.
- Sore Loser: Though to be fair, being slapped with a fish isn't exactly a pleasant forfeit.
- Spell My Name with a "The": His channel is actually called TheStrippin on YouTube, although he only did this because "Strippin" was taken.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Sparkles* invokes this when he lets Strippin shave Tom's magnificent beard off, during the 2013 livestreams. This was because Strippin had to do the dare after the fandom raised enough money the previous year.
- Unfriendly Fire: During the Christmas Trouble in Terrorist Town livestream, Strippin did this so much that his karma was lower than Simon's.
- Vitriolic Best Buds:
- With Martyn and Sparkles*, aka the other members of the "Dream Team". They all take the piss out of each other rather mercilessly, but they're good friends, and Kaeyi has said on her and Martyn's joint channel that whenever Martyn wants some banter, he will talk to Strippin precisely because Strippin takes the piss so much.
- He also has this dynamic with Hat Films in Cornerstone.
- He and Benji are good friends as well, but do take the mick out of one another constantly.
- He and TotalBiscuit are great friends in real life, but Strippin is often jokingly mocked by TB for mostly focusing on survival games and early access material.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: His character skin in Minecraft.
