Let's play a game: You're a computer programmer who saved up enough money to hypothetically fly around the world. What do you do? If you're like Matt Harding, you probably recorded yourself dancing like an idiot. Unlike Matt Harding, you probably aren't being paid to do so.
Harding quit his job as a game programmer after inspiring the Destroy All Humans! games (he gets a creative credit in the game). Afterwards, he went traveling with some of his friends and made the first Where the hell is Matt? video for 'shits and giggles'. It quickly went viral, and Stride (the gum) liked the videos enough to give him money to do more with no strings or expectations of sponsorship or endorsement attached. His fourth video was restricted to South Africa to promote the World Cup, but his fifth video went back to the global stage.
All his videos can be viewed here.
Where the hell is Matt? provides examples of:
- Poe's Law:
- He made a joke video saying that he faked everything (with robot dancers and submerged airplanes even). People believed it enough that he needed to make a follow up to explain that the video of him saying the video was a hoax was a hoax.
- That video too was inspired by rumors that his video was some kind of corporate hoax. Matt responded that if it were fake they could have chosen someone more handsome.
- The World Is Just Awesome: One could say the main theme of the videos;
as Matt himself put it, the message is that people don't need be afraid of each other all the time. The 2008 and 2012 videos are more about blurring the differences between us as a species.
