“ | *lightning effect* YOOOOOOOO, what is up, you guys? On tonight's video, We... | ” |
―Arcade Craniacs' intro |
Edward Centeno (born: January 27, 1992[1]
) better known online as Arcade Craniacs, is a comedy YouTuber. He is known for his "3 AM" videos that feature ironic and satirical comedy.YouTube Career[]
Origins[]
In January 2017, Centeno was beaten in the face by a stranger with a metal baton, which later required surgery. This incident left Centeno depressed, not feeling motivated to do anything. Centeno organized a GoFundMe fundraiser to pay for his injuries. He managed to raise a large amount of money due to his GoFundMe being promoted by The Berrics, a large Los Angeles Skate Park and collective.[2][3] Afterwards, he fell down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos about arcade games and claw machines. He noticed that the people making the videos were catering to a PG-13 audience, which gave him the idea to start his own arcade channel, though catering more towards adults instead.
Centeno and his former girlfriend Nikki started the channel Arcade Craniacs, which quickly gained traction due to how different their channel was compared to others.
"It was a simple title, no one had really done it yet. Since the arcade community is quite small, we quickly began to stick out as different by catering our video toward adults who enjoyed claw machine and arcade videos."
Ironic 3 AM videos[]
One day in July 2020, there were rumors on Twitter about Chuck. E. Cheese going bankrupt because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Centeno has always been a huge fan of Chuck. E. Cheese. So much so that his family nicknamed him “Chucky”.
Centeno mentioned the rumors to Nikki, who then both filmed a few videos about Chuck E. Cheese that were uploaded on Nikki's personal channel. They noticed a huge spike in views on her channel, which then made them decide to make a Chuck E. Cheese video for the Arcade Craniacs channel, and as it turned out that video started the transition to their current content.
The Coronavirus pandemic greatly affected the channel's views, as Centeno and his girlfriend could not travel to carnivals as they were closed. Therefore could no longer make the content they promised their viewers. The Arcade Craniacs channel then transitioned to the infamous "3 AM" videos that had been prevalent on YouTube since 2017, though to differentiate themselves like they did with the original arcade videos, they made their new content cater towards adults once again. Their videos feature heavily ironic and satirical comedy to keep the older audiences entertained, which has proven successful as the channel has gone viral through their "out of context" clips.
Content[]
Edward's first videos were about how to win carnival and arcade games, and recording himself trying them out and how to win them[4]. A lot of them were centered around Disneyland games[5]. Majority of his content was about him and Nikki trying out various arcade machines all over the country, but it wasn't until July 18, 2020, where he uploaded his first 3 AM video, something that would overtake everything else on his channel[6]. Though it was about Chuck E Cheese, he has also claimed to call Pennywise, Elmo and the Chucky doll. Many believed the channel's content was heavily satirical or ironic, which was later confirmed to be true.
Though he had already garned a million subscribers at that point in time, he would remain relatively unknown until penguinz0 reacted to one of his videos[7], sarcastically mocking it due to its ridiculousness and similarity to ImJayStation, though failing to realize it was satirical in the first place, as well as the fact that Arcade Craniacs had publicly condemned ImJayStation. Penguinz0's video caused more people to react to Arcade Craniacs, further giving traction to the original video[8]
His other content consists of vlogging, doing challenges with his girlfriend, or playing "pranks"[9] such as "IGNORING My Girlfriend For 24 Hours!! - She Cried :(".
Supernatural entities[]
Edward and Nikki have met a lot of supernatural entities, most of which are usually summoned by them. So far, they are
Impostor[]
The Impostor visited Edward when he watched the Among Us movie at 3AM, though he can also be summoned with an Ouija board. He likes to watch "cancelled" YouTuber apologies, like those of David Dobrik and James Charles. He may be gay/bisexual, as Edward and him were in a romantic relationship, though they later broke up in a video. He turned violent after being dumped. Though Edward had an affair behind Nikki's back, it's also implied she too had an affair with him.[10] Edward and Nikki once spied on him with a drone.
Of all the supernatural entities, he has appeared in the most videos.
John Koo[]
John Koo is a plastic doll based on BTS singer Jungkook. He was a toy that came with Edward's McDonalds BTS meal. Though he appears to be a plastic doll, he is actually capable of communication (assuming that delusions aren't a side effect of the BTS potion), as when Edward drinks the BTS potion at 3AM and becomes brainwashed into becoming a BTS stan, he starts giving orders to Edward on how to take over the world and force everyone to become part of the BTS army.
Edward and Nikki are both attracted to John Koo, as in his debut video Edward says he is the most beautiful BTS member and Nikki says that he has the best butt out of all the BTS members. She also has several pictures of him in her room. He also has six twins also called John Koo, and another twin named Brian.[11]
Elmo[]
Edward has been possessed by Elmo several times. Usually Elmo will start singing "LA-LA-LA-LA! LA-LA-LA-LA! ELMO'S WORLD!" while possessing him. Elmo is one of the few supernatural entities with a kill count, as he killed Edward's plush of Vin Diesel from Jumanji. Once Edward cut open a plush of Elmo he ordered from the dark web, which caused Elmo to attack him. He also has another counterpart known as elmo.exe.
Barney the dinosaur[]
Barney the dinosaur has done several bad things to Edward,[12] such as kidnapping Nikki from him and stealing/crashing his car. He holds a grudge against Edward ever since he tried to summon him (by playing the Barney theme sing at 3 AM) as a pet. However, after their first encounter, Edward has considered Barney to be "cool" and has also expressed a desire to bathe with him.
Chucky[]
Edward and Nicole bought a Chucky doll off of the dark web, and later cut him open at 3 AM[13].
Chuck E Cheese[]
Edward often spies on Chuck E Cheese using a drone, and once caught Nicole cheating with him[14](however the video also implies that Edward cheated with him). In another video, Edward caught Chucky, as well as other animatronics, come to life at 3AM[15]. Though he initially appeared friendly and waved at him and Nikki, he later charged at the drone and attacked it. Chucky also attacked them both while they were searching for five missing children at the arcade[16].
Other characters[]
The Guards[]
The Guards are a group of workers from Squid Game. Edward and Midnight Howl called them at 3AM asking to be in the squid game, because the prize was $20 million dollars. They were transported to an area to play "The Floor is Lava". There, Edward befriended the third player, "Bald Guy". However during the game, Midnight Howl pushed Bald Guy, causing the workers to kill him. Edward got revenge by doing the same to Howl. When Edward won he caught two of the workers making out. They quickly stopped when Edward noticed them and gave him the money. Then a third worker went up to them and they had a threesome, and they asked Edward if he wanted to join, but he declined. After he declined a guard pointed a gun at him so Edward took the money and ran.
Quotes[]
- "Guys"
- "YOU GUYS"
- "YOOOO WHAT IS UP YOU GUYS, ON TONIGHTS VIDEO WE..." -Arcade Cranicas' intro
- "GUYS IT LITERALLY SAYS YOU ARE SUS"
- "I want to take a shower with him- no! I- I mean, I want him to be- I want to have him as a pet..." - Edward
- "Impostor... I want to break up- no shhh-shhh... I don't want to hear it, I know we had a very long relationship, I- I know this is going to be very rough on us but I just don't wanna be with you no more." - Edward
- "You guys, it literally says you are SUS and there is a phone number on it!" - Edward
- "This is John Koo, this is John Koo, this is John Koo, this is John Koo, this is John Koo, this is John Koo and THIS is Brian" - Nikki
- "His booty smells like poo poo!" - Edward
- "The Impostor from Among Us, we need a little adult time, you aren't gonna understand Nicole." - Edward
- "He's more than daddy to me, he's like, like grandpa." - Edward
- "Hello Edward are you here , you know what someone really needs to punch out Jake Paul." - Nicole
- "When I sweat, sometimes it goes into my mouth, and it tastes like a pretzel, but not right now.”- Nicole
- "You're starting to freak me out Nicole, just like how Dixie D'Amelio is freaking me out that she thinks she's a celebrity." - Edward
- "LA-LA-LA-LA! LA-LA-LA-LA! ELMO'S WORLD!" - Edward, when Elmo was possessing him
- "The craziest thing I did was go to Tijuana when I was like 17." - Edward
- "Are you gonna vent just like my dad did in 1998?" - Nicole
- "He's listening to DaBaby" - Edward
- "It smells sour, like funky!" - Edward
- "YOU GUYS! HE LITERALLY HAS A FAT ASS, AND I WANNA SMACK IT." - Edward
- "Right now we are at McDonalds and we just found WHEN you go to McDonalds at 3 AM YOU can order the Among Us happy meal, you guys"
- "Guys serious question, you guys... do they make thongs for guys??? They do... at JC Penny :)"
- "You know I'm afraid of emos, you guys!"
- "He's making me watch David Dobrik apology videos! You guys, nobody cares about apology videos especially David Dobrik!"
- "You know what? I went on Tiktok recently, and Addison Rae killed one of my jokes! You know the one - 'I'm sorry for my language, what the f is this?' - and she used it! Addison Rae literally killed my joke! One of the worst Tiktokers, man. Goddamit, man. I can never have nothing that I can just enjoy that I made. A person that's a very big influencer has to kill it for the small guys on Tiktok. God damn you, Addison Rae! Everything about you! Your highlights, your smile, EVERYTHING! Why do you do this to small creators? Be ORIGINAL, Addison Rae! That's why you're canceled! We all seen it...what you did." - Edward
- "3, 2, 1, GO! Beep! Bep! Beep! Errrrr!" -Edward parodying Boyfriend
- "What if it is...Boyfriend's...cu.." -Edward wondering why the McDonald's chicken nuggets are blue
Subscriber milestones[]
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
- 1 million subscribers: January 30, 2021
- 2 million subscribers: May 28, 2021
Trivia[]
- Edward frequently disses Dixie D'Amelio's music and career.
- As of 2021, both Edward and Nicole have broken up.
- After their break up, Edward begins making videos with Nikki's replacement, Agent Gabriel.
- Edward may be a fan of anime, manga and Japanese culture. He owns a poster of the character Tomie of the Junji Ito manga of the same name, and several Rilakkuma plushies[17].
- Arcade Craniacs is also known as "The Guinea Pigs of the Internet".
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacksonweimer/2021/04/30/chuck-e-cheese-at-3-am-creator-spotlight-arcade-craniacs/?sh=3b90892f108d
- ↑ https://www.gofundme.com/f/5f6pvmcw
- ↑ https://youtu.be/cmoarKcOIs0?t=195
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2722omZyoc&ab_channel=ArcadeCraniacs
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HUvPeJfVKY&ab_channel=ArcadeCraniacs
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elWiSlUD-1s&ab_channel=ArcadeCraniacs
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dky64z2eohI&t=10s&ab_channel=penguinz0
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrAXbA9G6HY&t=2s&ab_channel=ArcadeCraniacs
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE4740mObmc&ab_channel=ArcadeCraniacs
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4cncFN8Yic
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXSXu6HKtIo
- ↑ https://youtu.be/61b1-mrTIw0?t=31
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyG43IzSvcI
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9qznDmvDxQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBFbTU_OZ-I
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFo6XN0rmxo
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPqtLJANDlI