Alex Clark (born: February 1, 1985), better known online as It's Alex Clark, is an American YouTuber, comedy vlogger, former street performer, and cartoonist who primarily uploads videos of animations. He also has a team that helps him manage his channel and make animations. His transition to animation came about after watching several Swoozie videos which had reignited his childhood love of animation. Clark is a self-taught animator which is evident given his noticeable progress over the years. He is also an avid gamer.
Clark is a 2017 Streamy Awards nominee and the recipient of four People's Choice Awards. HuffPost once called his work "Brilliant",[1] and the Chicago Tribune called him "funny".
History
Clark began his entertainment career as a street performer in Boston, Massachusetts. He would perform for tourists outside the shops at Faneuil Hall. He created his channel on December 2, 2009, but didn't begin uploading videos until five days later. After several years of posting random content types including news videos, sketches, and parodies he decided to try doing animation in December, 2012. Clark had done art and cartoons as a child and after seeing a few videos made by one of YouTube's first animators Swoozie. Clark felt inspired to try his hand at art again.
Because of the success of his first cartoon post-Clark decided to dedicate his channel fully to animated content moving forward. Some of the animated series on his channel include Pickle Dipper (A superhero who can summon weaponized pickles), Ben and Beans (two idiot best friends who haphazardly end up in trouble), and The Babysitter series (which chronicles the time in life when he dated his babysitter), and How I Met My Cute Wife (An animated episodic story of how he met and began to date his wife). He also frequently posts vlogtoons; an animated vlog hybrid that updates fans on his everyday life behind the camera.
In April 2017, he deleted his 2016 VidCon and Disney day vlog. Because of this, many have speculated that he was the unspecified vlogger mentioned in Jaiden’s “Why I Don’t Have a Face Reveal" video that initially agreed to show censored footage of her face, but later decided to use uncensored footage of her face despite her actively asking them not to do so. Many people asked if he was the vlogger that she was referring to, however, unlike many other YouTubers that were confronted by this question, he made no public response, which led to further speculation by the community that he was the unnamed vlogger
On February 24, 2018, as part of his animation challenge series, he did the topic of JaidenAnimations cry-eating pizza due to there being pineapple on the pizza since that was the most popular voted suggestion in his generated twitter polls. Before the topic was chosen many commented on the twitter polls that they did not think it was an appropriate topic to be chosen due to her former eating disorder. Despite this, he continued to make this video, and set a 45-minute time limit for this video, although he failed to complete the video in the given limits he continued to animate over the time limit to complete the animation. In this video, he animated Jaiden crying because there were pineapples on her pizza. After posting the video, many in the community did not think it was appropriate, with Jaiden herself stating in a youtube comment "This is rather insensitive to the past and what I've gone through, please don't". 2-3 hours later, he removed the video and issued a statement on his youtube community page[2], claiming that he removed the video because the community reminded him of her eating disorder.
On March 7, 2018, Clark published a video entitled "Guns Explained with Cats" , which took a lighthearted spin on the gun debate and puts it in the simple terms of cats. Due to the controversial topic, this video got more dislikes then his usual videos, however, his video received more traction compared to his other videos. A Huffington Post article called the video "Brilliant" and this article was later tweeted by Emma González,[3] a survivor of the February 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, and American activist for gun reform. It was also retweeted by Nick Offerman, Alyssa Milano, and featured by boredpanda.com and the American Public Health Association.[4]
In August 2018, Clark announced that he would like to take his act on tour through the USA and abroad. He did a test show in Fargo, North Dakota in which he took the entire audience to Five Guys after the show as a way to celebrate.[5] Because of the success of his first ticketed performance a full tour of the USA was later announced.
In October 2018, Clark announced tour dates for his 2019 tour. It includes stops in 21 cities across the USA and Canada with stops in more cities planned for the future. The initial cities included Washington DC, Richmond VA, Atlanta GA, Orlando FL, Columbus OH, Detroit MI, Pittsburgh PA, Indianapolis, IN, Chicago, IL San Antonio, TX, Dallas, TX, Phoenix AZ, Philadelphia, PA, NYC, Boston, Vancouver Canada, Seattle, WA, Portland OR, Denver CO, Sacramento CA. Los Angeles. CA. Tickets went sale on November 15.[6] In the announcement video Clark appears to have been "hacked" by Project Zorgo, a parody account of a hacker group that is currently attempting to "take over YouTube".
Clark also promised to announce additional dates to his tour that would make international stops across the world. In a video titled "I need to say sorry", posted on November 15th, 2018 Clark apologized for not visiting enough places on his first tour. As a peace offering, Clark requested that his viewers suggest additional cities he should add to the tour in the comments. He then promised to pick one of the top requested cities and add it as an additional destination for the tour. Popular destinations were Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Dwarahat India, Wakanda, and the sun.
On November 9, 2018 Clark challenged the animation YouTuber TheOdd1sOut to a chess boxing match. This was in response to an open invitation James made in his video Tabletop Games. In the video, James said he would be interested in participating in a chess boxing match if a YouTuber were to challenge him. A month after posting Clark replied that if no one was man enough to challenge him he himself would do it. James has responded to the request, saying "oh, you're on, dude".[7]
On July 11, 2019 Clark and James staged a chess-boxing match in Yorba Linda, California at the PYLUSD Performing Arts Center. The performance, which was one half comedy show and one half sporting event was not broadcast online. The description of the event read as follow:
- Alex "Big Head" Clark takes on James "The Human Marshmallow" Rallison in what can only be described as an attempt at "sports". These two animation titans will compete to see who truly is the Chess Boxing champion of the animation world. With zero training and a combined gym class grade of C+, these two are not only equally worthy competitors, but also the fiercest fighters of the animation world.
- One part comedy show, one part attempt at fighting, one part chess (or maybe checkers if we can't figure chess out...) Be there to see who reigns SUPREME (is that still a good thing?).
The boxing match later ended in a draw.
On December 19, 2019, he posted the finale episode to his popular Babysitter series. The series, which is what his channel is most known for, concluded with a two-part finale. Part one was a re-edit of all episodes combined to form a movie with new added scenes. It was titled "I Dated My Babysitter Movie". Part 2, titled "The Very Last Babysitter Episode", wrapped up the story, in a 13-minute video with an all-new story.
Inconsistencies
On December 13, 2017 Clark uploaded a video titled "My Secret Babysitter Relationship". Two minutes and 46 seconds into the video he says "there was a Nintendo DS in the bag" when describing how in middle school he visited his younger sister's babysitter's younger brother in the hospital. The Nintendo DS was released in 2004, and someone born in 1985 would be roughly 19 years old at that time. It is possible he meant the Game Boy Color, which was released in 1998 when someone born in 1985 would be 13 years old, which is how old Clark says he was when the relationship with the babysitter began.
Four and a half minutes into the same video, the babysitter refers to a "Stussy S". The Wikipedia article on this only dates back to 2017 although KnowYourMeme says it occurred in the 1980s. There is a reference to it as a Stussy S dating back to December 1st, 2010, but no known verbal reference to it like that from the 90s when Clark would have been in Middle School. It is possible that he was only paraphrasing and that she had called it something else like 'Superman S'.
Despite all that, in part 4 Clark affirms he was still "in the seventh grade" during the story arc.
Subscriber Milestones
- 1 million subscribers: October 4, 2017.
- 2 million subscribers: January 20, 2018.
- 3 million subscribers: July 17, 2018.
- 4 million subscribers: March 15, 2019.
Notable series
The Babysitter Series
A popular recurring series on the channel in which Clark recounts his stories of dating his babysitter.
Saturday videos
This is where he does challenges, collaborations, animation challenges, or unboxing videos.
Animation challenges
This is a series that is a part of his Saturday videos on his channel where Clark animates the highest voted topic from his twitter polls. The results of the polls are revealed to him live, and he is then given a set time limit for him to complete his animation (although he may occasionally continue animating over the time limit to complete the animation).
Characters
Dad
In his videos, Clark’s father is shown as a notorious cheapskate and will do anything to save a buck.
Evil Sister
One of the most prominent characters in Clark’s videos is his evil sister. She often appears at the most inconvenient times to ruin Clark’s otherwise perfect day.
Her first highschool friend also appears.
Mother
She has a grizzled voice and loves to cook.
The Babysitter Clark's first girlfriend, a trouble maker and misfit, constantly getting Clark in over his head. She is the focal point of an on-going series on the channel about dating his babysitter in the 7th grade.
Mrs. Haisley
Four minutes into "My Hot Babysitter Made Me A Man" the teacher who appeared at 2:38 whom Bobby said was sexy appears to be whom Clark's babysitter was working for, as she answers the door and addresses her as Mrs. Haisley.
Darryl
- Darryl stole his money when Darryl was supposed to reserve a spot to eat at a restaurant, where Clark's babysitter and Clark was dating.
- Ariel was his first girlfriend that he got via mariokart. She has red hair, and Alex depicts her similarly to the main protagonist of the Disney film The Little Mermaid.
Pam
- His wife with black hair
Pam's Roommate
Gets him in trouble here
Cara
A girl he knew in high school
Dorothy
- His first kiss was with a girl called Dorothy
Other girls
The one who recommended art school (returns here)
and the cute redhead with blue eyes who sat ahead of him in college who roomed with Cara+Pam.
Bobby and Billy
- He has a friend named Bobby and another one with glasses named Billy.
His dad
His "evil sister"![His "evil sister" IRL (only half of her face is shown)[8]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/youtube/images/7/7e/AlexClarkSis3d.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/69?cb=20190111070658 "AlexClarkSis3d.png (21 KB)")
His "evil sister" IRL (only half of her face is shown)[8]
His mother
His baby sitter
Mrs. Hailsey
Darryl
Pam (Alex's girlfriend)
A newer rendition of Pam
Pam's roommate
Cara
The one who recommended art schoolThe girl who sat ahead of him in college and roomed with Cara+Pam.
![His "evil sister" IRL (only half of her face is shown)[8]](/wiki/File:AlexClarkSis3d.png "AlexClarkSis3d.png (21 KB)")
Trivia
- It's speculated among fans that Clark doesn't like pineapple pizza.
- Clark now has a team to help him with his animations.
- He once challenged TheOdd1sOut to a chess-boxing match.
- Clark was born in Massachusetts, while his family originated in Romania.
- Despite many of Alex's stories being based on life, some series may be faked due to inconsistencies in the story. Some people speculated that the series of him hooking up with his Babysitter is most likely fake as underage dating in an age gap of at least two years is illegal in many states. However this does not prove that it was fake as both parties may have just ignored the law or did not know of the laws existence
References
- ↑ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/animator-brilliantly-explains-the-gun-control-debate-using-cats_n_5aa2bc71e4b01b9b0a3afb2e
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/post/UgzVUf2QBYuyzZ7YlXx4AaABCQ
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Emma4Change/status/972940112261763073
- ↑ https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvJWqpiYecA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YjwOkiBfyo
- ↑ https://youtu.be/dAqC07wsbOk?t=551
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kq96Vhdizo