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jacknjellify is an American YouTubechannel run by twins Cary Kaiming Huang and Michael Yiming Huang (born: March 18, 1997 (1997-03-18) [age 28]),[1] who are also known online by their own respective aliases, carykh and MichaelYH, and sometimes collectively referred to as HTwins.
The twins are best known for their animated web series, Battle for Dream Island (commonly abbreviated to BFDI), which revolves around anthropomorphic objects who compete to win a grand prize, initially an island called Dream Island with various luxurious amenities.
The BFDI series has been running for 5 seasons over the course of 15 years, however only seasons 1 (BFDI) and 4 (BFB) are complete. Season 5 (TPOT) is being actively worked on, running along with season 2 (BFDIA), which was initially cancelled for 10 years. Season 3 (IDFB) is still on an indefinite hiatus.
jacknjellify's early content consisted of contraption videos, animations, some videos created using Phun (now Algodoo), music videos, and their "Marble Race" videos. However, by 2016, they started to focus on specifically BFDI-related content.
Battle for Dream Island[]
Battle for Dream Island is a YouTube series which follows a group of animated sentient objects battling to win a prize, such as household items (e.g. clock, sponge), food (lollipop, taco), and nature (leaf, flower). Other obscure objects were also introduced in the later seasons.
The show is structured similarly to television shows such as Survivor and Total Drama. The objects become contestants who participate in challenges while being divided into teams, with the losing team(s) being put up for elimination. Then, the viewers are able to vote on who they want out. This goes on until there is only one contestant left, who is declared the winner of the show. The prize has changed throughout the seasons of BFDI. In the first and second seasons, the prize is the eponymous Dream Island; by the fourth season, BFB, the prize is "a BFDI," "a BFB," and the "Grand Cake;" by the fifth season, the prize is The Power of Two. The third season doesn't have a prize, due to it showing the life of the contestants while not competing.
Battle for Dream Island gained significant popularity online and kickstarted the "object show" genre of content. YouTubers who were fans of BFDI created shows of their own based around the concept, often making their own characters (or sometimes using the same characters as BFDI). Along with the main series, jacknjellify also uploads short animations featuring the BFDI characters.
History[]
2008–2009: Early history[]
The jacknjellify channel was created on February 4, 2008. Their first video, "The BeiBei Squisher", showcased a contraption the twins had built and was uploaded on February 6.[2] Throughout 2008 and 2009, they uploaded more contraption videos as well as Flash animations and real-life marble race videos, one of which gained over a million views.[3] In December 2008, they uploaded an animation they made for pre-algebra class titled "X Finds Out His Value".[4] The two protagonists in this video, Four and X, would go on to become some of the most well known characters on the channel and in its universe.
Since early 2008, Cary and Michael had been drawing comics featuring anthropomorphic object characters. Going under the names Firey and Total Firey Island, their array of comics documented the adventures of the object characters they had created. The latter series was a spinoff of TV show Total Drama, which would eventually inspire the brothers to create a similar show. They began to devise a concept for their own animated reality series, which would involve the objects competing for a prize. The show came to be known as Battle for Dream Island (BFDI). The very first animation featuring the BFDI characters was made in February 2009.[5]
2010–2013: Emergence of BFDI, BFDIA and hiatus[]
On January 1, 2010, the first episode of Battle for Dream Island, named "Take the Plunge", was released on YouTube.[6] The show originally had 20 contestants. BFDI would slowly start to gain traction, and a community revolving around these types of shows was formed, with many fans of BFDI creating their own spinoffs of the show. BFDI's first season went on until January 1, 2012, when it reached a winner and concluded.[7]
On June 29, 2012, a second season, titled Battle for Dream Island Again (BFDIA), was launched.[8] Though, this season was initially short-lived, only reaching episode 5e in August 2013 before Michael announced that they would be taking a break from producing the show, citing school-related concerns.[9]
2014–2016: AdSense suspension and IDFB[]
On March 6, 2014, jacknjellify's AdSense account was suspended. The email that they received said that AdSense had detected "invalid activity" and that their account had been disabled. Michael and Cary sent several appeals, even attempting to show Google image proof that they were not violating AdSense's guidelines, though they were all rejected.
This subsequently resulted in jacknjellify starting a hiatus from making animated content on YouTube. This hiatus lasted for roughly two years, and the only videos uploaded during this time were a short promotional video for a different channel and two videos regarding YouTube's false takedown of BFDI's first episode.[10][11][12]
On March 3, 2016, Michael uploaded a video explaining the reason for no recent animations.[13] On June 14, 2016, jacknjellify announced that their AdSense account had been reinstated, meaning that they could continue animating.[14]
“
Also, we got our Adsense account back online! That resolves the 2.5 year long issue we discussed in our "Why We've Had to Stop Animating on YouTube" video. Hooray![15]
”
―Michael Huang
With the revenue issue sorted out, Cary and Michael resumed work on BFDI. The show's return was announced on July 23, 2016 in an animated skit,[16] nearly three years after an episode was last released. On September 1, 2016, the first episode of BFDI's third season, IDFB, was released.[17] The second episode was expected to be published exactly a month later, though the season was promptly put on hold due to Cary going to college.[18] IDFB has not released another episode since.
2017–2019: BFB[]
In 2017, the brothers began developing an entirely new BFDI season with a new hand-drawn art style, as opposed to the use of assets in previous seasons. The new season expanded the cast up to 64 contestants, including many of the failed debutants to BFDIA. Jacknjellify hired more voice actors and animators to help run the show. The core crew consisted of Cary, Michael, Satomi Hinatsu, and Kenzie Bryant; they did most of the writing and animation for the season in its early stages.
The new season, titled Battle for BFDI (BFB), released its first episode on November 3, 2017.[19] This season quickly became very popular and influenced a new wave of object shows using a hand-drawn style. BFB also helped greatly grow the jacknjellify channel, with their subscriber count having doubled by the point around the season's two-year anniversary.
BFB continued to run in the following years. On July 10, 2018, BFB's 12th episode became jacknjellify's first video to appear on YouTube's "Trending" list.[20] In August 2019, jacknjellify released the Firey plush, beginning a line of plush toys for a variety of BFDI characters.[21]
2020–2021: Split of BFB and creation of TPOT[]
On March 24, 2020, BFB's 16th episode was released.[22] With this episode came the announcement that BFB would be split into two separate seasons. BFB would continue, with a significantly shrunken cast, while a fifth BFDI season, known as The Power of Two (TPOT), would start with all the remaining contestants.
The decision initially garnered backlash from fans, who were upset at how many of the contestants simply left BFB and how this would alter many aspects of the show. Jacknjellify then uploaded a video dedicated to explaining why they went through with splitting the show.[23] The main reasons involved how Cary and Michael wanted to return to the "whimsical" nature of the very first season of BFDI, though some fans enjoyed the well-written and visually polished episodes. Their standards for BFB continued to rise until they decided to split the "fun" end and the "serious" end into their own shows, with BFB staying fun and TPOT being more serious. It was also noted that the pace in which BFB's episodes were being released was continuously getting slower, and a winner would not be announced for significant time to come.
“
I realized at the pace BFB was going, that the season wasn't going to announce a winner until I was in my 40s.[24]
”
―Cary Huang
Over time, viewers would eventually accept the split. Post-split BFB ran throughout 2020 while TPOT was being worked on. TPOT's release date was revealed in BFB 27 to be at the beginning of 2021.[25] Enthusiasm built up by fans just prior to the highly-anticipated release even caused "#tpot" to trend on Twitter.[26][27] TPOT released its first episode on January 10, 2021.[28] The episode was a major success, and has since become one of the most-watched episodes of BFDI, amassing over 20 million views.[29]
The season finale of BFB was released on April 9, 2021.[30] Jacknjellify reached 1 million subscribers in that same month, on April 27.[31]
2022–present: Further expansion[]
After the BFB finale, Cary and Michael announced that they would be taking a break from BFDI to focus on other parts of their lives.[32] The jacknjellify channel released numerous short BFDI skits over about a year while their team continued to work on TPOT. Though the episodes initially began releasing slowly, Michael stated that they would begin to come more often.[33] As of August 2025, TPOT has released 19 episodes.
In January 2023, a Spanish-language channel for jacknjellify was officially launched through Unilingo, hosting Spanish dubs for the BFDI series.[34] In July, jacknjellify opened a temporary office in the Water Garden business center in Santa Monica, California.[35][36] In the same month, the channel began uploading short-form videos on a daily basis, resulting in a large increase in channel growth.[37]
On September 1, 2023, jacknjellify revived the originally cancelled BFDIA by releasing the season's sixth episode on the 10-year anniversary of its original intended upload date.[38] BFDIA has since been running concurrently with TPOT.
Criticism and controversies[]
BFB 16[]
As previously mentioned, many fans were outraged with the decision to ultimately split BFB up, with some choosing to quit watching the show all together. As a response to the controversy, a video titled “The Secret Behind BFB’s Split” was released,[39] where Cary would confirm why BFB was divided up, explaining that the split was created so that BFB wouldn't last longer.
A more notable controversy that arose from the episode sparked from the episode's voting for a recommended character to join TPOT.[40] Many were extremely upset with the results of the debut as the recommended character Winner, an already popular recommended character amongst fans, would win the debut in a landslide that saw them be the only candidate with over 10,000 votes.[41] Fans quickly took issue to the decision to include Winner in the debut, citing that their already large following amongst fans had given them an unfair advantage over the other characters; fans believed that the debut should have been won by a less popular recommended character (e.g VHSy, Scissors, Rubber Spatula and Avocado), or that Winner shouldn't have been included in the debut in the first place.
Some criticism was also directed towards the inclusion of Nonexisty, who placed second in the debut. Many noted how Nonexisty had previously competed in the debut for season 1, believing his inclusion was a waste of a slot and should have been given to another recommended character. Despite the criticism, the recommended characters who lost the debut would become a recurring cast throughout TPOT, occasionally playing apart in challenges or eliminations, and starring in their own short entitled 'Plan Dissolve Adhesive' (which mainly starred the recommended character PDA).[42] The debut's third placer, Price Tag was also allowed to join TPOT in order for a full even cast, as it was deduced that Nonexisty not having a physical form made it impossible to create an even cast with him included.[43]
Voting[]
Due to the popularity of BFDI, it is expected that controversies surrounding the results of the votes would face controversy. The controversies that have arisen from voting are far too long to explain individually, and will instead be listed. These include (in chronological order)
BFDIA 4: Teardrop wound up eliminated despite receiving the most likes. It was discovered that Adam Katz, posing as a user named 'DerpyHooves' was responsible for the voting. Using the account, Adam managed to convince the subscribers to mass dislike Teardrop's elimination video to save Coiny, who had the most dislikes at the time.[44]
BFDIA 11: As YouTube dislikes showed that Ice Cube had received 13k dislikes compared to Spongy who had 11K, many assumed that the former would've been eliminated. However in BFDIA 11, it was revealed that Spongy had got the most dislikes. This caused a massive outcry within the community, with many claiming the elimination to be unfair. This controversy was addressed by Cary in his BFDIA 11 reaction, in which he would show that Spongy had indeed received the most dislikes, and noted that the YouTube dislikes extension that are heavily relied on are never truly accurate.[45]
BFDIA 19: A similar incident to BFDIA 11 happened, where many people thought Tennis Ball would be eliminated, as the YouTube dislike extension showed it that way. However, when BFDIA 19 released, Fries was eliminated. This caused some controversy, and a YouTuber known by the name of Cloudimations was very angry. He made several videos about how BFDIA 19 was a "fake episode", and in other videos he expressed his overwhelming dislike for Tennis Ball, as Fries was one of his favorite characters.[46][47] He also asked Cary to reveal the votes multiple times, and when Cary did in a community post on his personal channel Humany, it was revealed that Fries did have the most dislikes.[48] After this, like and dislikes can still be cast on the new voting videos, but only jacknjellify can see the results.
Seasons[]
Battle for Dream Island(BFDI): January 1, 2010 - January 1, 2012 (complete)
Battle for Dream Island Again(BFDIA): June 29, 2012 - present (ongoing)[note 1]
dnalsI maerD roF elttaB/Island Dream For Battle(IDFB): September 1, 2016 (hiatus)
Battle for BFDI/BFB(BFB): November 3, 2017 - April 9, 2021 (complete)
Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two(TPOT): January 10, 2021 - present (ongoing)
didentWe is a secret channel created by jacknjellify in 2011. Its content consists of two videos titled "Dident we?" and "We dident.", uploaded in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
The channel's existence was largely unknown to jacknjellify's fanbase until a user named Epic Swoosh published a video about it on November 18, 2023.[49] According to Cary, it was created as an inside joke between him and Michael, as they found humor in the way the Announcer pronounced the phrase "didn't we".[50]
Channel milestones[]
Subscriber milestones[]
100 subscribers: November 19, 2023
1,000 subscribers: November 21, 2023
10,000 subscribers: Late July 2024
Zack Bone Productions is a channel the twins created in 2015. Primarily run by Michael, its content mainly consists of archives of various media they produced when they were younger.
The archived media on the Zack Bone channel includes camcorder tapes and various small games they made during the 2000s. Many of the videos on the channel feature Michael, Cary, and their friend Sam playing the old games of theirs. The game series, dubbed Exploring the Stagecast Sims (or simply SIM), had episodes uploaded (mainly) daily between December 2015 and April 2016.
On April 19, 2016, Michael uploaded a video to the channel announcing that he would be "taking a break" from creating content for Zack Bone Productions.[51] Zack Bone's most recent video was uploaded on July 31, 2017.
Trivia[]
BFDI raised jacknjellify up to the 4,988th most viewed channel in the world at the time.[citation needed]
Before BFDI, jacknjellify had only 11 subscribers, but after, their number of subscribers grew by more than a factor of 1000.
In the opening of the 25th episode of BFDI, Eraser speaks of a "cool coincidence" regarding correlating each episode number with the chronological word spoken in the episode (e.g. the first spoken word of the first episode, the second spoken word of the second episode, and so on).[52] Doing this creates a message, which reads: "Yeah, what is it now? I see you are taking the word with the place of the episode number. This is it: message, no coincidence."[53]
This coincidence carries onto BFDIA, currently forming the message (as of BFDIA 22): "Don't try that thing again because it definitely won't work this time. Instead you should string together the twenty-first words in..."
Taking the 21st spoken word of each episode currently results in (as of BFDIA 22): "Actually, forget about what I just said because there's no message here either. You were so foolish to believe Cary's words. Go..."
The channel has a total of 65 unlisted videos.[citation needed]
These videos aren't much however, and 60 of the videos are simply the videos used for voting who gets the prize and who gets eliminated in BFDIA, via the like (prize) and dislike (elimination) system.
Some 5 of the videos are announcements and other videos.
If including the original comic series, Total Firey Island, the show's history spans from over 16 years ago.
![2008-2018 Jacknjellify profile picture. The logo is a spoof of the Homestar Runner logo.[60]](/wiki/File:Jacknjellify_old_pfp.jpg "Jacknjellify old pfp.jpg (119 KB)")
.svg "Battle for Dream Island (logo).svg (99 KB)")
