Vinesauce is the professional name of American live streamer and YouTuber Vincent^[c] (born May 12, 1985), also known online as "Vinny Vinesauce". Vinny originally founded Vinesauce in 2010 as a streaming collective of content creators, which gradually became inactive since the late 2010s. The former lineup of the collective comprised Vincent, Darren, Joel Johansson, Marisa, Jen, Colin, Fred, Aisha, and Jonathan.

Primarily focused on video game livestreaming and commentary, Vinesauce is known for its content on game corruptions and subsequent glitches, as well as content covering obscure games and other media, including the 1995 virtual world game Active Worlds. In 2014, the collective created the "Vinesauce is HOPE" charity drive, which has raised over $350,000. Two Vinesauce members have each formed their own bands: Vinny co-founding the rock band Red Vox, and Joel co-founding the thrash metal band Scythelord.

The popularity of Vinesauce's content has earned media coverage from video game outlets such as Kotaku and PC Gamer. Vinesauce's videos have also been credited for popularizing several Internet memes.

Vincent^[c] was born on May 12, 1985 in New York City.^{[‡ 1]} In 2010, content creator Vincent, under the pseudonym Vinny, formed Vinesauce as a streaming community and YouTube channel.^[3][2] Inspired by both the nascent medium of streaming and a dream he had where he streamed the SNES video game Chrono Trigger, Vinny created an account on Livestream to stream the game, eventually learning aspects of streaming over time.^[3] Adopting the alias "Vinny Vinesauce" as his online pseudonym,^[3] Vinny later founded the Vinesauce website^[2] and recruited other streamers and content creators as members of the community.^[3][4] Since the late 2010s, the group has gradually become independent as most of the members focus more on their individual content.^[4]

Vinesauce's content primarily focuses on hacks and mods of various retro games such as Super Mario 64 and its Chaos mod,^[5][6][7] The Legend of Zelda,^[5][8][9] Half-Life,^[10][11] Pokémon^[12] and Metal Gear Solid.^[5] Their content on retro games, in which they employ ROM corruptions and code manipulation to produce random glitches and effects,^[5] have been described as creepy and frightening from various media outlets.^[5][13][14] Vinesauce's process for game corruptions involves the use of a "corruptor", a program which arbitrarily rearranges a video game's machine code to recontextualize the game with new effects.^[15] Several of these effects range from humorous in nature to surprising and ghastly, with some corruptions offering new challenges to older games.^[15] Notable corruptors they have used include the "Vinesauce ROM Corruptor" and the "Real Time Corruptor" (RTC).^[15][16] Maxwell McGee of GamesRadar+ detailed the process of Vinesauce's corruption videos, stating that "using the Vinesauce corruptor is like tuning a guitar, only instead of making something sound good you want it to sound as horrific as possible without completely falling apart."^[15] The group has also recorded videos of them playing various other games such as Cyberpunk 2077,^[17] Fallout 4,^[2] and Super Mario Maker.^[18]

In 2016, Vinesauce received mainstream attention for Vinny's livestream of the 1995 virtual world game Active Worlds.^[19][20][21] Taking place in March 2016, the stream involved Vinny venturing in the virtual world until encountering a user named "Hitomi Fujiko", a player who appeared to exhibit non-player character traits.^[22] Vinny had initially assumed Fujiko was a character intended to guide players through the virtual world, but after various interactions with Fujiko, he slowly realized the character had evinced human-like traits.^[22][23] Vinny and Fujiko's interaction escalated with a conversation where Fujiko knew Vinny's name despite him registering his account as Vinesauce; shortly after, Fujiko left the server.^[22] 6,000 people watched the stream unfold with many of them attempting to register accounts to join Vinny's session, leading to an overload of the game's servers.^[19][22] The stream had led Vinesauce's fan base to uncover clues about the mystery surrounding Fujiko's actions,^[19][21][22] with Alex Avard of GamesRadar+ asserting that "the events that followed were mythologized into one of the internet's best creepypasta stories."^[24] In 2018, author Andrew Reinhard cited the Active Worlds videos as an example of archaeogaming in the book Archaeogaming: An Introduction to Archaeology in and of Video Games.^[25]

In 2021, several of Vinesauce member Vargskelethor Joel's videos were cited in a mystery about a farming game that never existed.^[26][27] The mystery came into existence when a Reddit user named "Sparta123" wrote a thread on r/tipofmyjoystick describing a farming game akin to Harvest Moon that they tried to recall, with the premise involving a man who kills his wife and tries to hide the body while working as a farmer.^[26][27] Sparta123's post led the game rumor to spread to various social media communities, with users attempting to investigate the existence of the farming game.^[26][27] In a video essay, YouTuber Justin Whang revealed that the premise of the game originated from a 2015 clip from one of Joel's streams playing the game Global Defense Force.^[28][29] Whang cited a Reddit post from user "PM_MeYourEars" and a Discord post from "AqueousSnake" that identified an animated clip from one of Joel's streams.^[26][27] Sparta123 later confirmed that Joel's video was "likely the source of the game,"^[27] with Joel later apologizing in a Twitch stream for the time that users had wasted in searching for a non-existent game.^[26] The urban legend would be developed into a real game, titled The Evil Farming Game: Replanted.^[30]

In 2014, Vinesauce created the Vinesauce is HOPE charity drive, a variety gaming stream where proceeds go to the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation (PCRF); former Vinesauce member Hootey is credited with the idea for the event.^[3][31] In 2017 the Vinesauce is HOPE stream raised over $137,000^[3] and in 2019 they raised over $218,000.^[31]

Red Vox is a rock band formed by Vinny and drummer Mike (Jabroni Mike) in 2015.^[3][32] Their music is primarily alternative rock with influences from psychedelic rock. Vinny has stated that rock bands such as Radiohead, Nirvana, Pink Floyd and Tame Impala were inspirations for the group's music.^[3][32][33] Their second album Another Light was released in 2017 and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart.^[33][34] They have released 7 albums and 2 EPs in total. In 2024, Mike left the band due to health problems.^[35] Red Vox performed their biggest show to date for an audience of "between 1200 and 1500" at MAGFest in January 2025.^[35][36] On January 26, 2026, Vinny was invited by CNN to speak on the slow growth of his band and the development of their latest album, Retcon.^[37]

Scythelord is a thrash metal band founded by Vargskelethor and American musician Frank Hernandez.^[38] In 2016, Johansson and Hernandez, released their debut album, Toxic Minds.^[39] Johansson would be the guitarist and vocalist.^[40] In October 2018, Toilet Ov Hell listed Scythelord's song "Speed Metal War" for their "Riff Of The Week".^[41] In 2019 Scythelord released the EP, Asclepius.^[42] Invisible Oranges said that Asclepius had a "dynamic range and the breadth of its emotional arc feels much more substantial."^[42]

In 2021, Their second album, Earth Boiling Dystopia, would be released.^{[43][40][44][45]} In 2025, Scythelord released a cover version of the song "The Crippler" by the German thrash metal band Sodom. This resulted in Johansson and Hernandez meeting Sodom in an in-person meetup. In a YouTube video by Johansson in December 2024, he would document his and Hernandez's trip to the Hell's Heroes VI festival in Houston.^[40] Scythelord are planning to release an upcoming EP, Masters of the Scythe.^[40]

In 2014, Vinny interviewed video game developer Edmund McMillen to discuss secrets surrounding his game The Binding of Isaac.^[46][47][48] In 2020, Vinny appeared in an episode of the Boundary Break web series focused on the out-of-bounds content of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.^[49][50] In 2022, Vinny interviewed the actor Jack Mulcahy for starring in Creating Rem Lezar and discussed topics relating to insight on actors and film production. They also discussed the emotional aspects of the film and how Rem Lezar was specifically designed.^[51]

Vinesauce's videos have been credited for popularizing Internet memes, such as The Daily Dot citing Joel's RollerCoaster Tycoon videos as bringing various memes to a wider audience.^[52] Vinny's level creations on Super Mario Maker have also inspired similar creepypasta-based levels in the game.^[18]

TechRadar cited Vinesauce as one of the 10 best YouTube channels playing games in a 2016 listicle, noting Vinny's Active Worlds videos and the channel's focus on esoteric games and mods.^[2] In 2021, Vinesauce was cited as an example of a "comfort creator" in an article from The New York Times.^[53]

On February 20, 2020, the Washington-based provider Wave Broadband had its Emergency Alert System equipment hijacked, causing approximately 3,000 customers in Jefferson County to receive multiple false messages, including one telling viewers to subscribe to Vinesauce on Twitch.^[54][55] This was unaffiliated with Vinesauce, and neither Vinny nor any of the affiliated members appear to have commented on it.

On September 30, 2022, Vinny was invited by CNN to speak about his experience with the musical-comedy game Trombone Champ.^[56] In November 2022, he was again invited by CNN to speak about his experience with the video game Placid Plastic Duck Simulator with Rick Damigella.^[57]

There were nine members of Vinesauce, which gradually became inactive since the late 2010s. Sourced from their official website.^{[‡ 2]}

Joel Johansson^[43][d] (born 29 August 1993),^[38] known online as Vargskelethor Joel, or just Vargskelethor, is a Swedish live streamer and musician. He co-founded thrash metal band Scythelord In 2011, and released their debut album, Toxic Minds in 2016. He started making comedy metal tracks under his pseudonym in 2014. Johansson is best known for being a member of Vinesauce.

In October 2014, Johansson made his debut with the song "Pineapples do not belong on a pizza".^[38] Johansson, under his pseudonym, Vargskelethor, released a trilogy of heavy metal albums titled Skeleton Metal between 2014 and 2019. Skeleton Metal was primarily composed of short, skeleton-themed metal, comedy tracks.^[43] On 4 April 2023, Vargskelethor released a sequel to the trilogy, Skeleton Metal X.^[60]

The Progressive Subway would call the recording and production quality "fairly rough, although Joel's musical talent improved and his song writing grew noticeably more ambitious by the end of the trilogy."^[43] Garret Roberts of RMU Sentry Media called the second album in the trilogy "Joel us[ing] his metal talents to perform goofy songs about skeletons while offering genuinely good metal."^[61] Marc Desgagné of Metal Universe criticized the production of Skeleton Metal X for being "very disjointed", with some of the songs having a "big difference" in quality in between tracks. Overall, Desgagné rated the album a 7.5/10.^[60]

• List of YouTubers

Primary sources

In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

• Official website
• Joel Johansson at IMDb