Where the Hell Is Matt?

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

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.

See, the story begins with him quitting his job as a game programmer after inspiring the Destroy All Humans! games (he actually gets a creative credit in the game). After doing so, he went traveling with some of his friends, where he made the first video for "shits and giggles". It quickly went viral and, at the behest of Stride gum, he made a second video visiting even more countries. Note that Stride gum did not sponsor the video or expect any sort of endorsement from Matt; they simply liked the videos and gave him money to do more with no strings or expectations attached. After being an even bigger hit than the first one, Matt went on to making a third one which went Beyond the Impossible and got more views than the previous two videos combined.

He is making a fourth, this time solely in South Africa and for the World Cup.

All his videos can be viewed here.

Tropes used in Where the Hell Is Matt? include:
  • Dance Party Ending: but of course.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Bad Dancing. So epic, it needs a song written in a dying language and corporate sponsors.
  • One of Us: It's not as evident in his videos, but in his blog, Matt admits to being quite a geek. When visiting the ruins of Tikal in Guatemala he's quick to point out how they were used to film the Yavin IV scenes in A New Hope, he comments how the capsule hotel he attended in Japan allowed him to pretend he was on a spaceship, and he discusses being a fan of Guitar Hero several times.
  • Poe's Law: He made a joke video saying that he faked everything (with robot dancers 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.
  • The World Is Just Awesome: One could say the main theme of the videos.
  • World of Ham: Almost everyone dancing in the 2008 video, especially the German guy in the orange crocs at the 2:19 mark.

All in all, it just goes to show you that no matter who you are or where you're from, we all have one thing in common: we all suck at dancing.

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