YouTuber Nathan Barnatt has made a new video to bring us back to the launch of Grand Theft Auto V. But we don’t think you would quite expect this flashback.
Who Is Nathan Barnatt?
Barnatt is an actor and stuntman who transitioned from Hollywood to the smaller screens of YouTube and Twitch.
He’s a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade, and has had shows on Adult Swim, Fox, Comedy Central, and others.
On YouTube, he’s best known for playing Keith Apicary, an eccentric video game enthusiast, and more recently, Dad, a vaguely sinister middle aged character.
Barnatt’s latest appearance on broadcast TV was in season 16 of America’s Got Talent. But he’s perhaps more notorious for his participation in the influencer boxing events Creator Clash 1 & 2, held in 2022 and 2023.
Barnatt is also a dancer, boxer, and filmmaker. But most important to this story, he has been a resident of Los Angeles for decades.
How Barnatt Turned Into Trevor
As Barnatt explained, he got the idea to make these videos after his fans told him how much he looked like Grand Theft Auto V’s notorious tritagonist.
While he initially disliked the comparison, he realized he could use his unlikely resemblance to make content. As you can imagine, Barnatt very easily turned into this character.
But what he did next will shock you!
The Culture Shock Of YouTube Before The Adpocalypse
When Grand Theft Auto V first released in 2014, YouTube was a very unsafe place, but in a different way than it is today. A lot of smaller content creators were gaining notoriety for making adult content, such as Pewdiepie and smosh.
At this time, Google appointed Susan Wojcicki as YouTube’s CEO. The company was finally exploring how to generate more revenue from the platform, beyond advertising.
While they would start bringing in more musicians and TV and film companies, the advertisers were unsatisfied with how often content creators broke rules on making ad friendly content.
Three years after Barnatt’s video, PewdiePie caught fire for content deemed as hate speech, triggering the Adpocalypse. The fallout of this controversy would hit all content creators, forcing them to either quit or soften their content.
That was a lot of words to say that Barnatt would not have been able to make his Trevor videos today. At the very least, he wouldn’t be able to monetize them much.
What Did Barnatt Do As Trevor, Exactly?
Barnatt went around Los Angeles, carrying a man covered in trash bags and tape. Barnatt’s skit was about pretending to get rid of the body, though the guy was actually a living actor who was in on it.
If that description intrigued you, you can watch Barnatt’s video below. And we think in a sick way, you will like the little touches he made to recreate Trevor’s whole ‘character.’
