YouTube Extraordinaire

A Profile of Student Tyler Oakley

Elizabeth Dobson

Tyler Oakley, a communications sophomore, does not think of himself as anything special. In fact, he is rather modest, despite being a student, hall mentor, and – not to mention – famous on YouTube. Beginning his freshman year, Oakley has been uploading homemade videos to youtube.com and receiving widespread approval. 

Oakley now has more than 3.5 million views and 29,000 subscribers. He has a total of 74 videos and has made it to the No. 65 most subscribed comedian of all time. Beginning his YouTube career in September 2007, Oakley has definitely made an impression on YouTube viewers as much as they have made an impact in his life. 

“I would say YouTube has changed my life,” Oakley said. “It’s sort of become another job.” 

Although Oakley has received positive reinforcement from countless fans, he still gets unenthusiastic responses from many viewers. 

“I don’t think they would say these things to my face,” Oakley said. “People use the internet’s anonymity to their advantage.” 

In addition to making his own videos, Oakley is also involved in a YouTube group called 5AwesomeGays. This is a group of five guys that take turns posting videos Monday through Friday, and Oakley’s day is Friday. Each week has a theme that the actors play out. (In case you were wondering, this week is musical week.) From this experience, Oakley has made many friends. 

“In total, we’ve had seven people, there’s no commitment, and we can quit any time we want,” Oakley said. “When we first started, we weren’t very good friends, but now we talk all the time.” 

By putting himself out on the Internet, Oakley sacrifices not only his time, but his privacy. Even though he does not have the paparazzi following him around everywhere, he still gets recognized on the streets. 

“One time, I was walking from Wells to Wilson and someone on a bus yelled my name out the window,” Oakley said. 

This is not a rare occurrence. Oakley had many stories of fans approaching him all over campus, but he remains humble about the situation. 

“Being on YouTube, people don’t really see me as a person,” Oakley said. “People think I’m more special than I really am, and they sort of put me on a pedestal.” 

Oakley has made a wide variety of short videos ranging from comical topics, such as girl talk, playing Guess Who online, and a made-up character with lots of questions, named Calvin, to more serious topics such as voting, speaking out against hate speech, and national coming out day.  

To view the rest of Oakley’s videos, go to youtube.com/5awesomegays.

Questions? Comments? Contact Elizabeth Dobson at dobsonel@msu.edu

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Thursday, February 5 at 08:40 AM:
Not Tyler, thank God! from Journalism wrote:
"I am going to go ahead and use the internet's anonymity, and say this is the DUMBEST article that Spartan Edge has put on here. I mean really?? Is this what this site has come down to, writing about this guy?? This video is retarded and it is only news worthy to the YouTube no life users! Wow, come on. Get this video off this site, it tarnishes that rest of the videos that you have that are well put together!"