Joseph Garrett (born 13 December 1990), better known as Stampylonghead, Stampylongnose, Stampy Cat, or simply Stampy, is an English YouTuber known for his Minecraft video game commentaries playing the character of Stampy Cat. He is well-known for his child-friendly demeanour and incorporating storytelling and education into the Let's Play format. In 2014, he was one of the ten most-watched YouTube channels in the world.
In 2015, Garrett created a scripted edutainment series called Wonder Quest in collaboration with Maker Studios and Disney. The show is filmed in Minecraft and features educational content designed for children to watch in school. It aired two seasons from 2015 to 2016. Garrett has voiced the Stampy character in the video game Minecraft: Story Mode and has made guest appearances on several television programs with CBBC and Disney XD. He has also released two children's books.
As of June 2023, Garrett's channel has gained over 8 billion video views and over 10.7 million subscribers. In 2015, his channel received 200 million monthly views, with each video averaging 1.87 million views.
Early life
Joseph Garrett was born in Havant in Hampshire, England, on 13 December 1990. His father is a graphic designer, and his mother was a stay-at-home-mum. He has two older sisters: Rachel and Annette, the latter of whom also has a Minecraft YouTube channel.
Garrett studied TV and video production at Solent University in Southampton. Garrett enjoyed creating stop-motion films and wanted to be an editor or vision mixer, wanting to work on projects entirely by himself.
Career
In August 2006, Garrett created his first YouTube channel, where he played and talked about video games. When he started the channel, his parents thought he should spend his time more wisely, but they did not discourage him. Garrett saw his channel growing, telling ''The Independent'', "I knew that if I got fully into it, I might make it work for me." Garrett believed that the writing, editing, and voiceovers he was doing on his channel would look good on his CV. He worked from his bedroom in his parents' house. Initially, his channel consisted of live-action comedy skits and animations he made with his friends. He later transitioned to Let's Play videos, playing video games such as Homefront. Garrett later shut down this channel.
On 29 July 2011, he launched the Stampylonghead channel. He began making Minecraft Let's Play videos in 2012 when he was still in university. When he started making Let's Play videos of Minecraft, which later 'blew up', Garrett realised that most of his audience were children. Upon this realisation, he began to make more family-friendly content, which included stopping swearing and making his persona "bigger and brighter", along with ensuring that he did not use sentences that were too long. At the time, he was working as a bartender at a pub. Once his YouTube earnings passed what he earned from bartending, which was minimum wage, he quit the job. This decision was made when he had about 10,000 subscribers. His parents allowed him to stay in their house rent-free to help him develop YouTube into his full-time career. Garrett described the Stampylonghead channel as a "complete accident," saying his original aim was to become a video game journalist. Garrett records, edits, and uploads his videos himself, while Maker Studios handles business issues.
In December 2013, YouTube terminated the Stampylonghead channel due to false reports of community guidelines violations. After widespread campaigning under the Twitter hashtag "#savestampy" began trending, the channel was reinstated a day later. In 2014, he attended the San Diego Comic-Con for the first time.
In 2014, Garrett said he worked 11 hours daily making videos. He stated that it took him around two to four days to make his 'more elaborate' videos. To keep his output high, he alternated between those videos and ones that were easier to make. In 2014, Garrett has attributed some of his popularity to his upload schedule, which at the time was daily. He said that this ensured his audience knew they could return regularly to find new content to watch. He believed that another reason for his success was that his persona, Stampy Cat, became "involved in their life more ... than a kids' television presenter would be: they're messaging me, they're sending me pictures. You become more of a friend to them". When asked if he would be interested in transitioning to TV, Garrett has stated that he is happy on YouTube.