| “ | Hey there, welcome to my Twitch channel! I'm Proton Jon, and I've been making content online for over 16 years now (as of March 2023). You might know me from that time I yelled at a cactus in Kaizo Mario World, that time it took me forever to fly through rings in Superman 64, all the times I've yelled playing Mario Party in The Runaway Guys, you might know me for something else entirely, or you might be meeting me for the very first time. No matter how you got here, thanks for being here. I stream a variety of content 3 times a week, from the NES up to modern day systems. You'll never know what we'll end up playing next, so hang out and come along for the ride. Hope you enjoy your time here! | ” |
―Proton Jon | ||
Jonathan "Jon" Wheeler (born: November 8, 1985), better known by his online alias Proton Jon, is a Canadian YouTuber, Let's Player and Twitch Streamer. Depending on both when a video he's done was made and whatever's happening in the game he's playing, his commentary style can alternate between wry, witty commentary and hysterical, profane, and incomprehensible rambling, sometimes in the same sentence. Jon has 213 thousand subscribers and 67 million views as of 2023.
Jon found his debut from the Something Awful forums as one of the original Let's Players. He is largely responsible for the spread of the Let's Playing phenomenon to YouTube, with many Let's Players who have become quite popular in their own right citing him as an influence. Jon's early videos archived on his YouTube page where he played through the original Ninja Gaiden games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and other several difficult games. The most well known videos coming from his attempts at Kaizo Mario, Early Super Smash Bros. Brawl, his Superman 64 Let's Play, and his playthrough of Resident Evil 5. Around the time of the Resident Evil 5 LP finishing off, Jon was moving to doing more streaming content on Twitch than YouTube. Jon is now considered a full time Twitch streamer, averaging out about 3 or 4 streams a week. In 2018, he married now-VTuber Reese (Lucahjin). Jon has 104.9K Twitch followers as of 2024.
Alongside his own Let's Plays, Jon was also a founding member of The Runaway Guys collaborative Let's Play YouTube channel, along with fellow Let's Play personalities Timothy Bishop (NintendoCapriSun) and Emile Rosales (Chuggaaconroy), who did 46 Collab LPs with their first being Mario Party and most recent being Kirby Star Allies, and while accompanied by numerous guests, and also did gaming live-streams for the charity Direct Relief, as well as the yearly Thrown Controllers convention that began in 2011. They reached 487 thousand subscribers and 397 total video views as of 2023. As of February 2024, the group's main projects are on indefinite hiatus due to controversies surrounding Chuggaaconroy that made it impossible to move forward with him involved in any capacity; however, Jon has confirmed that Thrown Controllers and Colosseum will continue under different branding.
Early life[]
Jonathan Wheeler was born on November 8th 1995. He was born in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and was raised in a very conservative Christian household. According to Jon's Super Metroid Meta/Omega Boss battles playthrough, he graduated from university with a degree in Computer Engineering at the age of 22. For a time in his youth Jon was an active cosplayer, before his mom found out. Ninja Gaiden is Jon's favorite game. It does line up with Ryu Hayabusa being his channel icon.
Career[]
Let's Playing career[]
Jon was part of the original group of Video Let's Players from Something Awful. Like most of them, he created a YouTube account to host the videos he made. One day, he posted a two part LP of a level from Kaizo Mario World. It became a huge hit, and one of the seminal LP videos on YouTube, eventually leading to him becoming a YouTube Partner on October 18, 2010. Jon is largely responsible for the spread of the Let's Playing phenomenon to YouTube, with many Let's Players who have become quite popular in their own right citing him as an influence. Depending on both when a video he's done was made and whatever's happening in the game he's playing, his commentary style can alternate between wry, witty commentary and hysterical, profane, and incomprehensible rambling, sometimes in the same sentence. Many of his unique turns of phrase have gone viral, sometimes to his chagrin.
Jon's most popular videos are his Super Mario World romhack LPs and his posts of Super Smash Bros. Brawl matches with his friends, both of which are on indefinite hiatus, especially the former, due to having become burned out on Mario World romhacks as a whole. He is perhaps more infamously known for his long-running Let's Play of Superman 64. In addition to his Let's Plays, he also did an occasional brief review series called "You Should Play/Avoid This", starting with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Jon has 213 thousand subscribers and 67 million views as of 2023.
Twitch Streaming career[]
As of the mid-2010s, Jon has made streaming on his Twitch page his main source of content, with Let's Plays and other YouTube videos on the side. Signature among the varying types of streams he does are "Game Clearing" streams, where he attempts to beat as many of the unfinished games in his massive collection as he can, and various types of "Fortune Cookie" streams, where Jon rolls a set number of randomly-selected games (usually 5, with additional options added by viewers and whomever is commentating with him), and then puts up a poll to see which one the stream audience wants to see him play.
Since Twitch automatically deletes archived streams after two months, Jon created a second YouTube channel, where all of his streams will (eventually) be uploaded. Currently, barring any issues on Jon's end, newer streams are generally uploaded to this channel roughly a day after they initially went live. Jon has 104.9K Twitch followers as of 2024.
Podcasting career[]
Alongside his regular Twitch streams, Jon currently co-hosts two podcasts: a weekly gaming podcast called Top Down Perspective, and The Disc Only Podcast, an inside joke taken way too far that generally airs live via Jon's Twitch page the first Tuesday of each month, in which Jon, Tom Fawkes, Stephen Georg, and The8BitDrummer discuss everything from things that have happened in their personal lives to the South of the Border tourist trap.
Other projects[]
The Runaway Guys[]
Jon was a founding member of The Runaway Guys, a collab channel with Timothy Bishop (NintendoCapriSun) and Emile Rosales (Chuggaaconroy). Emile was in charge of maintaining the channel, although Jon made posts and comments for the channel as well. For the first two years, updates usually only occurred every Saturday, but this was changed to Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday following an announcement on February 8, 2013. Videos for Mario Party games (starting with the third) and Fortune Street were also posted daily (each board beginning on Saturday and continuing every day until its end).
Their first Let's Play premiered on February 5, 2011. The three of them were the only ones participating, but many of their later videos featured additional players. After the creation of the channel in 2011, 46 main collab LPs were produced, along with five side collab LPs and six tournament LPs. Along with their official long-running LPs, they did one-shot filler LPs (labeled "The Runaway Gaiden"), tournaments featuring multitudes of guest players, and side collab projects that they gradually update and use as filler between regular projects.
On occasion at various conventions, the Runaway Guys had their own panel, called Thrown Controllers, a live game show which focused on video game trivia and challenges. The event was broadcast on numerous gaming conventions such as PAX, Magfest and Momocon. In its debut at PAX East 2012, two teams took turns answering questions and playing video game challenges, either against each other, solo, or against members of the audience. At PAX Prime 2012, they retooled the game into a single-person quiz show with challenges, similar to the initial concept except for one person at a time, and this is how it has been done since. Many prizes were awarded at these panels, ranging from character pins from Fangamer to (as a grand prize) an actual video game console, such as a Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, or Nintendo Switch.
In May of 2018, The Runaway Guys Colosseum was live streamed as a weekend long event to raise money for Direct Relief. This was followed up in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. All of them once again in benefit of Direct Relief. With the combined efforts of the community, event staff, and the performers, a total over $1,000,000 was raised by 2023.
As of February 2024, the group's main projects are on indefinite hiatus due to controversies surrounding Chuggaaconroy that made it impossible to move forward with him involved in any capacity; however, Jon has confirmed that Thrown Controllers and Colosseum will continue under different branding.
NormalBoots[]
As of May 2021, Jon is also a member of the re-refreshed NormalBoots collective, joining longtime friends and collaborators The Completionist, PeanutButterGamer, and DidYouKnowGaming? creator Shane Gill, as well as fellow newcomers Chadtronic and Lady Pelvic. Jon disassociated with The Completionist following the charity fraud controversy in 2023.
Personal life[]
Jon entered a relationship with fellow Let's Player, The Runaway Guys member, and now-VTuber Reese (Lucahjin) on January 7th, unknown year, as they celebrated their anniversary at MagFest.[1] Jon proposed marriage to her at Pax West 2017 and she accepted.[2] They married on September 28, 2018.[3]
Jon and Reese adopted a cat that only has one eye, and Reese was the one who named the cat Bagel. The reason for the name was because of how, when it curls up, it looks like a bagel.[4] Bagel has also been affectionately nicknamed 'Big Boss', after the character from Metal Gear Solid 3, for only having one eye. Jon and Reese later got another cat and named her Eva (continuing the MGS3 reference). Bagel, as it turns out, doesn't like bagels.[5]
Games that Jon has Let's Played[]
When it's done[]
- Superman 64
Current Let's Plays[]
- Jet Set Radio Future
Previous Let's Plays[]
- Batman: Return of the Joker (GB) (One-shot LP)
- Battletoads (a four-player race to the finish versus NintendoCapriSun, PCULL44444 and Super Jeenius)
- Blaster Master Zero
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (initially done to help promote the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Kickstarter, which featured Jon as the leader of one of the Backer "clans")
- Crash 'n' the Boys
- Dead Rising 2 (with PCULL44444)
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge (with Heisanevilgenius)
- Donkey Kong (the 1994 Game Boy remake)
- Donkey Kong Country (All three versions)
- Donkey Kong Country 4 (played in its entirety as a Bait-and-Switch joke in the second episode)
- The Donkey Kong Country Competition Cartridge (played in the fifth episode to override the trial period of the main game).
- Donkey Kong 5: The Journey of Over Time and Space (Well, in a Sonic 2: Special Edition sense, anyway. It's complicated.)
- Ducktales (NES) (One-shot LP; with Lucahjin)
- Gunstar Heroes (with The Completionist)
- Kabuki Quantum Fighter (One-shot LP)
- Kirby's Dream Land (One-shot LP featuring both regular and Extra Game playthroughs)
- Kirby Super Star
- Knytt Stories
- Mario's Early Years
- Ninja Gaiden (the entire trilogy)
- Ninja Gaiden Shadow (One-shot LP)
- Pikmin (mostly blind, via The Runaway Guys)
- Resident Evil 5 (twice; once with Super Jeenius, and again with D.C. Douglas)
- Numerous romhacks of Super Mario World
- Kaizo Mario World
- Superman for the Game Boy (played in its entirety during the fifth episode of his Superman 64 LP)
- Super Adventure Island II
- Super Metroid (both the main game and a romhack, Meta/Omega Boss Battles)
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (One-shot LP)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (with Tom Fawkes and JoshJepson)
- The Lion King (SNES) (One-shot LP)
- Vice: Project Doom
- Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
Upcoming Let's Plays[]
- Star Fox 2
Status unknown[]
- Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (with TheAwfulgamerHD, MD7, and Exfauxsure)
- Castle Crashers (with TheAwfulgamerHD, MD7, and Exfauxsure)
Games played on stream[]
- Asura's Wrath
- Bomberman Act:Zero (online 8 player matches)
- Dead Space (blind, available on his second YouTube channel)
- Dead Space 2 (blind)
- Dead Space 3 (blind, with EightEK)
- Dead Rising 3 (blind, with Patty)
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (blind, incomplete)
- Final Fantasy V (blind, part of Four Job Fiesta)
- Gears of War (with NYVideoGameFreak)
- The Jackbox Party Pack
- Kirby's Dream Land 3 (mostly blind)
- Paper Mario: Sticker Star (Colosseum donation incentive, with Chuggaaconroy)
- Pepsiman (a Stream Highlight on his main channel)
- Resident Evil 6 (blind, with Exfauxsure)
- Saints Row IV (with PCULL44444, available on the second channel)
- Touhou Luna Nights
- Xenoblade Chronicles (Definitive Edition, mostly blind, Colosseum donation incentive)
Quotes[]
- [sounding defeated before even entering the stage] "...why am I agreeing to do this? Why?..."
- "All right, what have we got? We got - a hundred seconds?! Oh, mother fuck, this is not gonna be good!"
- "I'm not sleeping tonight, guys; this is my nightmare sound."
- "FOR THE LOVE OF BATMAN, JUMP! BILL COSBY! IS ANGRY! STIMPY! I NEED SPACKLE!"
- "Move faster, Pokey! Faster! FASTER! For the love of God, faster!"
- "Jump! Jump you... fuckin' football player! MEGAMAN! JUMP MEGAMAN!"
- "Catch. [dies] Catch. [dies] Catch. [dies] Ca.. don't catch death! Stop catching death!"
- [sees a block he needs to hit] "HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO HIT THAT?!?!" [immediately hits an invisible block to get to it] "Oh..."
- "Not gonna mess up. Not gonna fuck this up. [dies, loads state] You didn't see that."
- "Drillstomp!...360!...Kickflip McTwist!...Christ Air!...900!...I'm already out of Tony Hawk moves."
- "Go, go, go, go, Mario! I'm-a Mario!"
Trivia[]
- Many Let's Players, some of whom have become quite popular in their own right, list him as an inspiration.
- Jon is often mocked by Emile for his upload schedule.
- Jon has mentioned his least favorite series on The Runaway Guys was Mario Party 3 mostly due to the fact he was going through a break-up at the time of recording it.
- On February 1st, Proton Jon issued a statement about the future of TRG's activities. He announced that he would be distancing himself professionally from Emile, who is taking time away from the internet for his own private self-betterment. He also announced that TRG would enter hiatus and a new channel with a different name will eventually launch, with Colosseum and other TRG projects eventually rebranding in kind.
- In 2022, Jon admitted that he was enjoying TRG Colosseum less and less over the years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic severely limiting what the participants could do together, as well as the overall stress of trying to prepare for each event remotely weighing hard on him. It's since gotten to the point where Jon has been considering giving up on the event altogether.
References[]
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