Jacob Fox, known on his YouTube channel as Killer Orange Cat, is a narrator of horror stories. He mainly narrates true horror stories that are submitted to him by subscribers or solicited from other websites than YouTube. He also has narrated a few of his own stories as well as stories from out of print pulp magazines.
History
Although he joined YouTube in May of 2006, Jacob did not start posting narration videos until August 7, 2015. He stated in his Question and Answer video that he wasn't even aware of the existence of creepypastas until 2013 and still didn't get inspired to narrate his own stories until his came across a fellow horror narrator named KingSpook.
A big fan of horror narrations,he noticed that a lot of the popular channels had repeat stories in them. He decided to create a channel dedicated to narrating stories that hadn't been done by other channels.
While trying to think of a name for his channel, his sister's orange tabby cat was staring at him (presumably the cat was hungry) and Jacob described the look as a "death stare." The name "Killer Orange Cat" then popped into his mind.
Jacob's first video, "The Lower Room," was his own rendition of a supposed true scary story that was told to him by an unmentioned relative. He mentioned that he recorded it using his cellphone and when he eventually got a better microphone, he rerecorded it.
Jacob mentioned that he had a very difficult time finding an audience when he began making videos and watched his view count remain stagnant for almost a whole week. He almost quit making videos until something happened and his channel began getting more views. He himself credits this in his Q&A video to one of his videos showing up on KingSpook's YouTube page after the more well known KingSpook liked one of his videos.
Jacob posted a question and answer video on February 2, 2016 where he answered subscriber submitted questions about his life.
Style
Jacob mainly narrates true story videos that he gets from subscribers to his channel or that he solicits from other websites. He most often uploads videos with three stories but has been known to break this pattern. He tries to make sure that his stories are unique to this channel and has mentioned that he listens to a lot of other narrators in order to make sure he doesn't have repeats.
Although he mainly narrates true scary stories, Jacob has occasionally strayed into other content. He has narrated stories from 1930's and 1940's pulp magazines, creepypastas and two sentence horror stories. He also uploaded content from his visit to Waverly Hills Sanatorium in the style of a found footage film.
Skepticism
Although Jacob has narrated stories that deal with the supernatural and cryptids, he is an avowed skeptic. While he questions the claims of the supernatural, he has done "true" story videos about ghosts. He has indicated that he does this because in spite of his skepticism, he is a horror narration channel and many find supernatural stories frightening.
Jacob has dabbled in debunking viral videos on his channel. In his video, "Homonculus Debunking," he tackled a well known channel in which a Russian man claimed to create a living creature using human semen and a chicken egg. He had done an analysis on the video "Hey, Walter, I Got a New GF Today." video, before the video was used in the investigation of a missing girl named Kayla Berg. The video was subsequently determined by the police to be fake, which was Jacob's determination a month earlier. He has since removed the analysis video to protect the privacy of the actors involved.
Jacob has stated his absolute favorite YouTube channel is CaptainDisillusion, a channel that debunks viral videos with an emphasis on visual effects. He is also a huge fan of magicians Penn and Teller and professional skeptic James Randi. He has claimed that he was once more open minded to the paranormal and pseudoscience but spending a lot of time on YouTube changed him to be more skeptical.
Trademarks
- Places a picture of his orange cat Ichigo at the end of each video
- Ends his videos with the phrase "Make sure to check in your closet and under your bed because you never know where a killer orange cat might be hiding...goodnight."
- Early videos began with a slow music box tune while the name "Killer Orange Cat" appears against a backdrop of broken glass. The opening always ends with a strained "meow."
- Likes to parody television horror show openings in the opening of his video. He has spoofed "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Tales from the Darkside." He now almost exclusively uses the "Alfred Hitchcock" intro.
- Emphasizes collaborating with smaller channels in order to get them exposure.
Personal
Jacob's age is not known. In his Q&A video, he says that this is due to the fact that he doesn't believe it really tells anyone anything real about who he is. He has given his age in "cat years" as "meow." He is from the Chicago area, graduating from high school in Grayslake, Illinois. He has mentioned that he works as a psychologist and has attended both William Rainey Harper College in Palatine, Illinois and Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois. He is a fluent speaker of Japanese and has been studying karate for years.