“ | Ever wonder WHY a game is good? Or why it's bad? I'm ProJared, and I'll tell you why. Emphasis on RPGs and retro games most people have never heard of! | ” |
―ProJared |
Jared Lee Knabenbauer (born: August 28, 1985
), better known online as ProJared (formerly DMJared), is an American YouTuber, Twitch streamer, Let's Player, and internet personality with a focus on gaming content. A self-taught editor, Jared was formerly employed by ScrewAttack but quit to do his own ventures, and was later employed by NormalBoots for several years before becoming an independent content creator. Jared is known for his reviews and occasional Top Tens. His Let's Play channel, ProJared Plays, is where he plays various games and uploads his Nuzlocke challenges. He also has a third channel, Now in the 90s, where he looks at the game releases of exactly 30 years ago from this day.Jared worked as a GameStop Assistant Store Manager from 2004 to 2009. ScrewAttack hired him as the Game Attack manager until 2011 when ScrewAttack formally hired him into their team, with Jared becoming one of the most quirky personalities at ScrewAttack. He and his colleagues wrote, acted, and edited the Nametags series at ScrewAttack, which is considered to be Jared's first big break online. Jared was also a host on Hard News and a co-host on SideScrollers, as well as a writer for Video Game Vault and Top Tens. His final major project at ScrewAttack was writing and acting in Newsroom.
Jared was fired from ScrewAttack in 2012 as his own YouTube channel was becoming increasingly popular and was focusing on that more than he was focusing on his work at ScrewAttack. In 2014, Jared was picked up by NormalBoots, but resigned from the company in 2019, and has since worked as an independent content creator. On his channel, Jared is known for his ProReview series, where he takes a game he knows well and gives a review for it, as well as his One Minute Reviews and Nuzlocke series. Jared has done several main shows: ProReview, One Minute Reviews, Full reviews, D&December, and Now in the 90s, the latter of which were moved to a new channel in 2022. Besides those main shows, Jared does several other kind of videos, such as short skits, guides, and self-imposed challenge Let's Plays.
As of 2023, Jared's main channel has over 800 thousand subscribers and 225,769,553 views. His second channel has over 239,000 subscribers and 102,809,869 views. His third channel has over 52 thousand subscribers and 2,916,579 views.
Biography[]
Early life and career with ScrewAttack[]
Jared Knabenbauer was born on August 28, 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was featured in an improv comedy group known as Comedy City using a similar style to Whose Line Is It Anyway. Jared continues to do improv to this day, showing some of it in his videos. One of his biggest passions is Dungeons & Dragons, which he later began covering in detail in his YouTube series D&December. Jared worked as a GameStop Assistant Store Manager from 2004 to 2009.
Jared was originally hired to run GameAttack, and when it closed down he worked for ScrewAttack itself. When first hired, he worked at GameAttack, and produced a show called 'Nametags'. He became host of several shows including Hard News, Sidescrollers and Reboot or Retro. He also produced and starred in Newsroom. Jared's work with ScrewAttack included working on the shows Nametags, Newsroom, Screwin' Around (Terrible Thursday), Mario Party After Dark, Reboot or Retro, Hard News, Sidescrollers, Clip of the Week, Reviews, and The Best Ever. Jared is a self-taught editor and at ScrewAttack went on to do a lot of voice over work, and several shows of his own including Nametags and Newsroom. He also had host roles in Sidescrollers, Hard News and Reboot or Retro.
Jared had one of the most quirky personalities at ScrewAttack. He developed a sort of catch phrase at the end of each Hard News episode where he would flick a pen that he was holding. It became surprisingly popular to the point that other ScrewAttack members did a pen flick whenever they hosted the show. Terrible Thursday was a popular Screwin' Around spin-off that Jared made with Chad, and Jared played up his reactions to many terrible games for the entertainment of the fans, among the most popular being Predator for the NES. Jared left ScrewAttack when he was fired in 2012, where he pursued his increasingly popular YouTube career.
YouTube career[]
Jared began his career on YouTube in 2010 with his Two Worlds review video. With this video he gained almost immediate success with his quiet nerdy charm bringing viewers in and them staying for his dry whit and unique review style. He soon became popular for his reviews and occasional Top Tens. His shows include ProReview, One Minute Review, Full Review, and D&December. Besides those main shows, Jared does several other kind of videos, such as short skits, guides, and self-imposed challenge Let's Plays. Jared has also done several improv videos, and has shown several videos of his group performing. In 2014, he was picked up by NormalBoots, but resigned from the company in 2019, and has since become an independent content creator.
Jared is known for his One Minute reviews of current titles, his more detailed reviews for games he thinks that deserves one, and the less serious "Pro" Reviews, often of retro games he played as a child. In addition, he does occasional Top Tens, such as the Top Ten Bees in video games, and has done four Nuzlocke challenges so far. Now in the 90s was later spun-off into a separate channel in 2022, the shows One Minute Reviews and Extended Thoughts were retired by Jared in 2014, and Jared stopped ding the D&December series after 2019 due to being burned out with making DnD content and finding the fanbase too toxic for him.
So far, Jared has done four Nuzlocke Challenges for Pokémon FireRed, Y, Dark Cry, and Alpha Sapphire. Of these, he has only completed one: Pokémon FireRed, with four Pokémon surviving; two that he left in the PC box, Wiggleywoo that Tangela, and Gworvan the Machop he caught in Victory Road and never used, and two survivors of the team that beat his rival, Guidjit: Leebin the Tentacruel, and Nuptup the Vileplume, who was with Jared from Episode 4 when she was caught, all the way to episode 36.
Aside from his main channel, Jared has three other YouTube channels. ProJared Plays is where he plays various games and uploads his Nuzlocke challenges, Now in the 90s is where he looks at the game releases of exactly 30 years ago from this day, and ProJared VOD features archives of his Twitch livestreams. Jared has collaborated with quite a few other YouTubers, including PeanutButterGamer, JonTron, and The Completionist. He has also made several guest appearances, including narrating multiple episodes of DidYouKnowGaming? and appearing on PeanutButterGamer's Minecraft Hardcore series opposite NintendoCapriSun. In 2016, Jared began making regular appearances on the official Dungeons and Dragons YouTube channel.
Following his 2019 controversy, Jared began making content more regularly on Twitch than YouTube, due to him believing that Twitch "doesn't require as much emotional energy as making YouTube videos". He also began posting more regularly on his gaming channel than on his main channel. In 2024, Jared explained that the reason for not posting on his main channel in almost a year was because he had been working on his next Final Fantasy video since March 2023, and apologized if it seemed like the channel had gone far too silent for far too long.
Controversy[]
Alleged Adultery, Solicitation of Nudes and Backlash[]
On May 8, 2019, Jared tweeted on Twitter that he and his wife Heidi were getting a divorce on amicable terms. Jared had faced a large amount of backlash because Heidi (Jared's former wife) tweeted that she recently found out that Jared had been cheating on her with more than one other person; Holly Conrad.
Jared faced more controversy on the same day due to being accused of soliciting sexually explicit photos with fans. Within hours, purported fans began posting allegations of impropriety by Jared, two of whom claimed they were under 18 at the time, with testimonials and photographic evidence. It was alleged that Jared had used Tumblr to solicit nudes from fans under the username "SinJared".
Normal Boots released a statement on May 9 severing their business relationship with Jared, noting he had been under internal investigation for "inappropriate conduct" since April 4, 2019.
On May 17, 2019, Jared released another statement on Twitter where he claimed that he and his wife were in an open polyamorous relationship with both of them having partners on the side, which he also claimed Heidi had encouraged. Heidi countered with a series of tweets saying that they had indeed attempted polyamory at one point, but she had "shut it down" later on due to Jared's lack of transparency regarding the relationship with Holly, and she considered their subsequent relationship infidelity. On May 20, 2019, Holly posted a Twitter thread corroborating Jared's version of events. She alleged Heidi encouraged Jared to explore his feelings for Holly, but expected nothing to happen due to Holly having expressed asexuality. Holly further alleged that when the feelings were returned, Heidi became abusive and threatened to ruin their careers, allegations Heidi denied.
The resulting backlash from these events caused Jared to suffer from extreme public backlash and caused him to lose more than 20% of his subscribers over the course of just a few days.
Response[]
On August 27, 2019, Jared uploaded a video, titled "YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO" to his YouTube channel after a long absence from the Internet. In the video, Jared alleges that the reason why he did not provide a further response to the allegations against him at the time was that he was in talks with his lawyers and wanted to wait until he had compiled evidence against all of the claims against him before he made a full response. Jared explained that he did indeed exchange nudes with fans on Tumblr and SnapChat, but always made it clear that it was for consenting adults only and that he never chased or abused people for nudes directly - in other words it was an open invitation to people who wanted to express themselves in that way with no incentive. Jared did however acknowledge that it was an "unhealthy" thing to do and that he understood why people took issue with this practice. He also detailed that he was in fact not fired from Normal Boots as stated before, but rather he resigned to prevent the other members of the group from being dragged into the controversy.
Jared then provides evidence against the claims that he solicited nudes from minors, showing that both of the allegations were unsubstantiated and could not have taken place, with one seemingly not taking place at all, and the other (who despite Jared having indeed talked to on Tumblr), never turned sexual. He also states he had no knowledge of the two being under 18 at the time and that they lied about their age to him.
Jared also states that he never cheated on Heidi and that he was already attempting to divorce her as early as October 2018, before he began his relationship with Holly, as well as that Heidi had refused to agree to it initially. To support his claims, Jared displayed screenshots of his talks with his divorce lawyer taken around that time. At the end of the video, Jared criticizes all of the YouTubers who commented on the situation without taking time to get a full understanding of the situation or to message him to get his side. He also urged people to spread and share the video in the hopes of reclaiming his internet fanbase.
This video resulted in a significant increase in support for Jared and his channel, with his subscriber count gradually increasing again.
Videography[]
Main Series[]
- ProReview, Jared's main show on his channel. On this show, Jared gives a review about (usually) an NES or SNES game. After his review, he gives a "score" out of ten, but the score isn't a number, rather an object or analogy related to the game. When Jared joined Normal Boots, his ProJared reviews were the only videos uploaded there. This show has become famous for Jared's hatred of the Hydlide series, as well as beginning several recurring jokes that have made their way into other videos, such as the "Beeeeeees" joke from the Hydlide videos.
- One Minute Reviews, a retired series where Jared did a review in one minute and gave a score at the end. On occasion, he would also do a full review as well as a One Minute Review if he didn't have enough time. Jared eventually stopped doing One Minute Reviews. The last episode, 'One Minute Review -The Legend of Korra', was uploaded on December 9, 2014. Jared, on May 17, 2016, admitted on Twitter that: "I'll never do one minute reviews again. The YouTube algorithm makes them a TERRIBLE idea now. It'd honestly destroy my channel."
- Extended Thoughts, a retired spin-off series to One Minute Reviews. Sometimes, when Jared did a One Minute Review, he ran out of time to give all the information he needs to (or the One Minute Review was a gag). In these cases, he made a much longer discussion about his opinions on the game. They differed from standard reviews, as they weren't scripted - Jared just had a few dot-points written down.
- D&December, a retired series where Jared devotes the entire month of December to Dungeons & Dragons videos. This series included regular ProReviews, some gameplay videos, and tales from Jared's experiences. Jared has mentioned on his streams a few times that he’s not only burned out with making dnd content, but the fan base has become too toxic for him, hence why he stopped doing D&December.
- Full Reviews, where Jared sometimes makes a normal review for a game. Unlike One Minute Reviews, they are not under a strict time limit. These are sometimes combined with an Extended Thoughts video for longer reviews. It is unrelated to a ProReview, as those are scripted skits, usually older games, and with a higher production value.
- Now in the 90s, where he takes a look at the video game releases that happened each week 30 years ago. It started being uploaded to the ProJared channel before moving over to a new channel called Now in the 90s in November 2022, after Episode 33 in April 2022. The series goes over how each game that released that week plays, what Jared thinks of the game, how much it cost then and now, and what reviewers think of the game. There's also some miscellaneous trivia and some history surrounding the game, including the developers, development cycle, and commercials.
Collaborations and Guest Appearances[]
- Jared collaborated with PeanutButterGamer on several occasions, most of these collaborations were released on PeanutButterGamer's channel and one was released on Jared's channel. He appeared in 4 series of PeanutButterGamer's "Minecraft Hardcore", and also worked with PeanutButterGamer for his Pocky and Rocky Pro Review.
- Jared was a part of the GAME SQUAD, alongside PeanutButterGamer, Brutalmoose, and SpaceHamster.
- Jared did Monster Hunter videos with SuperPaniLand, SuperMCGamer, Criken Chippers, and PeanutButterGamer.
- Jared worked with The Completionist on his Illusion of Gaia episode.
- Jared appeared on The Game Theorists channel in Gaijin Goombah's Game Exchange, in the Bravely Default episode.
- In 2016, Jared joined Holly Conrad, Chris Perkins, NateWantsToBattle, and Anne Prosser Robinson on an official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube series called Dice, Camera, Action!
- Jared and Holly Conrad both participated in Wizard of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons show, Dice, Camera, Action!. They also did two collaboration videos on Jared's channel, in which they played Pokemon Go in a graveyard and opened old Magic the Gathering booster packs.
- Jared narrated eight episodes of Did You Know Gaming?, including Resident Evil, Final Fantasy Part 2, Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter Generations, Super Nintendo (SNES), and Chrono Trigger. His other work with Did You Know Gaming? includes narrating the Leftovers episode Zelda Part 1, appearing in the video "DYKG Completionist ProJared JesseCox in UK - CoxCon", and being the subject of the outtake video "ProJared Outtakes".
- Jared also appeared in several Game Grumps videos. He was featured in the playthroughs of King of Tokyo on April 12th, 2014 and One Night Ultimate Werewolf on May 10th, 2014 on the show Table Flip. At MAGfest 2015, Ross confirmed Jared would be the first non-Grump guest to appear on Grumpcade. He made his Grumpcade debut on February 4th, 2015 on Vice Project Doom and have been featured on several episodes since. Starting on October 25th, 2017 and coming out with weekly episodes, Jared was the DM for the Grumps' D&D Game "Dragons in Places".
Quotes[]
- "Hey! It's me, ProJared!" - Jared at the beginning of almost every video he makes
- "I'm playing X." - Jared's cold open intro
- "Jim the knight. Killed by bees." - Jared in his first Hydelide video
- "Yes, I cheated, and I'm okay with that." - Jared on cheating in Two Worlds
- "OH MY GOD, IT'S MONSTER HUNTER! I LOVE IT, IT'S SO MUCH FUN!" - Jared in his Monster Hunter One Minute Review
- "I rate this an X out of 10." - Jared at the end of almost every video he makes
- "Hello ladies. And dudes."
- "'Ey girl, what's up? You wanna f*ck?"
- "Ready, go!" - Jared in his One Minute Reviews
- "X gets a X out of 10 from me." - Jared in his One Minute Reviews
- "Don't be that guy! Nobody likes that guy!" - Jared in a DnDecember video
- "I have the receipts." - Jared in his "YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO" video
- "The next time you see someone being cancelled with a mob attacking them and going after them, ask 'What's the other side's story?' 'Is there more to this?' How do you know that they deserve to be bullied and shamed? Through evidence? Or through public opinion? Nobody likes cancel culture, until they get an opportunity to cancel someone." - Jared at the end of his "YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO" video
- "Ever wonder WHY a game is good? Or why it's bad? I'm ProJared, and I'll tell you why. Emphasis on RPGs and retro games most people have never heard of!"
- "Hey, it's me, ProJared! This is a retro gaming channel with heavy emphasis on RPG games, such as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, especially from the NES/SNES era! BUT going beyond just video games, I also LOVE to talk about table top gaming, such as DUNGEONS & DRAGONS or card games like MAGIC: THE GATHERING! I like to focus on games that I have a personal connection to, things that I've played in my childhood or one that has resonated with me ever since I played it. I try my best to focus on positive aspects and games that are good, but sometimes, one of those games I played as kid was real, REAL bad. I'm looking at you, Hydlide. For more of me, be sure to check out my Gameplay channel with full playthroughs of a lot of games I've done videos on here AND be sure to follow me over on Twitch for live streaming!" - Jared's main channel description
- "Hey! It's me, ProJared, and welcome to ProJared Plays! Here are daily Let’s Play videos for games of all genres: RPGs like Final Fantasy, card games like Magic: The Gathering, horror games, and straight up comedy - ever play a drinking game with Mario? Plus every December is D&December, where we play old-school Dungeons and Dragons games and celebrate all that tabletop games have to offer!" - Jared's gaming channel description
Channel milestones[]
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
Subscriber milestones[]
- 100,000 subscribers: April 13, 2013
- 200,000 subscribers: December 31, 2013
- 300,000 subscribers: April 17, 2014
- 400,000 subscribers: August 15, 2014
- 500,000 subscribers: January 15, 2015
- 600,000 subscribers: May 22, 2015
- 700,000 subscribers: October 1, 2015
- 800,000 subscribers: June 4, 2016
- 900,000 subscribers: April 20, 2017
- 1 million subscribers: April 4, 2018
Decline[]
- Below 1 million subscribers: May 9, 2019
- Below 900,000 subscribers: May 10, 2019
- Below 800,000 subscribers: May 19, 2019
Regrowth[]
- 800,000 subscribers: August 28, 2019
- 900,000 subscribers: October 24, 2019
Decline[]
- Below 900,000 subscribers: November 16, 2019
Video view milestones[]
- 50 million views: October 5, 2014
- 100 million views: February 27, 2016
- 150 million views: September 27, 2017
- 200 million views: June 30, 2020
Trivia[]
- In mid-early-September 2015, Jared had a guest appearance on a Nickelodeon show called Game Shakers, in which he advertised a mobile app called Sky Whale. He admitted the show was stupid but didn't regret having the experience of being on TV.
- Speculation leads people to believe that Jared had relations with Holly Conrad while she was still married to Ross O'Donovan, concluding it to be the reason behind Ross and Holly's divorce. The parties involved have said that this is false. This misconception may have arisen due to how unpublicized Holly and Ross's divorce, and the reasons for it, were.
- While away at PAX 2017 Jared's home at the time sustained very bad water damage as a result of a broken pipe. Not only did Jared and his then-wife Heidi O'Ferrall receive a lot of kind words from fellow YouTubers and fans hoping things get better soon, Jared also encouraged fans to not donate money to him, instead urging them to donate money to the victims of the 2017 hurricane season.
- His fans came through for him and Heidi anyway. Apparently his audience mass-rewatched his content so heavily that it caused a viewership spike in his metrics (and thus, much-needed YouTube monetization revenue).