JokesOnUs!

""Hi, Billy Mays here!""

- A Billy Mays catchphrase quoted by JokesOnUs! and used in their original video intro.

JokesOnUs!, often shortened to JOU, is an American gaming group on YouTube. They are known for making gameplay videos, doing commentary (mainly in the JOUWS series), and sometimes a little IRL content. Created in 2016, the group was founded by Cory and Jacob.

Their content is filled with inside jokes, memes, and some dark humor, as well as some offensive humor, all of it not meant to be taken seriously. They're known to often be up to shenanigans and nonsense.

Members
The JokesOnUs! team currently consists several members.

badtallman696
One of the two founders of JOU. Jacob is a tall (as referenced by his screen name) and lanky guy, often joked by the other members to be Jewish (due to his big nose) when he actually isn't. He's one of the most prominent members, being the goon with the second most video appearances. He's one half of the Virgin Gamers with fellow member Charby.

Crazyboycory22/CBC22
The other founder of JOU. Cory is the primary recorder, editor, and uploader of the channel's content. He also runs the website and is the sole developer of the group's still-in-the-works Pokémon fangames. In terms of video appearances, he's the most prominently featured goon. Years prior to JOU, he and fellow goon Zane were in a smaller YouTube group that didn't stick around long. Since 2010, Cory's had an individual YouTube channel called Crazyboycory22 that he hasn't tended to much in the past several years.

Arhdeath
Another founding member of JOU, Austin H. is probably the shortest member of the group. Fellow goon Cory considers him his best friend. Austin is in the United States Air Force, working on aircrafts. Due to his line of work, he's not around often and thus makes few appearances. Even prior to entering the air force, Austin appeared only in a handful of recordings and is currently the fifth most featured goon in JokesOnUs! videos.

oni
A founding member of JOU as well, Collin is essentially the token member of the group. Jokes tend to be made about how he's genetically black, white, and a little Asian, earning him the nickname of "Panda". Alike fellow goon Arhdeath, he's in the United States Air Force. He's currently the only married goon and has a wife expecting a son soon, making him the first father in the group. He's not seen in videos often, which is now made harder by his work. He's known to get physical and roughhouse with Jacob and Gabe, among others.

Kaik
Additionally a founding member of JOU, Dylan is the ex-furry of the squad. He's often deadpan and can be rather critical of varying things. He's a bit of an artist as well, said to be a good one at that by others. On the goon personality spectrum, he heavily leans on the more serious side, though isn't incapable of stupidity and screwing around. He hardly appears in videos and it isn't helped by the fact that a good amount of footage containing him has yet to be released. He's the group's current Cards Against Humanity Champion and has been nonstop for years. He has yet to defend it.

Charby/TheGreatGambino
Unsurprisingly a founding member too, Gabe is a more rotund goon and a best friend of badtallman696's. He takes a liking to building and crafting things from scratch by hand, including origami, homemade tattoo guns, something akin to napalm, and more. Maximum tomfoolery with him occurs when he's with friends like Jacob, Gabe D., and Collin. When it comes to video appearances, he's the third most prominently featured goon. He's the groups' Super Smash Bros. Champion and has been nonstop for years. He has yet to defend it. He's one half of the Virgin Gamers with fellow member badtallman696.

Brufe
Yes, he too is a JOU founding member. Jeff is quite tall, akin to Jacob, and often associates himself with anything Russian. The guy's a history buff and very much likes anything related to combat and warfare. At times he can read others well, including his fellow goons, allowing him to predict their behavior in games and then act accordingly. Frequently he shares his knowledge on games, including but not limited to secrets, tips, and tricks. He's not above cheesing video games or discovering and utilizing workarounds. His appearances in videos are scarce.

petriotic
Not a member from the get go, Patrick wasn't added until some time after the group's conception. He's definitely one of the group's more sincere and down-to-earth members, not one to act wild or too serious like some of the other goons. Patrick is one of the least featured individuals in videos. Thus far, he's only made appearances in the Hearthstone and Town of Salem episodes.

NoVa/NoVa23
Despite having been a founding member as well, Steven is the butt of many jokes in JOU. His behavior, personality, and tendencies nearly always rub the others the wrong way. He's proven to not be above cheating, giving away info he should withhold, and lying, despite being awful at it. Shockingly, he's the fourth most featured goon in videos. He used to be in a duo of sorts with iTroll.

ZLute_12
One of the eleven founding members of JOU, Zane is the group's top pothead. A filter doesn't come with his speech most of the time, leading him to saying a plethora of lewd, inappropriate, and downright distasteful things. With him, however, it's all in good fun. He is rarely seen in videos. Prior to JokesOnUs!, he and CBC22 were in a smaller YouTube group together but it didn't last long before getting erased.

iTroll/Trollugi
A former member and founding member of JOU, Austin M. is a bit of a religious guy, just like the other Austin of the group. His mother had unfortunately passed away when he was a mere baby and his father wasn't too reliable in being a parent to him and his brother, so they were raised by their grandparents. Originally appointed as the thumbnails and graphics maker, Austin M. had only ever made one thumbnail and one banner art, used both on the website and YouTube channel. The thumbnail he created is used for the video "Star Wars: Battlefront | Dropzone #1". Due to lack of contact with the others, he drifted away from the group and is no longer a member. He's the only member AND former member to never have been part of any recordings.

ADOLFSDUCK
The final goon to be mentioned as a founding member of the group, Brandon is a notably handsome guy with athletic prowess and a great sense of humor. He bonds well with Zane due to similar personalities and interests. Footage of him has yet to be edited and released to the channel. His virtual counterpart in the ''JokesOnUs! Wrestling School'' series currently holds the Trophy Cup from winning a tournament that ended with a battle royal.

worldshaper1
Not to be confused with Brandon, Brenden was one of two future additions to the group by Cory. However, he wasn't well received by the other members due to having no bonds with them and Cory not having consulted anybody else before brining him in. Oddly enough, he has some uncanny physical similarities with Cory. He was removed from the group shortly after his addition. His appearances have yet to be uploaded to the channel.

AlphaCodexx197
One of two future additions to the group by Cory, Jesse wasn't well received by the other members. Since he had no bonds with the others and Cory had failed to consult anybody else before adding him, he would be shortly removed from the group later on. He has his own individual YouTube channel called AlphaCodexx197. His appearances have yet to be uploaded to the channel.

Aiko Yumi
From HuniePop, the Asian teacher character Miss Aiko Yumi was selected as the first "trophy" member of JokesOnUs! as their reward for beating the game. The main meme in the group surrounding her character is when the protagonist can say the dialogue option "F**k these birds, am I right?" to her. There is no footage of HuniePop on the channel and never will be due to technical difficulties with the group's recording of the game. This makes Aiko the only "trophy" member to not have any footage of her respective game on the JokesOnUs! channel.

Sayori
Swinging on in from Doki Doki Literature Club! is Sayori, the group's second chosen "trophy" member. She was the group's reward for beating the game due to generally being liked and having tons of meme potential. The main jokes surrounding her should be rather obvious. In JOU's playthrough of DDLC, she's headcanoned to be physically abusive towards the MC and has an annoying, high-pitched voice and laugh, provided by Charby. Despite being a "trophy" member, she isn't the only DDLC character to be "part of the group". The protagonist, dubbed David (nicknamed "Asshole") by Cory, is one of the group's reoccurring characters.

Ben
Ben, somehow not an official member of the group, is the friend circle's memelord. He's rather laidback and rarely expresses high energy or intense emotions besides heavy laughter. He's additionally known for his beard and bowling expertise. Only for two videos does he physically appear.

Doctor Q
A teacher of their high school, Doctor Q is a prominent piece of JokesOnUs! history. Having been a teacher for most of the goons by teaching Drafting, Engineering, and other classes, he became a familiar name and face to the whole group. Thanks to him and his presence, many jokes and memes were born in JOU. Mainly, he's known to tell kids to "get back to work" and uses the analogy "walk and chew" to command working and talking at the same time. Arhdeath was indisputably his class pet.

Gabe D.
Not to be confused with Gabe W. AKA Charby, Gabe D. is another goon of the friend circle that's somehow not an official member. With members like Charby, oni, and badtallman696, he contributes to tomfoolery and hell breaking loose. Typically, he is the serious type and his personally isn't all that out there. He is the group's only step-father. At the moment, he's only appeared in a single video.

NO ESCAPE/NOESCAPE
An infamous icon in JOU from the early days of their Cards Against Humanity series. He was the result of a prank successfully pulled off during a recording session, resulting in scaring members badtallman696 and CBC22. All along, it was Charby pulling the strings to trick the other two after NoVa had left the game and gotten offline. Eventually, Charby came clean about it and revealed himself to be the culprit of the act. A more climatic revelation was made as a meme video named "The NOESCAPE Reveal In A Nutshell".

The Initial Years
In the second half of their junior year in high school, friends Cory and Jacob spoke and joked about the fun that could be had in filming themselves gaming and more with their friends. They were quick to come to the decision of forming a group and making a YouTube channel to upload their content to. Upon the group's founding, the initial eleven members were CBC22 (Cory), badtallman696 (Jacob), TheGreatGambino/Charby (Gabe), Arhdeath (Austin H.), NoVa23/NoVa (Steven), Kaik (Dylan), oni (Collin), Brufe (Jeff), iTroll (Austin M.), ZLute_12 (Zane), and ADOLFSDUCK (Brandon).

JokesOnUs! created their channel on February 25, 2016 as they were inspired to make content of themselves gaming together as YouTube content. Their first video was "Cards Against Humanity | Ep. 1: "Skype Issues and STEVEN!"", uploaded on the same day the channel was created. Over five years later, it is currently the channel's seventh most viewed video.

During this time, Cory would begin work on a Pokémon fangame that he continues to develop to this day. What was originally a non-serious project full of memes, inside jokes, dark humor and offensive humor meant to entertain his high schools buds has become three versions of essentially one game, taken comparatively more seriously and less tasteless than before.

A total of 87 videos were uploaded onto their channel within the first two years of running, with 43 from year one and 44 from the following year. For these initial couple of years, their uploads consisted of them playing Cards Against Humanity (on Pretend You're Xyzzy), Star Wars Battlefront (2015), Epic Mafia (formerly at epicmafia.com, now epicmafia.org), Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Garry's Mod (mainly game modes Trouble in Terrorist Town, Guess Who, Murder, Prop Hunt), and Doki Doki Literature Club!. There was also some miscellaneous content, most of them IRL videos.

Years 3 & 4
2018 was truly the start of JOU's drop in activity, although there was only ten less videos uploaded compared to the year prior. The lack in activity wouldn't truly become apparent until 2019 where only 16 videos in total got uploaded. From then on out, it would drop further and further for the next two years.

The channel's content for 2018 and 2019 consisted gameplay footage of Hearthstone, Town of Salem, Wrestling Mpire Remix (starting the JokesOnUs! Wrestling School series), Garry's Mod (Trouble in Terrorist Town & Murder), Doki Doki Literature Club!, Cards Against Humanity, Pokémon Platinum (as content by the Virgin Gamers), Epic Mafia, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Star Wars Battlefront (2015). Again, there were a few miscellaneous content videos, a couple of them being IRL material.

The Most Recent Years
As previously mentioned up above, the amount of video uploads feign in comparison to the quantities of years one through three. Somewhat understandably, with 2020 having been the chaotic year it was, JokesOnUs! managed to upload only 13 videos. As of this moment, their 2021 uploads are below this amount, not having reached even 10 videos so far. It is also to be noted that, while nothing new, all the footage is from earlier years as main editor and video producer Cory is now just getting to more unveiled content.

Spanning 2020 and 2021 (thus far), the content of the channel's uploads has been gameplay footage of Garry's Mod (Murder & Trouble in Terrorist Town), Doki Doki Literature Club!, and Cards Against Humanity. They also reuploaded a 2016 episode of Epic Mafia since the original was taken down by YouTube. Other videos uploaded were IRL content, such as "DON'T FALL ASLEEP FIRST AT A SLEEPOVER! (Here's why)", "The Blindfolded Carbonated Drink Taste Test" [Parts 1 & 2], and "The NOESCAPE Reveal In A Nutshell".

Influences
It can be said that they were influenced by various YouTubers such as: FilthyFrank GameGrumps and JonTron.