A Deep Dive into the Sidemen
- Mark Wang
- Sep 18
- 2 min read
The Sidemen, a group of seven British YouTubers, are renowned in the Youtuber and influencer world as one of the most successful Youtube groups. In this post I will summarize how the Sidemen came to be, from formation to the famed individuals that they currently are. If you would like any additional information on them, feel free to visit my past blog post, or look at the sources.
The Formation of the Sidemen
The majority of the Sidemen met long before any sort of group was even conceptualized. Simon (Miniminter) met JJ (KSI) in school, and they began to film videos together, with Simon being the videographer for JJ. As time went on, and JJ's channel became more and more popular, Simon would eventually start to feature in some of JJ's videos, and then he would create his own channel on Youtube. Happening at around the same time, Josh (Zerkaa) and Tobi (TBJZL) also met in school, albeit a different one than Simon and JJ. Also similarly, Josh was the first out of them to create a Youtube channel and begin creating content. Seeking to duplicate his success, Tobi also joined Youtube. At a UK Youtuber event, the two duos connected, initially with Josh and JJ, and they would gradually introduce each other. The four of them then discovered Ethan (Behzinga) while he was streaming online, and invited him to join their group. Vik (Vikkstar123) also joined around this time, as he was recruited to help the so-far unnamed group with the technical aspect of content creation. On October 19th, 2013, the six of them officially formed the group, naming it "The Ultimate Sidemen." Obviously, the name was later shortened to just the "Sidemen," but the name stems from a slang word for someone who hangs on the coattails of other, an inside joke referencing Simon following JJ and Tobi following Josh. Later, Harry (W2S) also joined the group as he also enjoyed gaming and he fit well with the group.
An Interesting Fact: Why has the Sidemen succeeded where other Youtubers and other groups have not?
Once you watch a few videos of the Sidemen members together, you can see just how good of friends that they are, which, in my opinion, is one thing that makes them stand out. While they did get join the group partially for business reasons, the larger reason is that they became good friends and enjoyed working with each other. In contrast other groups that have come and gone in the Youtube space, did not have such a good relation with each other, or they formed the group solely for business reasons. The Sidemen members also constantly mention in their videos, their own rule system, based off of the soccer/football rules. Being late to a shoot earn that person a yellow, being extremely late or missing a shoot earns that person a red. When a person earns a red, the previous responsibilities and contributions that they have made are "cancelled out," so that they have to do more for the group. This rule system has also created a strong structure that keeps members loyal to the group and keeps any of them from slacking off.
Comments