Sam Golbach

While in school, Sam Golbach, along with his friend, Colby, started discussing ideas to produce a number of videos that had the shock value to engage viewers. All of these were prank videos that basically included the duo causing trouble in all sorts of places, from a mall to the local Target store to the park fountain. They shot these pranks with their phone cam, kept them short and sweet, and started uploading them to Vine. Very soon they amassed quite a following, with one of their videos; “Following Fat People” gathering a record view of 10 million! In the video, Sam followed random people at a supermarket while playing the saxophone, often receiving quite the verbal bashing from their targets. By the summer of 2014, the account was receiving 5,000 to 6,000 followers per day on Vine. By the time Vine was taken down, they had more than 1.6 million fans. Sam then moved on to YouTube, where he continued to make more prank videos and also started making personal vlog entries on various subjects.

The things that make Sam Golbach so special are definitely his cute looks coupled with a killer sense of humor. He is funny and at the same time goofy in an irresistible boy-next-door sort of a way. His blue eyes and unruly blonde locks have the girls swooning, some even putting up strong displays of emotion just so they can meet him. His pranks are elaborate and extremely funny and they reveal a sharp brain behind the whole execution. At the same time, Sam is focused on making teaching, his other passion in life, a reality. Together with Colby, Sam has introduced The Life Project that focuses on teaching people build healthier life-skills through engaging videos and has been featured by news agencies like ‘BBC,’ ‘Huffington Post,’ etc.

Sam and Colby have been under scrutiny from social media police for their content which they often designate as juvenile, offensive and disruptive. While titles like “Following Fat People” caused protest from specific groups of people, disruptive pranks like placing a couch inside the elevator resulted in their being banned from the particular Oak Park mall. In November 2015, fellow YouTuber Sam Pepper played a prank on Sam that involved his best friend Colby being fake kidnapped and fake shot in the head. That video received a lot of admonitions from the media for spreading negative imagery across internet. Recently, Sam has changed his social media motto to “upward and onward” and aims to focus on the good aspects of life rather than just pranks and mischiefs.