Stampy

Joseph Garrett (born 13 December 1990), better known as Stampylonghead, Stampylongnose, Stampy Cat, or simply Stampy , is an English YouTuber, video game producer, actor, and author best known for his Minecraft video game commentaries as the character of Stampy Cat. He is well known for his child-friendly demeanour and incorporating storytelling and education into the Let's Play format. In 2014, he was one of the ten most-watched YouTube channels in the world.

In 2015 Garrett created a scripted edutainment series called Wonder Quest in collaboration with Maker Studios and Disney. The show was filmed in Minecraft and features educational content designed for children to watch in school. It aired two seasons from 2015 to 2016. Garrett has voiced the Stampy character in the video game Minecraft: Story Mode and has made guest appearances on several television programmes with CBBC and Disney XD. He has also released two children's books, and is in the process of writing a series of young adult novels.

Garrett's channel has gained over 8.16 billion video views and over 10.9 million subscribers. In 2015 his channel received 200 million monthly views,

Early life and education Joseph Garrett was born on 13 December 1990, in the city of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, England, and grew up in Havant. He has two older sisters, Rachel and Annette, the latter of whom also has a Minecraft YouTube channel.

Garrett studied TV and video production at Solent University in Southampton. He enjoyed creating stop-motion films and wanted to be an editor or vision mixer, wanting to work on projects entirely by himself. Initially, his channel consisted of live-action comedy skits and animations he made with his friends. Garrett launched his second channel, the Stampylonghead channel, on 29 July 2011. He began making Minecraft Let's Play videos in 2012, including his most popular series, Stampy's Lovely World. Garrett has described the channel as a "complete accident," saying his original aim was to become a video game journalist. He attributed some of his popularity to his then-daily upload schedule, saying that this ensured his audience knew they could return regularly to find new content to watch. Garrett attended San Diego Comic-Con for the first time in 2014. Garrett, upon being asked if he would be interested in transitioning to television, stated that he was happy remaining on YouTube. Garrett was a featured panellist at Minecon in July 2015. He attended Minecon again in 2016. In September 2015, Garrett signed a two-book deal with Egmont Publishing. Stampy's Lovely Book, released on 22 October 2015, is a children's activity book themed around Stampy Cat. Stampy's Lovely Book was followed by a sticker book titled Stampy Cat: Stick with Stampy! and released on 28 July 2016.

In October 2018, Garrett announced he would be taking a break from his Minecraft content to spend more time writing books. He returned briefly in 2019, with the release of episode 658 of Stampy's Lovely World, "Mirror World". The series returned to a weekly upload schedule on 19 August 2020. On 21 October 2023, Garrett released the final episode of Stampy's Lovely World, titled "Thanks For Watching". The video marked the end of the 823-episode series, and it received 1.7 million views in a day. Garrett stated that although his personal channels would be inactive following the series' conclusion, he would continue working on his podcast The Bonus Points. The Bonus Points would continue to produce episodes until the end of 2025.

Other ventures In 2018, Garrett broke a Guinness World Record for the fastest time to make and display ten cakes in Minecraft, which he did in three minutes and 51 seconds. and Sqaishey Quack, a duck character played by Garrett's former spouse Kye Bates. When Garrett started making content about Minecraft, which 'blew up', he noticed that his audience mostly consisted of children.

Once Garrett became aware of his young audience, he started placing more energy into his voice to keep their attention. Caroline Knorr of Common Sense Media describes Stampy's presentation as best for younger children, and that "Stampy feels like a cross between Pee-wee Herman and Mr. Rogers". Lee Bear was a bear character who was prominent in the earlier Stampy's Lovely World episodes as a helper, played by the Minecraft YouTuber Lee Carson. In 2015, it was alleged that Carson sent threatening messages and explicit images of himself to women online. Garrett removed Carson from the series in September 2015, doing so in a manner that concealed the truth of Carson's actions from Garrett's young fanbase.

Viewership In February 2014, the Stampylonghead channel received 159.3 million views. At the time, he had 2.3 million subscribers and 845 million channel views overall.