For more than a year now, “Matt Hoss” has been a very controversial name to have on the internet. Ever since a man by the name of Matt Hosseinzadeh, who goes by “Matt Hoss” for short, sued the popular YouTube channel h3h3Productions for copyright infringement, people have flocked to social media to do what any good citizen of the 21st century would do: hurl insults at him.
Hosseinzadeh’s lawsuit was recently shot down, with the judge ruling that his attack on h3h3Productions was meritless, given a major victory to Fair Use claims, which commonly affects those in the video game industry. After this, many h3h3 fans took to Twitter to publicly shame the man who tried to sue their favorite channel. But, if you’re going to do that, at least make sure you get the right guy. Unfortunately for a British Comedian whose real name is “Matt Hoss,” this wasn’t the case. Hoss – not Hosseinzadeh – spoke with GameRevolution this odd (legal) case of mistaken identity.
“I should sue him for using my name,” Hoss said, jokingly. “This is my genuine name, and he’s stealing it.”
Also Read: h3h3Productions Wins 17 Month Copyright Lawsuit After Expensive Legal Fees
The problem is that if you simply search “Matt Hoss” on Twitter, you won’t find Hosseinzadeh, who took out the lawsuit. Instead, you’ll find @MattHossComedy with a bio that reads “I’m not THAT Matt Hoss. I’m the good one.” He also has a pinned Tweet dated May 2016 that states “just to clarify @h3h3Productions fans – I’m not the comedian you are looking for. I don’t think that I sued them. I’m too British for that.”
Back then, Hoss had only a few hundred Twitter followers and was never used to getting a lot of notifications. Then, h3h3Productions posted a YouTube video on May 24, 2016 titled “We’re being sued.”
“Before all this, I thought I’ll brand myself ‘MattHossComedy’ to avoid confusion – how wrong I was.” Hoss said. “All of the sudden, I was being called a ‘dick bag’ [on Twitter] and I was like ‘whoa, what have I done?’”
Just to clarify @h3h3productions fans – I’m not the comedian you are looking for. I don’t think that I sued them. I’m too British for that.
— Matt Hoss (@MattHossComedy) May 25, 2016
Hoss knew he had to make it abundantly clear that he was not Hosseinzadeh of MattHossZone, so he posted that pinned Tweet and updated his Twitter bio.
Still, even though Hoss made these changes to his Twitter account more than a year ago, he still receives vitriolic Tweets timed with updates to the lawsuit. Most recently, when the judge ruled in favor of h3h3Productions, several of his Twitter mentions that came in the last few days were people rubbing it in the wrong face. One said “MORE LIKE FATT LOSS,” with another saying “sorry you lost the court case bud,” while another simply said “Get fkt.”
However, while this story could have easily been bleaker – a case of mistaken identity leads to the wrong person being incessantly harassed – Hoss has been taking this all on the chin, using his background in comedy to help shake it off. You can see Matt Hoss mentioning this incident in his routine at around the 4:55 mark in the video below.
“What I love about standup is that something could happen to you in the morning and by the evening you can say it on stage and get laughter from it,” Hoss said. “When it first happened, I wrote down a big list of these accidental Tweets, and, overtime I whittled it down to three of my favorite Tweets, and now I often use them as my opening joke.”
Hoss also said it’s easier to dismiss the vitriolic Tweets because they aren’t aimed at him and that his background in comedy has given him a thick skin. Hoss also gets a lot of supporters among his fans and Twitter followers. On almost all of the recent negative mentions of @MattHossComedy on Twitter, at least one or two people whom Hoss does not know have responded something to the effect of “Wrong Matt Hoss.”
“It is weird how people do just send something off so fast without checking who they’re tagging and what the consequences are,” Hoss said, referencing the Jon Ronson book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, which is one of his favorites. “It felt weird to have that kind of mob justice, but thankfully there are people who are quite pleasant as well.”
Hoss made this as positive as he can, even incorporating hateful accidental Tweets into his stand-up routine
Amid all of this, Hoss has tried to keep up with the case and look at both sides of the issue. Even before this all happened, Hoss remembers really liking the Vape Nation video from h3h3Productions. Hoss even put himself through the apparent displeasure that comes with watching one of MattHossZone’s videos.
“I was not a fan of it to be honest,” Hoss said. “I didn’t really find it funny, it was quite creepy, and a guy that considers himself a comedian suing someone over a quite simple case – he’s not doing himself any favors.”
On the subject of stand-up comedy, Hoss is something of an expert, having a Masters degree in stand-up comedy. Despite how far-fetched that sounds, it is a real degree, earned from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, being a part of their drama specialisms.
“I’ve always been quite of an oddball,” Hoss said. “I loved stand-up because it enhances and embellishes all of its freaks and geeks. You can be as weird as you want and as honest with who you are and people will love you for that.”
Matt Hoss has had a lot of supporters on Twitter who are quick to redirect the hate mob
And Hoss uses that degree to be a professional stand-up comedian all throughout the United Kingdom because, as Hoss puts it, he “didn’t really want a real job.” He has a whole series of tour dates, so to speak, on his official website, his Facebook page and his Twitter account, though he Tweets a lot more than he posts on Facebook. Many of his upcoming routines will be posted to his YouTube channel, for those who don’t live in the U.K.
Now that the lawsuit is over, Hoss can probably rest more easily knowing that there won’t be droves of Twitter hate mobs flocking to his account by mistake. But Hoss might not be ready for the transition.
“Currently, I’m going to start a new lawsuit with h3h3, just to keep it going,” Hoss said … jokingly, of course.
