| Dude Perfect | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Industry: | Entertainment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hq Location: | Frisco, Texas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded: | Texas A&M University College Station, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dude Perfect (DP) is an American sports and comedy group and YouTube channel headquartered in Frisco, Texas.[4] The group consists of Tyler "The Beard" Toney, "The Twins" Cory and Coby Cotton, Garrett "The Purple Hoser" Hilbert, and Cody "The Tall Guy" Jones, all of whom are former college roommates at Texas A&M University. In addition to their main YouTube channel, they have launched additional channels such as Dude Perfect Plus, Dude Perfect Gaming, and Dude Perfect en Español. Collectively, these extra YouTube channels have amassed an additional 1.95 million subscribers and garnered more than 134 million views in total.[5] [6] [7]
Dude Perfect's content predominantly consists of videos depicting various trick shots, stereotypes, and stunts. The group also regularly uploads videos of "battles", in which the individual members of Dude Perfect compete against one another in a good-natured game or contest, often incorporating different sports and a unique set of rules. Dude Perfect also created the show Overtime, a series where they host several segments, such as "Wheel Unfortunate", in which a contestant spins a wheel and gets a random penalty, "Cool Not Cool", a show-and-tell-like segment, and "Absurd Recurds", in which the Dudes attempt to break the most absurd world records they can find.
On April 9, 2009, a video of the group performing trick shots at Tyler Toney's house and a local public park was released on YouTube. Within a week, the video received 200,000 views and was mentioned on Good Morning America.[8] [9]
The group's second video, filmed at a Christian summer camp, was released shortly thereafter. The video amassed over 18 million views and went viral. For every 100,000 views the video received, Dude Perfect pledged to sponsor a child from Compassion International.[10]
In 2010, Dude Perfect introduced the Panda mascot.[11] The Panda quickly grew into a popular symbol at Texas A&M basketball games when taunting players of the opposing team.[12] While Dude Perfect revealed in 2013 that Panda was played by Pierce Hilbert, Garrett's younger brother, it is unknown whether Panda is played by one or multiple people. Dude Perfect has promised to reveal Panda's true identity once they "Tie the Pie", meaning once they pass the YouTuber PewDiePie in subscribers.
In 2016, Dude Perfect traveled to the United Kingdom to film a video with players of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea.[13] In 2020, Dude Perfect released their fourth All Sports Golf Battle that was pre-recorded in 2019 with actor Zac Efron.[14] The group also got a chance to visit the US Navy's Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz for a 3-day trip aboard and released their trip's video as an episode as part of their Bucket List. Dude Perfect also visited South Africa in their second bucket list video. In 2021, Dude Perfect released episode 27 of "Overtime", which featured a cameo from Dallas Mavericks center Boban Marjanovic.[15] In another collaboration, star Mavericks guard Luka Dončić makes a guest appearance on a special Overtime episode.
In 2011, Dude Perfect launched a free mobile game for iOS and Android, titled Dude Perfect.[16] [17] The group subsequently released Dude Perfect 2, and other games titled Endless Ducker and That's Lit. Following the release of the mobile apps, Cory Cotton authored a nationally published book titled Go Big, in which he shared the secrets the group has learned along the way building a business in a world largely influenced by social media.[18]
In June 2015, the group was selected by the Harlem Globetrotters in their annual player draft.[19]
In September 2015, the group was approved for a television series entitled The Dude Perfect Show on CMT, which began airing during the first half of 2016.[20] The show's second season aired on Viacom sibling network Nickelodeon.[21]
In 2019, Dude Perfect went on their first live tour.[22] In 2020, the group also announced their second live tour,[23] which was later postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[24] [25]
In 2020, Dude Perfect partnered with Serious Bean Co. to develop a new flavor of baked beans,[26] The group also partnered with TruLabs to sell personalized products and merchandise.[27]
Partnering with YouTube Originals in 2020, Dude Perfect released a documentary: "Backstage Pass". The documentary provided a behind-the-scenes look at their live tour: 'Pound It, Noggin'.[28] [29]
In 2021, Dude Perfect released their first song, titled "The Pet Peeves Song", on May 3, 2021.[30] Later that same year, a book, Dude Perfect 101 Tricks, Tips, and Cool Stuff, written by Travis Thrasher and authorized by the group, was announced; the hard copy of the book was released on June 22. The book contains behind-the-scenes of many of their ventures, as well as deeper looks on each member. The book also contains how-tos for many at-home trick shots.[31] [32]
In August 2023, Burnley Football Club announced Dude Perfect as the official shirt partner for 2023/24 junior retail shirts and academy teams. Later that month, Dude Perfect announced that they had made an investment in the club.[33]
In 2009, the group set the Guinness World Record for the longest basketball shot after shooting from the third deck of Kyle Field. In October 2010, Dude Perfect extended their record with a "cross-tower" shot from a height of 66 meters (216 feet); the basket was located 45 meters (150 feet) away from the tower's base.[34] In March 2011, Dude Perfect unofficially broke their record again with a shot from the top of Reliant Stadium, which remained in the air for 5.3 seconds.[35] In January 2014, the group successfully attempted a shot from the 561-foot-tall Reunion Tower, with Cody Jones and Garrett Hilbert holding the basket at the base of the tower.[36] In their 2016 video, "World Record Edition", Dude Perfect broke multiple world records. The group broke the world records for longest basketball shot made with the head, highest basketball shot, longest blindfolded basketball shot, and longest sitting basketball shot.[37] Subsequently, they released a sequel based on football the following year, in which they broke even more world records. They later made two more world record videos: archery in 2022 and golf in 2023.
In 2018, Dude Perfect broke the record for longest barefoot Lego walk and longest pea blow during their filming of "Overtime."[38] In episode six of "Overtime," Dude Perfect broke the record for the farthest distance traveled rolling across exercise balls. In 2019, Dude Perfect broke the world record for most Ping Pong balls stuck on a person's head using shaving cream, and the most donuts stacked on each other while blindfolded. In 2020, they broke another record for the most beachball header passes in 30 seconds.
In 2019, on Nickelodeon's The Dude Perfect Show, the group set 6 world records: fastest time to wrap a person with wrapping paper (team of two), most party poppers popped in 30 seconds (team of two), most thumbtacks inserted into a corkboard in a minute, most eggs crushed with the toes in 30 seconds, most drink cans opened with one hand in a minute, farthest distance traveled on Swiss balls.[39]
In 2023, in Las Vegas, the group once again broke the record of the world's highest basketball shot from a height of 856 feet from the Strat Tower. Dude Perfect spent three days in Las Vegas trying to pull off the feat and they were able to do it in the last hour of filming.
Dude Perfect currently holds 19 Guinness World Records.[40]
In addition to their main channel, Dude Perfect have launched additional channels such as Dude Perfect Plus, Dude Perfect Gaming, and Dude Perfect en Español. The latter features voice actors that dub over each of the Dudes and graphics that can be read in Spanish. Collectively, these channels have amassed 1.8 million subscribers and garnered 116.7 million views in total, as of August 2023.[41]
Amid their success, questions arose over the legitimacy of the group's trick shots. Hosts on Good Morning America discussed the tricks and debated whether they were real,[42] though experts contacted by the show stated they were unable to find evidence of the tricks being fake.
Regarding the doubts, group member Cody Jones said: "We love it when people claim it's fake, because it makes the shots seem even more ridiculously impossible; and we get more publicity and hits on YouTube, so we love the mystery of knowing whether it's real or fake."