Samuel Whitcomb Hyde born April 16, is an American comedian. His transgressive style has garnered significant public controversy, and has been heavily linked with the alt-right. Hyde co-created produced the series World Peace. He was a host of the series Fishtank. After graduating from high school in , Hyde attended Carnegie Mellon University for one year, before transferring to the Rhode Island School of Design.
Hyde, along with fellow comedians Nick Rochefort and Charls Carroll, founded the sketch comedy group Million Dollar Extreme in , and began uploading videos to YouTube. Hyde alleged that the show was cancelled due to his vocal support for Donald Trump. Hyde also stated: "Don't worry so much about money. Worry about if people start deciding to kill reporters. That's a quote. For the reason why, you can say I want reporters to know I make more money than them, especially Matt Pearce.
In , advocacy group Hope Not Hate described Hyde as a "far-right activist with a history of racism, homophobia, misogyny and spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories. Season 1 began on April 18, , with eight contestants. On January 11, , Jeff Mutter, mayor of Cumberland, announced that local authorities were investigating whether steps could be taken in response to local complaints regarding the show filming in a residential part of the town.
Season 3 began on October 27, , with 12 contestants. The contestants were told they were on a reality show called "Famous House" and that the text-to-speech messages were coming from an advanced AI. On November 8, it was revealed to the contestants that they were on Fishtank. Hyde lampooned the American anime fandom in when he delivered a spurious presentation titled "Samurai Swordplay in a Digital Age" under the pseudonym "Master Kenchiro Ichiimada" at a convention in Vermont.
During the presentation, an MDE affiliate blocked the exit to bar attendees from leaving Hyde's hour-long performance. In , at a comedy club in Brooklyn, Hyde took the stage "to read aloud several pages of homophobic 'research'", prompting walkouts among the audience.
