Craig Thompson, a.k.a Mini Ladd, is a popular YouTuber and former member of the Banana Bus Squad. He's known for his gaming videos and vlogs. He currently resides in the United States.
Channel
Mini Ladd started his channel as a hobby on May 12, 2011, while at a secondary high school in Northern Ireland. While some of his early videos are privatised, he classed his first video as a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 kill-streak video.
In November of 2011, iHasCupquake featured Mini Ladd on her channel, as the 'Gamer of the Week'. From this point, he continued to produce Call of Duty commentaries, as well as Minecraft commentaries.
One of his videos was a Minecraft 'skit' video of a film called 'The Journey', with Teseride. Some of his videos throughout 2012, included trolling and funny moments on Call of Duty. A video, titled '3v3 Riot Shield Battle', was one of Mini's first videos which included heavy editing. It was here where he discovered his enjoyment in editing. By February 2013, he reached 10,000 subscribers. Several videos were released by some of Mini's friends during 2013 when he was playing Call of Duty while drunk.
Craig hit 10 million views by April 10th, 2014 before he started producing 'Garry's Mod: Sandbox' videos - an original concept for YouTube videos. He reached 1.5 million subscribers on March 8th, 2015, before hitting 2 million subscribers, on July 19th, 2015. Mini hit 200+ million views in August 2015. As of 5th May of 2016 Mini Ladd dyed his hair to pink after raising more than $55,000 in a 24 hour live charity event, though sometimes he had to stop the dyeing as his hair was continuously growing. His GMod Player Models consists of him using either his GTA V Character or the giant Mario character. When the game Fortnite started rising in popularity, many of his friends had started to only play Fortnite. Mini Ladd assured his fanbase that he would not start playing Fortnite, and that he would keep playing multiple different games. One outcome of this is apparent when he did his "REACTING TO MY OWN SUBREDDIT" video, where there was a meme a user created that made fun of I AM WILDCAT, who is one of Mini Ladd's friends of permanently switching over to Fortnite.
In late-August 2018, Mini started censoring swear words out on his videos, this was so he could start being monetised often as he used to be, since YouTube only allows YouTubers to swear up to a certain point, any swearing that is heard in one of Mini's videos are replaced with the noise of a dolphin, this change has seen a mixed reaction from his fans, as most of his friends stay monetised yet don't censor their content. However, as of late September and early October, he has stopped censoring his swearing. (It doesn't sound like you're at SeaWorld whenever you watch one of his videos now.) In May 2019, he once again started censoring his videos, this time muting the swears rather than replacing them with a dolphin. However in September 2019 he stopped censoring his videos, as he claimed that it still wasn't helping his channel being monetised, though the first two minutes of his video contain swear mutes.
In September 2018, Mini created a second channel under his real name Craig Thompson, where he uploads real life videos.
In April 2015, he created a third channel titled "Mini Ladd Vault" which he did not start uploading on until July 2019. The focus of the channel was to move his demonetised content to the vault channel while being able to provide the main channel with demonetisation. He briefly uploaded some videos dating from 2014 to 2016 until he stopped uploading on the channel in August. He admitted in his Cards Against Humanity Revisited series that despite him deleting the videos and moving them to his "vault" channel that it did absolutely nothing.
In July 2018, he branched away from being included in videos with VanossGaming, he admitted that he just mainly wanted to be known as a friend of Evan, and to focus on his own ventures in his career.
In November 2019, he won the Content Creator of the Year award.
In January 2020, he took a break from YouTube after breaking up with his girlfriend Sami. In Februrary 2020, he made a video called "Why I Left", this video talked about the break-up with Sami, moving out of Portland and returning to his home in Los Angeles. He admitted that despite breaking up with Sami, they are still friends. [1]
In mid-June 2020, he was at the centre of a sexual harassment/paedophilia scandal which resulted in him stepping away from YouTube for a month-and-a-half. He admitted that his mental health took a turn for the worst, and chose to return to his hometown of Derry, Northern Ireland to reside with his family. However, on August 12th 2020, he returned to YouTube with an introduction to his latest video explaining why he left and how he promised to change and take a journey through mental health issues.
Philanthropic Work
Mini is known to be committed to fundraising and philanthropic works, he is a member of The Thirst Project and in May 2018 he hosted two 12 hour livestreams and reportedly raised $150,000 for the organisation. In November 2018, as part of his work with the project, he travelled to Swaziland to help build wells that his community raised funds for.
In October 2019, he was named as a Board Member by The Thirst Project and was additionally awarded with the Cameron Boyce Pioneering Spirit award.
He has also donated large sums of money to charities such as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Macmillian Cancer Support, and Northwest Counselling Ltd.
In November 2017, the City of Derry Rugby Football Club renamed their stadium the "Craig Thompson Stadium" after he sponsored the club, the sponsorship is reportedly supposed to last for 10 years. He was known to the stadium as he had played their many times during his youth.
Controversy:
Homophobic and Racist Tweets
Several tweets dated from November 2011 to March 2015 show Mini Ladd using the word "F-----" in several of his tweets, additional tweets from November 2011 to September 2013 also have him using the N word in several tweets. These tweets can easily be found as they still exist on Craig's Twitter profile.
Beef with Terroriser
Main Article: Terroriser/Mini Ladd dispute
Paedophilia/Sexual Assault Allegations
Main Article: Mini Ladd Paedophillia/Sexual Assault Allegations
In late June 2020, Craig was called out by two people by the names of Halley and Ash who made accusations to Craig about him manipulating the two women while he was in his twenties while the pair was underage. later his former girlfriend, SuniDey described their relationship as toxic and manipulative, she also addressed false rumours that Craig had raped her - Following these allegations, Craig took an indefinite leave from YouTube and tweeted out admitting his behaviour and that he would seek therapy - Ty Widdas, his editor, later removed his mention of Craig in his bio on Twitter, most likely signalling that he would no longer be editing his videos, but this remains unconfirmed as of this time . [2]
Many former fans of Craig or people who dislike Craig have referred to him as Pablo, an alter-ego paedophiliac character that Craig voiced in 2014. Additionally, he has deleted comments from his most recent video regarding the drama and blocking people on Twitter who do not respect his privacy or wishes.
During his break he moved back to his old studio at his parents home in Derry. As of August 13th, he has returned to making content, and has lost over 30000 subscribers while he was away.
Quotes
- "I barely even speak English! My first language is sarcasm!" (GeoGuessr)
- "Free for all, Shotgun only, Headquarters, Team Deathmatch, First Person, Sabotage, Hardcore, Minecraft, Sandbox, Capture the flag. Take No Prisoners." (Gmod)
- "It's all luck based!" (Mario Kart 8)
- country hillbilly voice* "Hey, y'all, I don't know if y'all noticed, my dick is one an' a half inches long. Motherfucker lookin' like an acorn!" (GeoGuessr)
- "Check your privilege." (CAH, after Terroriser assumed the gender of 10 year children from a white card.)
- "I did not just assume your gender." (Multiple videos)
- "I apologize for the large bleep noise. We will move on to the next round." (CSGO Strat Roulette, while trying to censor SMii7Y's GFuel plug)
- "I'm getting bullied now. Bullet Bill me, father." (Mario Kart 8)
- "Don't worry, guys. My bullet bill took me from 5th to 5th. Because I was too mad at Scott, he fuckin' triggered a star. You're a c--- as well." (Mario Kart 8)
- "I want a refund." (Mario Kart 8)
- "So, I just got a noise complaint. So... I'm gonna bounce." (Friday the 13th)
- "SSSSSMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIII77777777777YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!1111!" (Mario Kart 8)
- "Eating ass never tasted so great!" (Weird Candy Challenge)
- "AND THE RESULTS ARE IN!!" (Mario Kart 8)
- "Pablo was not a very good man. He liked to have sex with small children." (Gmod)
- "If your dick is that size, I'm sorry." (Golf It)
- "BRRRIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNN!" (Mario Kart 8)
- "I'M CONSISTENTLY FIFTH 'CAUSE OF BRIAN!" (Mario Kart 8)
- "What the FUCK?!" (Ask Mini, after hearing Ariana Grande's high note.)
- "NEBRASKAAAAAA!! Fuck! I'm getting a noise camplaint!" (GeoGuessr)
- "Ahh, sama lumaa duma lamaa you assumin' I'm a human / What I gotta do to get it through to you I'm superhuman / Innovative and I'm made of rubber / So that anything you say is ricocheting off of me and it'll glue to you / I'm devastating, more than ever demonstrating / How to give a motherfuckin' audience a feeling like it's levitating / Never fading, and I know the haters are forever waiting / For the day that they can say I fell off, they'd be celebrating / 'Cause I know the way to get 'em motivated / I make elevating music, you make elevator music..." (The fast part to "Rap God" by Eminem, coming in at about 6.5 words per second.)
- "How is dead inside not a gender?! I am from Tumblr, and I AM TRIGGERED!!!1" (Eviebot)
- "Can I call you back? 'Cause I'm in the middle of hating myself." (Getting Over It, after he got a phone call from his mom in the middle of recording the video.)
- "STOP PLAYING JAZZ MUSIC FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" (Getting Over It)
- HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAA! GUESS WHO FIN- FUCK YOU. (Proceeds to put head down on desk and bang it) (Mario Kart 8, after being teased by Wildcat after the former finished last)
- "Not sponsored." (Whenever someone mentions a brand name in a video and he doesn't have sponsorship)
- "Hot Pink! God i'm sexually active (GTA V Races)
- "Oh my nipples are TENDER!" (GTA V Races)
- "#WeirdNoodles. This video is sponsored by BigJigglyPanda's haircut." (GTA V Races)
- "I just escaped 20... what the fuck is wrong with you?" (UNO, after he was given a massive amount of cards.)
- "That's a no from me, captain." (Multiple videos)
- "I would like to play the video game!" (UNO, in the middle of being skipped about 5 or more times in a row.)
- "Yes." (Usually responding to strange noises made by other crew members.)
- "I sexually identify as a camera lens!" (Subreddit Reaction Episode 3)
- "Nothing says I love you than staring at someone else's ass while fucking your bitch." (House Flipper)
- "This is content!" (Intro to Subreddit Reaction Episode 2)
- "Will you monetize me now, Youtube?! Look! I'm dressing up in costume, like the Spiderman and Elsa bullshit, but I've just got no one to fuck!" (Intro to Subreddit Reaction Episode 3, where he dressed up like Austin Powers, and even had the background going.)
- "Flat earth! ...Not really. It's fucking round. If you think it's flat, you're stupid." (Dude, Stop, showing us what we should all think about our planet.)
- "It's the new Pokemon. Salt and Vin****r." (Cards Against Humanity, discussing Game Freak making a new Pokemon out of "spray painting yourself black and moving to the ghetto.")
- "CHIP CHIP CHEERIO DANK MEME BRRRRRRRRRR" (One of his vlogs)
- "Ass m-m-munch!" (CSGO Strat Roulette with The Crew, while doing an impression Jimmy Valmer from South Park)
- "One bendy boi." "I wanna DIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" (Cards Against Humanity)
- "I'm not sad, I'm just disappointed." (Mario Kart 8)
- "That is so wrong on so many levels!" (Multiple videos)
- "You hate to see it." (Multiple videos)
- "SBEVE"(Multiple videos)
- Do you want my penis? (r/gamephysics reaction)
Games Played
- Cards Against Humanity
- Golf With Your Friends
- Tower Unite Golf
- Mario Kart 8
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Gang Beasts
- Golf It
- Higher or Lower
- TABS (Totally Accurate Battle Simulator)
- GTA V
- GeoGuessr
- Happy Room
- Overwatch
- Paranormal Activity VR
- Garry's Mod
- Emily is Away
- Emily is Away Too
- SuperFight
- Draw My Thing
- Rick And Morty: Virtual Rickality
- Friday the 13th
- Dead by Daylight
- Dead Realm
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
- PWND
- Gang Beasts
- Catch A Lover
- Cat Mario
- Reddit 50/50 Challenge
- SuperHOT
- H1Z1
- Job Simulator
- Accounting VR
- Getting Over It (With Bennett Foddy)
- UNO
- Detroit: Become Human
- Golfing Over It (With Alva Majo)
- House Flipper
- Shadow of The Tomb Raider
- Minecraft
Trivia
- Since he was born on January 7th, he is a Capricorn.
- Mini was born to Northern Irish parents who lived in the United Arab Emirates, making him the only person in the group who was born in Asia.
- At the age of eight, he was one of the youngest people to go skydiving.[citation needed]
- He is the voice behind Pablo.
- On the 17th of February 2017, he got hit by a Toyota Tacoma running a red light, and ended up in hospital for 4 days. One of his friends, Jay, was also hit and received much more severe injuries, but eventually recovered.
- In an #AskMini video; he was asked how fast could he do the fast rap verse in Eminem's "Rap God". He was able to do the original verse precisely, and was even capable of doing the verse at double speed. He has also been able to do the much more difficult fast rap verse in Enimen's 2020 song "Godzilla"
- He plays the guitar, and while he doesn't show off his skills often, he has performed an excerpt of the guitar solo from "Hotel California" by the Eagles, as shown in an episode of Ask Mini.[citation needed]
- If he forces himself, he can hit very high notes with his voice. In one episode of Ask Mini, a user on Twitter asked him to hit a high note in an Ariana Grande song. He picked "Emotions", which was originally by Mariah Carey, and he did so with difficulty. As well, in various gameplay videos, if he gets into a close call, he will make high-pitched noises, to the amusement of his friends. However, he got a case of the flu at the end of 2017, and even though he has since recovered, whenever he yells in a video now, it comes out as more of a low roar, rather than the extremely high pitched squeals. An example of his high-pitched scream can be found in the intro of this video. An example of his new yells can be found at 2:54 in this video.
- It has long been a running joke that Mini is single and cannot get a girlfriend. However, on September 7, 2017, he posted a picture on Instagram that revealed he was dating SuniDey, a Twitch streamer whose streams Mini would often host. In January 2020, they broke up from each-other
- He has a very big forehead, which has also become a running joke. However, he has recently become annoyed by it and at one point was willing to block people who joked about it on Twitter.[citation needed]
- He has a "son" - a bowling pin painted to look like him.[citation needed]
- He is the father of multiple giraffes.[citation needed]
- He is the only person known out of the Vanoss crew to have a place named after themselves. [3]
- He won the 2019 Esports Content Creator of the Year. [4]