Facts You May Not Know About Markiplier

Mark Edward Fischbach, the man better known as Markiplier, is undoubtedly one of the biggest YouTube stars around, having garnered over 15 million subscribers on the streaming service at the time of this writing. He's known for his incredible energy and big reactions in his Let's Play video game commentary and play-through features, which are both characteristics that have helped him win the hearts and minds of fans. And while dedicated Markiplites have made it their mission to know everything there is to know about the man, there might be a few things that aren't in their knowledge banks. With that said, here are some facts about Markimoo that you might not have known.

Before experiencing success as a Let's Player on YouTube, Markiplier was a mere mortal like the rest of us, attending college and trying to get his degree. He studied Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, but never finished, instead focusing on his burgeoning Let's Play video career. Some of his engineering chops can be seen in action in his Let's Play video for the game Poly Bridge, which has players building structures and using physics to build bridges that can support the weight and speed of several vehicles. He may lament the fact that he could have been an engineer, but we think turning into one of the most popular YouTube personalities around is a pretty good fallback.

Late night show personality Jimmy Kimmel once said that he thought that the act of watching Let's Play videos was a waste of time, which understandably angered a particular contingent of the Internet. Many upset YouTube fans blasted Kimmel with negative comments, leading him to invite noted Let's Play stars Markiplier and MissesMae onto his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, in order to teach him the finer points of watching video games. While they may or may not have totally converted Jimmy into a diehard fan, it seemed as if he had a little more understanding — and even hugged it out — with the two YouTube stars at the end.

Like most people, there are things out in the world that scare Mark. More specifically, mannequins and dolls give him a major case of the heebie-jeebies. While he might not have an outright phobia that cripples him, there are instances in which the sight of mannequins, or other doll-like objects, has caused him great fear during his Let's Play career. Fans might find his reactions to these things comedic or even heart-warming, but watching the compilation of all the times he's come across them kind of makes you feel for the guy. As uncomfortable as they make him, we can appreciate how he endures this many horror games just to make his fans happy.

Mark was presented with a Taco Trophy — an object that we envy deeply — by Rachael Ray, for having created an amazing margarita. This isn't very surprising considering the fact that Mark used to be a bartender, which he reveals in his video for the game Ominous. He said that his secret to "margarita success" is that "a margarita is already simplistic and good. And you don't need a lot of zest to it. You just need to make one and then garnish because presentation is 50 percent of everything." There you have it. If a "less is more" attitude can net us a trophy featuring a taco wearing a bejeweled sombrero, then we bow down to the master that is Markiplier.

Mark took a brief hiatus from YouTube following the death of a close friend of his, Daniel Kyre. Daniel was part of Cyndago, a comedy group on YouTube that focused on dark humor, usually of a satirical nature. Daniel reached out to Mark to collaborate with him on projects, and they ended up being roommates and close friends, working together. On September 18, 2015, Kyre passed away from brain damage after an attempted suicide. Mark went dark on YouTube for a brief period and posted this to his Facebook page, addressing the tragedy. After grieving for about a month, Mark returned to posting videos.

This following fact might cause you to look away in horror, but still leave you very impressed. Mark has joint hypermobility in his legs, meaning that he can move his knees beyond their normal range. The result? He can effectively perform "the foot thing" and rotate his lower legs, making his feet point backwards. It's horrifying to look at, but incredibly fascinating at the same time. It seems as if he's always happy to demonstrate this skill whenever his fans ask to see it, but we can't help but rub our knees and grimace a bit whenever it happens.

Mark once went around asking his fans questions about himself, just to test out their knowledge. One of the questions that kept coming up was related to his origin. When asked about where he was born, many of his fans said, "Oahu," which is the third largest island in Hawaii. While they're technically correct, the answer always gets him tilted because he wants them to be specific and say "Honolulu." To be more specific, he was born at the Tripler Medical Hospital in Hololulu, Hawaii, which happens to be this big, pink building. When he used Google Maps to find it in the video above, he enjoyed the fact that his hair color matched the building's.

A fan of Mark's once claimed that he had abused his power of celebrity and exploited her for nude photos on the popular app Snapchat. A Tumblr user named ragingfeminist said that she started communicating with him on Snapchat after seeing his announcement on Twitter saying that he had just joined the social media platform. She claimed that he wanted to trade shirtless pictures with her and that he found her beautiful, but then deleted his Snapchat the following day. When Mark rejoined Snapchat at a later date, the girl supposedly sent him another nude photo by mistake, which she claims he had screenshotted. Ragingfeminist then posted her story on Tumblr and said that she deserves an apology for what had happened. Mark himself responded to the abuse allegations and told his side of the story, saying he never screen grabbed any images. He also announced that he would stop using Snapchat altogether.

We've all had some pretty embarrassing moments in our lives, but we don't think many people can say that they've ended up naked on their bathroom floor, puking because they had eaten hot sauce that clocked in at five million Scoville units of heat. Mark can definitely claim to have accomplished this, as he revealed on Rhett and Link's podcast, "Ear Biscuits." For the sake of reference, a ghost pepper is just a little over one million Scoville units of heat, so just imagine what a hot sauce with five million units would do to you. It probably feels like you've swallowed a nugget of molten lava that causes your face to explode in sweat and tears while it slowly sinks into your stomach, setting everything ablaze. We're just guessing. Poor Mark. We don't know why getting naked on his bathroom floor was a part of his solution when he felt like he needed to vomit, but we can't really question his methods since we've never been in that kind of situation ourselves.

For April Fool's Day 2016, Mark uploaded a video titled "Mark Contemplates a Banana for 5 Minutes." Well, he certainly didn't bury the lead, because the video literally featured him staring at a banana that sat on a platform next to a lit candle for five whole minutes. The craziest part of this video is that, as of this writing, it's garnered over 2.5 million views. For whatever reason, YouTubers have decided to dedicate five minutes of their lives to watch Mark stare at a banana as if he is flabbergasted by it. If this video isn't a shining example of how popular and beloved Mark is as a YouTuber, then we don't know what is. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're off to watch Mark stare at more things and get scared of mannequins.