“Faceless. I make music sometimes. I don’t even know anymore” is how Corpse Husband chooses to describe himself on his Twitter account, which has 2.8 million followers. Like his bio says, he is faceless — he speaks behind an illustrated profile logo on his YouTube videos, and the most fans have seen of him is his faceless body in an interview with Anthony Padilla, or his hands in his most recent Instagram post.
Despite his anonymity, Corpse Husband, who also goes by Corpse, is immensely popular. He has 7.2 million subscribers to his main YouTube channel, 2.1 million on his music channel and 1.4 million on a subchannel dedicated to his gaming clips. On his Spotify account, he has over 4.1 million monthly listeners of his eight songs. His most popular song, “E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE,” has over 108 million streams.
Who exactly is Corpse Husband, and why are millions fascinated by him?
You might chalk it up to his strikingly deep voice.
Every time a new streamer meets Corpse in a Let’s Play, a slew of “Wows” and “His voice!” are practically guaranteed.
“[Corpse] sounds like what God and the Devil [should] sound like,” jokes Seán William McLoughlin, a friend of Corpse Husband and fellow YouTuber who goes by the online name Jacksepticeye.
“That voice is [expletive] awesome,” declares popular YouTube commenter Penguinz0 (Charles White Jr., better known by his online alias Cr1TiKaL).
“Corpse, your voice is beautiful bro,” says Jae, musician and lead vocalist of K-pop band Day6.
Comments and admiration for Corpse’s voice akin to the select few listed above are on par for a usual Corpse stream.
His deep voice has even drawn the attention of U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), whose eyes widened and jaw dropped when she first heard his voice while playing Among Us with Corpse, Pokimane (Imane Anys), DrLupo (Benjamin Lupo), HasanAbi (Hasan Piker) and others during a now-famous Twitch stream that has earned a well-deserved spot among the all-time top 10 Twitch streams. AOC can be heard giggling over Corpse’s voice throughout the stream, remarking, “I can’t get over [Corpse’s] voice.”
His deep voice might be a source of fascination for new and old fans alike, but it’s his sincere personality, dry humor, emo music and entertaining gaming commentary that keeps viewers engaged.
Corpse started his YouTube channel in 2015, narrating horror stories that were sent in by fans or found on the internet — his deep, distinct voice was a perfect fit for the creepy and disturbing tales. His first video, “Last Friday” Scary Creepypasta to tell at Night,” has roughly half a million views as of today. His view count slowly grew over time; for instance, his latest horror narration, “3 Of the Most Popular True Scary Stories Found On Reddit,” uploaded in September 2020, has received almost 3 million views.
Although many of his fans first came to love Corpse from watching him play Among Us with other famous YouTube gamers such as Myth, Ninja and Pewdiepie, he already had a substantial fanbase (with 1.2 million subscribers in March 2020) well before Among Us even began to attract attention across streaming platforms. His playthroughs have featured celebrities like Congresswoman AOC, influencers James Charles and Bretman Rock and music artists Logic and Lil Nas X. While Corpse plays with a variety of YouTubers and Twitch streamers, he often streams with a solid set of regulars like Valkyrae, Disguised Toast and Sykkuno.
Corpse has played other games like Rust and Raft, but mainly plays Among Us, due to a health condition that prevents him from using his arm for extended periods of time. During a livestream, Corpse answered a fan’s question about why he only plays Among Us. He explained that he wants to play other games, but his nerve condition doesn’t allow him to do so.
“Yeah, I really wanna stream other games other than Among Us, but I don’t know how much. Among Us with my disease and conditions is easy cause it doesn’t require super-fast-paced arm-related stuff that would like [mess] up my nerve condition,” he said.
One of the key tenets of Among Us, similar to party games like Mafia or Werewolf, is being able to conceal your identity as the “imposter” and deceive and deflect the crewmates while accomplishing your task (of murdering crewmates) on the spaceship.
Corpse is known to be a masterful imposter, successful in concealing his actions and lying to others about his imposter identity. In Among Us, he would bide his time and skillfully maneuver around the map to hide his killing spree, resulting in the trust of his crewmates and gems like this conversation:
“I think it’s the orange guy and the white guy,” confides JustaMinx, unknowing crewmate and victim.
“Yeah I think so too,” states Corpse (whose Among Us character is black), as he stabs her in the back to victory.
In one play, he flatly admitted he was the imposter but was still able to get away with it.
Another amusing moment of Corpse’s Among Us plays is his failure to swipe the crewmate’s ID card, one of the simplest and fastest tasks. In the now-famous video (with over 7.8 million views), Corpse can be seen swiping the card no less than 30 times throughout the video. His crewmate, Disguised Toast, can be seen expressing his skepticism on his repeated failures and questioning whether Corpse is an imposter (as imposters do not have crewmate tasks, but players will often “fake” doing a task to hide their identity).
It is these kinds of moments that endear him to his fans and help contribute to his broad appeal.
He often delivers quippy one-liners such as “call me Billie Eilish because I don’t want to be [here] anymore” or “goldfish brain, let’s go” to the delight of his audience, who promptly quote him in thousands of comments on his YouTube videos.
His music, too, is authentic to his brand while having popular appeal, especially on TikTok. His song, “E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE,” referencing his love-hate relationship with the subculture of goth girls, features the now-infamous lyric, “Choke me like you hate me, but you love me,” which has been featured in over 300,000 TikTok videos.
Corpse presents to his fans and to the world a genuine self, which may account for why millions are so devoted to him. His popularity has gotten to the point that when his fans discovered his cologne of choice, PI Neo by Givenchy for Men, they caused the product to completely sell out. Corpse Husband responded to the incident, recounting, “How do I feel about my cologne selling out? So, what cologne I wear during a live stream like this, and I [expletive] went to go buy some later, and you guys [expletive] bought out my cologne that I wear. I have to legit find a new cologne to wear, because you guys bought it out.”
If fans can’t see what Corpse Husband looked like, they can at least now know what he smells like.
Corpse Husband’s fans also managed to get him a billboard on Times Square by liking his Tweet over half a million times:
STREAM E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE!
— Corpse Husband (@Corpse_Husband) February 11, 2021
His popularity and influence have all been achieved without even a glimpse as to what he looks like, or even knowledge of his real name. Some argue that it makes up his mystique — fans watch in droves to get to know more about him, making up for what cannot be observed by the eyes.
But part of the reason why Corpse hides his face in the first place is exactly because of the hate comments and the fixation on his face, as well as his pre-existing struggles with his personal health and anxiety. Corpse has stated that the fascination with what he looks like has caused him anxiety, admitting in his interview with Anthony Padilla that this anxiety has made him apprehensive of leaving his house, and severely impacted his social relationships. His illness and general aversion to the outside world were highlighted in his song “Agoraphobic” as well.
Corpse has stated that he is affected by a number of conditions, including fibromyalgia, sleep apnea and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Tested positive for: Sleep apnea, Fibromyalgia, Thoracic outlet syndrome at PT, (which they revoked after seeing nothing on my thoracic spine MRI) , partial positive on lyme disease (I have an appointment for it a couple months)
Yes i've seen rheumatologist's and endocrinologists— Corpse Husband (@Corpse_Husband) December 12, 2019
The deepness of Corpse’s voice can be partly attributed to GERD. Although GERD — which can affect the throat due to stomach acid being brought up into the esophagus — appears to have had an effect on the creator’s vocal cords over time, longtime fans have noted that Corpse’s voice was always deep to begin with.
During an Instagram Q&A, one of Corpse Husband’s fans asked him, “What’s the main reason why you won’t be doing [a] face reveal?” Corpse’s answer? Heartbreaking.
“A lot of people think it’s like a business thing or a gimmick,” Corpse said. “I just deeply [expletive] hate my face, and people’s expectations at this point are ridiculous and unachievable.”
[Trigger Warning: Self-harm]
In the Q&A, Corpse Husband went on to talk about the struggles he faces with self-harm. He reportedly admitted to those listening that, at times, he’s engaged in it moments before going live:
“That’s something that I still struggle with, there have been multiple streams in the past where I was [expletive] cutting my face with razor blades like 10 minutes before going live. You never know what people are going through behind the scenes.”
[End warning]
As fascination with Corpse Husband grows, so do demands for a face reveal — of which his reasons for keeping hidden isn’t a marketing gimmick, but rather a personal struggle. As fans of Corpse Husband and fans in general, it’s important to remember that everyone, even celebrities, has hidden issues and inner demons. It’s essential that we remain understanding and compassionate to our idols, who aren’t just nebulous pixels on our screens but rather real people behind the scenes.
