2012–2016: ''I'd Cap That'', computer engineering, and Vine Ko shortened his
professional surname from
Kolodziejzyk early in his career, as his Polish surname was too difficult to spell and pronounce. I'd Cap That was acquired several months later by a startup called Iddiction, and Ko worked there on the app for two years before quitting in 2014. He moved to
San Francisco to work for the company. Ko first began uploading to
Vine, a six-second video platform, in 2013. He partnered with the now-defunct
multi-channel network Fullscreen, with Mahzad Babayan becoming his full-time talent manager. He credited the network and his background in computer engineering for his early success. In May 2014, Ko and his friend
Devon Townsend left on an eight-month
backpacking trip in southeast
Asia. Throughout the trip, the pair created Vines and started several side projects for
ad revenue and experience creating apps with other technologies such as
Node.js. The videos were unexpectedly viral and Ko became a popular figure on Vine. He had amassed over 290,000 followers by July. In January 2015, the two returned to the United States. Moving to
Los Angeles, they looked for software jobs and continued to make Vines. Ko worked for the company Victorious for eight months and had less time to create content. He also frequently had to leave midday for auditions. His manager gave him a job as a senior iOS developer at her employer Fullscreen, where they would be more relaxed about him leaving midday for content creation as a social media company. Ko contributed to the code for Fullscreen's subscription service. At Fullscreen, Ko also met
Noel Miller, a web designer from marketing and fellow Viner, by chance after they had previously talked online. The pair became close and often created internet content on their lunch breaks. He quit his job at Fullscreen in July 2016, deciding that he could support himself on sponsorships alone. After Vine was discontinued, he shifted to YouTube content. He and Miller became popular on YouTube with their series ''That's Cringe'', hosted on Ko's channel, where the two react to content they consider dumb. ''That's Cringe'' has over 153 million combined views and makes up most of his channel's most popular videos. An episode on controversial YouTuber
Jake Paul in October 2017 amassed over seventeen million views. Another episode on the
Christian lifestyle channel
Girl Defined spurred viral
TikTok memes mocking Girl Defined and their videos' themes of extended
chastity. Ko's other content focuses on
internet culture, such as criticism of
internet personalities,
NFTs or
ASMR videos involving dangerous acts. He and other commentary YouTubers have been described as "media critics" for an online
millennial audience.
Vulture said that his videos helped bring attention to YouTube commentary and help it grow from a subsection of
reaction videos. However, the two began considering music earnestly after they were contacted by producer Diamond Pistols and released their first
extended play Bangers & Ass the same year. After struggling with repeated demonetization, Ko and Miller began the Tiny Meat Gang Podcast in October 2017 to make up for losses. Each hour-long episode discusses various topics related to
pop and internet culture. In 2018, Ko and Miller went on tour and reached 1 million subscribers on his main channel in June. In an interview with
Tubefilter, Ko attributed his success to "ripping on the Paul brothers." The same year,
Post Malone was featured in an episode of their podcast Ko and Miller also appeared in a
live comedy tour across the United States as Tiny Meat Gang.
The Washington Post described it as an example of celebrities dismissing genuine criticism as hate; however, Ko gained around 140,000 subscribers directly after the incident and surpassed four million by late 2019. Tiny Meat Gang collaborated with
Blackbear for the single "Short Kings Anthem". Controversial entrepreneur
Gary Vaynerchuk also appeared in a 2021 episode of Tiny Meat Gang. Due to this, some fans began to worry about a potential
conflict of interest and that the two "would [be incentivized] to pull their punches." In 2024, TMG brought several more podcasts under their umbrella, including
Emergency Intercom. He stepped down from the company's day-to-day operations in 2024. In the 2020s, Ko started making popular
reaction videos to
dating web shows, especially those produced by
Jubilee Media and The Cut. He voiced the eponymous button on one such show,
The Button. Ko has steadily released singles, such as "Not Going Home" and
The Buttoninspired "Nightmare" and is a
resident DJ at
Wynn Las Vegas. Ko did not immediately respond to the allegation, but he stepped down from day-to-day operations at
TMG Studios on 26 July.
Emergency Intercom creators also left the network, bringing the studio's number of podcasts to six. According to Social Blade, his YouTube channel lost around 250,000 subscribers in the following 30 days. He subsequently took a hiatus from YouTube for several months, gradually returning from December 2024. == Personal life ==