HERE’S What Happened to Tobuscus aka Toby Turner [2023 Update]

How about a riddle? What can come and go at any moment to us all? The answer: a lot of things. Money, stability, life, health but in this case I’m talking about fame.

Seriously, think about all the celebrities that were at the top of the mountain when you were little but now there’s no sight of them whatsoever.

When you really think about it, it makes you want to give props to those who have kept something so unstable for as long as they have trials, tribulations and all.

Though the spotlight is a shaky one, there are things that the one under it can do to cause it to go out way sooner than expected.

Allegations, substance use, not adhering to the Golden Rule, financial decisions, bad timing, relationships, etc.

The list is endless! Unfortunately for Toby Turner, also known as YouTube’s Tobuscus, he danced with the first three mentioned not only bringing his success to a screeching halt but bringing us to ask the question:

What happened to Tobuscus?

Humble Beginnings

With every story there’s always a beginning and ours is no different. On March 3rd, 1985 in Osburn, Mississippi, William and Jackie Turner gave birth to Toby Joseph Turner.

The family eventually movde to Niceville, Florida where young Toby would grow up and develop a taste for film-making and attend the University of Florida graduating with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Telecommunications Production.

Upon realizing her son was serious about his craft, Jackie went on to take a loan out and buy her son a camera jump starting his first career as a Youtuber. Little did she know how big the pay-off would be.

Youtube Success

On February 14, 2006 YouTube was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Exactly one year and three months later, Toby joined the fast-growing website under the name of “Tobuscus.”

He first gained recognition after turning an incident that happened with a college friend of his, Andrew Meyer, that involved a police officer’s taser gun into a fun, hip-hop song.

Capitalizing on the success the song gave him, Turner would go on to focus on more so on oddball comedy, in the form of parodies, animated sketches, comedy sketches and much more wacky content.

Not so long after his success, he started receiving praises from outlets such as WIRED and CBS News on his Literal Trailer series, specifically Dead Island and Iron Man 3.

Realizing that he had made quite a home on the site, he would go on to incorporate vlogs into his content on his “TobyTurner” YouTube channel as well as dabble in play-through gaming on his “TobyGames” YouTube channel with games such as Happy Wheels and Minecraft.

Not stopping there, Turner would collaborate with other successful YouTubers to produce work similar to his. He was a hit with names such as Joe Penna and iJustine but his most successful pairing was Jack Douglass.

Working with Jack, he would produce sketches and songs with whacky titles such as “Take Off Your Clothes(Like Scarlett Johansson), “The Valentine’s Day Song” and “Tobjackscus.” All of them were hits!

If that wasn’t enough he was chosen, alongside other popular YouTube names, to promote 2015’s Terminator Genisys in the form of a three-parter YouTube series called “Terminator Genisys: The YouTube Chronicles.

Despite his fall, Turner’s stats are still high with his main YouTube account currently having 6.23 millions subscribers, gaming channel with 6.26 millions and his “lazy vlogs” channel with the lowest of 1.81 million subscribers.

Toby was a pioneer and is still considered “one of the sites greatest innovators. Looking back at it, he paved the way and made it to where others with similar aspirations to his could make a living doing what they love.

Films & Television

Upon realizing that his YouTube fame could launch him into Hollywood and quite possibly make him a home there as well, Turner started to dabble in Hollywood projects with the first being an independent romantic-comedy titled “New Low.”

The film would go on to make its’ debut at the Sundance Film Festival garnering mostly positive reviews from critics citing the film as “sharp” , “witty” and smelling like a cult hit.”

Hoping to use his work on the independent film as a launch pad, Turner would star in 2012’s slasher film Smiley.

This one, however, garnered mainly negative reviews and do him no favors as critics called the movie “dull” , “repetitive” and “lacking originality.”

He also starred in other films with the likes of James Franco, Bryan Cranston and Kathy Bates but in much smaller roles.

Not giving up on his dreams, Turner’s luck would soon change after landing a spot on Cartoon Network alongside fellow YouTuber Dane Boedigheimer (DaneBoe).

The Annoying Orange started back in 2010 as a YouTube series created by Boedigheimer and would allow Turner and several other notable YouTubers to guest star and voice some of the characters.

Turner seemed to be the most notable when the show was picked up by Cartoon Network and rebranded as The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, he would get cast as series’ regular Nerville, a Daneboe’s Fruit Store employee and the only human that can communicate with the talking fruits.

During its’ first two weeks, the show averaged two and half million viewers manage to maintain a steady viewership throughout its’ duration. Turner would appear on the show until early 2014 when the show was cancelled.

After Cartoon Network, Turner would dabble in vastly smaller projects, as well as maintain his YouTube following. He would eventually land in Disney securing the voice role of Ant-Man/Scott Lang in Marvel’s Avengers Academy in 2016.

Unfortunately for our multi-talented friend, his less than squeaky clean past would catch up with him and change his trajectory for the worse.

Cheating and Substance Abuse

On April 8, 2016, April Fletcher, known online as AprilEfff and Turner’s ex-girlfriend, accused the YouTuber of having substance addiction, being non-monogamous, and if it couldn’t get worse, inctoxicating and manhandling her back in February 2013.

Another ex-girlfriend of Turner, Amelia Talon, would go on to back up Fletcher’s claims as well as claiming he intoxicated her as well.

Three more ex-girlfriends of Turners’ also came forward accusing the YouTube pioneer of addiction, being non-monogamous and in desperate need of mental help but would deny the claims of him doing anything other than that.

Upon realizing his world was slowly started to crumble, Turner posted a short video on April 11, 2016 in hopes of saving what he could.

In the video he politely denied all the allegations made by Fletcher stating that they were “false” and ‘he never did anything without her consent.’

Unfortunately, the damage had been done as once Disney caught wind of the allegations, he was re-cast in Marvel Avengers’ Academy and wouldn’t work with the company in any other present/future projects.

Various YouTubers and websites would go on to give their take on the whole ordeal with some not putting it past him as his personality on YouTube was one of a “wild” and “uncontrollable extrovert” and even had a history of landing in hot water with friends due to his rambunctious behavior.

After the allegations, Turner wasn’t be cast in any other big-time projects and would shortly return full-time to YouTube in hopes to regain the fame that had launched him into stardom in the first place.

Present Day: What’s Toby Turner Doing Now?

After making a full-time return to YouTube, he would fall back on the antics and behaviors he portrayed in his old videos, as well as nostalgia, in hopes of gaining the attention of the new Youtube audience.

Unfortunately, it seemed that not even nostalgia could bring the Youtuber to his original seating as his views were nowhere close to what they were.

Most of his videos sit somewhere in the fifty-thousand to two-hundred thousand views range with his videos rarely hitting the seven-hundred and fifty to one-million view range.

Noted, the videos that do hit that range are either the sort of videos that made him a YouTube mainstay (Literal Trailers, parodies, etc) or announcements/news concerning his whereabouts or the future of the channel.

He still pleads innocent to the paste allegations and even went on to release a video titled “#MeToo…late?” where he would talk about being advised to not say anything initially when Fletcher made the allegations and claims that all that happened was a simple sleepover where Fletcher wanted to be more than friends but he didn’t.

He even says that Fletcher hinted at making various false claims against him. As of today, no legal action has happened concerning Fletcher’s claims and he still continues to entertain the YouTube masses on his various channels maintaining a steady viewership and overall steady audience.

Closing Remarks:

The Niceville, Florida native has certainly experienced the highs of highs and the lows of lows going from one of YouTube’s top guys to someone that most people either don’t know or has put all the way in the mental toy box with everything else they used to love as a kid.

YouTuber, j aubrey, would publish a video on June 28, 2019 titled “The Rise, Fall and Decay of Toby Turner.

Having been a long-time fan of Turner’s and even crediting him with making his childhood, he states that the YouTuber seems to be a shell of his former self as well as seemingly continuing to make videos just to stay relevant and maintain his lifestyle instead of doing it for the sole purpose of “fun.”

What do you feel concerning Toby Turner? Do you feel he was wrongly done by his ex or maybe feel he got what was coming to him?

We are all entitled to our opinions as humans but I’m sure that at least one time a certain Golden Rule popped in your head. The Golden Rule that states:

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

It is apparent that Turner wasn’t the most hospitable of soulmates, as well as person in general, probably could of done much better to those he hurt but alas it was just too late and he paid the ultimate price: his fame.

Everything he he worked hard for was taken in only a fraction of the time it took for him to gain it.

Earlier, I referred to the spotlight earlier as shaky and said that there were things the person under it could do to make it go out way sooner than expected.

This was a case of actions and unfortunately for Toby Turner, his were fatal to his career.

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