The No Deo Hero Encyclopedia

The No Deo Hero is a comedy, athletic, and entertainment show created, edited, and operated by Primal Instinks.

The channel began as a personal hobby and artistic outlet to share the good times Primal had with his friends, as well as serving as an alternative to using social media, which Primal was not a fan of. Once his home videos began gaining attention from loyal fans on the internet, Primal expanded the channel to be a more diverse and innovative collection of athletic competition, satirical comedy, eccentric entertainment, and inspiring vlogs, and he began featuring more of his other friends on it who wanted to join in on the fun. Once the original founding friends moved on as the years went by and their lives changed, Primal began filming solo in 2023 but kept the doors open for guest appearances.

The channel's content reflects his interests and inspirations, including the wild antics of the Jackass crew, the body odor humor in cartoons such as The Ren & Stimpy Show, the silliness of Looney Tunes, the improvised character comedy of radio personality Richard Christy, and the parody and satire found in some of his favorite television shows, such as Futurama and South Park. His rat mascot Cheesus Brodent was inspired by anthropomorphic shows like the ones mentioned above as well as Rocko's Modern Life and BoJack Horseman. It's also a homage to punk, his favorite subculture.

The No Deo Hero was originally created on October 5th, 2015 under its former name "The No Deo Duo," and was renamed after T-Wrex got married and departed the show. On September 18th, 2016, the channel gained its first 1,000 subscribers.

On June 22nd, 2017, the channel reached 2,000 subscribers; on January 18th, 2018, it gained 3,000. It earned 4,000 followers on October 24th, 2018. The 5,000 subscriber milestone was gained on August 22th, 2019. 6,000 subscribers was achieved on May 22nd, 2020. It had 7,000 subscribers on May 1st, 2021. 8,000 was reached on July 4th, 2022. On October 13th (Friday the 13th) the channel earned 9,000 subs. On Monday, June 3rd, at 1:39pm EST, the channel celebrated 10,000 subscribers. The morning after Thanksgiving, November 29th of 2024, it reached 11,000.

The channel slogan is "Not all heroes wear capes...or deodorant" and its catchphrase is "Welcome to the wild side!" Primal's video introduction "Primal Instinks HERE" was inspired by character dialogue from the video game Skyrim.

FOUNDER:

Primal Instinks in 2021

Primal Instinks is the creator, operator, and video editor, as well as the writer and host of The No Deo Hero. Primal has had prior experience with a few YouTube channels before The No Deo Hero under different aliases, which were mainly solo efforts and served as precursors to some of The No Deo Hero's playlists, such as breath-holding contests, comedy skits, and workout routines. Primal eventually grew bored with these early attempts, and these unsuccessful channels were abandoned and deleted.

Primal stands at 5'11" tall and weighs about 150 pounds. He's a third-generation American of mixed European ethnicity, including Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and Italian descent.

Since 2013, Primal hasn't used shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, or soap (aside from washing his hands every day) due to his natural outlook and the healthy lifestyle he chooses to live. He's aware that this is generally frowned upon in modern society, so in the spirit of self-deprecating satire, he created a punk-themed, unwashed rat persona for himself. The appearance of this rat character, which he commissioned freelance artists to create for him, has green fur to illustrate the absence of hygiene products. Primal named the rat Cheesus Brodent and he serves as his channel mascot.

Primal doesn't like to wear socks or shoes unless necessary; this is also due to his natural outlook and preferred way of living. As a result, he spends most of his life barefoot. He's also shirtless as often as possible like a tribal man. As of 2022, his hairstyle is a mohawk which he cuts and shaves himself.

Primal in 2023

T-Wrex, a former friend of his who he roomed with for several years, gave him the nickname "Primal Instinks" based on his primitive hygiene habits, shoeless preference, and natural outlook on life, with "Instinks" being a pun on "instincts" due to his unwashed, deodorant-free lifestyle.

Primal views himself as a vermin to society only in jest and plays along with this joke for the sake of entertainment. As a result of childhood imprinting, he speaks highly of smelly shoes, feet, and armpits, which he finds to be gross albeit enjoyable smells, and by expressing his dislike of the smells of soap, cologne, perfume, and deodorant.

In the video "My Strange Addiction - Smelling My Friends' Shoes," which is a parody of the TLC show "My Strange Addiction", Primal further entertains these interests by opening up about an unusual habit he's always had of smelling his friends' shoes for enjoyment. For the video, he asked male friends and co-workers to loan or give him their old shoes so he could smell them on camera and soapbox about it in a satirical manner.

Due to the success of the first "My Strange Addiction" series, Primal filmed more episodes of it, including one where he explained the psychology behind his shoe-smelling habit. The video also contained a positive message where he encouraged everyone to embrace their individuality and not be ashamed of who they are or what they're into as long as it's harmless.

Primal mentions that holding his breath has been a skill he's practiced ever since he was small enough to fit in the bathtub (4 or 5 years old), where he would spend time trying to stay underwater as long as he could instead of washing his body. He would also hold his breath in class during boring lectures and practice this talent at home whenever he was alone in his bedroom or couldn't sleep at night. He's never met a friend who could beat him in a breath-holding contest in person, and the many minutes on end he effortlessly goes without breathing amazes everyone who sees it.

He also enjoys showing off his breath-holding talent and pushing his body's limits with the help of his friends, referring to it as his personal choice of "benign masochism," a term associated with bodybuilders who enjoy the soreness of their muscles after lifting weights and competitors who enjoy the burn they experience while competing in hot pepper-eating contests. He compares the thrill he gets from pushing his body's breath-holding limit to the rush people experience from skydiving or riding rollercoasters.

Primal is a big fan of parody and satire and comedy as a whole. He loves puns and alliterations and will often use them in video titles and descriptions. He enjoys doing voice impressions and imitating accents, and includes these in some of the channel's videos. He also loves music and will sometimes sing songs during the filming of videos.

Primal has always lived a bisexual lifestyle but has never been interested in intercourse, though he does enjoy other forms of romance and is otherwise sexually active. He enjoys casual relationships, but he isn't interested in dating, marriage, or having kids. Instead, he puts all of his focus into bonding with friends he feels a relativity and connection toward, and he may have romantic encounters with others if they show the interest of having them with him.

After abstaining from eating unhealthy food and not drinking soda or other sugared beverages for years, in March of 2018, Primal embraced a vegetarian diet as a result of digestive issues that suddenly arose from eating meat. Though he's not fully vegan, he prefers vegan options.

Primal began a podcast-style vlog in 2020 where he selects a topic and discusses it openly, unfiltered, and off-the-cuff to The No Deo Hero's audience. He aims to raise awareness and discuss identity and understanding with all of his fans in regards to himself and others who relate.

PLAYLISTS:

The No Deo Hero is a variety channel which is organized in titled playlists that are updated regularly. Videos are filmed from a comedic/entertaining standpoint with the exception of the serious nature of some of the vlogs, and they generally include banter, parody, and satire. The comedy skits utilize retro-scripting, where a plot is thought up beforehand but the dialogue is unscripted and improvised on the spot. In some instances, dramatizations of scary scenarios are filmed, such as drowning in a backyard swimming pool or being kidnapped by a madman.

The content categories include comedy skits, athletic competition, eccentric entertainment, and open and interactive vlogs.

THE NO DEO SHO:

The main outlet for the channel is "The No Deo Sho," which is a playlist of comedy skits. As the channel name suggests, a central theme of the comedy revolves around the fact that Primal Instinks doesn't use deodorant.

There are several mini-series videos that are included in this playlist as well, such as shoeless driving videos, stinkpit trivia rounds, and shoe-smelling comedy skits.

STOMPY STOMPY JOY JOY:

This playlist contains what Primal calls "stompdown" videos, which are virtual simulations filmed from a ground point of view with the camera facing up and consisting of him pretending to jump the viewer and give them a beatdown for a random reason.

The hitting and stomping is accompanied by entertaining banter and includes signature stomp moves, such as the elevator stomp (dropping both feet together down on the camera in slow motion), the seagull stomp (stepping rapidly on the camera while saying "die" like the seagulls from Finding Nemo when they say "mine"), and performing an aggressive tap dance right on your face.

The slow-motion stomping, ground point of view, and overall concept of the stompdown videos were inspired by a famous scene from the hit 90's movie "Office Space" where three of the characters destroy a malfunctioning printer outdoors by stomping and punching it. This scene was also parodied in the episode of Family Guy where Peter Griffin's "Sufin' Bird" record is destroyed by Stewie and Brian.

The playlist title "Stompy Stompy Joy Joy" is a parody of the song "Happy Happy Joy Joy" from the The Ren & Stimpy Show, which Primal lists as a major inspiration.

BREATH-HOLDING BATTLE:

A contest between two friends where each one takes a turn holding their breath as long as they can. The other person covers their nose and mouth with their hands to ensure they don't cheat, and an overlaid timer displays how long they hold their breath for. The person who's mouth isn't covered aids the video with entertaining banter.

Primal and his friends filmed interesting new ways to compete by holding their breath, such as attempting to solve a Rubik's cube in one breath, both on land and underwater. Primal also invented a new type of wrestling, called brethling, where the goal is to wrestle the breath away from your opponent in order to win by closing your hand over their nose and mouth. Some of the videos in this playlist are also solo attempts of Primal trying to hold his breath as long as he can.

Primal Instinks is the reigning champion of the breath-holding battle, with his longest personal record being clocked at 5 minutes and 36 seconds and achieved on September 10th of 2023. His previous longest record, which he set back in January 2017, was 5 minutes and 4 seconds, and in that video he actually ended up passing out on camera at the end on accident. He was unharmed and regained consciousness after 7 seconds and realized his achievement in awe.

HOME GYM:

Workout/exercise videos which are filmed either from inside a house with weights and exercise equipment or outside in a backyard. Some of these videos are also strength-related challenges, such as the Abs of Steel Contest, which for years served as the channel's most-viewed video of all time.

Primal's home gym equipment includes two 35-pound dumbbells, a barbell with two 20-pound weights and several smaller weights attached to it, and a piece of equipment which includes objects to work several different muscle groups, including pull-up bars, handles for perfect-form push-ups, dip bars, and arm rests for leg raises. This piece of equipment was purchased using payments sent by fans for video commissions.

Early videos in the playlist showed Primal and his friends creating their own weight resistance when doing push-ups or crunches together by placing their foot on the back (push-ups) or core (crunches) of the other friend while they're performing the exercise. They're also known to sometimes use the body weight of each other in place of actual weights, for example in the "Fireman Carry Squats" video.

THE POOL KIDS CLUB:

These videos were filmed in the pool in the backyard of T-Wrex's house. Included in this playlist is a sport called "poolyard dash," where one friend has to swim from end of the pool to the other without being dragged back to the end they started at by another friend waiting in the middle.

Primal and his friends filmed events such as underwater handstand and somersault competitions, water gun fights, flips and dives into the pool, breath-holding battles, lap-swimming contests, underwater fold-up chair races, underwater screaming compilations, pool wrestling matches, and dramatized scenarios where they pretended to drown each other.

The title of this playlist is a pun on "The Cool Kids Club." The playlist was retired after T-Wrex moved on in life, but the videos still remain on the channel.

BACKYARD SPORTS:

These videos are sports matches which take place in the backyard or inside the house. The boxing matches were formerly titled "This Is SPAR-ta!", and in every sparring match aside from the first one, protective head gear is worn along with the boxing gloves. Early matches, which originally saw heavier hits being thrown, also included mouth guards.

Later matches show both contenders trading blows but never attempting to seriously hurt each other because the goal is to just have fun. Whereas most rounds in boxing would last a few minutes, some of the boxing videos turned out to be endurance matches consisting of one long, continuous round.

One day, during the filming of a backyard boxing video, the addition of wrestling was brought up by Primal. The wrestling playlist was soon created and included as an addition to the existing athletic competition and sports playlists on the channel. Some of these matches are actual sports matches, while others follow a WWE-style dramatization.

The friends play by submission rules, where matches are won by either applying choke-holds or limb-locks to your opponent in an effort to get them to tap out. The grappling matches resemble Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

During a wrestling match one day, a new hybrid sport idea was thought up by Primal. The new sport was coined "brethling" by T-Wrex, a portmanteau of "breath" and "wrestling," as the object of the sport is to wrestle the breath from your opponent in order to win. Brethling matches are won by using choke-holds or "smother-holds," the latter of which means using the palms and fingers of your hands to block your opponent's nose and mouth in an attempt to weaken them or get them to submit.

Brethling is a hybrid of the channel's wrestling matches and breath-holding battle playlist. The first brethling match was very well received by fans, with support for future matches being requested.

Another hybrid sport named "Battle Broyale" was later added, which is a combination of sparring and wrestling where both opponents wore protective headgear and use boxing gloves to bop each other, then win the round by submission using wrestling holds.

This playlist was retired after Primal began filming solo after his original featured friends moved on in life, but all of the videos from it remain on his channel.

PRIMAL'S PODCAST

In April of 2020, Primal Instinks began a podcast-style vlog on the channel where he sits in front of the camera and talks directly to the audience about a selected topic. Each episode of the podcast is unfiltered, unedited, and off-the-cuff, making it a personal and open experience for the audience listening.

Primal occasionally selects topics which are often questions or comments brought up by fans, including how he got started filming videos online and what Primal's sexual identity is. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that a lot of his fans have alternative identities like him.

IN-JOKES AND LORE:

The No Deo Hero's channel name was created from the fact that Primal Instinks doesn't use deodorant. Through comments and messages, his fans told him they looked up to him, related to his identity he was open about, appreciated him speaking openly about himself, and let him know his content made them happy and feel good about themselves, and a few even called him their hero. These words meant a lot to Primal, and he humbly accepted the title his fans gave him and renamed his channel "The No Deo Hero" in honor of them after his former featured friends moved on in life.

FAN FUNDING:

After finding an audience, The No Deo Hero began receiving inquiries from fans who were interested in supporting Primal and his friends by way of crowdfunding. In response, money-transfer accounts and a Patreon were set up and payment links were added to the channel and official website.

After fans offered early on to pay for personalized videos, Primal announced the opportunity to film video commissions for fans who were interested, and he began detailing the scenarios that had been filmed for fans on the official website as behind-the-scenes extras which could be exclusively watched by fans who purchased access to them. The first video commission was filmed on December 31st, 2015.

Primal continues to film video commissions to this day.

RECOGNITION:

YouTube's algorithm widely promoted two episodes of the "My Strange Addiction - Smelling Shoes" mini-series. Primal expected to be teased and judged for his cringe-comedy standpoint in the first episode, however it was met with supportive comments from people who related, and a follow-up episode included a core message in it as a result. Fans applauded his courage in being so open in the comments, and some viewers were even encouraged to come forward to state they had the same habit.

In 2016, The No Deo Hero was emailed with a contract offer from multi-channel network BroadbandTV. A talent scout had discovered the YouTube channel through one of its underwater Rubik's cube breath-holding battles, and, after viewing more of its content, invited Primal to be part of the network in exchange for an ad revenue split. Primal politely refused the offer, mainly because he wanted to continue succeeding and improving on his own without any outside assistance. Primal also preferred coming up with video titles that contained alliterations over clickbait titles meant to generate higher SEO results, and he didn't like the idea of having to pay someone to do what he enjoyed doing on his own for fun.

In February of 2018, The No Deo Hero received an email invite to join TopBuzz because a talent scout had been impressed with the filming and editing of the comedy skit "Brojack's Informal Induction." The offer was appreciated but not accepted. Subsequent social media partnerships and paid product placement offers have all been ignored.

LINKS:

* Official website - https://www.thenodeohero.com
* YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/TheNoDeoHero
* Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thenodeohero
* Cash App - https://cash.app/$TheNoDeoHero
* Email - [email protected]

(The No Deo Hero/Primal Instinks does not have any social media accounts or chat apps)