BadBoyHalo & Skeppy

Pairing
Pairing:	BadBoyHalo/Skeppy
Alternative name(s):	Happy Duo, Skephalo, Zarryl
Gender category:	Gen, Slash
Fandom:	MCYT
Canonical?:	As Best Friends
Prevalence:	Common
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BadBoyHalo & Skeppy is the pairing between either the real life Minecraft Youtubers/Streamers BadBoyHalo and Skeppy or the fictitious versions of themselves they role play as on the Dream SMP.

Their canon relationship is as best friends. Their ship name "Happy Duo", created by combining their usernames (the "Ha" from Halo and "ppy" from Skeppy), is often used to refer specifically to their platonic friendship or queerplatonic relationship while their other portmanteau ship name "Skephalo" usually refers to the fictional romantic relationship between them. A rarer ship name for them is "Zarryl", which combines their first names Darryl and Zak instead of their usernames.

Canon

BadBoyHalo to my Skeppy

Skeppy 

Real Life

Their relationship is one of enemies to friends. It started in 2018 with Skeppy deciding to troll fellow content creator BadBoyHalo for a Youtube video by applying to become staff on BadBoyHalo's Minecraft server, MunchyMC. The success of these first videos encouraged both to continue to collaborate, and BadBoyHalo's patience and willingness to forgive Skeppy for trolling him and their mutual kindness toward each other caused the two to become best friends. Over the years they've created hundreds of videos and streams together.

Very early on there were also moments that would end up in Skephalo clip compilations, like in their sixth video together where Skeppy asked for and got a virtual kiss from BadBoyHalo..

They have played together on several Minecraft SMPs, including the Dream SMP, as well as competed and won together in popular Minecraft competitions like Minecraft Monday and MCC. Other videos they make together include various trolls and pranks, challenge videos, skits and events. Sometimes they play games other than Minecraft, or they'd do a rare podcast or debate stream. But they are best known for Minecraft content.

Twitter

They also have Twitter conversations that are quoted or retweeted in fandom, such as these iconic exchanges:

[Skeppy @Skeppy Replying to @SaintsofGames Mar 21, 2022]

You don't miss me?

[BadBoyHalo @SaintsofGames Replying to @Skeppy Mar 21, 2022]

I could never not miss you

[BadBoyHalo @BadBoyHalo Nov 11, 2020]

I miss skeppy :(

[Skeppy @Skeppy Replying to @BadBoyHalo and @SaintsofGames Nov 11, 2020]

Dear BadBoyHalo, I'm sorry I haven't been very active on the twitters lately, or anything really. I promise I will soon. Life has been weird lately. I miss you very much and I can not wait until we hang out again soon. P.S. i love you and youre my best buddy this is so simpy help

[BadBoyHalo @BadBoyHalo Replying to @Skeppy and @skeppyextra Nov 12, 2020]

Dear Skeppy, I forgive you for being a huge simp. I look forward for when the two of us can hang out again. I hope everything goes well and if you want to talk about life or anything I'm always available to listen owo. Take care muffinhead. P.S. ily2 and u r my best buddy 2❤️

Also their 2022 'Muffinversary' (date Skeppy uploaded his first video with BadBoyHalo) tweets:

today marks 4 years since i met my bf. i already know that there's no amount of words which can EVER fit the feelings i'm experiencing. i will always feel committed, grateful, and mostly try my absolute hardest to reciprocate ALL my love and care. <3 Happy #muffinversary

Skeppy 

I met this random muffinhead 4 years ago and I never thought he would go on to become my best friend. I am so happy to have someone like him in my life who I can count on. You are my best friend and I wouldn't have it any other way. Love you man ❤️ Happy #muffinversary

BadBoyHalo 

Meetup

There were multiple failed attempts over the years by Skeppy to get BadBoyHalo to meet up with him in real life. BadBoyHalo would occasionally try to blame Skeppy for not meeting up or get mad that Skeppy had met up with someone else, to which Skeppy would say something along the lines of, "I'll meet up with you tomorrow, I'll fly out whenever you want!" And Bad would reply, "Oh, well tomorrow's a little soon..."

They got close several times over the years, but their plans always seemed to fall through (which fans called "meetup baiting"). Skeppy made two videos donating $50,000 and then $100,000 to BadBoyHalo asking if they could meet up now and there are numerous clips from streams with their friends asking and trying to pressure Bad into meeting up with Skeppy. It seemed to be a clear source of friction in their relationship for a time. A decent chunk of RPF fanfiction focused on their meeting and how that would go.

Their first hug. Screenshot from the vlog Skeppy posted.

On February 3rd, 2023, they finally met for the first time in real life. BadBoyHalo hung out with Skeppy for an entire week, they streamed four times together, met up with other Youtubers/Streamers like the Dream Team and streamed with them, and whenever one posted on Snapchat or Twitter the other would post a matching Snap or Tweet. The biggest question that was teased during their meeting was who was taller. BadBoyHalo had been cagey with his exact height, but always claiming to be taller than Skeppy. On Twitter, the duo posted various pictures showing one taller with the other clearly squatting, refusing to stand straight next to each other. But as the week progressed it eventually became clear they were essentially the same height, although fans continued to playfully argue about which was taller (calling themselves things like "tallboyhalo" and "tall skeppy" truthers).

Screenshot of Skeppy and Bad comforting each other with a hug after doing the One Chip Challenge while Red Velvet, Antfrost and Captain Puffy watch.
"Dessert Hotties" IRL.

BadBoyHalo had said that he didn't think there had been any need to meet his friends in real life and had refused to meet with anyone (except AntFrost, but that was before either had become too popular). Then after meeting with Skeppy, he compared the difference between online friends and meeting them in real life as all your life knowing someone only by their shadow, and then they walk up to you.

On March 21st, 2023 they met up for a second time. They trolled the viewers into thinking they were still deciding when to meet up while playing Minecraft, with BadBoyHalo pretending to get mad at Skeppy and leaving the call, before Skeppy turned on facecam and revealed that BadBoyHalo was already there. They stayed together for a week, again going to Dream's house where more streamer/content creator friends showed up to also visit. They posted more Snapchats, including snaps from a merch tour, as well as Twitter group photos. Back at Dream's house Skeppy and Bad cameoed in several cooking streams the others did. BadBoyHalo also did his usual Saturday MunchyMC[1] stream there, except with facecam so the others could cameo, with Skeppy playfully trying to ruin the event. The last stream was BadBoyHalo hosting a hot wings stream with everyone which ended shortly after he did the One Chip Challenge to get Dream to eat a hot wing. Only BadBoyHalo had to do it, but after Bad ran off camera to recover Skeppy came back and insisted on eating a small part of a chip because, "I have to suffer with him."

Dream SMP

On the Dream SMP, which took place from 2020-2022, BadBoyHalo and Skeppy lived together and founded The Badlands faction along with Antfrost and Awesamdude. The Dream SMP is a role play server, so Bad and Skeppy are specifically role playing characters even though their characters share their same usernames. In the lore, BadBoyHalo is a demon who shares his canon lives with Skeppy. Only when Skeppy dies does BadBoyHalo lose a life, otherwise he has unlimited canon lives instead of the normal three.

Dream's plan to collect things other members on the server had emotional attachments to in order to control them included a cage labeled specifically for Skeppy, saying "[Skeppy] is the one thing that Bad cares about". What if Dream had successfully taken Skeppy hostage is explored in a subset of fanfics. Fans also find it a funny gag moment, as to be fair it was clearly meant to be a joke, since in Minecraft the cage would be easy to break out of.

The most prominent lore the duo participated in was the Egg arc, where an alien red egg with brainwashing powers was discovered by BadBoyHalo. Members of the Badlands, including BadBoyHalo, became corrupted by the Egg. Skeppy saw this and broke the mind control connection by covering the Egg in obsidian, also trapping himself in the process. BadBoyHalo freed Skeppy from the obsidian, but Skeppy was now corrupted by the Egg, his skin turning from blue to red and becoming almost emotionless, especially toward BadBoyHalo. BadBoyHalo attempted to cure Skeppy of his corruption, with his other friends urging him to consider killing Skeppy to try cleansing him, but Bad refused. In the end, Bad allowed himself to be re-corrupted by the egg's promise that he could be with Skeppy. However, Skeppy continued to shun BadBoyHalo in favor of the Egg.

BadBoyHalo: "The Egg can give you whatever you want. The Egg can grant you your heart's desire."
Quackity: "Then why do you still not have Skeppy?"
BadBoyHalo: "... The Egg can give you pretty much whatever you want."

Eventually BadBoyHalo lost his temper and killed Skeppy by shoving him in lava. Shortly after, BadBoyHalo and the other members of the Egg cult were defeated. BadBoyHalo fled to where a now cured Skeppy had respawned on their private island. There, Skeppy killed BadBoyHalo in hopes that it would likewise free him from the Egg's mind control. This didn't work, and so Skeppy made a deal in secret with the Egg, agreeing to serve it again by betraying and tricking the other SMP members into killing each other in exchange for BadBoyHalo's freedom.

In short, it is a selfish codependent relationship where each man would sacrifice everyone else and themselves for their best friend.

Other SMPs

Skeppy and BadBoyHalo have made or joined a variety of their friends' SMPs, though the series are usually pretty short lived.

In 2019 the pair was part of the How To Minecraft SMP season 6. They lived together, with Skeppy mostly trying to troll BadBoyHalo in his videos/streams and burning up all their valuables in lava. Mr. Squeegy, Bad's pet salmon, was born (and first died) here, as well as the meme of Skeppy immediately throwing high enchanted picks that Bad gifts him in lava. After seeing Bad's reaction, Skeppy started slaughtering new fish to make Bad think he'd killed his pet fish and bait a reaction without actually killing Bad's pet fish.

A more widely referenced SMP series is the 2020 iDots SMP. On this server they lived very domestically, starting out by running away together to try to protect their pets from the other iDots. They insisted on living together, though sometimes Skeppy would get mad and move out, but Bad would always follow or eventually get Skeppy to come home. They'd joke around on stream, singing, building houses, arguing and making up again.

Paraphrased conversation from Skeppy's fourth stream:
Skeppy in chat: i just have to sit like a lonely housewife and wait for you
while you are out fighting doing the mans work
BadBoyHalo: "Doing the man's work? That's sexist, Skeppy! Skeppy listen, I don't want you to stay at home and be the housewife-"
Skeppy in chat: yes it is
BadBoyHalo: "Unless you want to do that-"
Skeppy in chat: dude
BadBoyHalo: "I will support you in any endeavor."

Probably the most fandom-popular storyline from this server is that of Roberto, Bad's horse that kept dying but which Skeppy kept replacing because he didn't want to see Bad sad, while Bad acted like he didn't know it was happening. Also occasionally seen in fanart is Strawberry and Blueberry, a pair of red and blue parrots they found and tamed together.

Discount Skeppys

Captain Puffy and Quackity were given the titles Discount Skeppy 1 and Discount Skeppy 2 respectively by BadBoyHalo on the Dream SMP. Puffy because she would change her skin to Skeppy and role play as him, usually when Bad's character was missing Skeppy (as Skeppy did not play as much on the Dream SMP). Quackity because he would annoy and joke around with Bad and thus reminded him of Skeppy. Quackity said one of his goals on the Dream SMP was to break up couples, including Skeppy and BadBoyHalo, while Puffy's seemed to be to keep them together by occasionally acting as a therapist.

Captain Puffy, Skeppy, and BadBoyHalo are also known as the Hotties Trio, because they've done Hot Wings streams together.

Conversely, Quackity, Skeppy, and BadBoyHalo are known as the Jealous Trio by fans. Quackity would purposefully try to get between and antagonize them as a joke. This behavior also spawned BBQduo, the pairing name for BadBoyHalo and Quackity, and Ducky Duo, which is Skeppy and Quackity.

Skeppy played the part of being possessive of BadBoyHalo and aggressive toward not only Puffy and Quackity, but also BadBoyHalo, occasionally punishing him or starting fights with Bad because of Puffy and Quackity. Fans would participate by sending provocative donations or posting clips on Twitter and tagging Skeppy to rile him up. Skeppy eventually had to clarify that BadBoyHalo was allowed to have other friends. (To be fair, BadBoyHalo also displays plenty of jealousy and angst towards Skeppy, such as when Skeppy met up with Quackity in real life, or when Puffy received a Skeppy merch box.)

BadBoyHalo continued to jokingly call Quackity Discount Skeppy even when they met up in person on Jan 15, 2023. During their meetup, Quackity roleplayed as Skeppy so BadBoyHalo could practice meeting the real Skeppy.

Skeppy's Love or Host

During the lead up to Skeppy's appearance on the online dating show Love or Host on Jan 31, 2021, BadBoyHalo played up his worry and jealousy about Skeppy finding a potential partner and leaving their friendship behind, and being upset that Skeppy didn't talk to him about being on the show.

Skeppy confronted Bad about it, asking Bad how he thinks he felt with Bad replacing him with discount Skeppys. This was also around the same time that Bad was yet again refusing to meet up in real life with Skeppy.

Skeppy also asked BadBoyHalo to be on the show as a contestant, saying that BadBoyHalo could bypass the female requirement. BadBoyHalo refused to be a contestant, but part way through he showed up as a special guest. Skeppy eliminated him, with BadBoyHalo saying he would have picked love.

Skeppy ended up picking LilChup, who was cosplaying as BadBoyHalo.

Some fans generally found parts of the arc quite tense and sometimes a little too real.

Fandom

Fan Commentary

Dream SMP reactions:

[Quote about BBH's character on the Dream SMP from Tumblr user comradeboyhalo. March 10th, 2021.]
skeppy is bad’s weakness and that makes his character twenty times more interesting. he’s morally grey, yes. he’s quick to play both sides and is shown to be power-hungry and violent. but his true fatal flaw is loving too much and no one usually admits this because, narratively, love usually isn’t used as motivation for villains. his choice put the entire server in danger–and he realizes this during his lucid moments–but could anyone really say this decision was born out of malice?

in real life, the sort of undying love bad has for skeppy is unhealthy. you shouldn’t love one person over everything, especially when loving them leads to the suffering of everyone else. but in fiction? the concept is just so painfully beautiful and tragic.

[straightjacket kickboxer about BadBoyHalo and Skeppy's characters on the Dream SMP]

Bad trusts in and cares about Skeppy so much, that he tied his own canon lives to him, and it's a testament, a clear statement about their relationship: Bad can only ever be safe and happy when Skeppy is; they're so close that, if one of them is hurting, the other's hurting as well.

[...] We're looking at a pair of friends that, in their desperate attempts to save each other's life, have accidentally sealed their fates.

The old Bad and Skeppy are dying, as they're being drowned out by the Egg's whispers, replaced by an empty shell, a shadow of themselves.

They both have given their life for the other, but in the end, it saved neither of them - their efforts were in vain.

And the reason for that, tragically, lays in the very same thing that had motivated them to fight for each other in the first place: Their bond.

Real life reactions:

[RPF Skephalo Thesis by dwtisgay on Tumblr. Sep 20th, 2022.]
what makes skephalo really fascinating is that the entire relationship is documented from the start till now, hours and hours of content and clips where they'd sit together almost daily on stream and talk and hang out

because of this you can chart the progression scarily well if you are insane enough to watch all that content.

[gabilunaar Posted on July 18th, 2021]

I'm gonna be real, i watch skeppy for some years now, i fall in love with his content and personality at first but watching him and Bad's relationship grow it's like watching a slow burn, idiots-to-lovers fanfic.

I'm really against irl shipping, it makes me very uncomfortable but they just build different.

They teach me what true love is, platonic or not, i learn something.

[hoodedjelly @archivejelly Aug 15, 2021]

no stop this is one of my biggest fears if skeppy and bad go to vidcon 😭😭😭

part of me is glad I'm not going to vidcon because... I know someone is gonna be at the dreamsmp panel and unironically ask the content creators something cringe like if they're dating each other and I simply would not be able to handle that embarrassment irl

[Antfrost @NotAntfr0st Aug 15, 2021]

Is it still cringe if I’m the one asking

[TapL @TapLHarV Aug 15, 2021]

Minecraft, But I Ship Skeppy And BadBoyHalo In Real Life...

[asia @dreamie_twt while watching GeorgeNotFound's stream with Skeppy and BadBoyHalo there in real life.]

THEYRE DATING IM GONNA THROW UP

guys i have no idea if they are dating skeppy gave him a necklace on stream so i tweeted this cuz that’s gay as fuck

[tai @itsjusttai_]

HIM PUTTING THE NECLQCE ON HIM LIKE THATS A MARRIED COUPLE RIGHT THERE

[asia @dreamie_twt]

they’re married tai like i wasn’t a believer before that stream but like…

[bree @angeliqgnf on the whisper clip from HannahxxRose's stream with them.]

i don’t watch skeppy or bad but holy fucking shit you can TELL they are dating the fact that bad started touching his cheek after WTF

[Dot Posted Feb 10, 2023]

I use to hate skephalo but after this video I love it sm their literally so cute

[sage]

literally how

[Dot]

idk, they just never seemed like a good match. but I change my mind their adorable

[Burning Stream Films]

I was very cunfused today aswell. Apparently some big Mine Craft YT channel found this song and featured it in a stream 😅

[Cup OF Stress]

@Burning Stream Films just checked Twitter, if I'm NOT wrong users from there found the song and it apparently related to "Skeppy" and, "BadBoyHalo" so they showed it some support and watched it..

[Burning Stream Films]

@Cup OF Stress yep. This is their love song of some sort 😅

[SubparParker Posted Feb 14, 2023]

I don’t know these people but happy pride

[ross @sparkchalk Posted March 22, 2023]

every skephalo fanfic :
- meetup at airport
- arrive at home
- find out that there’s only 1 bed and they have to share
- “hey guys I’m gonna discontinue this story :( I’ll be writing a dnf story on my account after this though”

Memes

Several memes and inside jokes have spawned over the years of their interactions, many of them from Skeppy trolling BadBoyHalo. The following is a partial list:

• Divorce - Skeppy and BadBoyHalo tend to enjoy playfully bickering with one another before making up again. This prompted a meme of saying they were arguing like an old married couple, and referring to their arguments as divorces. Fellow content creators play into this too, with a6d on the iDots SMP asking in chat, "how do they divorce before even starting their wedding", or Quackity bragging about causing their divorce. New viewers who don't realize why they're called Happy Duo can mistakenly think they're happy all the time and get thrown by their arguments and screaming matches, not realizing that along with their genuine affection for each other, they still have that history rooted in pranks and trolling.
• 14 - Copying the first video, a6d applies to BadBoyHalo's server and Skeppy tells him to answer time related questions by simply saying '14'. This is a reoccurring and long lasting meme, such that BadBoyHalo's twitter profile still states "14 Memes are not appreciated" in 2023.
• Thin crust pizza - Skeppy had 72 pizzas delivered to BadBoyHalo's house, thin crust specifically because BadBoyHalo said he didn't like thin crust pizza. There is a conspiracy theory that the video was staged and Skeppy didn't actually send the pizzas to Bad, usually referenced by saying something like, "where's the missing pizzas?"
• 🔰 - Encouraged by Skeppy, people would donate this and other symbols on BadBoyHalo's streams, which when read out by the text to speech voice on stream is "Japanese Symbol for Beginner", a relatively long and annoying phrase to listen to repeatedly.
• Bald - Calling BadBoyHalo bald specifically ie BaldBoyHalo because it annoys him. He did eventually shave his head during a stream where Skeppy donated $10k, but afterwards grew his hair out.
• Soon - Anytime the word 'soon' is used, the meme is to treat it as though it actually means 'never' or years in the future, and ideally to censor it like 's**n'. BadBoyHalo promised him and Skeppy would meet up "soon" so many times over the years that fans and fellow content creators make fun of this word and act distrustful at just how long 'soon' really is.

Fanmade image macro memes from circa 2020

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AU designs by chicheesticks. Art by aytrixii.

GoodBoyHalo & Jef

There is a fannon-made opposites AU where BadBoyHalo becomes GoodBoyHalo, who has a predominately white and blue color scheme and is rude and crude, while Skeppy becomes Jef, who wears brown or dull gold and is weak and introverted. Their pairing name is, predictably, JefHalo.

Jef (sometimes spelled Jeff) is named that because there was a joke that Skeppy got his name from the Skippy peanut butter brand. So then, Jef comes from the Jif peanut butter brand.

Controversies & Wank

See 'RPF' for typical controversies around shipping real people. The main discourse is potentially making the duo uncomfortable or awkward around each other/ruining their friendship by romantically shipping them.

There isn't much of a fourth wall and fans can directly talk to the duo (i.e. through donations, their discords, their stream chats which are constantly spammed with demands for them to call the other) so poor behavior can easily start fandom drama.

Age Gap

There is sometimes discourse against romantically shipping them because BadBoyHalo is older than Skeppy. Considering it's a fictional romance ship anyway, and BadBoyHalo has yet to reveal his true age, fans can technically headcanon his age as whatever they want. Fans usually speculate that Bad is four to eight years older. But stating the obvious, no matter how old Bad is they are both consenting adults (Skeppy made his first trolling video with Bad when he was almost 19 years old and they did not meet in person until Skeppy was 23 years old). Most importantly, they do not have an adult figure/child relationship history like Bad has with, say, the Dream Team (whom Bad has known since they were ~13 year old children).

Bbh towards Sapnap and Dream: I love you smol babies 🥺 💖
Bbh towards Skeppy: I love you ~baby~ 💘😍

dreamteamfanblog on Tumblr playfully pointing out fan-perceived differences in attitude despite Dream, Sapnap and Skeppy all being almost the same age. Posted Aug 18, 2020

On Awesamdude's pizza cooking stream, Dream said that GeorgeNotFound is older than BadBoyHalo, contradicting Awesamdude who thought Bad was older, before Awesamdude gave a little head shake and went, "oh yeah!" If true then Bad is younger than he's led fans to believe, since George is only 3 years and 2 months older than Skeppy.

Twitter thread of @JustVurb impersonating Skeppy, saying "new years resolution: have sex with badboyhalo" and @Spifeyy impersonating BadBoyHalo swearing. Both JustVurb and Spifey are fellow content creators and friends with Skeppy and BadBoyHalo. Friends of the duo often tease them and make risqué jokes. Fans are, of course, expected to keep things more PG and respectful.

NSFW

BadBoyHalo personally tries to maintain a family friendly persona that is contrary to NSFW content, asking fans to please not draw NSFW content of him or his character. He has said he's fine with anything that you "would be comfortable showing to a cool high school teacher." He is fine with blood but not excessive gore and said to check his Twitter likes for examples of fanart he's comfortable with. Skeppy hasn't said much about shipping, except in 2019 when he said he regrets some of the things he said to Bad that encouraged it, and in a video where he took quizzes he picked a choice that said, 'shipping is okay but some bits are weird'. Both currently seem to be fine with platonic or romantic Skephalo shipping.

Regardless of BadBoyHalo's wishes, there are still fans who make NSFW content. Fans who create or discuss NSFW content that is anything more graphic than kissing and cuddling are often ostracized for breaking Bad's boundaries. It doesn't matter if it's RPF or the duo's fictional characters.

In the past Bad has said he doesn't read fanfiction and so didn't care what people wrote, as such, some fans don't view NSFW fanfic specifically as boundary breaking. Nevertheless, on AO3, many NSFW stories are published using the anonymous feature. On Twitter when posting NSFW content, where it's much more likely to be accidentally seen, it is customary to either not tag at all or use l33t speak versions of names, i.e. writing 8@d instead of Bad. Content creators are also blocked in an attempt to keep them from seeing NSFW creations and also keep it from the regular SFW and minor fans. That way someone has to purposefully look for it to find it.

However, even on the SFW side of fandom, there are still controversies skirting the NSFW line. It can be seen as fetishizing to make shipping jokes, such as sexualizing top/bottom claims, just because the two guys are close friends, especially when the fans making the jokes are not mlm (men who love men). On a similar note, purposefully misgendering and calling them girls, princess, etc. happens a lot, as well as outright homophobic jokes, which sometimes seem to cross the line of good taste and that some people might take seriously. Parasocial fans tend to take jokes their close friends make even further, forgetting that they aren't friends at all and are in fact complete strangers just being rude to the duo on the internet.

Fanart on the SFW side can also still be questionable, such as drawing the duo in poses with wandering hands or in skimpy clothing that might not be suitable in the average high school setting. Technically the duo can be drawn shirtless and still be SFW, since they are men, but how they are drawn, i.e. emphasizing certain body parts or in revealing clothing they've never worn before, could be argued to be sexually objectifying them. Usually the artists say it's really the viewers who are doing the sexualizing.

Exceptions are usually made for fellow content creators/friends of BadBoyHalo and Skeppy, and of course for the duo themselves, as Skeppy has made crude jokes toward BadBoyHalo (and jokes at himself when Bad's not around.)

There are many examples of their friends making Skephalo shipping jokes, sometimes fairly graphic ones, or even outright asking sexual questions to fluster BadBoyHalo and Skeppy. Vurb apologized for it, saying, "I'm sorry for any of my followers that found my "skephalo"/shipping tweets uncomfortable as it was just a joke between me, skeppy and bad and I didn't take into account the follower/viewers feelings on the joke so I'm sorry for any of my mlm followers that found them uncomfortable/disrespectful towards mlm couples/individuals and I have learnt and educated myself and I will not be making those jokes anymore. I'm sorry for taking it too far." He went on to say he was super thankful to Skeppy, Bad, Ant and Velvet for being there for him and educating him on the subject.

Jokes should obviously not be taken as tinhatting on the part of their friends, for example AntFrost has explained that he actually views BadBoyHalo and Skeppy as platonic soulmates despite his shipping jokes.

Queerbaiting & Tinhatting

[give-grain-rights on Tumblr]

"queerbaiting isn't a thing when it comes to real people", I say, before Skeppy slams me over the head with a chair for the second or third time this year alone

#congrats on Skeppy for accidentally coming out like five times

Queerbaiting is naturally a topic that has occasionally come up (usually in "my content creator is better than yours" squabbles) since Skeppy and Bad are affectionate toward each other and Skeppy sometimes includes a Skephalo-themed joke or reference in his videos.

Screenshot of BadBoyHalo's Twitter likes showing him liking fanart of him and Skeppy cuddled tight together on the Skephalo flag with the caption "how the best bfs sleep after burning happytwt to the ground" in reference to their 2022 Muffinversary tweets. Skeppy also liked kissing art of them. Their likes were used in the debate about if they were or were not queerbaiting.

Their 2022 Muffinversary tweets, especially, caused an extraordinary amount of confusion and debate specifically about whether Skeppy meant 'bf' to mean 'boyfriend' or 'best friend'. On the slash shipping side of fandom, it prompted some to seriously accuse Skeppy of queerbaiting and debate whether or not real life people can queerbait themselves.

BadBoyHalo, meanwhile, used the phrase 'best bf' and said that people should know what 'bf' means. Unlike Skeppy he did clarify that it meant best friend, specifically that Skeppy was his best best friend, leading Quackity and fans to joke that BadBoyHalo was friend zoning Skeppy.

The flip side of people who think they are straight but pretending to be LGBT+ are fans who think they're LGBT+ but closeted, aka fans who tinhat their sexuality (which usually seems to be in a joking manner but can easily be taken too far).

Skeppy has said, when asked about his sexuality, that he was "straight as a ruler" which prompted fans to tweet him pictures of flexible, bendy rulers and refer to him as such. Skeppy laughed about being called a bendy ruler in a stream with BadBoyHalo and acknowledged it with a tweet saying, "tonight I'm a protractor".

BadBoyHalo is usually careful to use gender neutral pronouns whenever he refers to romantic partners and has never clarified his sexuality. The ambiguity leads some to try to dig into his past love life. As an example, when BadBoyHalo and Quackity met in real life, Quackity asked BadBoyHalo repeatedly if he'd ever kissed a guy, a question which Bad refused to even acknowledge. This prying can annoy fans, not only because BadBoyHalo clearly doesn't want to answer invasive relationship questions, but also because it can feel like watching someone try to force him out of the closet (for those who believe him to be LGBT+).

One of BadBoyHalo's twitch mods, and who also collaborated with him in designing official merch, named Mid_Daze, deactivated their twitter account after getting into arguments with happytwt (the subtwitter dedicated to Happy Duo). It started because a fellow artist photoshopped a picture of BadBoyHalo and Skeppy kissing. Mid_Daze was concerned that photoshopped images, AI and deep fakes like it could be used to trick people into thinking Bad and Skeppy were actually a couple. Happytwt took their concern for how it could be boundary crossing to make photorealistic Skephalo art into Mid_Daze simply being against romantic Skephalo shipping in general, calling them homophobic and a hypocrite for having drawn romantic Skephalo art in the past. It also started a brief trend mocking them by tagging Skephalo kissing art with "/p" for platonic. Even after things had calmed down, some people believed Mid_Daze was being overdramatic for deactivating and also for insulting happytwt by saying happytwt's priorities were fucked. People also said Mid_Daze overstepped by assuming and trying to speak for Bad and Skeppy, insisting that Bad or Skeppy needed to be the ones to set any boundaries and that the manip was fine since only explicit NSFW would be breaking Bad's boundaries.

Taboo Streams

In the fandom there are several controversial streams that are a bit taboo to discuss much but the main one is dubbed the 'Skeppy Drunk Stream'. On Skeppy's 21st birthday, he drank on stream and said a bit more personal things than he normally would when he was intoxicated. The stream was deleted and mods asked fans not to share it. Nevertheless, clips from this stream are often included in Skephalo compilations, usually the part where Skeppy asks BadBoyHalo to be a contestant on his Love or Host, telling BadBoyHalo that he can bypass the female requirement. Another relevant part is when a donator asks what Skeppy would do if BadBoyHalo got a girlfriend before him, to which Skeppy replies with confusion, "is Bad straight?"

Notice sent to artists on Twitter who whitewash Skeppy reminding them that he is a POC.

Weppy

Because Skeppy is a POC content creator there is pushback against artists who white wash or 'graywash' (color skin a distinctly gray shade) Skeppy to give him the correct skin color and features in fanworks. On Twitter, 'Weppy' is the nickname for the whitewashed fanart of Skeppy. Artists will sometimes go so far as to recolor or redraw fanart they view as having whitewashed Skeppy if the original artist refuses to do so themselves. Tensions between fans can sometimes be exacerbated by content creators liking fanart that includes an incorrectly colored Skeppy.

Example Fanworks

Fanfic

• Unspoken Rules [2]. A popular unlabeled relationship RPF story. The most kudos HappyDuo fic on AO3 as of February 2023.
• Fifty Kisses to Christmas by 42starsintheuniverse. Asexual romantic RPF.
• Claustrophobic by arachnicality. A popular RPF zombie apocalypse AU.
• When? [skephalo] by skephaloic on Wattpad. Highschool AU.

Fanart

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  "Imagine your entire life you'd known someone's shadow and that's all you'd ever interacted with... and then meeting someone in person is like they walk up to you... And boom, there's the person." Art by Wiggle

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  The duo holding a banner celebrating their muffinversary and wearing HappyDuo merch hoodies. Art by serpenndragon.

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  In more playful works, fanart of Skeppy sometimes depicts him wearing a box head with the face of his Minecraft character. Art by RC.

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  "Best Friends Forever". A typical way the duo are depicted is with a less demonic Bad and Skeppy wearing his Minecraft face on a hat. Art by laikoski_

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  Double date with Antfrost and his boyfriend Red Velvet. There is a small subtwt called #desserttwt specifically for this quad.

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  Egg possessed BadBoyHalo & red Skeppy from the Dream SMP sets their characters up in an angsty one sided relationship with BadBoyHalo pining for a distant Skeppy. Art by swanfire

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  Fanart of a scene from the Dream SMP. After the Red Banquet, a still Egg possessed BadBoyHalo asks Skeppy, "Do you think everyone will be able to forgive me?" To which Skeppy replies, "yeah, they will," before he kills him. Art by _KuRanberi_.

Fanvids

• Best of Trolling BadBoyHalo 2020 by Skep (one of Skeppy's alternate Youtube channels). An hour long compilation vid Skeppy himself made after being friends with BadBoyHalo for two years that documents their friendship from the beginning in 2018 to 2020. The first part of the description reads, "Skeppy loves BadBoyHalo very much and is very thankful for him. BadBoyHalo is the best, that is all." (Dec 31, 2020)
• Ride With U // Complete Skeppy & Badboyhalo MAP hosted by Fumi03. A multi-animator project based around the song Ride With U by Smash Into Pieces, chosen because BadBoyHalo mentioned it was a song that reminded him of Skeppy. (Jan 29, 2021)
• Tongue Tied | Complete Skeppy & BadBoyHalo MAP | hosted by Hoodedjelly. A multi-animator project based around the song Tongue Tied by Grouplove, chosen because Skeppy said it reminded him of BadBoyHalo (specifically the "take me to your best friend's house" lyric, clarifying he didn't mean anything romantic by it). (Jul 14, 2021)
• Roberto dies [skephalo animatic] by rrararan. On the iDots SMP one of the running threads was how BadBoyHalo's horse Roberto kept dying and being replaced, with Bad acting like he doesn't know the original died. This is an animatic of one of those iconic moments, with BadBoyHalo sad about his horse dying going through a nether portal and Skeppy freaking out doing his best to make him happy again. (Nov 12, 2020)
• Mr. Squeegy by Astrobii. Animatic of the short life of Mr. Squeegy. (Jan 13, 2021)
• you are the only exception <3 by 180hugrat. Edit of BadBoyHalo talking about how he doesn't like hugs, followed by clips of him hugging Skeppy during their Feb 2023 meetup to the song "The Only Exception" by Paramore. (Feb 14, 2023)
• Jealousboyhalo sings a song about Skeppy || PLATONIC Skephalo Animatic by Kemso oo. Animation of an impromptu song by Quackity and BadBoyHalo about Skeppy. (Dec 19, 2020)
• Muffin Official Sus Remix by We The Sus Music. A clean SFW parody of BadBoyHalo's song "Muffin" to be a Skephalo ship song. (Nov 21, 2021)
• Rather be | Skeppy and Badboyhalo animation by izethetic. Their Minecraft skins are animated to be dancing to the song "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit. (Dec 18, 2019)
• george vibes to skeppy and badboyhalo's theme song. Fellow content creator GeorgeNotFound fanboying over BadBoyHalo and Skeppy's theme song and proving he knows all the lyrics, with Sapnap. (July 22, 2021)
• Lookalike || EXTENDED ANIMATIC (Skeppy, Badboyhalo, lilchup, Discount Skeppy’s)(Platonic Skephalo) by Kemso oo. About BadBoyHalo 'replacing' Skeppy with Discount Skeppys Puffy and Quackity, and Skeppy doing the same in his Love or Host with lilchup cosplaying as BadBoyHalo, to the song "Lookalike" by Conan Gray. (Feb 4, 2021)
• Blood Vines- Dream SMP Eggpire [ Animatic ] by Fumi03. The first part of the Egglore backed by the song "The Other Side of Paradise" by Glass Animals. (Jan 19, 2021)
• world's smallest violin - skeppy animatic by spoop!!. The first part of the Egg lore from Skeppy's point of view to the song "World's Smallest Violin" by AJR. (Dec 2, 2021)
• ``It's Just A Stupid Egg, Skeppy" Dream SMP Animatic by Amblerose Moon. The part of the Egglore where Bad accidentally murders Skeppy. (May 1, 2021)
• skeppy tries genderbend glasses 🤓 (skephalo ig) by ifoundjoy. This is an example of games like Gacha Club being used to recreate the characters to play out stories and AUs. (Aug 4, 2021)

Other Fanworks

Skeppy and Bad showing off a Skephalo flag a fan sent.

• Skephalo Flag. A combination of the main colors from their Minecraft skins.
• Best Friend by Skeppy. A collaboration song between Skeppy and CG5 directed toward BadBoyHalo. A confusing song that's almost more of a diss track.
• Skeppy & BadBoyHalo - You Are My Sunshine (Faster Remix) by Faster. A song remix of Skeppy and BadBoyHalo singing "You Are My Sunshine" together.
• Emotional (Badboyhalo’s song) // Dream Smp by Creamay. A fan song sung from BadBoyHalo's perspective to Skeppy after he was corrupted by the Egg about how much he misses him.
• When? [Skephalo] Comic version by imhuman-jk on Wattpad. Highschool AU.
• Cosplay of BadBoyHalo using audio from when he and Skeppy were discussing standing on crafting tables on the iDots SMP by mouse331 on TikTok.

Meta

• Talking about Bad and Skeppy being a close platonic couple, as compared a bit to DNF by an anon asker and dreamsmp on Tumblr. (Nov 15th, 2020)
• Comparing the 'feel' of various MCYT ships, specifically if they're pandering to the audience or not by an anon asker and shoezuki on Tumblr. (Feb 9th, 2021)
• skeppy and badboyhalo's synastry by leovenus1st on Tumblr. (Feb 18th, 2021)
• BadBoyHalo & paltering about Skeppy by secretsscrutinies on Tumblr. (Feb 20th, 2021)
• Tinhatting a Skeppy stream clip by ambidextrousruler on Tumblr. (April 8th, 2021)
• Why the Dream SMP characters of Bad and Skeppy are wrongly victimized by the fandom. by egg-ace on Reddit (also on Tumblr). (Oct 17th/Nov 20th, 2021)
• Skephalo Thesis discussing how Skeppy and Bad's real life relationship developed by dwtisgay on Tumblr. (Sep 20th, 2022)
• Skeppy's attitude toward Bad by various fans on Tumblr. (~Aug 11, 2020)

Archives and Communities

• Zak Ahmed | Skeppy/Darryl Noveschosch | BadBoyHalo tag at Archive of Our Own
• Zak Ahmed & Darryl Noveschosch tag at Archive of Our Own
• Deviantart DreamSMP-MCYT-Fanart group, Skeppy & BadBoyHalo folder.
• General Deviantart Skephalo tag
• #MuffinSelfieDay on Twitter is the 14th of every month. Fans post a selfie alongside a picture of BadBoyHalo and/or Skeppy.

Other Fannish Resources

• Skephalo at Shipping Wiki
• Skephalo Week 2021 on Tumblr
• #skephaloctober 2021 on Twitter
• wholesome skephalo moments A compilation video of clips taken from Skeppy and BBH's videos/streams. Posted on Oct 8, 2020.
• Skephalo being a married couple for 9 minutes and 31 seconds... Another popular compilation video of clips taken from various streams/videos. Posted on April 5, 2021.
• the skeppy love or host saga (ft. badboyhalo) Posted Jul 23, 2021.
• the entire twitch community shipping skephalo for almost half an hour compilation video by skeqqy (and part two). Basically their friends & fellow content creators shipping Skephalo. Posted Aug 13, 2021.
• Everyone Dealing with BadBoyHalo's Skeppy Obsession compilation video by Cas. "Bad just constantly talking about Skeppy or being teased for talking about/to Skeppy". Posted May 25, 2022.
• Compliation of Skeppy being head-over-heels for Bad made by Cas @caspyyay. Posted Feb 22, 2023.