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This Article Contains Spoilers - WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all.

Steve Cobs is the main antagonist of the animated web series Inanimate Insanity.

He was the founder and CEO of the Meeple Corporation as well as the creator and father figure of the MePhones, including MePhone4. Initially presented as just an arrogant businessman, Steve was revealed to be a power-hungry, sadistic, and cruel individual willing to do whatever it took to achieve success, no matter the cost. He was the arch-nemesis of MePhone4, MePad, Knife, Suitcase and The Prime Shimmer.

In "Theft & Battery", he was voiced by AnimatedJames. In "Mine Your Own Business", he was voiced by Peter Mancuso. As of "Inanimate Insanity II: The Movie", he is voiced by Joshua Waters.

Personality[]

Steve Cobs presents himself as a evil, brash and arrogant, yet eccentric businessman with a high view of himself, frequently bragging over his intelligence as well as his superiority over his products. As it’s slowly revealed, Steve Cobs is dissatisfied with his company due to it losing popularity, and begins seeking to control the show of Inanimate Insanity. Steve reveals himself to be cruel and manipulative with other people, showing to care for nothing but his own ego and treats his own creations lesser than if they don’t meet up to his expectations.

After undergoing his villainous breakdown, Steve becomes more actively dangerous and deranged with anger development. After MePhone rightfully commanding the Shimmers to escape before Steve uses them in his scheme, he stabs the Prime Shimmer with a blade before attempting to kill off his creation, finally admitting he was wanting to do this for a long time. Steve also has streaks of sadism, as even when he stabs MePad, who protected MePhone from him and dies, he lacks any empathy over this mishap.

Steve Cobs' pride proved to be his fatal flaw, as when he supposedly finds the Shimmer Egg that Suitcase was carrying, he immediately steals it and runs off without checking it first. So when Suitcase reveals that the egg he is carrying is in fact, a decoy bomb, Steve realizes his grave mistake too late and dies off as a result.

Biography[]

Not much is known about Steve Cobs’ life, besides the fact he created the first Meeple computer in his parents garage, before creating one of the most influential companies of his time. However, it’s revealed that Cobs’ products had started dwindling in popularity, resulting in Cobs growing upset and finding ways to improve his products, creating the sapient MePhones.

Having discovered the Light Shimmers, a group of egg shaped aliens living on a planet, Cobs sent three of his MePhones to attack the planet, leaving it inhospitable as they stole three of the infants, with two of the MePhones being killed and MePhone3GS being critically injured as he escapes with a Light Shimmer Egg. Upset, Cobs locks MePhone3GS in a closet while still shattered as he uses the Light Shimmer Egg to create MePhone4.

Frequently neglecting MePhone4 for his work, this eventually lead to MePhone4 using his powers in creating a new show dubbed “Inanimate Insanity” where he created a whole world and created his own contestants to play and, while crude at first slowly got better and better. While considering MePhone4's show “trash” Steve slowly began watching it to take his mind off people not wanting to buy is products, and soon enough plans to overtake the show for himself.

“Theft & Battery”[]

For the next challenge, the contestants are made to go to Meeple Inc. to steal a battery for MePhone4. They soon run into Steve Cobs, who introduces himself and gives the group a tour around the facility before giving the battery to them. During this, Steve notices one of the Light Shimmer eggs Fan has, and frequently attempts to manipulate him in order to obtain it and before he can, an alarm goes off as Soap snatched the Battery. Steve lets them all go, simply stating, "It's just the beginning, and I'll be in control soon enough. It's only.. a matter... of time!”

“Alternate Reality Show”[]

While not appearing, Paintbrush paints a picture of Cobs for the art challenge, which induces a PTSD attack onto MePhone4 as he rejects the art and gives it a score of zero before going into sleep mode.

“Hatching the Plan”[]

In the stinger of the episode, and as revealed later on, Steve sent out MePhoneX onto the game in order to eradicate the losing contestants. When confronting Toilet, who was recently fired by MePhone4, Steve uses the robot A.D.A.M to trick him into piloting MePhoneX to eradicate the contestants, while claiming it’s a “simulation” to make him a better assistant.

“Truth or Flare”[]

As MePhone4 closes out the episode with the finalists, Suitcase and Knife, he is interrupted by Cobs attempting to call him. Suitcase and Knife look uncomfortable as MePhone seems frozen, before promptly declining the call and looking terrified.

“The Reality of the Situation”[]

Steve keeps attempting to call MePhone, only for him to decline each time. As contestants begin to be eradicated by MePhoneX and are unable to be brought back by MeLife, MePhone4 sends Suitcase and Knife to Meeple Inc. to stop Cobs in the final challenge. Arriving at the headquarters, they fight their way through as Steve appears in promotional materials introducing his latest creation, "Me". Knife and Suitcase bust into the room, where Steve casually introduces himself and discusses things about Me and deleting the contestants. However, he soon begins picking apart inconsistencies within their world and after calling MePhone so he can force him to hear, tauntingly picks apart their existence, simply asking how they got their interviews and what their parents thought. When the two looked distressed and unable to answer, Steve simply reveals that MePhone didn’t just create the show, but made them all, a reveal that causes Knife and Suitcase to glitch out.

“Through No Choice of Your Own”[]

After revealing the true nature of the show, Cobs is punched in the face by Knife, and Suitcase goes off on MePhone4 on the phone before Cobs promptly tosses Suitcase and Knife into a cell, where he reveals for their “final challenge” he’s going to force them to kill each other purely for his entertainment. After leaving them in the cell, Steve has his ship fly through the sky while waiting for The Light Shimmers to arrive, hoping to shoot down their ship and use their eggs to power his products. When seeing Toilet stop controlling MePhoneX, Steve quickly takes over, deleting all the contestants (with the exception of Taco, Microphone, Paper and Box) and leaves MePhone4 with the remains with taunting messages drawn onto them. Beginning the final challenge, Steve watches as Suitcase and Knife begin to fight to the death, but is outsmarted as they reveal they conspired with the remaining contestants into permanently “ending the show.” Steve witnesses as Toilet unplugs the Me device, resulting in everything MeLife created being deleted, including the ship they’re standing in, the remaining contestants. Steve Cobs is saved by MePhoneX, who gets shattered from the fall. Steve wanders around and finds MePhone4 sitting in the field, distress and dismayed. Cobs, defeated and annoyed, simply tells MePhone4 to come with him and offers his hand, coldly stating that the “show’s over.” MePhone, defeated, accepts.

“Objects in Mirror”[]

Cobs and MePhone4 are presumably heading to Meeple. The Shimmers soon arrive and Cobs wants MePhone4 to prove his allegiance by staying quiet and letting him kill the Prime Shimmer once he had their trust. However, MePhone tells the Shimmers to run, leading Cobs to stab the Prime Shimmer with a Meeple Knife, although they still manage to escape. Furious, Cobs berates MePhone for disobeying him and decides to kill him instead, leading to an intense fight between the two that leaves MePhone's screen damaged. However, in the midst of this fight, MePad arrives, recognizing Cobs for the monster that he is. Eventually, everybody is regenerated together inside MePhone4, planning to take the Shimmer Egg out of him. They call him to "make sure he approves" and Cobs tries to kill him, but MePad is killed instead, protecting MePhone. Eventually, the contestants escape with the Shimmer Egg, and Suitcase tricks Cobs by giving him a grenade resembling the egg, which explodes and turns him into popcorn which in return, kills him, thus ending his reign of terror on MePhone and all the contestants.

Trivia[]

• AnimatedJames (James Barkely) was announced to have a guest role on Inanimate Insanity a little under two months before his debut.
• Though the Meeple company has been specifically referred to since "4Seeing the Future", its founder Steve Cobs has neither been seen nor mentioned until "Theft and Battery".
• In the Episode 8 livestream, Cobs was confirmed to be a recurring character.
• He is one of the few characters on the series who are thought to have parents.
• His character and name are based on the late Steve Jobs, who was the co-founder of Apple before he passed away on October 5th 2011 (before the release of Sugar Rush).
• Steve Cobs is one of the two Inanimate Insanity characters to have a human name, the other being Nick Le.
  • Rusty Jo may also be so, but it may be a nickname.
• Cobs' name makes an early appearance, albeit in leetspeak, in Everything's A-OJ, in which on the back of the van that MePhone is thrown out of shows the letters "C0B5".
• Steve Cobs has a strong resemblance and similar personality to Ballpoint Pen, and vice-versa.
• When asked if Cobs would ever date a man at the BFDI x II Meetup 2022, Adam replied there was a 50/50 chance he would.^[1] This would imply Cobs is bisexual, albeit there's no confirmation about this whatsoever.
  • In response to a video of this question in September 2024, Adam tweeted "Personally, I don't think Cobs would ever date anyone. Any time taken away from innovating would be deemed a distraction!"^[2]
• Steve Cobs is one of three Inanimate Insanity characters to have permanently killed 1 or more contestants, the others being MePhone4S and Toilet.
  • Technically, Taco has also permanently killed a contestant, but was used as MePhone4S' weapon, so it's debatable if it counts.
  • His named victims being: Starfruit, Balloon, Baseball, Bomb, Candle, Silver Spoon, Cabby, Trophy, Goo, Cheesy, Salt, Pepper and the Cherries.
  • This, coupled with the possibly millions of Shimmers he slaughtered during his attack on their home planet, gives him the highest body count of any character in the series.
• Steve Cobs had a different voice actor in each of his first three episodes with voice roles.
• Steve Cobs programmed A.D.A.M., B.R.I.A.N., and J.U.S.T.I.N., to feel pain, confirmed in the Steve Cob's Q&A. It is currently unconfirmed if this information is canon, however.
• In the Steve Cobs Q&A, when asked if his full name is "Steven Lee Paul Cobs", Steve vehemently denies it and complains that people are adding things to his name.^[3]
• Steve Cobs stands out as possibly one of the darkest and most evil Object Show villains due to the lengths he would go to achieve his goals, such as mass murder and genocide, crimes that are rare amongst Object Show villains. He is also taken dead serious, in contrast to other Object Shows which are usually played mostly for laughs and have a lighthearted tone.

References[]

External Links[]

• Steve Cobs on the Inanimate Insanity Wiki
• Steve Cobs on the Pure Evil Wiki

Navigation[]

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Meeple Inc. Steve Cobs | MePhone4S | MePhone5 | MePhones | MePhoneX | Mecintosh | MeTags The Unvitational Committee Walkie-Talkie | Springy | The Cameras | Spring-toys | Tyler Bombard | Dr. Fizz, Zoetrope, and Groscer | Sprinkles | Boaty Contestants Blueberry | Candle | Nickel | Silver Spoon | Taco | Trophy | Yang Inanimate Insanity Infinity Alternate Salt & Pepper | Chives | Black Hole | Red Light Inanimate Island Government Inanimate Island Prisoners (Pizza Cutter, Pencil) | Judge Gavel | Baton Minor Teddy Bear | Evil Paper