Mehdi Sadaghdar

"Margaret Thatcher"?

The Rectifier

Professional Dumbass

**Mehdi Sadaghdar** (a.k.a. **The Mediocre Man**, **The Rectifier**) is the host and owner of the popular YouTube channel ElectroBOOM.

He is an Iranian-Canadian engineer that experiments with electricity and creates videos dedicated to teaching viewers how to make and fix electric products, about the dangers of working with electricity, and what not to do while handling electricity, often comedically electrocuting himself or blowing up electrical components in the process.

As of May 2023, Mehdi's channel now has over 5 million subscribers, 211+ videos, and over 578 million views.

## Biography

### Personal History

Mehdi was born in 1977 in Iran. In his early life, he moved to Canada and now currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 1999, he earned a degree of Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.) from the University of Tehran. In 2006, he earned a degree of Master of Applied Science (M.A.Sc.) from Simon Fraser University.

He has a daughter, who he introduced on his channel as "ElectroCUTE."

### Youtube Career

On June 23, 2007, a year after receiving his Master's degree, Mehdi began his Youtube Channel, ElectroBOOM. Despite officially joining YouTube in 2007, Mehdi did not begin making videos until 2012. The main purpose of his videos was to inform viewers from all around the globe about the dangers of electricity and how to handle it in electrical projects, such as making circuits or fixing things, all while entertaining them with his comedy skills. He became a hit not just for his professional knowledge of electricity, but also for his constant screw-ups in videos, in which he would occasionally (sometimes purposefully) mess up his projects, causing them to backfire and spark or zap him, showing viewers first-hand the painful consequences that could occur when the rules of the specific project are not followed.

### **2012**

His first-ever video, "Don't worry, it's just ESD! (Electrostatic Discharge)" was published on April 6, and has over 3 million views.

### 2013

* On January 18 Mehdi published "Just Try and Make Your Own Coilgun (Accelerator)" which today is his third most popular video with about 9 million views.
* On August 22 Mehdi published "How NOT to Make an Electric Guitar (The Hazards of Electricity)" which even today remains his most popular video ever with over 14 million views.
* Likely as a result of these two very popular videos bringing new subscribers to his channel, In 2013 ElectroBOOM reached 100,000 subscribers and Mehdi received his Silver Play button. He did not make a video to celebrate this but the silver play button can occasionally be seen in later videos in the background.

### 2015

In April, Mehdi began work on making his own home-made tesla coil, completing it soon after. This marked his first major project done on his channel. He would go on to use this device for a number of videos before accidentally melting part of it in a vacuum chamber test. He would later replace this coil with a kit from OneTesla as well as repairing the old coil at a later date (although offscreen.)

### 2016

As part of his "Fake and Real Wireless Power" video, Mehdi created "The Rectifier" a superhero persona who accompanies his videos where he "rectifies" real or fake claims relating to electronics such as free energy or strange gadgets.

### 2017

* On June 12 ElectroBOOM hit one million subscribers, and Mehdi later received his Gold Play Button. To celebrate, he published "Making a Jacob's Ladder to Celebrate a Million Subs!" which today is his second most popular video with over 10 million views.
* In this video, Mehdi attempted to build a Jacob's Ladder. Initially constructing it out of metal wires, he felt it wasn't snazzy enough and built it out of extra-long sparklers. While very large and showy, Mehdi's sparkler tower was so large that it became top-heavy, causing it to lose balance and fall right onto him. Thanks to flimsy wire connections, however, he was saved from being fried. He "only" received some third-degree burns, but Mehdi was relieved to have survived the fall, as he considered it one of the most life-threatening things that has ever happened to him.
* During this year, he also began his first dedicated series: "ElectroVLOG," where he would just talk and tell stories such as a time when he feared he had caused a dumpster fire with a ruptured battery or when he first experienced pain from electricity. This series contains eight videos, the latest dating July 6, 2018.

### 2018

* In November ElectroBOOM hit two million subscribers. He celebrated in December with his "Talking with Arcs to Celebrate 2 Million Subs" video using his OneTesla tesla coil. The video has 1 million views.
* During this year he started a new series called "ElectroBOOM101" which are largely more educational science videos focusing less on his gags, aiming to help viewers understand electronics well enough to put together simple circuits. This series contains nine videos, the latest dating June 8, 2020.

### 2019

For Halloween and to show support for the #TeamTree initiative, Mehdi released "Making a TASER TREE & Planting 20 MILLION TREES #TeamTrees" where he donated $4,246.00 (CAD) matching the number of Patrons donating to his Patreon account at the time.

### 2020

* Electroboom hit over three million subscribers. He celebrated this by uploading "FREE ENERGY DISCOVERED in Ukraine, 3M Subs Celeb!!!" where he rectifies a KREOSAN video regarding "free energy." This video has over 2 million views.
* In July, Mehdi started a new series called "Last Time I Told You" or "LATITY" where he reviews submissions on the r/ElectroBOOM subreddit. This series contains four videos, the latest dating Febuary 28, 2021.
* In August 2020 Mehdi and his family moved to a different house having completed renovations.
* In December 12 ElectroBOOM surpassed 4 million subscribers.
* On December 22 Electroboom published his first ever collaboration video, featuring him and Linus Tech Tips testing how much electrostatic discharge (ESD) it would take to break computer RAM sticks.

### **2021**

Mehdi celebrated his 4 million subscriber milestone by publishing "Building an Electric Magic Wand to Celebrate 4 MILLION SUBS" where he creates a powerful electric "magic wand," strong enough to kill circuitry in some of his electronics.

## Personality

Mehdi is generally shown as a smart, yet clumsy engineer who doubles as a comedian. He is very advanced in terms of electricity and technology and has been shown to create complex systems and circuits for his Youtube projects and experiments, such as his DIY taser. He enjoys making videos that inform and entertain viewers and let them know that electricity is not something to play with, and how to make projects without hurting themselves.

As his channel grew, Mehdi has used his connections to make generous contributions with his sponsors Keysight Technologies and Circuit Specialists to donate tools and equipment to schools and students around the world who needed them, as well as giving away to video viewers and donators to his Patreon account.

Over time, some of Mehdi's mannerisms have changed. In his earliest videos he would talk very quietly and seem more relaxed. Over time he would speak louder and more energetically, as he himself admits he developed a more open personality being a highly introverted person getting used to the camera as well as working with different equipment.

## Running Gags

### Fails

A common occurrence in his videos are fails. Mehdi often winds up messing something up in his endeavors, whether it be forgetting to do something or leaving something on when it shouldn't be, resulting in his current project going haywire. The most common result of these mess-ups is one or any combination of the following happening to Mehdi:

* Electrocuted (most common) by a faulty circuit or loose wire
* Blown up Capacitors
* Burnt with hot wires or flammable objects
* Having to put out a fire
* Bludgeoned by falling, objects falling on him, or hitting himself
* Cut or stabbed by a sharp/pointy object
* Drilled with a power tool
* Frightened by a loud noise like an airhorn he thought was a fire extinguisher

Following these, he will inform viewers of what will happen when they screw up, and that even a professional can make mistakes. While some of these fails are intentionally staged for informative and entertainment purposes, many others are not and are completely unexpected.

### Swearing

Mehdi has also been shown to swear a lot, especially when he's been injured. For family-friendly purposes, every curse word in his videos is censored. For added hilarity, sometimes he even censors words that are not vulgar, only to comedically berate an off-screen editor.

Mehdi has even said that sometimes he just adds the bleeps without swearing for comedy purposes.

### Multiple Mehdis

In many videos, he also exploits other versions of himself for comedy, either pretending to be other people in parallel to himself or, lately, even split-personality versions of himself. He will often argue with and discuss topics with these other versions, who include:

* Duplicate Mehdis in different clothes
* Paranoid Mehdi
* Mother
* Annoying Wife/Significant Other
* Random Strangers
* Famous people like Freddie Mercury or Saddam Hussein