thread of youtubers whomst are not terrible

a place to talk Contrapoints, Lindsay Ellis, and anyone else anyone cares to recommend or complain about, prompted by the former's newfound level of popularity, but pls feel free to talk about any cool #content providers, not just politics folx

thx comrade

also there was some discussion on the second thoughts thread of Natalie being problematic in some way but I couldn't really follow it, so pls hash that out here if you are so inclined

I've heard good things abou hbomberguy but can't really bring myself to click on someone who uses formulations like "x is terrible and here's why", regardless of what the x is (well, maybe if it's capitalism).

hbomberguy is tight with the other two youtubers already mentioned so he tends to get lumped in as well, but my big problem with his videos is they're too damn long. if you care about the politics of gaming you could do a lot worse and he is quite funny and charming at times, but he could really take a page from Contra when it comes to concision

For anyone who's curious about Lindsay Ellis, her three-parter on the Hobbit films is a bit of a form-buster when it comes to YouTube video essays, particularly for the way it blossoms from an essay into an actual documentary partway through

danielfromsl has popped up on ILG plenty but I think he potentially has mass appeal. Kind of the Nathan Fielder/Eric Andre of online gaming, reliably hilarious.

Kinda wish this thread was a video game-free zone but whatever, that's just me. Carry on.

I wish that too, but it's kind of an impossible wish given how everyone plays video games obsessively

Anyway, I have lots of quasi-viable options for this thread but I don't know which ones to foreground

I'll say that Jon Bois >>>>>>>

Well, NB, the only other game-related videos I really watch are Skate 3 glitch compilations so clearly I'm mostly just in it for the lols.

how did I not know that Jon Bois has an entire channel

speaking of which, let's begin the actual youtubing with the best video on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK2anpoKeNM

(although really his Pretty Good and Chart Party series are MANDATORY viewing)

Stevem does pretty good videos about Japanese music (from Jazz to City Pop to Japanese Hip-Hop) and the more respectable end of anime (Miyazaki etc.)

Vinilteca is good if you want to get a grasp on the Brazilian music canon but it's in Portuguese.

Strictly Dumpling is my guilty pleasure food go-to. It's pretty vapid, dude doesn't have a ton of charisma and the music's terrible BUT he does seem to know his shit and has a stomach of steal, so seeing him eat prodigious amounts of grub throughout South East Asia is pretty entertaining. I'm sure accounts like that are a dime a dozen but this one's at least well edited and doesn't have too many calls to action.

incidentally, since you mentioned calls to action, if anyone doesn't know what that means, the most recent Lindsay Ellis video is a meta meditation on the youtuber business model that gets into all this stuff and it's a good overview of the madnesses inherent to the platform

Yeah, that's where I learned the term :)

I go back and forth on whether to just block Youtube entirely. As much as I like Contrapoints and free music, it's a site that activates my worst internet compulsions. Like she put it in the CTH interview, "Youtube forced me to watch it."

Not crazy about how this conflates Disney and Warner Bros but whatever, I guess both could be equally restrictive in their own ways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-09DbxHBU

Primitive Technology, in which a man makes all kinds of things using pretty much only what he finds in the woods:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P73REgj-3UE

You Suck at Cooking, a fine decoction of deadpan self-deprecation and sheer absurdity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHF2hDuH5HE

Michael New is a guy who teaches music theory & composition basics in a very accessible way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBhJsShMF2g

scott brown carpentry & the MRE man

I assume people know about Simone Giertz and her intentionally-shitty robots but if not well then there you go.

Someone tried to get me into asmr videos because he thought it would totally be my thing. IT IS TOTALLY NOT MY THING.

I like this funny South African woman who does car reviews that contain some great real life info and also bad singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCw6N5iNV8g (that statium is in Cape Town, by the way)

http://www.youtube.com/user/julietmcguire/videos

cool channel having weirdos guide you through their tiny weirdo houses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXRJE2caPNY

in a way, it's anti-youtuber in that it's more errol morris than the "me-me-me-me i have a take on everything!" approach that youtube seems to encourage. speaking of which, I think errol morris's son has a channel where it's just him taking a bunch of drugs.

you suck at cooking was a great call

oh yeah scott brown carpentry

kiwami japan's latest bestrides youtube like a colossus

Polygon did a list of best video essays of 2018, with the usual suspects (ContraPoints, Linsday Ellis) present. The last one about a scene from Tarkovsky's Nostalgia felt to me like a bunch of interesting ideas that never really came together; now I'm in the madness of the two hour video about parasocial relationships.

lol, forgot to link: https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/28/18156334/best-youtube-video-essays-2018-watch

Noah Caldwell-Gervais deserves a mention.

Ostensibly long, literate and humane retrospective reviews of video games by someone who toiled in pizza delivery, but he's also adopted a vagabond lifestyle out of a restored VW bus with his new wife, and his video essays on their journeys through the US West put the rest of his work in perspective.

Todd in the Shadows reviews pop music, and recently, 1 hit wonders. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to find he lurks here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwl9xmM3IuQ&t=758s

I watched some of the parasocial relationships series. V interesting but yeah crazy long.

todd in the shadows does lurk here or at least has before. one of his videos directly cited an ilm thread in the description (a compilation of songs that actually stop when the singer says stop, like the ilm thread on the same subject).

found the parasocial relationship video basically unwatchable. it was heavily rt'd by that whole circle of #content creators (a comically large proportion of ppl on that list are friends and frequent collaborators -- the fellow who wrote the list might as well have had it served up to him by algorithmically generated recommendations) so i tried to watch it around the time it came out. her intro video on the subject was good/interesting but the rest was just tediously extended to an absurd degree not at all justified by the insight provided in the commentary or the ridiculous number of clips of bo burnham. i don't think i would have even found it necessary if i were stoned.

anyway that circle of creators is sometimes informally referred to as 'leftube' or similar by its audience due to i guess being leftists and/or critical of the worryingly visible far-right factions of the site. i am personally very unimpressed by this collective's obvious awareness of, and apparent lack of interest in directly addressing, a phenomenon that any leftist viewing them will have noticed: virtually all of these creators are white, and given that most if not all of them rely heavily on cultural touchstones and memes to illustrate their broader theses, the narrowness of the cultural literacy that's evident in their work (this includes both lindsay ellis and todd in the shadows btw) will serve as a significant handicap to creating a space on youtube representing their political leanings that does not also reproduce racial separation and hierarchy. contemporary online meme culture is spawned in enormous part within black culture, so their utter cluelessness about, say, the work of any currently active black musician who isn't favorably covered on pitchfork and explicitly 'political' enough to make sense to them, coupled with their inability to include anyone who does have this level of cultural literacy in their frequent collaborative efforts is disappointing to say the least.

when this obvious phenomenon was brought up on twitter, the response from these creators was merely to retweet contrapoints's quote-tweet of a user's list of left-leaning creators of color along with the message "let's make leftube more representative!" or somesuch. meanwhile i am not especially hopeful that they won't continue to collaborate exclusively with one another, continue to congregate only with one another at fan meet-and-greets, #content creator conferences and the like, etc. etc. maybe one of them will retweet kat blaque or the1janitor once every month or something.

i have unsubscribed from both of the 'leftube' creators to whom i'd previously subscribed (contrapoints and hbomberguy). while i will probably continue to enjoy their work when i do come across it, i would rather spend whatever time i use actively seeking out content looking for creators who are not creating networks (because these creators are not just creating content, but networks of content!) that are so insular.

that's a fair criticism. I would hope that in time the network becomes less insular but at the same time I'm happy to throw some $$ at anyone fighting the RW content machine and doing so in a way that's engaging

this has 1.1k *replies* so far

Have my videos helped to change your viewpoint (about the Alt-Right, trans issues, whatever else)? Are you willing to talk to a journalist about it? Respond to this tweet if so! 🙏🙏🙏

— Natalie Wynn 🦋 (@ContraPoints) January 10, 2019

I'm a bit less fond of Hbomber because I think he makes less effort to be approachable to the opposition, very different from Contra and Shaun the skull.

learned a lot from the latest Contra video

has anyone else noticed a marked uptick in complaining about the garbage YouTube recommendations?

and speaking of Hbomberguy, he's currently like 27 hours into a Twitch charity stream for Mermaids and is up to $100k, so I think it's safe to say the community is growing

Retail Archaeology
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR2LNeZSqINp0WTd_eWCIGg

Dead malls, zombie retail stores, etc

Harris is still going, $133k / 33hrs

youtube's sidebar recommendations are inexcusably shit and compromised and i feel guilty about continuing to use youtube knowing sidebar recs still exist but honestly i find youtube too useful to seriously consider quitting.

hey so @AOC HAS JOINED THE STREAM GO WATCH AND DONATE https://t.co/Fz8plugN5y

— Mary Ellen (@alissacaliente) January 20, 2019

I just caught the very end. Crazy.

I can't see it well on my phone, what's the $$ up to?

Over $221k. Since I clicked a few minutes ago they've made about five thousand.

I don't feel old until I see how popular twitch streams are.

I wonder whether AOC is a gamer.

I would say not because it is a total time suck and she seems actually really productive.

Good enough for me.

Here’s @aoc talking about how Nintendo 64 was the best system. She’s on @twitch helping to raise money for trans kids. pic.twitter.com/cJIfUif1mv

— New Super Blood Wolf Moon Bros. U Deluxe (@GenePark) January 20, 2019

Loved the Youtube episode, Simon. You each found your way to a different circle of hell.

Ha, thanks! We suffered for your entertainment.

Ash Sarkar interviewed Harris

https://novaramedia.com/2019/01/23/donkey-kong-is-beautiful-ash-meets-hbomberguy/

‘Jet Lag the Game’ appeared in my recommendations a few times, every time I thought it looked awful because of the irritating thumbnails. But for some reason I ended up watching the first Tag Across Europe and it was surprisingly entertaining, and now I’ve seen every season. Hits just the right balance of a game show / travel / comedy thing. Adam and Ben are a genuinely funny duo.

Jackie & Shadow the eagles are nesting a clutch of eggs.. live 24/7
Brutal rain, wind, snow conditions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE

are there good book youtubers?

i like Liminal Spaces for science fiction reviews

I like Sherdstube, Bookpilled, Rambling Raconteur and Outlaw Bookseller

Humor might be a bit regional but I think these videos are really funny. There are more than a few great lines on them.

https://m.youtube.com/@lilbubbychild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI40R43svK4
Haven't watched the whole video, but how have I never heard of Roar? This is one of the most insane things I've ever seen.

i'm not gonna say pablo foxfeeder is not *not* terrible but for the first time i caught him putting out the evening buffet and it is bonkers as hell, he's putting out dishes of kibble and topping them with sliced ham, ground beef, chunks of raw chicken, dumping cookies/biscuits on top, drizzling it all with honey, topping it off with a few raw eggs, i had no idea his foxes were eating this good

oh he just turned out the lights, foxes oughtta be stopping by soon, i bet there's kits, how much you want to bet there's kits

and there's this snail what was moseying on up to one of the dishes and there's such drama in this. is the snail hungry for meat? will the foxes eat the snail? i can only check in sporadically but this is thrilling to me

foxes are here oh my god

ONE OF THEM IS IF HALF MANGY WOW

LOOKING LIKE A DANG CHUPACABRA UP IN HERE

mama fox (presumably, cuz teats) just trotted off with a mouthful of like 5 lbs of meat, babies gonna feast 2nite

snail still clinging to the edge of the plate, hang on little buddy

bobby fingers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Z8YT6w7Rc

what the fuck

i have been on a huge youtubes-before-i-sleep kick over the last few months, with favourites including a-z:

ANGELA COLLIER: kentuckian, charmingly faux-dorky* academic, tubes abt astronomy and particle physics, plus now and then more serious topics within university culture
ANNA CRAMLING: swedish, vivacious**, tubes abt chess, both parents are grandmasters
CAMBRIAN CHRONICLES: don’t know his name but evidently proudly welsh, tubes abt welsh history and legend from the so-called ”dark” ages to the present***
SIMON ROPER: british, cautious, courteously worried, tubes abt the evolution of accent and pronuciation, inc. eg demonstrating himself how cockneys would have sounded in like 1653****
MICHAEL TRACY: californian-based attorney, dryly sardonic, tubes abt incidents on everest and absence of honesty*****

*of course super-smart but misprises words and pronunciation a lot — contranarian! which is in its way very effective.
**maybe a bit too vivacious, she posts a LOT and I’m taking a break (I’d like to say I’ve learn some chess moves but I haven’t, I’m extremely bad at chess
***i.e. several times a topic has just been tracking down the source of some weird figment he’s found on wikipedia , like some great king of powys who only exists on wikipedia
****his mise-en-scene is often just bushes and birds recorded in his garden, which is very soothing
*****tbh I am totally tracy-pilled, as an attorney he apparently works in arbitration labor and employment law, which is maybe why he’s very good at presenting his case convincingly (mallory and irvine summitted! the chinese in 1960 did not!! etc)

or not in fact a-z apparently

I've watched a lot of Simon Roper despite being not entirely convinced of his credentials and by the accents he comes up with.

yes he has a very likeable affect and is tbf undogmatically good at discussing exactly those issues

I usually struggle with starting engaged with a lot of video essayists but maybe it's the combination of subject matter (how social realities can influence and compromise science) and clear way of communicating but I just watched Dr Fatima's videos and they're great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESEFUaEA7kk

Camille does these fun, clever sketches, I enjoy her work very much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33VUuu2fb1I

But I have a particular soft spot for this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHcZOv0ItBg

I'm guessing for her it's an early thing and she wants to do more ambitious/rehearsed stuff but it really made me nostalgic for the era when YT didn't make careers and a lot of my favourite videos on there were just kids messing about.

Hypnotised by Moritz Klein's DIY synth/basics of electronics tutorials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBatvo8bCa4

I do not make music but now I want to build a synth.

I make music and I've built the odd synth DIY thing. His videos are really good. They go into a lot of detail but in a really clear and straightforward to follow way.

He has a whole line of basic DIY Eurorack modules with Erica Synths as part of an educational project:

https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/erica-module-set/

Yup I've been staring at them as a relatively affordable way to make something fun, do more practical electronics and practice soldering

(I arrived at him from a fascination with electronics in itself, like 'but how does it oscillate? How?')

building modules is really fun and definitely a good gateway to more diy electronics stuff. worth getting a decent soldering iron to start with imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZ9YLxq8xg

found an incredible YouTube channel--guy from Ohio uploads full noirs and does late-night TV style intros while dressed as a gumshoe pic.twitter.com/LuUbVeRhmb

— alex lei (@alexL_E_I) November 5, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I54TNpdEhlY

That noir-Elvira channel is brilliant

just found out that Li Ziqi, queen of cottagecore with chinese characteristics, is back on the 'tube after several years of lawsuits w/ her management company (or smthng)

still kind of overproduced but also still goddamn astonishing. growing, spinning, and dying her own silk, to craft an exquisite flower crown & animatronic lotus, to wear to her birthday party and subsequent music video!! ludicrous. magnificent. 🙏

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cg3p9K0il4

Really enjoyed GeoWizard's London No Roads series - the final was so gripping! - but then one little comment sent me off to reddit and oh boy, what a dick...

https://www.reddit.com/r/GeoWizard/comments/1ng3oid/lots_of_debate_about_toms_political_views_lately/

https://www.reddit.com/r/GeoWizard/comments/1ngzkme/from_tom_in_the_patreon_vid_about_the_politics/

Oh fuck, that's a bit of a gutpunch.

The stupid fan/asshole defender playbook is identical whether it’s radio, this guy or a DJ accused of sex crimes.

I remember in one of his Geoguesser vids a couple of years ago he made a reference to Jordan Peterson that made me a little suspicious

didnt see that but there have been a few little passing comments or jokes over the years that have made me wince a bit, and you hope those things are just awkward blunders and they're better than that, but nope, turns out that maybe they're not

ah fuck, I guess this shouldn't be surprising

Is there a reason this should or shouldn't be surprising? I feel like with apolitical-presenting figures people still infer and attribute certain views, but its not clear what thats based on other than projection or a form of the parasocial (not a criticism, this is normal)

It shouldn't be surprising this guys holds these views. And if he had polar opposite views, that shouldn't be surprising either

A love of nature and survivalist vibe codes right wing even while the disregard for private property and fondness for freedom of movement (the irony) could also code left.

I kind of agree it wouldn't be a surprise if he held opposite views, it would be surprising if he was somewhere in between tho.

Why would that be surprising? I feel like with a lot of figures, people intuitively put them into boxes based on whether they like them or not, when we don't know anything about them at all. I feel like this guy could have had just about any politics or no politics at all

It would be surprising for the reasons I stated in the previous paragraph.

It's nothing to do with parasocial fondness for the dude, it's just that people who do the sort of thing he does tend to be either far right or far left.

I do think we infer views from people based on the way they present themselves though, even if only subconsciously.

As for the sort of thing he does, I hadn't really attributed any political dimension to it. I'll have to ruminate on that

awful stereotyping, but the failed indie singer-songwriter background made me think he was a centrist melt at best

the lyrics of that one song though, jesus fuck, pure poison

he dresses up in army-like clothes and goes trespassing and sometimes sleeping rough from a position of relative privilege...so yeah not that surprising in the end but no one was really saying otherwise tbf

He's done quite a few videos where he travels across different countries and has always emphasised the generosity and kindness of all the people he meets and who help him. That's why this is a surprise to me.

Also his whole deal is complete freedom of movement, it turns out this does not extend to refugees.

sad that he can't translate his experiences of making perilous journeys for fun, to those who are making way more perilous journeys for real

The comments from that Reddit is how Reform win in this country.

The left and Greens are nowhere near addressing it either.

I'm sure several of you have been served algorithmic recommendations for this soft spoken and clearly really intelligent British debate coach or analyst, especially in the wake of the Charlie Kirk killing. I'm so bummed out, cuz I find a lot of his discussion and analysis engaging, but he leans into every single algorithmic trope, from obnoxious thumbnails to jarring edits to long digressions that make every discussion twice as long as it needs to be. I think it's called Rationality Rules? Anyway, kind of a bummer, because I want to recommend him, especially the video I was served about a Cambridge student successfully countering Charlie Kirk, since it shows how debate logic can cannily diffuse strategic right wing talking point propaganda. I suppose it's a case of don't hate the player, hate the game.