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Raise your hand if you've heard of Epic Meal Time. Great. What about Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech? Excellent. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? If most of you geeks aren't raising your hands by now, something's wrong. Is your YouTube broken?
Thanks to the combined powers of the Internet, Webcams, and creativity, a world full of bored office workers now has access to some of the most interesting, funny, and downright weird video content at the mere click of a mouse. And when these popular videos all center on a specific theme, we call that a "show"—in some cases, a "channel," depending on who's hosting the videos. Get my drift?
But here's the age-old problem: There's just too much content out there. If you aren't an Internet sleuth, there's a pretty good chance you're missing out on all sorts of awesome episodic video content if it doesn't contain the words "Red," "Blue," or "Revision" somewhere in the title. And that's why I'm here: I'm not going to point you in the direction of super well-known video shows that you could (really, should) be watching. I'm here to show you some of the slightly less popular gems that might have flown under your Geek Radar for some odd reason. I'll wait while you make the popcorn.
Excellent production value, excellent comedy, and excellent use of creative, alternative storylines for all of your favorite movies and games: Welcome to How It Should Have Ended. If you've been hacked off at a less than stellar ending to something you've watched or played, then you owe it to yourself to check out this parody series' alternate, animated shorts. Doesn't World of Warcraft's Arthas Menethil deserve a vacation instead of daily heroic raid defenses, after all? I think so.
It's hard to find a good place to start desciribing the LXD. Here are the essentials: The Web show takes place right in the brief period of time between 1920 to just around the year 3,000. Two rival groups are sparring for dominance: The League of Extraordinary Dancers (not Gentlemen, we note) and The Alliance of the Dark. But don't let the corny names dissuade you, for this beautifully choreographed Web series is nothing short of the best parts of So You Think You Can Dance combined with the best parts of, say, the X-Men. Episodes of The LXD is easily one of the more cultured ways you can spend 10 minutes of your busy day.
You do. And I do. Becuase few possess the raw, artistic mastery of fictional PhotoShop guru Donnie Hoyle, exemplified in a series of video tutorials that really have to be seen to be believed. For you don't watch these for the tutorials per se; you watch these videos for the subtext—like that of Episode 3, where Hoyle shows users exactly how to use PhotoShop's clone tool by editing out his supposed wife's wedding ring from their official photos.
Unfortunately, Hoyle now sucks at YouTube, for the series only delivered 20 episodes in 2008. I'm not trying to bait-and-switch you with a legacy Web series on purpose. This is just one classic gem that's definitely worth an afternoon viewing session.
Okay, this one's on College Humor, but that doesn't mean that it's necessarily permeated Internet pop culture as much as a Samwell or a Tosh.0 or what-have-you. The Web series Troopers chronicles—what else—the lives of those poor legions of clones running security on a big-as-a-moon battle station that may or may not have a striking resemblance to another spherical battle station from a certain series of movies being constantly refreshed by that George Lucas guy.
Got it? Here's a spoiler: Never leave a suggestion in your workplace's suggestion box, especially if your boss wields the mastery of the Force.
Take the average mindset of an Epic Meal Time contributor and exchange the love of bacon for a love of projectile vomiting and horror. What you've just created is the average plot for a typical episode of Wreckless Eating. In this show, as the name implies, the contributors do just about everything possible to put each other in a coma (not food coma) from the poor, poor ideas that they conjure up in the kitchen. I mean, really, who would have ever thought that a mustard-chugging contest was a good idea? Hilarious, yes! Good? No!
Continuing the food theme, what happens when—instead of trying to make your friends throw up by drinking and eating vile concoctions (or massive quantities of alcohol)—you instead imbibe your booze yourself and attempt to make scrumptious meals? Welcome to Hannah Hart's kitchen, where the first recipe on the menu is: Get loaded. And the main course? Well, it's certainly supposed to be something. Hart's attempts to go from ingredients, to baking, to edible products are highly entertaining so long as she promises to never make you sit down at the table.
Straight from a Reddit thread to your YouTube, The Drunken Hobbyist is an emerging series for those who don't give a lick about drunk cooking, but would much prefer to watch some dude imbibe and attempt everyday tasks. Or perhaps every other day tasks, as it's not very often that you or I probably saunter up to the barre and attempt a few ballet positions—let alone attempt to recreate the best of Black Swan—after a brief warm-up at the wine bottle. The production quality isn't stellar on this video series, but the idea is certainly there…as is the hilarity.
Might not want to put this one on the ol' speakers at work, because the title reflects exactly what you're getting: Scathing gaming videos that combine clever cursing with creative commentary. James Rolfe might have a lot of inner rage—and a never-ending supply of old-school gaming titles—but he actually has some valuable insight lurking behind his angry showmanship. And here's how you know he's the real deal: Dude's even got his own feature-length movie in the works.
Dungeons and Drago—er, Goblins & Gold—is serious business. And with the stakes higher than ever for the upcoming World Goblins & Gold Championship, a team of intense adventurers hit the tables, unzip the dice bags, and throw down critical hits across six episodes in this Web series' first big season. It's smart, it's funny, it's geeky: You aren't going to find more fun Dungeons and Dragons-themed Web videos unless they involve the phrase, "attacking the darkness."
Comments are closed on this article
cbharris
October 07, 2011 at 12:49pm
Man you guys missed out on one of the best series on YouTube, Drunk History. It's a series kind of like Drunk Kitchen but way less stupid and a lot funnier. They get a drunk person to tell a story from history and then get actors to reenact it. My favorite episode can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqzUI1ihfpk.
nmanguy
October 06, 2011 at 2:19pm
You didn't embed the actual HISHE video, you embedded some reupload.
Caboose
October 06, 2011 at 1:51pm
I never liked The Angry Video Game Nerd very much. I understand that as an adult, we can use adult language, but he goes over the top, to the point where it isn't really funny anymore...
US_Ranger
October 06, 2011 at 4:18pm
I actually disagree with you. I think AVGN is funny. I also think his non-funny videos are amazing. The top 10 Jackie Chan stunts.....great video. He bases his reviews towards different groups depending on what he's reviewing. His angry swear filled videos are based on his original work and he sticks to it in order to not alienate his fan base.
