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Technically, Facerocker isn't a show—it's a website, hosted by three cool Internet dudes: Matthew Arnold, Freddie Wong, and Brandon Laatsch. But their names aren't nearly as important as their video skills. From their presentation, to their funny, to their FX—well, OK, mainly their FX—these guys know how to cut right to a geek's core. I realize none of this is very descriptive to what the videos they make actually are, so I'll cut to the chase: Anyone who can augment a standard go kart video with fancy graphics to make it appear as if it was some kind of real-life Mario Kart is a win in my book. These dudes are definitely worth checking out.
This series of comedy shorts is mostly themed around the San Francisco Bay Area, but don't just throw away this particular video project because you don't live in California. From time to time, the sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster transcends geography to bring some heartwarming, nostalgic narratives to the digital equivalent of the silver screen. Case in point: The group's tribute to outdated technology (except for those horrible things called fax machines) should bring a tear to the eye of any Maximum PC enthusiast over the age of 7.
Raise your hand if you've ever played any games within the Legend of Zelda series. Ok. Now put your hands down, all of you. The very, very few of you that did not raise your hands are now tasked with borrowing a friend's Super Nintendo and firing up the greatest title of them all, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (no arguments!). And those of you that have indeed sampled this delightful game (or any game in the Zelda world) will surely enjoy The Legend of Neil. It's the story of a common man transported into The Legend of Zelda and tasked with, well, getting out.
My tip? Get Zora's Flippers, man.
(Thanks to Michael Lerch for the tip on this one!)
Three guys. One love of sportsmanship. Tons of idiotic ways to try and best each other. That's the entire premise of the YouTube series, "The Compatish." Think of it as a variant of all the various "Watch us eat tons of food and barf" Web shows on the Internet. Only, replace "eating food" with "awesome tests of skill and bravery," like the dreaded Belly-Flop competition, the silly Cup-Stacking competition, and good ol' fashioned Strip Spelling, and you've got the ingredients for a funny—but not all that disgusting—series of face-offs.
Alright, Maximum PC readers. It's time to class up the joint a little bit. The Piano Guys isn't just your average YouTube channel of people jamming to one of the following two scenarios: Songs you've never heard of, or the exact same rendition of Super Mario Brothers that you've heard 38,000 times. The Piano Guys—technically, a pianist and a cellist—both play a variety of songs themselves (musicals, pop covers, classical stuff, Charlie Brown, Star Wars, et cetera) accompanied by some beautiful cinematography on the production end. Ultimately, these guys are half-geeks, half-musicians, and all-entertainers. Now when do we get a video for the Halo theme?
I'm not going to spare any punches on this one: This show is absolutely nuts. Or, rather, the premise of the show is absolutely nuts: Tasking a person to pull a 21st-century Ferdinand Magellan and make it completely around the globe. The traveler comes into the journey without any cash whatsoever, just a backpack full of essentials and the power of the show's Internet-based fan base offering tips, help, and other assistance.
As the show puts it, Around the World for Free comes with, "no script, no itinerary, no security." These people are playing traveler on Hardcore Mode, and their adventures are pretty exciting to watch from the comfort of one's desk.
Straight from London (usually), The Black Cab Sessions is an awesome simple Web series. Singers, bands, or any combination thereof are invited to come play in the rear seat of a typical British taxicab. Yes, these are going to be acoustic sets unless someone's found a way to power an amp with a cigarette lighter adapter (and then there's the issue of getting the amp in the car in the first place). No, the strange idea doesn't mean that you're just going to see a lot of bands in a cab that you don't really know. For the full lineup—no fare required—check out The Black Cab Sessions' site!
It was bound to happen sometime: The art of developing successful YouTube videos got turned into a YouTube series itself. Meta, yes. Funny? Also yes. Little Cat Version of Me, as the name implies, follows two guys attempting to themselves follow the footsteps of the 58,041,413 cat videos on YouTube. The goal? Striking instant popularity through the exploits of their adorable cat, Meowla.
The bummer? You only get the 11 episodes you see. Apparently, Meowla wasn't that big of a success after all. It nevertheless seems fitting to include a commentary on Web video popularity within a list of popular Web shows, no?
Bad video game cutscenes suck—that's almost self-explanatory, I realize. That's why they deserved to be mocked in a fun, voiceover fashion, and that's exactly what The Escapists's Unskippable show delivers. Sit back, relax, and enjoy all the horrible video game cinematics that you've always mocked with your friends on couches in living rooms nationwide. And developers, please, do better than these
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.
