I regret to inform you that YouTube and I are spending less time together.  My feed is a neverending hyperfocus on the drama of the moment, ranging from cringe interview moments to sexual assault.  Not to entirely blame YouTube for its recommendations; I watch a lot of video essay content and at some point it stopped serving me.  I’ve got enough on my plate that consumes my mental energy and I spent this past year trying to retrain the algorithm to suggest cozy camping content to give myself a break.  As a result, this 2024 listicle is going to focus on things that brought me actual joy – media that got me through another goddamn day on this planet.  While it will contain some content available on YouTube, those videos will be among a smattering of whatever I goddamn well please.

#10 Chants of Sennaar

I didn’t know I was searching for a cozy Tower of Babel story, but I found it in Chants of Sennaar.

As an indistinct robed character, you awaken in the basement of a large tower with no understanding of the place you are in or the languages written and spoken around you.  Eager to learn what your purpose is, you trek further up the building, observing as the language and the relative priorities of the society change.  From religion, to the army, arts, and science, the segregated populations have developed their own language with a select few understanding words from previous or future areas.  You learn the writing system through context clues obtained by reading signs or interacting with the citizens, with each language having its own unique sentence structure.  When you reach the top of the tower, the nature of the building and its people’s existence is revealed and as a player you get to make the ultimate decision on how to proceed with this knowledge.

Chants of Sennaar had a bit of a learning curve – It took me a moment to figure out how to obtain the information I needed to progress, but the longer I played what seemed like an impossible task in the beginning became engaging and fun.  I’m no stranger to puzzle games, but this felt like I was using an unexercised part of my brain because I’m very poor at learning languages, regardless of how earnestly I try.  Maybe if they were presented in the way Sennaar did I might actually retain them.

#9 Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical

When I went up to Traverse City in the offseason I tried to get a table at The Flying Noodle on a Wednesday and didn’t even consider the possibility I’d have to wait for it since everywhere I’d visited up until that point was one step above abandoned.  When I was informed it may be 40 minutes until I could sit at the bar I decided to wander down the road to a bookstore to kill some time and I didn’t plan on buying something, especially since my visit to a bookstore in Petoskey earlier that day had been lucrative.  While browsing the front racks I was somewhat shocked to discover someone named Anthony Bourdain had written a book about Typhoid Mary and had to pick up the book to read the author’s bio to confirm it was, in fact, the Anthony Bourdain who had penned it.  Once it was in my hands it was a done deal – I needed something to occupy my mind and the book was small enough to fit in my tiny purse.

I had never read Anthony Bourdain’s books, but if you’ve seen an episode of No Reservations or Parts Unknown you’ll be familiar with Bourdain’s tone.  What started as a casual read while waiting for my food quickly turned into a 2 day reading frenzy.  Perhaps it wasn’t the wisest choice to read while I was putting myself at the mercy of a line cook who didn’t feel like washing his hands after he used the bathroom, but Bourdain’s storytelling almost made me forget that fact, as strange as that may sound.  Instead of approaching the tale of Mary Mallon as if she were a diseased rat spreading plague throughout the city, he provides perspective based on his experience as a chef, trying to contextualize why she might have made the decision to seemingly disregard the safety of those around her.  While it’s not 100% historically accurate, and he’s really just guessing how Mary felt about her constant persecution by the city health department and subsequent exile, it’s a good reminder that those who tell history are the ones who win.  Mary was a person who happened to pass along a disease without exhibiting symptoms of that illness in a time where the science on such things was just emerging, and maybe she was stubborn and misguided instead of an outright callous monster.  Although I don’t want to give her too much credit since she knew about being an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid and lied about her identity to work at a maternity ward in a hospital, so… it’s a mixed bag.

#8 Ren

Each year I tend to get hyperfixated on one artist.  2019 was Billie, 2020 Ashnikko, 2021 Mothika, 2022 Scene Queen, 2023 Oliva Rodrigo and 2024… I thought it would be Chappell Roan, but then I heard “Animal Flow” back in September and I was kind of screwed.

The lead singer of The Darkness started a react channel, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, as a bit of a side project.  I dabble in every so often because Justin has great insights and is also incredibly endearing.  Usually he films in what I call “default streamer setup”, so I was particularly intrigued when I saw in my recommended videos a thumbnail of Justin in some random car talking about “The Ren Situation”.

It’s a long story and you can hear Ren talk about it himself, but essentially he licensed a sample off of BeatStars where the producer of the beat stole a sample of a Bulgarian choir and was then strong-arming Ren to get him to pay the royalties on the sample he stole.  Lawyers got involved, the producer and his girlfriend did some shadier stuff behind the scenes, and ultimately Ren decided to take his song down.  Needing a place to funnel the anger, Ren wrote a diss track against Kujo and uh… it sure is something.

I understand being angry about someone fucking with your livelihood, but where you lose me is stewing in it long enough to write and record a song where you get to cosplay as Eminem and reenact your violent fantasies over and over while filming the video.  The ‘just cause I said it doesn’t mean I’m gonna do it’ defense really irks me, and I side eye dudes who listen to songs detailing domestic abuse (or in Em’s case murder) without having some kind of negative reaction to it.  I get that it’s art and it’s cathartic, but it’s the audio equivalent of dudes that punch walls instead of women and think that won’t escalate to something else.  “KUJO BEAT DOWN” is not nearly as intense as “‘97 Bonnie and Clyde” or “Kim”, but it definitely made me sick to my stomach to watch him scream at Kujo’s girlfriend while tied up and gagged that he thought she liked it rough, like… oof, dude.  Maybe unpack that a bit.

Also, kind of silly to include a ‘I don’t condone bullying and harassment’ statement when you are literally pretending to physically hurt someone.  What do you think that kind of imagery will inspire in unhinged fans, y’know?  I wouldn’t put it out into the universe is what I’m saying.

I’m not in the camp that partaking in violent art causes violent people cause then I’d be more of a fucking hypocrite than I already am, but after I saw this response I was kinda like, eh, I think I’m good on this guy.  But I couldn’t ignore the fact Justin Hawkins was defending him, and so I decided to hunt down a copy of “Sick Boi” to see the origin story and then the lightbulb went off.  If I wrote a song where I detailed the pain of being consistently gaslit by doctors and someone else was trying to make money off of it?  I lived that shit and it fucking suuuuuuucks.  Maybe I wouldn’t have made a song where I beat the shit out of Kujo, but lord knows I would have made that shit public as hell and been as loud as I fucking possibly could be about it.

Ren’s history with chronic illness is unique, but also incredibly relatable.  His music is heavily inspired by it, and I will warn ahead of time, some of his songs can be intense – I can’t listen to a song like “Hi Ren” all that often because it’s emotionally draining.  But I kept digging and dug what I heard.  He wears his references on his sleeve, Em being the most obvious one, but I was reminded of Emilie Autumn quite a bit in the theater of addressing his mental illness.  His work is a remix of elements from Kendrick, Childish Gambino, Rage, his vocals are pure Sting…  My buddy even said Jaden Smith, and yeahhhh… That tracks.

I pretty much listened to the Sick Boi album on repeat, “Illest Of Our Time”, “Murderer”, “The Hunger”, and “Uninvited” being the tracks I gravitated to the most often.  The “Money Game” and “Love Music” series are also worth listening to.  I’m pretty sure it’s because of “Animal Flow” that I put myself in the top 2% of Ren listeners on YouTube music (which seems impossible considering I just heard about this guy in September, so I have some general questions about how that’s calculated).  What can I say?  I’m a sucker for an Animal Farm reference.

#7 Mafia Nanny

Over the years the pool of web comics I consume gets smaller and smaller (and I’ve been at this for a while).  Several years ago I pivoted to WebToon and uh… It kind of fell off, ngl.  When it recommended Mafia Nanny to me I was intrigued but I wasn’t really interested.  There are so many mafia boss romance stories out there, and this would be hosted on a platform that is very much PG rated, so I unfairly assumed it would be like its contemporaries and fail to engage me.  I was very, very wrong.  Not only do I look forward every Monday to the upload, I care deeply about these characters.

Davina works for ENA, an elite organization of trained professional nannies that go above and beyond to protect their wards from potentially violent situations.  Raised in a crime family herself, Davina understands the potential threats and wants to provide this protection to a child who similarly has a target on their back by way of their birthright.  Well, not just any child – she has a specific one in mind.  Davina suspects the Angelini family had a hand in the death of her own parents, and by being in charge of Mikey, the son of the underboss, may give her access to find out more information about her own tragic past.  What Davina didn’t expect, however, is how deeply she would grow to care about her charge Mikey and his incredibly attractive father Gabriel.

I started reading for the slow burn romance between Davina and Gabriel, but was instead captivated with Davina’s relationship with Mikey and the complicated situation of trying to separate Mikey from a path that would lead to his future life of crime.  Mikey is flippin’ adorable and it’s encouraging to watch him open up the more Davina exposes him to activities that channel his creativity and people who are uninterested in nurturing him into a mini Don.  All of the characters are well defined personalities with their own motivations, and there is a fair amount of comedy in the way they interact with each other.  The plot itself does more than provide filler between romantic encounters, and the pacing is fast enough that the comic continues to capture me. 

While Mafia Nanny doesn’t quite fill the deep hole left in my heart waiting for Purple Hyacinth to return, I am enjoying it immensely.  I want to give Mikey the world, he’s so stinkin’ cute.

Also, it’s not a 2024 recommendation since it’s been on hiatus since 2023, but read Purple Hyacinth.  It ends on a cliffhanger and it most likely won’t come back in 2025, but every moment of that comic is worth consuming, holy shit.

#6 Amelia Dimoldenberg

I’m kind of over Hot Ones.  Every once and a while you get a moment like Heidi Klum taking her shirt off or Alton Brown disregarding the premise and deciding to rate the taste of the sauces, but most of the time it’s someone like Ryan Reynolds overreacting to eating spice, being like Aw man, Sean, how did you find out about this thing I said in an interview once or this TV show cameo listed on my IMDB page? before downing a glass of milk and then hocking whatever project or product he’s selling now.

Plus I’ve tried those sauces and I’m not convinced these people aren’t acting.

The Sister City of Hot Ones is Chicken Shop Date, where Amelia Dimoldenberg takes a lucky person to the most unromantic of places in her endless quest to find true love.  Back when Billie came out with her new album, I was being recommended a ton of performances and interviews from the press cycle, and there was Amelia awkwardly telling Billie she’s captivated with her eyes before confessing she had another date planned after theirs.  Then I watched the next video of Amelia tricking Paul Mescal into telling her she’s gorgeous, or asking Cher if she believes in the Lock Ness Monster, aliens, or life after love.  Red carpet interviews, television appearances… it became the quickest obsession.

Her sense of humor is right up my alley – dry, smart, understated and disarming.  If comedy were a spectrum, with Jim Carey, Robin Williams and Mr. Bean on one end doing the absolute fucking most, she’s the exact opposite, among the likes of Flight of the Conchords and Richard Ayoade.  A lot has been said about manufactured authenticity and viewers having a hard time when the curtain has been pulled back and the movie magic is revealed.  Clearly Chicken Shop Date is a bit, but while you’re watching it you almost forget.  The Andrew Garfield episode flies so close to the sun because that man is good at being down bad for her, which led to a bit of an internet frenzy of speculation if they’re actually dating (they’re not).  Along with Ed Sheeran, Andrew tries to break the fourth wall and every plea he makes for Amelia to be earnest is immediately rebuffed, because it’s not the point, yeah?  These 10 years spent searching for love weren’t actually a plea for a relationship, but her audition into an industry that suits her well.  While she’s said in the past she’s a bit tired of the format, I can say I’ve loved the ride she’s been on up until now.

Amelia is leaps and bounds out of my league, but I can’t help but wish to have her treat me to some sad looking chicken nuggets while I try really hard to pretend I don’t find her attractive.

INTERMISSION BONUS ROUND: Top 10 ProZD Sketches

#5 Kentucky Route Zero

I think calling this a point and click adventure game isn’t quite accurate.  Kentucky Route Zero is a story rich metaphor about how a town adapts to the death of the industry driving it.  We first meet Conway delivering his last shipment of furniture before he retires, but he’s struggling to find the address written on the card.  He eventually meets Shannon, a TV repairwoman, who decides to assist him with his task after he sustains an injury.  Together they find their way onto the supernatural Route Zero, encountering several others on their own separate journeys – those who strive for more, those who are struggling to stick to the path they’ve always stuck to, and those who are studying and carrying on the legacy of those who lived before them.  It’s a surrealist experience that illustrates how addiction, poverty, capitalism and colonization have shaped the area, and how banding together helps everyone sustain.

I’m a fan of pixel/minimalistic art style (although Last Door was really pushing it with their depiction of Porriage, London).  The characters are faceless and a lot of the time only lit in shadow.  That doesn’t mean the style’s not impactful – if anything it makes it easier to connect with Conway and Shannon as you can place yourself in their shoes.  The color palette helps set the mood with its muted and muddy colors, along with the lighting; From the fluorescent bulbs brightly flooding the gas station in an otherwise pitch black area, to the flashlight sparingly guiding you down a river surrounded by bats, the setting feels unfamiliar and therefore uneasy.  Everything is slightly offkilter, where you’re only allowed to see that which is illuminated while the darkness obscures the actions happening in the background.  It’s like floating around in a dream.

The music is incredibly good; The atmospheric white-noise hypnotic nature of the scored parts integrate seamlessly with the overall tone of the game.  The songs performed by the characters in-game grinded my play to a halt as I sat to listen to them, and I’ve repeatedly listened to them multiple times since.  This past year I wanted to immerse myself in Appalachian-style folk music, which is probably why I listened to the Songbirds and Snakes soundtrack several times this year without actually enjoying the movie.  

I don’t want to give much of the plot away, but the story made me incredibly emotional.  I unfortunately streamed this game which forced me to hold myself together and pretend I didn’t want to sob my little heart out at the end.  I wanted to rescue these characters and provide them the happy ending they deserved, because although they might have not been saints, they persevered even when given very little options to move forward, or god forbid retire.  And Conway… he broke my heart in pieces.  We need to go back and save Conway.

#4 Lisa Frankenstein

I’ve had a hard time getting excited about any movies lately.  Back when I was a kid I would watch something and endlessly quote it – Wayne’s World, Austin Powers, Billy Madison, Vegas Vacation… they had lines that got stuck in your head.  But since Hot Rod I haven’t found a comedy I’ve been excited about on a level where I’ve remembered any of the dialogue or berated everyone I knew into watching it.  I thought maybe it was because I was old and incapable of absorbing new information, but then I watched Lisa Frankenstein and realized it wasn’t a brain problem, I was just watching the wrong stuff.

Lisa is a high school senior who, two years prior, watched an axe-wielding burglar murder her mother.  Now relocated to a new town, new school, and her father remarried to a tightly-wound woman named Janet, Lisa struggles to relate to anybody around her, least of all her cheerleader step-sister Taffy.  Finding comfort in a local abandoned cemetery, Lisa can escape to someplace peaceful and share her life with one gravestone in particular, that of an unmarried young man.  This proves to be awkward later when this young man is serendipitously resurrected and wanders over to Lisa’s house in order to be with her, which simultaneously horrifies and intrigues her.  Finally having a friend who listens without judgement and is physically incapable of telling her how she should feel, Lisa begins to open up again, empowered by the support The Creature gives her, until she begins to get carried away with this new found confidence by exploiting the means at which The Creature will go to win her affection and uh… hijinks ensue.

Everyone in this movie is amazing.  Kathrine Newton makes Lisa so relatable and endearing, even when she’s making incredibly questionable decisions.  My only real exposure to Cole Sprouse is tangentially through Alex Meyers’ Riverdale recaps and the endless search to find the people who won the Danimals sweepstakes, but he does an amazing job as an Ichabod Crane-looking silent Creature who has to express without words how much he adores Lisa.  I really loved Taffy, played by Liza Soberano, who is the type of character that would be a popular, snotty villain in other movies, but instead is an optimism bomb that allows Lisa to wave her freak flag and is constantly defending or protecting her because she’s family.  The movie is about a romance between a teenage girl and an undead boy, but the real love story was between the two sisters, leading to a very unhinged, but also incredibly sweet moment near the end of the movie where it’s like they finally understand each other for the first time.

Some people find Diablo Cody’s dialogue exasperating, but as a Juno and Jennifer’s Body defender, I find it charming.  My Top 5 favorite non-spoiler-y quotes:

“I’m really sorry you got electrocuted, Lisa,” delivered in the same tone as Lane Meyer consoling Ricky after his mom blew up.

“Your hair feels like easter grass.”

“I can always count on her to work on Saturdays cause she can’t get a date. It’s probably ‘cause she’s so flat chested.”

“You know, there’s this really attractive guy on Days of our Lives who has to wear an eyepatch.  He’s a very popular character and his patch doesn’t define him.  What’s his name?  Patch.  …His name is Patch.”

“When you cry it smells like a hot toilet at a carnival!”

Lisa Frankenstein is silly, campy, and colorful, carrying on the best parts of the 80s teen movies.  I initially checked it out from the library, watched it twice in 2 days, bought it on bluray, then watched it on repeat several times since then.  Please, please, watch it.  They don’t make comedies like this one anymore.

#3 Interview with the Vampire

AMC makes the best television about the worst people and I am living for it.  Not since Mad Men have I been so excited to see the next episode that I watch it on cable.

During summer vacation between my junior and senior year of college I read Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice and was intrigued by Louis and deeply, deeply hated Lestat.  My boyfriend at the time had the subsequent Vampire Chronicles novels, so the next summer after graduation I read The Vampire Lestat in the hope that Louis would return and instead watched as Anne Rice tried to rehabilitate a character that had absolutely no redeeming qualities in the previous novel.  This was also true of Queen of the Damned and I was so tired and gave up on the series.  Several years later when I bought my house I was looking for an audio book to entertain me while I spent copious amounts of time in my backyard pulling ivy.  I remembered loving Interview with the Vampire and decided to then revisit the previous novels and continue on through to the rest of The Vampire Chronicles since there was a lot of meat there and I was doomed to weed a seemingly endless amount of unkempt flower beds until my fingers were nubs.

This, in retrospect, was a mistake.  I white knuckled it up until Blackwood Farm until I finally said oh fuck this shit and swore off the rest of the series.  In the 1970s I think incest romance like Flowers in the Attic might have been a popular, taboo trope, but this book was written in 2002 and it was not my thing.  Paired with the strange way Anne Rice wrote about promiscuous underage girls who get abortions as weak wombed… I was done, thanks for all the fish.

When I heard AMC was working on a television series based on Interview I was suuuuuper ambivalent.  I still had fond memories of that novel because it was way before I was forced to read about Goblin jerking off Quinn in the shower, but I was confused how it would be adapted into a series, when, y’know, Louis and Lestat were slave owners that killed their workers and tortured a 5-year-old by turning her into a vampire.  I cautiously tuned in and was pleasantly surprised by the updates they made.

In present day, Daniel Molloy, now sober, older, and with decades of journalistic experience under his belt, is lured to Dubai to reconduct his interview of the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac and chronicle what is essentially his and Lestat’s love story.  The time period was post slavery, Louis was a creole black man, and the story explicitly stated the relationship between Louis and Lestat was romantic.  It added a ton of layers to a story that admittedly was pretty one-sided and flat.  The cassette tapes of the first interview performed in the 1970s, the story we’re all familiar with, are literally thrown into the garbage during the third episode – a somewhat corny but symbolic gesture to note this is not your mother’s Interview, allow yourself to experience it as its own thing.  And as someone with complicated feelings with the source material, I was all in.

Mr. Molloy has more of a personality in this story, giving off BBE – Big Bourdain Energy, a former junkie who is now coasting on his journalistic reputation and after writing a memoir, making money by peddling online classes.  With more time to tell the story, everybody gets the opportunity to have a personality in this adaptation.  But the series doesn’t suffer from High Fidelity syndrome where you feel like it’s spinning its wheels to justify its existence; every story tells the tale of these 3 vampires, coping with creation and struggling to coexist with each other when they all have wildly different views of life and the purpose of The Dark Gift.  The show also doesn’t use the extra time to bolster up Lestat like Anne Rice did in her subsequent novels, thank Christ.

The side effect of this robust backstory, however, was pivoting my mindset for how I perceived these characters.  Louis is no longer a lonely, lamenting sad boy, who tells this particular story and is graciously sent off into the night ushering in Lestat as the primary narrator for the series going forward.  He is burdened by responsibility in the beginning, having to keep his family afloat after his father dies, pivoting to less… honorable means of income to keep them in a cushy house.  He is already living in the world as a minority, but additionally he’s tasked with keeping his sexual predilections under wraps as being gay isn’t acceptable during the time period either.  

Lestat remains a fucking bastard, hunting down Louis, separating him from his support system and turning him into a vampire when he was the most vulnerable, understanding Louis only wants to be loved, understood, and accepted.  He thought he saw something inside Louis that would make him a great killer, someone who would be willing to cut his brother just to keep his business going, but that assumption was completely misguided.  Louis rebelled against the need to feed on humans which caused Lestat to continually judge and torture him for not living up to his violent standards.  He refuses to allow Louis to grieve anything for any reason and continually parades him around like a lap dog while trying to distract him from contemplating anything except how good he now has it being blessed with Lestat and The Dark Gift.  Lestat is the sun, cruelly blinding and burning all around him for any offence or petty reason because he’s petrified of being left alone.  While Louis is selfish, angry and vengeful, I have much kinder views on the frustrating decisions he makes. At least hating Lestat is fun now since Sam Reid is so charming and we’re not burdened by Lestat’s constant self-aggrandizing inner monologue (yet, that is).  

Approaching Claudia’s creation like a baby to save the marriage was a genius addition.  A perpetually 14-year-old uncontrollable force of nature born out of a misguided attempt at redemption, forever stunted and used as a pawn.  Every adaptation of Interview has aged up Claudia because her age in the book is so fucking abhorant.  I understand making the choice of turning Claudia so young was Anne Rice’s way of processing her own daughter’s death and what must have been the uncontrollable urge to prevent that loss regardless of the consequences.  However, having the novel versions of Lestat and Louis do this was very, very strange, and Claudia’s young age limits her ability to have her own story separate from the two of them.  Claudia has much more agency in the show, and I love how they used her diaries as a point-of-view narrative device to understand her messy experience as a young vampire.

Claudia’s creation is the catalyst of the end of Lestat and Louis, and watching her pivot from acting out in response for being so sheltered to starting to gain her own independence and focus on trying to find belonging and purpose is a captivating story to follow.  The second season of Interview with the Vampire focuses on Louis and Claudia’s trip to Europe sans Lestat to find other vampires and encountering Armand and the rest of the Théâtre des Vampires in Paris.  The translation of the coven to the show is a master class – the aesthetic of the plays and how Claudia tries to fit in with the misfit bunch is pure theater kid drama, but ramped up to 11 since they’re, y’know, vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires that kill audience members on stage.  If you’ve read the books you know how it ends, but I encourage you to experience the show for yourself to see how it all goes down.  It’s somehow even more heartbreaking, I can’t even get into it, you guys.

I’m curious how the tone of the show changes in the 3rd season where it looks like we’re time jumping to The Queen of the Damned.  Lestat is such a fucking narsisist so it makes all the sense in the world his arrogant ass would become a rock star.  I’m a little confused why we’re sticking with 70s rock since the timeline has been updated and the revival of glam rock died in the 2000s after nobody could do it better than “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”.  The series does have its moments of humor, surprisingly, and Lestat’s quippy comebacks are as entertaining as they are egregious, so I’m bracing myself for a lot more of that.  At least we can all agree he’s better than Armand.

#2 Staged Reading of The Prequel Trilogy

This rabbit hole starts with a series of eulogies and ends in a trilogy.

Back in 2015 I was mindlessly flipping channels searching for something to distract myself and stumbled upon a call-in show where participants could ask a panel of comedians to predict their future, and even in my state of dissociation I was pretty sure Amy Poehler happened to be there operating an 8 Ball.  I stuck around, perplexed as to what I was watching, and pieced together it was The Chris Gethard Show – a public access talk show hosted by Gethard where he would invite comedians to come on and participate in the thinnest of premises while taking calls from the audience.  Fusion was going to be the home of its transition to cable, and in preparation they were airing a bunch of older episodes to lure in viewers I guess?  Well, it worked on me and suddenly I was mildly obsessed with the weirdest fucking thing I’d seen on television.  It had a Pee Wee’s Playhouse vibe where Chris and his co-host Shannon would invite a guest onto their wacky little set and a series of characters would drop in to contribute to the chaos.  There was a human fish who was a dude wearing a swimsuit, flippers and goggles that would ask a random question of the guest, some lady hula hooping the entire time, Vacation Jason wandering in wearing a lei and sunscreen indoors to chastise Chris and talk about how he’s always on vacation… just bits on bits on bits.  And the theme of each show was loose as it was unhinged.  They once recreated Duck Hunt in real life so callers could shoot plastic balls at Gethard and Wyatt Cenac.  Vacation Jason once kidnapped the human fish and Gethard’s crew had to wrestle Jon Hamm in a sumo suit to win him back (although Hamm didn’t put up much of a fight, to be fair).  The best episode of TCGS, maybe the best episode ever on television, was when Paul Sheer and Jason Mantzoukas dropped by to guess what was in a random dumpster.  It doesn’t sound like anything exciting, but I promise you it is a captivating 43 minutes that ends in a truly shocking way.  TCGS ran for two seasons on Fusion, then one season on TruTV before the show was ultimately cancelled.  I was pretty sad because there wasn’t anything like it then or since – just a bunch of weird comedians hanging out and asking viewers to contribute to their nonsense.  The community felt very cozy and even parasocially it felt nice to be a part of it.

The Chris Gethard Show used to host a sandwich night the day before Thanksgiving, where people could experience some community if they didn’t have someplace else to be.  Even after TCGS dissolved in 2018, sandwich night continued its legacy, hosted remotely during Covid.  See, back in 2020 the UCB theater closed, and clearly there weren’t other spaces open for comedians to perform, which, y’know, cut into a lot of people’s livelihood.  Since streaming was really the only way to garner a live audience, Chris Gethard decided to rebrand Chris Gethard Presents to Planet Scum, a twitch channel that hosted a different show each night.  Sandwich night 2020 was the first time I tuned in, and digging the vibe I continued to tune in multiple nights a week to have some place to hang out when most of us weren’t leaving our houses.

The flagship show, What’s in the Box?, was hosted by Gethard, a few of his buds, and random guests that decided to pop by.  I can’t even begin to unpack What’s in the Box? mythos because it would take up thousands of words (AND I DON’T HAVE TO since it turns out that Erik Germ just created a video about the history of the show, god bless him), but I will say this – There initially was a singular box that held one item you could call into the show and guess what it was, similar to the legendary dumpster episode of TCGS.  If you guessed what was in the box, you won it, along with a cash prize.  This simple concept snowballed to a substantial amount of prize money funded by a secret benefactor, 70+ items spread amongst multiple boxes homed by Christi Chiello, Improv God Will Hines, and Jason Mantzoukas, a committee to approve/reject new rules to the game that sometimes an Australian man wearing a full green body suit named Gorb The Destroyer would run, AND an anthropomorphic Pickle (hello baybeeee), a Canadian legend who kept a google document of all the guessed box items.  This new version of the game lasted 15 months before anybody won, and it just so happened that The Pickle was the one to guess all the items and win the ultimate What’s in the Box? prize.

Turns out Geth didn’t consider the fact that having a Canadian win this prize money would mean he’d have to pay taxes on the winnings, making Planet Scum, a channel already running on fumes, to now be hideously unprofitable.  That was when it was announced that on May 25th, 2022, Planet Scum would make its last broadcast.  There were a litany of previous guests to help send the channel off, but the most earth shattering moment was when The Pickle revealed they’ve been using their winnings to travel to the US to eat at Olive Garden and that, oh by the way, they had edited the google doc to put wrong answers in it so The Pickle could be the only one with the real answers to all the items making it impossible for anybody else to win.  That is some long con 3D chess bullshit right there.

One of What’s in the Box?’s frequent guests was producer Patrick Cotnoir, who additionally appeared on The George Lucas Talk Show, a UCB staple that was also forced to migrate online.  I had seen the main Star Wars movies but I had little opinion on them other than Carrie Fisher was a badass and being generally disappointed in myself because my desire to fuck Adam Driver directly influenced my opinion on Kylo Ren.  But I cannot stress to you enough how little you need to know about Star Wars to enjoy watching GLTS.  At the beginning of each show, in THE SAFEST OF SPACES, “Watto” asks a random audience member who has no experience with GLTS what they think the evening has in store and there are NO wrong answers.  In the razorist thin of premises GLTS is exactly what it promises to be – George Lucas in all his personable charisma hosts his own talk show.  Producer Patrick, “Watto” and “George Lucas” invite guests on to be interviewed by a CGI slave owner and a retired filmmaker, and everyone is on board and doesn’t really question it.  It is, without exaggeration, the most bizarre and simultaneously best thing I’ve ever seen. 

During the pandemic they would stream GLTS once a week, most of the time for an Irishman+, unless it was a charity stream, then they’d go for like… anywhere from 12 to 36 hours.  They would watch every Star Wars movie, or every Air Bud movie, or an entire series of television while inviting guests on, meeting ridiculous stretch goals like throwing a sandwich out a window, all while raising money for a good cause.  I don’t want to pick favorite guests (I totally do), but Rachel Zegler, D’Arcy Carden, Paul F. Thompkins, X Mayo, and Rich Sommer Steven Charleston have had truly iconic moments on the show.  But independently George kicks down the door and this OUT OF POCKET GLTS moment might be my two favorites, hooooly shit.

The amount of canon they’ve built up in that time (they joke it’s somewhere close to 500 hours, but like.. it’s probably not that far off) is just absolutely massive.  Watching the show is like hearing people speak a foreign language at first, but the longer you immerse yourself the easier it gets to speak it.  You’ll know when you’ve become a Gerogie Porgie when you understand that grabbing an item close to you for show and tell is called a Little Ricci, that the butter bell announces new Butter Boy and Butter Girl (and tangentially Butterbear) items, that you’re not allowed to make fan art of Gizmo, or Grogu, or god forbid Grogizmo and sell it on a T-shirt, and you mourn the Bumper Factory’s closure.  When the world opened back up a few years ago they stopped streaming online at any amount of regularity, but they have the occasional live events to carry on the show.  They’re broadcast on YouTube afterward so you can experience them in all their glory.

SO YEAH, in summary, The Chris Gethard Show lead me to Planet Scum, What’s in the Box?, The George Lucas Talk Show and finally to this list item – the staged readings of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.  The most random group of actors and comedians gathered over 3 glorious nights to chaotically reenact the movies.  Haley Joel Osment plays Anakin and Vic Michaelis plays Obi-Wan and it’s honestly perfect casting.  The character choices by everyone is unexpected and hilarious, with several cameos from people/things you may recognize but do not expect to be in the Star Wars universe.  I guarantee watching these will cure whatever ails you.

#1 Pat Finnerty

Every app on the planet does a yearly wrapped except YouTube, which is a kindness I don’t deserve because I think I would die knowing how many hours I spent on that site.  The only thing I’d be curious about is the percentage of watch time spent in the Pat Finnerty What Makes This Song Stink universe, because good god, I’m embarrassed to even admit how many times I’ve rewatched those videos.

Pat didn’t make the cut for last year’s list by one day – Todd in the Shadows tweeted about finally watching the WMTSS of “Try That in a Small Town”, and curious as to what that possibly could be about, I clicked on through and opened myself up to a very, very niche part of the internet.  It seems like Pat takes egregious songs personally, breaking apart (in detail, sometimes with Beato Burners) what makes them the absolute worst.  In the case of Train the video addressed a long standing feud, or in the case of Lenny Kravitz, an earnest attempt to identify if “American Woman” or “Fly Away” is worse since they’re terrible in completely different ways.  Zach was the one who fucked him by bringing “Try That in a Small Town” to Pat’s attention, but we all benefitted from the resulting odyssey.

Pat doesn’t just rip on these songs, but is a masterful storyteller, walking us through his thoughts on music, life, and why people sit in front of the board for no reason during documentary interviews.  His video on Weezer’s “Beverly Hills” starts by analyzing the musical trajectory of a once critically acclaimed band, and leads us into a retrospective on youth, what was actually good or what is good by nature of being connected to a simpler time (AKA The Weezer Conversation).  I got strangely emotional watching him and his cousin Mike listening to an album they loved in high school as they drove to B-Mart to pick up some dry-ass chickens.

While Pat only has a handful of videos, seemingly inconsequential tangents become integral parts of the vast and expansive lore.  I now know more about Kid Rock, Pat Moynihan and Nickelback than I ever wanted to, but if it means I get to hear the origin story of Tommy Turtle I’m in.  I’m taking all my musical and culinary opinions from the Blinds To Go Guy.  Lloyd the Landlord might not have great takes on the feasibility of taking a bath as a tall dude, but he’s got some really interesting opinions on how MGK snagged Megan Fox.  

Similar to Planet Scum, the viewers became a somewhat integral part of the WMTSS canon – whether they attend a Stop The Train rally, can hit a perfect Deez Nuts only seconds after waking to prove Jason Aldeen can’t sing, or be the one to tell Pat he just needs to put something in the Dunkin cup so the pedal mobile can operate while displaying The Thing.  Game for anything, they’ll champion any random cause, like buying guitars signed by Pat Moynihan and Brad Arnold or Pat’s dream to sell out and buy a hot tub.  As someone whose happy place is sitting on a deck in an HT downing several cans of moonshine cocktail, I appreciate the quest, but it was what was created to meet the end goal that was truly special.

Justin Hawkins is tangentially involved in two things on my list this year, which speaks to how great his taste is.  

I cannot possibly recommend watching Pat’s channel enough.  The uploads aren’t frequent, but they’re bangers every time they drop.  I suggest starting from the beginning with 3 Doors Down’s “Kryptonite” and watching the format evolve and the universe expand, but if you only want to invest time in one video, it’s “Try That in a Small Town”.  WMTSS #8 is the culmination of every single song Pat’s ripped on, reminiscing on his back catalog of videos to prove definitively that this rage bait masquerading as a country hit is the worst thing any of us have ever listened to.

Honorable Mentions:

I can’t believe I thought covering traditional media this year would make this post shorter.  Jesus Christ.

Happy New Year! We’re counting down several of my favorite YouTube videos that were released in the past year!

Honestly, I should just call this my favorite video essays of the year since that’s what ended up making the cut. Also, I cheated and made some videos share numbers because there was a lot of tangentially related topics. It’s my page, I can do what I want.

One of my red flags is the majority of the content I consume is hosted on YouTube (or Nebula, which I highly recommend you sign up for to directly support a bunch of the creators listed below). Last year, when a request was made for some 2022 TV/Movie recommendations, I really struggled to put it together because I don’t watch a lot of recent stuff. This site is all the proof you need that I’ve been catching up on almost 100 years of musical movie content instead. But I do enjoy listening to smart people talk while I do other tasks, so YouTube has unfortunately been a bit of an obsession of mine that I’ve tried to minimize, but couldn’t. The amount of times I say “There’s this YouTube Creator…” per day is truly horrifying and embarrassing.  Below is a small chunk of my personal favorite videos; a few even covering contentious events that took place on the platform. They may be cold tea shortly, but I think it’s helpful to analyze where we are today to better understand how the platform changed at the end of 2024.

I’m going to try and read more books this year, I swear. And maybe post more reviews? Perhaps not – I’m not going to make promises to you guys that are only going to break your hearts.

Fair warning – This is going to be a long one.

#10 RSK – How Beat Saber got me into K-pop (I swear it’s interesting)

Well, the feud between Jacksfilms and SSSniperwolf ramped up to 11 a few months ago, didn’t it? (I swear it’s relevant).

For context, OG YouTuber Jack Douglass has a long-standing beef with react channels, and rightfully so. A lot of them play the complete video they’re “reacting” to and provide zero commentary. This not only steals revenue from the creators by diverting the views, its acceptance (and even promotion) by YouTube is making the content farm problem worse. If you’re a creator that writes and films original works, you’re competing in the algorithm with shorts channels that churn out thousands of videos of someone’s stolen storytime audio played over stolen footage of someone playing subway surfers or frosting a cupcake because YouTube isn’t going to take these channels down if they’re getting views.

While Jack was low-key passive aggressive about this issue in the past, it was a tweet YouTube sent that I think pushed him fully into his villain era. This year at VidCon, YouTube decided to feature one of their biggest react creators, Lia Shelesh (I hate her user name; I don’t care if it’s a Metal Gear reference, it comes off super third reich-y to me) and ask her a bunch of dumb questions like How do you come up with your video ideas? Like, what ideas? She summarizes tiktok videos and says “bro” a lot. This incensed Jack enough where he started reacting to every single one of her videos on Twitch, mocking her predictable style while trying to find and credit the creators she’d been stealing from. This led to the creators filing claims against her videos, which meant she had to continually edit them to remove the content she freebooted.

I sincerely believe the intention was to create a big enough stink about her that YouTube might actually try to police this behavior on its platform, but like, Lia makes YouTube an obscene amount of money. She’s not stealing from multi-billion dollar corporations like Disney that have the funds to sue her for copyright infringement, what do they care?

I think the secondary goal to shame Lia into changing her behavior was even less likely to be successful. She had no incentive – She was making money off of these videos hand over fist with the gold-plated seal of approval from YouTube. Lia could have continued to get her bag and ignore Jack, but apparently the constant attention did get under her skin. This escalated to an altercation where her and her sister pulled up, camera in hand, to Jack’s home to “just talk” while doxing his address to her millions of Instagram followers. Oof.

This got the attention of several creators and fans, who joined Jack in pleading with YouTube to hold Lia accountable for violating their terms of service and putting his family in danger. Because he lives in California, there was also a ton of speculation on weather or not what she did was a literal crime. Over a week went by before YouTube responded by temporarily demonetizing Lia’s channel and stating Jack’s behavior of targeting Lia was also unacceptable since he essentially goaded a morally bankrupt human being into lashing out by constantly criticizing her definition of fair use.

Watching this whole thing play out was painful and not-at-all shocking. YouTube, like every other company, is in the business of making money. I don’t know if they contacted him privately, or if Jack saw the writing on the wall, but after this incident he decided to pivot his content into what he calls “a workshop for creators”. Creators can submit their YouTube videos and Jack might react to them live on Twitch while providing helpful feedback on how they can improve them, and thus their engagement. This long-winded several-paragraph intro was to explain how I found out about RSK through one of Jack’s streams.

This video essay on how RSK fell down the K-pop Hole is incredibly entertaining and relatable. Back in 2009 I got into 2nd Generation K-pop after several years of avoiding it. I knew of Rain because a few of my friends in college loved him, but I kind of viewed him as the Korean Usher and mostly just followed his acting career because I found that more engaging. But goddamn it, then 2NE1 had to drop “Fire”. Fuckin’ CL was my gateway drug into Girls’ Generation, After School, 4minute, Super Junior, EXO, SHINee, and most of all, Big Bang (and all their fucking solo careers). I watched their interviews. I tried to learn the dances. I was in my mid-twenties and I had a T.O.P bias. The worst was the air of smug satisfaction I felt when everyone started listening to PSY only proving I was right that maybe K-pop was a fun thing we could all listen to.

After several members of Big Bang left for their conscription (and one of their members became a literal sex trafficker, seriously, fuck that dude) my interest started to fade. Taemin was my last hurrah before I stopped following the genre altogether. I didn’t like BTS and Blackpink made me miss 2NE1 so I figured I was done. But that’s not to say I don’t find a banger every once in a while and revel when the love of the genre awakens in others.

Watching RSK boot up Beat Saber and Easy-A “Pocketful of Sunshine” their way into a Twice concert was truly hilarious. I know literally nothing about 4th Generation artists, but the transition from a casual tolerance for BTS into an unscripted rapid-fire rating of a bunch of current artists I’ve never heard of is the greatest representation of how quickly hobbies can devolve into a new obsession. I’d totally trust their opinion and check out the good ones, but I’m old and getting into new music is hard.

But at least CL is still around, thank fucking god.

Animations: 100%
Editing: 100%
Jokes: 100%
Earthbound Music: 100%
Pacing: 100%
Parts: 7
Storytelling: A+… Nah, not A+, not A+, just A… A-… Nah, just A.  Just A.

#9 Eddy Burback – The Deceptive World of Ghost Kitchens

You may recognize Eddy from last year’s #8 video, Ted Nivision’s “I Drove to Every Rainforest Café in North America“. They did it again this year with Margaritaville, but that’s not the reason we’re here today. We’re here for analyzing how we are marketed to, deceived, and ultimately what we consume.

Eddy stumbled his way into discovering some commerical kitchens kind of drop-ship through food delivery apps? In addition to that, restaurants like IHOP, which don’t exactly have the greatest reputation, are selling their food under kitschy names like Super Mega Dilla and Thrilled Cheese in order to circumvent your previous mediocre experiences with the brand. Think Applebee’s food is flavorless? Well, try Cosmic Wings instead! Don’t want dry fucking chicken wings from B-Dubs? Get a burger from Wild Burger! In addition to the scummy nature of essentially bait-and-switching customers, Eddy talks about how ghost kitchens are significantly complicating the health inspection process.

Later in the year, Safiya Nygaard made a video focusing on tiktok ads and how false advertisements can con you out of $4 to $200 based on someone ripping off a product picture and sending the consumer something similar-but-cheaper they bought on AliExpress.  The “What I Ordered vs What I Got” genre has been around forever, but usually a bit of common sense can warn you the wedding dress you bought for $30 isn’t going to look like the Pinterest pin.  But because these things typically don’t have legal consequences listings are getting more bold in how expensive they are, making the could they really make this item this cheap? litmus test a little harder.

And depending on how savvy you are, that might not even be enough.  Before Christmas, my mother was telling me about this handmade stuffed elf doll she ordered from a Facebook friend for my niece that was customized with her name on it.  She hadn’t received it yet, but when she showed me the picture of like 25 identical dolls sitting on this woman’s stove with all different names placed on them I asked how much she paid for it and she said “Oh, only $6”.
“That’s not handmade, then.”
“I think it’s handmade!”
“It’s drop-shipped crap she put through an embroidery machine.”
“No, they all look a little different!”
“Probably because they’re poorly made.”
“How could she stick a premade doll through an embroidery machine?”
“Dude, I don’t know, I’m just telling you she didn’t handmake that doll.  For $6?!  The materials alone wouldn’t be that cheap, nevertheless her time.  She cranked out like 25 of these in a few weeks!”

I looked on Temu and a bunch of other sites for this doll and couldn’t find it, which was a temporary loss until I went to Dollar Tree for gift bags and saw a whole display of them. When it finally arrived it wasn’t even embroidered.  This woman clearly has a Cricut and was just ironing transfers on dolls.  Honestly, $6 for what she does is a pretty fair price, but to advertise them as handmade?  Please.  And because my mother trusted this person she was very quick to defend her.

All this to say I’m kind of getting sick of the uncertainty that comes with ordering things without seeing them in person first. I’m *this close* to shopping at physical retail locations again.

#8 Princess Weekes – Anne Heche: When Community Doesn’t Show Up || Illymation – Perks of going to the Psych Ward

Biphobia is exhausting. From the early 2000s attitude of “you’re only saying that to get attention from guys” or “you’re gay and you just won’t admit it yet”, to the constant depictions in the media of being aloof assholes who “don’t like labels”, it’s bad enough getting judgement from outside our community. But man, it hurts a lot when the call comes from inside the house that someone is “not really bi” if they’re in a hetero-presenting relationship. Conversely, if a bi-identifying person pursues a same-sex presenting relationship their motivations are constantly in question – Are they doing it to “experiment” or to “gain access to queer spaces”? It feels very strange when some, in a community built on a need for acceptance, gatekeeps its members.

Princess Weekes, another top-notch creator (who is also on Nebula), examines how the treatment of Anne Heche from within the LGBTQIA+ community provided her with no social safety net when she struggled with mental health and addiction issues. We are in the middle of a reckoning on how we treated women in the 90s and 2000s who were in need of help and were instead lambasted and denied empathy. While opinions on Lindsay, Britney, and Amanda are widely changing, unfortunately, in the case of Anne and Sinéad, they were not alive to experience the shift in public opinion.  Hopefully if we can be more outspoken when people are exploited in the media we can prevent others from suffering the same fate. 

If Princess Weekes’s video is the shot, Illymation’s is the chaser. In the spirit of destigmatizing mental illness, Illy’s “Perks of going to the Psych Ward” illustrates her experience involuntarily (and later voluntarily) checking herself into a mental health facility. It balances the weight of the situation with moments of levity, including a hilarious Loss macaroni art moment. Ultimately she had a positive experience, but as someone who had their own mental health breakdown over a decade ago that involved all kinds of dumb shit I also don’t like to talk about, I relate to the feeling of failure each time I have to mark that disappointing checkbox on every doctor’s form; The unfortunate reality that having depression and anxiety can make doctors hand-wave away all sorts of medical symptoms I had until doctor #4 finally took me seriously enough to order scans to find out my issues had an actual physical cause. We have a long way to go to humanize mental illness, but at least we’re living in a moment where we are witnessing noticeable change.

#7 Pop Culture Detective – In Defense of Disney’s Solarpunk World

Pop Culture Detective writes incredibly well-presented essays about media tropes, introducing terms like Born Sexy Yesterday and Adorkable Misogyny to more succinctly describe common themes in sci-fi and sitcoms respectively. I especially liked their video speculating on the reasons why Hopper turned into an absolute knob during the third season of Stranger Things, and how prioritizing aesthetics over content can torpedo a previously well-rounded character.

It really was a toss-up between this video and “Searching for Humanity in Fortnight’s Battle Royale“, but ultimately I connected more with the Avatar-esque future where humans live harmoniously with the land.  I wasn’t familiar with Solarpunk as a genre but had engaged with it my entire life. I was a child in the 90s when it felt like environmentalism wasn’t a political statement. We had Captain Planet and Fern Gully, and there was constant talk about how we needed to remedy the hole in the ozone layer instead of debating whether or not it existed at all. I never considered, however, how that media placed the onus of change onto the consumer instead of changing the system itself. As the Pop Culture Detective notes, based on the amount of stories depicting a dystopian Earth-ravaged future, there isn’t much held optimism if we need to rely on corporations to make systemic changes. Perhaps if there were more movies like Strange World, we would feel empowered to fight to prevent climate change instead of accepting it as inevitable.

#6 THE BIRDCAGE and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES: The Inside Story

Matt Baume’s channel is a gold mine of information on how queerness has been depicted in media over time. While I remember the loud outcry when Ellen came out on her television show, I’ve loved learning about programs released before my time, like those headed by Norman Lear, their cultural response, and how they ultimately changed people’s minds about homosexuals. His videos have also been particularly helpful in my musical reviews, providing perspective on Rita Moreno, Angela Lansbury, John Waters, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and most recently, Marilyn Monroe.

One of my mother’s favorite movies is The Birdcage, and as someone who saw it for the first time in middle school, it might have been my first experience seeing a family with gay dads depicted on film. I wasn’t a huge fan of Robin Williams in his comedic roles but I loved him as Armand, and Nathan Lane’s performance was so endearing and heartbreaking as Albert that every slight against him made me immediately protective. While I had some awareness of La Cage Aux Folles, I thoroughly enjoyed Matt walking through the history of the story, its on-stage musical adaptation, and Robin’s protection of Nathan on Oprah in order to prevent Nathan from being outed before he was ready to make that information public.  The lengths it took to get this movie made and thankfully have it be well-received is truly a lesson in perseverence. 

#5 Maggie Mae Fish – Is the “Off-Grid” Lifestyle a Lie? || Mina Le – the circus of celebrity house tours

These videos are two sides of the same coin – one where subjects revel in their opulence while the other is self-satisfied at how minimalistic they can be.  But neither of these genres are truly genuine – curating your home and promoting a lifestyle ultimately is the same as taking a deliberately-angled selfie with the fake eyelash filter on. It’s contains a smidge of reality, but it’s mostly a reflection of your desired brand.

I’ve been following Maggie Mae Fish for a while. As a fellow Michigander I appreciated her video on Motel Makeover, but it was her series on Evangelical Christian movies that solidified my love of her. If you’re on Nebula (and you should be), her Unrated series about sexuality in films is top notch; it has an entire video about Showgirls, which is my favorite awkwardly edited for television movie. In her video “Is the “Off-Grid” Lifestyle a Lie?” she explores how genuine homesteading content is, specifically focusing on the channel Ghost Town Living. Its host Brent had the funds to buy a ghost town in California named Serro Gordo with the intention of restoring and preserving converting it into an Airbnb before accidentally burning it down. In the aftermath, Brent made constant calls for action from his subscribers to donate money (and in some cases resources and time) to help him build a new hotel over the old hotel’s ashes, aiding him in continuing construction on his for-profit business. The ethics of this are murky, especially if you consider whether or not Brent already has/could obtain the funds himself for this endeavor but is choosing not to. He’s been making videos about being “off-grid” for 3 years, selling and advertising this lifestyle of self-reliance in order to market his endeavor, even though he is employing (or exploiting) several people to make this dream happen.

Conversely, Mina’s video on “the circus of celebrity house tours” focuses on the history of televised personal home tours. The public is fascinated with the peek behind the curtain into celebrity lives, and this fixation has morphed over time and leveraged by celebrities to make themselves seem more fascinating or important based on the contents of their home. Much like an open house that is intended to sell a property to a potential buyer, celebrities are staging their home and renting cars to make them seem much more successful and wealthy than they actually are, carrying the underlying message that they’re better off than the viewers. Also, shoutout to Kendra Gaylord who further explores why celebrities would want their homes featured in AD, which includes a free way to literally market them for sale.

Both Maggie and Mina conclude that the true privilege of wealth is being free of the confines of capitalism.  You can choose to either live off the land indefinitely or build a pool and a bowling alley in your home so you don’t have to go anywhere.  If only we could be so lucky.

#4 Fundie Fridays – Sound of Freedom: Angel Studios use QAnon & Christianity to Take Over American Media

I’m a proud patreon backer of Fundie Fridays   Reverend Jen started off the channel by covering aspects of Christian Fundamentalism while doing her makeup, but has branched out to cover other topics like how Christianity is reflected in shows like Veggie Tales and King of the Hill, the history of Christian Music, and most recently, the Precious Moments brand. She was even featured on the Shiny Happy People documentary that covers Bill Gothard’s IBLP organization and how it systematically created an environment of abuse against women, children, and queer people! I’m so impressed by all she’s been able to accomplish so far.

King James, Jen’s husband, started making their own videos on the channel back in 2021, typically focusing on the main players in conservative politics.  This particular video about Angel Studios and the mess that is the collaboration between Mormon media and QAnon was particularly enlightening. James not only discusses the drama behind the release of Sound of Freedom, but also how this method of donor-funding media may shape the movie studio landscape in the future because of the way Angel Studios were able to game the box office system similar to a teen streaming “Yummy” on repeat with the volume turned down to make a song jump up to #1 on the Billboard 200 List.

This video sent me down the Tim Ballard rabbit hole, which is an abysmal place to be.  Jordan and McKay, a channel that focuses on aspects of Mormonism in wider culture, have two livestreams that talk more in-depth about OUR and the lawsuit filed against Tim by former volunteers since Tim’s work has been lauded by the Mormon church. The Behind the Bastards and You’re Wrong About podcasts (check out the one on Anna Nicole Smith) also released episodes debunking the most common misconceptions about kidnapping and human trafficking.  YWA also name dropped this Reply All episode from several years ago before Gimlet was outed for being all anti-union and having a generally hostile working environment for its Black employees. I recommend you check it all out if you want to simultaneously be relieved by how rare it is for a kid to be stolen off the street by a stranger and get angry about how sex workers safety is consistently disregarded.

If you want to watch something slightly more light-hearted, however, James kept his promise on TWO follow-up videos on the Tuttle Twins, and oh boy, it’s uhhh… that show is a choice.  José’s video on Bentkey is a good one to watch if you want to dig even deeper on what conservative kids programming looks like.

#3 The Predictable Fate of Andrew Tate – Banned in Real Life || ContraPoints – The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling

Two of the best creators covering two of the worst people we’ve had to grapple with this year.

First, D’Angelo Wallace became my quarantine comfort obsession back in 2020 when I stumbled upon their videos on celebrity clout-chaser and armchair psychologist Shallon Lester. I liked the way he discussed mental health and called out creators for their bullshit ableist language. He made videos on pop-culture moments that frankly I’m too old to be exposed to organically, which after viewing made me feel like I was keeping my finger on the pulse of the community.

It was his (now deleted) series of videos on the Bye, Sister scandal that rocketed his channel into superstardom. He not only talked about the drama between the creators, but exposed how they were manipulating, exploiting (and in some cases preying) on their (majority underage) fans. I repeat-watched those mammoth videos for a year, but this also happened during the pandemic so I was searching for anything scandalous to focus on that didn’t involve people dying. He followed it up with a pair of videos on the Paul brothers, covering how these creators shaped the YouTube space and how they’re morphing their content to grow with their audience. I also loved his video on Blaire White that focuses on the conequences of her constant spread of misinformation on “bad” trans people and how it only gave right-wing ideologues a trans friend to hide behind and downplay their own transphobia.

D’Angelo returned this year after a long hiatus with this absolute classic on human jackwagon Andrew Tate: The Final Boss of Alpha Male Masculinity Culture and Literal Sex Trafficker. His video, while almost 2 hours long, is the most succinct summary of this dude’s history and how his lame bravado designed to sell scam hustler mindset classes has negatively influenced 7th grade boys worldwide. Every upload since then has been similarly fantastic (he even debuted a third channel with off-the-cuff commentary) and I’m incredibly excited to see what he’ll release in the upcoming year.

Second, If you’ve been in the YouTube space for more than like 10 minutes, you know who ContraPoints is. Natalie breaks down hotly debated (and sometimes philosophical) topics by reviewing their place in history and often relating them to her own personal experience as a trans woman. She critiques her misaligned subjects, but also presents them with a great amount of empathy – not to absolve them of their behavior, but to better understand how people succumb to the radicalization pipeline. Her costumes, bisexual lighting, and themed sets are also incredibly pretty to look at, making each video truly a masterpiece to behold.

Her videos on Jordan Peterson and Incels are two of my favorites and my introduction to her channel. While she’s covered JKR before, her video covering The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling Podcast and JoRo’s constant bitching about how her totally reasonable gender critical views are getting her unjustly cancelled while at the same time continually demonizing trans people is truly the nail in the coffin for the JKR discourse. We’ve moved beyond presenting Jo a miseducated billionaire who clearly needs to work through her traumas. The rhetoric she’s promoting is incredibly dangerous to trans people, not only promoting violence against them, but allowing politicians to pass laws to limit their access to gender-affirming healthcare. I was never a Harry Potter fan, but now I can’t encounter it in the wild without thinking of her spouting some bullshit nonsense on gamete production and getting angry all over again.

#2 HBomberguy – Plagiarism and You(Tube)

I know it’s not the coveted #1 spot on Jacksfilms Best of the Year list, but it’s something, right?

HBomberguy is another one of my comfort creators (ALSO AVAILABLE ON NEBULA, DO YOU GUYS SEE A PATTERN HERE). Similar to ContraPoints, Harry does a great job of summarizing current right-wing talking points and providing measured responses debunking them, tackling topics like vaccine harm, flat earth theory, and climate change. Their media analysis is also great – Their video on gaming web comics in the 2000s was the best representation I’ve seen on that subculture while the one celebrating Fallout: New Vegas inspired me to replay the game this year. But oh my god, guys, their argument on why Sherlock is garbage may be one of my favorite videos on the platform of all time. As someone who watched the show while it was airing the 3rd and 4th seasons it’s incredibly refreshing to hear someone loudly confirm that while the show wasn’t perfect before, it completely and utterly went off the rails by the end.

Harry’s four hour epic, “Plagiarism and You(Tube)” covers so much of what has been plaguing the platform, including ethics within media journalism, the iilluminaughtii content farm, and unlicensed adaptations. The back half of the video specifically targets James Somerton, a queer creator that rips off lesser known queer creators for profit all while constantly dismissing and excusing past accusations of plagiarism.  This, like his Roblox oof video, can be cynically viewed as targeted hit piece, and it’s not not that. But this pair of videos exist to highlight the rampant crediting problem that emerges when monetary compensation is reliant on churning out constant content.

It’s kind of encouraging/hilarious how this video sparked immediate change within the community. I’ve noticed video creators changing how they’re crediting their sources, making it much more explicit on the screen itself where bits of information were taken from lest senpai notice them and include them in a future video.  I’m sure his mother is very proud.

#1 Ryan Beard – Colleen Ballinger’s Ukulele “Apology” From Hell

This past year, YouTube has been bloated with exhausting 12-hour multi-part summaries and takedowns on current drama subjects, proving there is a large group of creators that think if they can talk about something for that long, that it’s worth talking about. That’s why I love Ryan Beard.

In this video, Ryan concisely breaks down the Colleen Ballinger situation in less than 30 minutes in a clever and hilarious way.  It’s a masterclass in analyzing public relations and specifically what not to do when you’re accused of sending illicit materials to children. And, true to Ryan Beard form, the most biting commentary comes at the end by doing the exact same thing Colleen did, but honestly.

I have rewatched this a dozen times.  It’s a perfect encapsulation of the dance (pun intended) creators do to address allegations while still retaining their career after a scandal hits. While the denouncing of Colleen’s behavior is going to become quieter and quieter over time like we’ve seen with James Charles (because apparently we don’t care if you groom kids if you tell everyone you’re a loser for doing it), Ryan’s video lives to commemorate a moment in time where we all collectively agreed this response was incredibly bizarre and unacceptable.

Congratulations, Ryan. Your insightful and campy style of approaching cultural touchstones is truly the best.

This also may be #1 because I’m bitter that being a millennial uke playing Colleen is now cringe. How dare she take that away from me.

Honorable Mentions:

Favorite Traditional Media in 2023:

(Note, not everything here came out in 2023 lmao)

• Movie: Theater Camp
• Song: Emily Ann Roberts – He Set Her Off
• Television: Reservation Dogs; Only Murders in the Building
• Game: Darkside Detective 1 and 2
• Podcasts: Dead Eyes, Flula Makes Five, Girls Next Level
• Book: John Steinbeck – Travels with Charley

I was asked to provide TV/movie recommendations from 2022, and honestly, I don’t have a whole lot to say on traditional media this year. Instead, let’s dive into something I’m trying to cut back on in 2023 – my YouTube obsession.

I am subscribed to over 500 creators, and I used to try to keep up with all of them. In the past few years I’ve realized that was a losing battle, especially with the gradual transition from short-form skit content to hour and a half long think pieces. Doesn’t prevent me from trying, however, which has been to the detriment of my sanity and my sleep schedule. But now my debilitating addiction can benefit you! Here’s a list of the top 10 videos that were released this year.

#10 SethEverman – metal drummer listens to ABBA for the first time

Starting off easy, here’s Seth Everman playing drums to “Mamma Mia”. I’ve listened to this dozens of times, it hits so hard.

#9 Scene Queen – Pink Hotel

Scene Queen is the perfect intersection of my musical tastes, blending pop and metal while embodying the antithesis of every pick-me girl. I wish she were around back when I was in college and that asshat Perez Hilton was drawing dicks on Lindsay Lohan’s face, then maybe I would have processed my internalized misogyny wayyyy earlier. Also she’s unapologetically gay as fuck, which we love to see.

#8 Ted Nivison – I Drove to Every Rainforest Café in North America

I haven’t been subscribed to Ted long, but this was my gateway drug. This video is exactly as advertised, and it is a literal ride. As someone who didn’t go to a Rainforest Café until I was well into my teenage years, I don’t really have the nostalgia Ted clearly rode on for 10k miles in a Toyota Tacoma. But honestly, the Rainforest Cafes are the least interesting part of this masterpiece . Instead tune in for a tale of perseverance that tested a friendship to complete a truly innocuous quest.

#7 Pinely – The MrBeast-ification of Youtube

Onma island is buried a treasure chest.

Orr focuses on how click bait-y spectacle charity videos have overrun the platform, and in the creator’s effort to keep high view retention, how they exploit the people they intend to help for internet clout. Its a subject I personally find fascinating as I struggle with consuming true crime content for the same reason – it’s hard to shine light on a corrupt organization or violent perpetrator without exploiting the victims in some way.

His follow-up video, The MrBeast-ification of Money, analyzes the influence of these videos on how people perceive wealth and how MrBeast-esque content affects how children consider the value of a dollar. Awesome duo, check out both to get the full picture of Jimmy’s influence.

#6 Worthikids – BIGTOP BURGER: DOWN

Back in 2019 before The Rise of Skywalker killed all the goodwill Star Wars had earned in my mind, I stumbled upon this video on twitter and lost my shit. “I will use the force to heal my broken body” is my inner monologue every time I drink coffee. I immediately found them on YouTube and subscribed.

Worthikids is so unbelievably talented, not only animating in their own art style, but recreating the old school stop motion Rankin/Bass aesthetic. Bigtop Burger is an ongoing series about a clown-themed food truck beefing with a zombie themed food truck, featuring the vocal talents of some of my other favorite creators like Chris Fleming and ProZD. It’s completely chaotic and about the best thing I’ve ever seen. It was this video, however, that had me literally crying with laughter. I’m not going to spoil it because I want you to experience it fresh, but Chris’ unhinged voice paired with the elastic animation style just fucking kills me.

#5 Todd in the Shadows – The Top Ten ‘90s Buses

Todd in the Shadows is no stranger to top 10 lists – I look forward to his annual Top 10 Worst and Top 10 Best Songs of the Year videos. When I saw this video show up in my subscriptions feed, I, for sure, thought it was a troll. I should have known better. This is legitimately a top 10 list of ’90s busses. The Spice World bus makes an appearance. It’s a gem.

Todd is one of my comfort youtubers. Sometimes when I’m working on stuff I’ll boot up a Trainwreckords, One Hit Wonderland, or Cinemadonna playlist and just let it ride. His disgruntled analysis, while sometimes I don’t always agree with cause musical tastes are unique and varied, is strangely soothing. It comes with side effects like knowing more about Cher and Gregg Allman than I ever wanted to know, like that they were married at all, but you take the good with the bad.

#4 Drew Gooden – I took Ninja’s Masterclass and it ruined my life

Drew Gooden is one of the members of the conglomerate of media commentary youtubers that I follow (there are so many, legitimately, I have a problem, so much content, make it stop, I’m sure I’m going to forget some, it’s inevitable, I watch too much YouTube, how do I get anything done?), but his analytical nature and sarcastic tone really resonates with me. I particularly enjoyed his retrospective on Lily Singh’s talk show that addressed the struggle YouTube creators face when adjusting themselves to fit within the confines of traditional media and expand their audience while trying to keeping their existing fan base. He also has a knack of finding the weirdest movies.

This is one in a series of videos where Drew reviews educational scams provided by content creators. He had previously covered the pains some creators face with maintaining their relatability, and offering online courses seem to be the natural progression of how to transition that online success into corporate dolla dolla billz. It’s depressingly hilarious how low-effort these endeavors are, which is only proven when Drew ultimately tries to follow Ninja’s expert advice to become a Twitch superstar.

As someone who spent like 450 hours streaming on Twitch this year, Drew’s attempt is a great encapsulation of how isolating that experience can be. If you are also a Twitch streamer, this is a must-watch.

#3 münecat – Web3.0: A Libertarian Dystopia

I found münecat a few years ago through other anti-MLM creators because of her thorough coverage of the LuLaRoe shit show. Her videos have only gotten more detailed since then, culminating in this mammoth summary on Web3.0. I have stayed willfully ignorant of all things blockchain since I was forced to listen to some dude talk about mining bitcoin at a party back in like 2017. Münecat has done all the heavy lifting here to get me up to speed on cryptobros pyramid scheme of their very own. Plus, her work always comes with a bonus music video at the end. Score!

Also, because of this gem of a video on Russell Hartley, I now own a “Gaslight me daddy” t-shirt.

#2 Jenny Nicholson – Evermore: The Theme Park That Wasn’t

Jenny Nicholson has been one of my favorite creators on YouTube since I found a video of her roasting discount Halloween costumes. What her brand has evolved into is truly remarkable, providing commentary on books, movies, theme parks, fanfiction, and random finds like church Easter plays and whatever the fuck the Hallmark channel was doing on YouTube back in 2016. I now know more about The Vampire Diaries and Bronycon than any adult should. “My horny drawing of Twilight Sparkle is presented upon this long pillow with complete neutrality,” lives in my head rent-free. Any topic she covers, whether I have any familiarity with it or not, is well-researched and presented in such a captivating manner that it makes you forget how long you’ve been watching the video. This one is almost 4 hours long and I’ve watched it in its entirety more than once.

Evermore is a “theme park” located in Utah that has undergone several changes since its initial announcement back in 2014. This video, which has a longer runtime than The Irishman, goes into acute detail about the man who cooked up the concept, the development process, its lackluster implementation, and the park’s current operationally neutered state that leaves it with an extremely unstable future.

I don’t know if YouTube is Jenny’s main gig or not, but she should 100% be a script doctor or creative consultant. Her feedback is thoughtful and presented with purpose, not just for the sake of roasting (although she’s also great at that). I’d want her to be my editor if my writing wasn’t garbage lmao.

#1 Defunctland – Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery

If you’re looking for exceptional quality YouTube content, look no farther than Defunctland. Starting out with videos focused on deprecated theme park rides, over the years they’ve expanded their repertoire to cover retro television shows, fast-food restaurants, and theme park management. Their series about Jim Henson is legitimately one of my favorite deep-dives on a creative. This documentary, however, may be their best work.

Defunctland has always done a phenomenal job balancing humor, history, and sentimentality in their videos. “Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery” is no exception, functioning as a love letter to unsung creatives whose impact is immense, but their identity hidden. By the end of this masterpiece I was crying for the legacy of a person I had no awareness of an hour and a half before. Kevin should be proud of his videos, because in the act of immortalizing the media and experiences that have influenced us the most, what truly stands out is their ability to tell the story in a way that is both effective and emotional.

Keep doing what you’re doing, Defunctland. You’re the best of the internet.

Also, for shits and giggles, my top-rated traditional media of 2022:

• Movie: RRR
• Music: Scene Queen – Bimbocore Vol. 1 and 2
• Television: Shoresy
• Game: The Frog Detective series and Psychonauts 2
• Podcast: Ear Hustle
• Book: If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin