Blog: Internet Killed the TV Star

YouTube.com is a revelation – it has single-handedly brought the simple idea of making a movie for the world to see and ramped it up a notch. Now I am “The Uploader” – along with browsing daily for new videos, I add to the millions and millions of videos that are on the website. I have been making little films since I was a freshmen. They were used with a terrible camera, were done in one take, and weren’t edited. In short, the videos I made were videos that would get only 20 views and two comments about how someone has “wasted two minutes of their lives” and for me to “die”. But with time comes knowledge and skill, and now the videos I’ve made are of a much higher quality. With actually writing, a video camera, and editing, my movies are now my videos are actually watchable.

With YouTube becoming more and more popular, with the discovery of Justin Bieber, many famous Internet videos making their way into mainstream media (see Weezer’s video “Pork and Beans” you’ll see have a YouTube overload of memories). I always wonder how such videos become so popular because honestly I wouldn’t mind being famous for a week or two. Usually it’s because of the video’s originality. Take “Nyan Cat” for example. For those who haven’t heard of this video, it consists of an 8-bit cat with a Pop-tart body flying through space with a rainbow following it. Interesting right? With a little under four million views, this video is soaring through the Internet like the little Pop-Tart cat itself.

But of course with every gem like that you have to go through the awful partner accounts. The only one of these that isn’t commercial filled, straight-into-the-camera-talking-about-nothing approach, is the ever glorious, food-filled antics of “Epic Meal Time”. They are what you wish cooking shows were like, with dishes that don’t even know what “Weight Watchers” is. It’s fantastic every way shape and form. My personal favorite is their “Mighty Meat Log”, consisting of four types of meat wrapped around three hot dogs, deep fried and put on a stick.

I idolize channels like these. They’re high quality, get more and more creative, and they’re legitimately funny. Another “Youtuber” I idol is “Mr.Chi-city”. a man who’s original claim to fame was making a video about his fridge being full of different drinks because “Ladies like liquids”. He never shows his face and his stories are always wonderful. He is the rebel out of all of the more famous channels. He was offered money to make videos but didn’t want to sell out like Ray William Johnson or Shawn Dawson. He’s the voice of the average man, and his video views go into the millions. Look him up instead of watching “Friday” for the sixth time. These are the kind of things that every Uploader wishes to have. Millions upon millions of views, then they can start merchandising, get a TV spot on a web based show like Tosh.o, become a superstar, but then eventually be forgotten two weeks later. The closet thing I have to being famous is a video with almost six-thousand views and half the comments are about how wrong the info in the video is. Yep, I’m a real celebrity.

I know that my movies will go nowhere, I only do it for fun and that’s what I do it for.