Youtube is Crack

As Meg unfortunately is privy to, I am an addict. I can do a 'see related videos' marathon for an entire afternoon. In fact i have often spent many afternoons (and mornings, and evenings) just watching Youtube videos. It is not one of my strengths, I know, but it does contribute greatly to my life goal of being a social outcast and a hermit. I just love the internet. I love that at any given moment there is so much stuff available to me. One click and I'm sailing the high seas. But really, it's a vice.

About two years ago as Youtube was just taking off I found these Japanese Rube Goldberg machine commercials. I will share them with you now.




Those two videos probably grabbed my attention because my sister, brother and I would make what we called "marble machines" out of blocks all of the time. I believe it was probably my go to activity as a child. And not really simple things either, we had finesse and style. Anyway, stumbling upon these videos was a problem as it probably wasted a good 10 or 11 hours of my life watching similar videos online.

Youtube has also become a the battlefield for a game we play at work on Thursdays. Every one competing has a week to search, and we come back with the bounty of our hunt. It goes like this:

1. The projector is set up.
2. There is dead time in the meeting.
3. Someone inevitably does a Youtube search.
4. We watch a baby laughing, or something pretty mild
5. The big guns come out.

For the next half an hour we spend out time saying, "Oh shit, that was crazy/funny/gross/awesome... but have you seen this?!" Luckily, because I have no social life I am the regular champion of this activity. Here are some of my prized possessions so you can win a round with your friends:

Alex Brown sent me this video about three years ago. A trump card:

BREAKING FUCKIN' NEWS! My Trump card has been removed from Youtube. FUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!

Alright, shit... Well, in that case, here's another favorite:

Egyptian Lover first was shown to me by Donald, as he said that Egyptian Lover looked just like our friend J.P. He does in fact. But I love that electro shit, so I secretly envy J.P.


Found footage festival shout out goes to Patrick Risberg, who is a good competitor on the Thursday video-off. Oh, and obviously the original finders of the footage.

Damn it. I'm noticing that between last night and today Youtube has killed a lot of my favorite videos. Why? Why Youtube? Why? Here's one that's pretty funny, except it was edited from the original:


Meg, don't watch this one:


This one is pretty tame, but it gets me every time:


The trick to winning these competitions is to find something great, but sort of obscure. You can't win with 'David goes to the Dentist' because everybody knows that one, you need to dig a little deeper, really do you 'mindless hours of streaming video' research.

So go forth. Amen.