The Annoying Orange Website: HERE Youtube Channel: HERE
Well I don't like this series, that Orange god damn shits me up the wall. Sure he maybe be THE annoying orange but somehow he manages to work his insufferable magic and make me what to reach through the screen and turn that little bastard into orange juice. Maybe its his weedy grin with his awful yellow teeth or his narrow beady little eyes... ARGH I HATE HIM!!!
The Annoying orange is a very popular web-series on YouTube created by Dane Boedigheimer in 2008. With thousands of Subscribers that quickly amused over time the Annoying Orange is now currently the 8th most subscribed channel on YouTube . (Lord knows why). These videos are crazy popular with most videos reaching a million views within days of posting.
Rhett & Link Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE 2nd YouTube Channel (Vlog): HERE
Meet Rhett and Link, they're a comedy duo that specialises in what they call Intertainment. You can guess what two words they combined to get that. Rhett and link make comedy sketches and fun music clips on their YouTube account, they['re fortunate enough to also be YouTube partners where they often collaborate with other prominent YouTube partners like Julian Smith, iJustine and Mystery Guitar Man.
In fact their video T-Shirt Wars got them signed to do a commercial for McDoanlds last year with Mystery Guitar Man 'Joe Penna'.
Angry Video Game Nerd Website: HERE ScrewAttack: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
James Rolfe aka The Angry Video Game Nerd is a retro gaming critic, yeah that's a pretty random job indeed but James has been making a name for himself online since 2004 when he posted a review of the NES game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. James had been making many videos reviewing games for many years beforehand growing up in the 90s but that Castlevania review was the first one where he obtained some internet notoriety.
Each classic game review usually pairs James with a notoriously bad video game, usually games movie tie games (Which every gamer knows suck 9 times out of 10) or outrageous gimmicks and gaming peripherals like the infamous Nintendo Power Glove. What follows is Hames torturing himself and suffering slowly as he grits and his teeth and plays through these awful, awful games. Cussing profusely and screaming in agony over how dumb, unfair and poorly designed these games are. These games are just that bad and why anyone in their right mind would expose themselves to it voluntarily is just insane.
FilmCow Animations Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE Video Podcast: HERE
Drugs, so much drugs would need to be taken to come up with the kind of stuff FilmCow constantly pump out. These animated shorts are mind-bendingly idiotic. So ridiculous that millions of people all over the World have fallen in love with animated shorts like Charlie the Unicorn. Honestly you'd have to be tripping major balls to think about talking Unicorns travelling to a Mountain made of Candy.
But Filmcow's creation of Charlie the Unicorn is credit to Jason Steele who also voices Charlie. The original video has gained a status befitting that of the Star Wars kid, the video has been viewed over 60 Million times and still rising over various websites including Newgrounds, YouTube, Google video and various other sources. It was even featured in an Episode of Jeopardy.
Alex Day Read Twilight Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Alex Day is a emerging musician signed to Hank Green's DFTBA record which sponsors up and coming internet artists like Alex Day. While Alex makes sweet and catchy pop rock tunes he also posts daily vlogs with his best friend, room-mate and fellow band member Charlie.
Alex's most watched postings are strangely enough him "reading" Stephanie Meyer's Twilight book to his followers. Alex's sarcastic and begrudging reading of the novel is what attracts many cynics and even fans of the book series to his videos. Alex continually openly states how poorly written the book is while he highlights various plot hokes, absurdities and just down right ridiculous aspects of the Twilight universe.
Smosh Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE/ 2nd YouTube Channel(Vlog): HERE
Smosh is the highly successful comedy project of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, these two are the two biggest sketch comedians on YouTube with a extensive fan base of over 2.2 million subscribers with many of their uploaded videos to garner millions of views in a matter of days.
The Smosh duo have had great success since 2005 when they first joined YouTube, their first big hit came when they uploaded a self made Poke'mon theme parody where they would lip sync and act out crude videos to songs. Of course this was when they were just making videos to amuse themselves and their friends but for some odd reason that video in particular gained a lot of attention and Smosh was born.
How It Should Have Ended Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Movie endings are possibly the most important part of a movie, it's the ending that ultimately defines most people's opinions of an entire film. Even if the movie was great a sub-par, anticlimactic ending can ruin just about anyone's overall opinion of a Movie. I'd probably go out of my way and say 'Signs' was a good movie with a really poor ending, I mean really... The Aliens were weak to Water? Why the hell try and invade a planet where 70% of the freaking surface is water?
Anyway...
How It Should've Ended is animated web-series that takes the initiative to improve upon major motion picture endings. Not that all these movies needed a better ending but each animated short is a fresh parody take off which humorously points inconsistencies and abnormalities in the existing plot or sometimes coming up with a much easier and less dramatic or dangerous solution to the movie.
Anamanaguchi Website: HERE MySpace Music: HERE 8 Bit Peoples Profile: HERE
Anamanaguchi is my favourite internet band in the sense that their music would appeal only to the video gaming community that love classic video game music. You wouldn't hear their unique style of Digital Electric Rock on the radio or any real mainstream source of music mainly due to the unorthodox way they make their music.
Anamanaguchi are chiptune artists which means they create music using chip tune samples from video game and computer consoles from the 1980s. Simple game sounds from that era blended with more traditional sounds and instruments creates this high energy fast paced punk music. Getting the samples from a Hacked NES system and Gameboy they then combine the composed chiptracks from the consoles with A Guitar, Bass and Drums to create digital masterpieces like their popular track "Airbrushed" which featured on the Rock Band Game.
The Young Turks Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE ----- TYT YouTube Network: The Young Turks Interviews: HERE The Young Turks "What the Flick!?": HERE The Young Turks Sports: HERE The Young Turks Top Vlogs: HERE
Seeing as most major search sites like Yahoo, MSN and Google all have their own corresponding news coverage, most people don't really need to look far to get quick news straight to their browser. Basic news as it is there are still some premium news broadcasts online and here's the biggest one, The Young Turks.
Starting out on February 14th 2002 The Young Turks was the brainchild of Turkish American journalist Cenk Uygur. Cenk hosts this moderately liberal daily internet talk show with various co-hosts each day discussing major political issues and events and various other pop culture news. The Young Turks claims to be the first internet news show available online and is currently the biggest one on the net. Averaging 18 Million video views a Month a lot of people are getting their news from TYT
Art of the Drink Website: HERE Blog: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE iTunes Podcast Link: HERE
Now I love drinking, it's one of my personal favourite past-times. Every culture has some kind of drinking sub-culture and Australians tend to take drinking very seriously.
The Art of the Drink is a video podcast series hosted by Professional Bartender Anthony Caporale since 2006. Anthony has been a professional bartender and bar chef for 2 decades now. The AotD Podcast teaches people how to mix drinks professionally, the layout is pretty simple, Anthony shows the audience how to mix the drink then afterwards he instructs his co-host one of the love DrinkArt Girls through the process too.
TROPFEST Short Film Festival 2011 Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Tropfest is the world's largest film festival, annually held in Sydney in the Domain the event has been running since 1993. The first Tropfest was held in the Tropicano Cafe in Darlinghurst where the Event got it's name from. With a national audience of around 150,000 attending the live screenings and many more watching on the Televised feed Tropfest is an Australian tradition. Now entering it's second year of Tropfest New York, Tropfest is continuing to expand around the world.
Well I thought I'd do something different for a Change, Just making normal entries was going a little boring and frankly it was hard to find web-shows, vlogs and web-series worth writing about each day. I did however have no trouble whatsoever finding random viral videos so I've decided to just Post the Top 10 Videos of the Week that were brought to my attention.
I'll try and make this a Weekly thing, Maybe I'll come up with a clever name or phrase using Midnight about it... Or just stick with Weekly Wednesday Weap-Up.
#10 - Old Spice Komodo Commercial The Latest Old Spice Commercial, not as memorable or as epic as previous installations but entertaining never the less.
#9 - Shadow Samurai Stage Play A interesting shadow play production about a travelling Samurai Warrior
#8 - Freddie Wong Real Life Mario Kart Ever wondered what it would be like to have Mario kart Power-Ups whilst Go-Karting?
Freddie25 - Fredrik Larsson Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
I'm sure a lot of you out there watched a load of Cartoons growing up and Freddie's epic Cartoon Medley was sure to bring back a lot of fond memories, I know it did for me.
Fredrik Larsson is an exceptional musician from Sweden who is also quite versed in various instruments like the Piano, Flute and Harmoanica but seems to specialise in Guitar, and he's also not a half bad singer. Fredrik occasionally releases a video on YouTube that seem to go viral quite quickly. His Cartoon Medley being one of the most popular and impressive uploads in recent history showcases what kind of audience he caters to... The Nostalgic.
There really isn't all the much to share, he's just a guy that likes to make multi-layers videos for the clever music covers and medley's he composes. Currently he is studying full-time and working on a Album of his own original music but be sure to have a listen through his other videos, A man this talented deserves to be heard.
The Legend of Neil Effin Funny Website: HERE atom Channel: HERE
The Legend of Zelda games produced by Nintendo are among the most beloved video games series of all-time. In fact The Zelda series is celebrated it's 25th Anniversary since the release of the First game of the series, The Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Legend of Neil pays homage to the original game which is where this parody web-series is set.
Picked up by Comedy Central Partner atom.com, the Series has spanned 3 seasons which ran from 2007 to 2010. Created, Written, Directed and Starring Sandeep Parikh (Who also plays Zaboo from the Guild) and also starring Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr Horrible Sing-a-Long Blog) the series is immensely popular online, it has been nominated for various Streamy awards over the 3 years the series has been active.
You Suck at Photoshop My Damn Channel: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Adobe Photoshop is easily the most famous and widely used graphical editing software on the market. In fact Photoshop is so central to the broad internet community that it has even has the term 'photoshoped or shopped" coined after the software when referring to images that have been manipulated using Photoshop or any other graphic editing software.
Of course with such a large user market there is a lot of amateur photoshoppers that need some guidance in improving their photoshop skills. That's where this wonderful yet sadly discontinued web-series "You Suck at Photoshop" can help. Hosted by Donnie Hoyle who demonstrates a series of tools and techniques to help people, however the tutorials always contain various references and allusions to Donnie's troubling personal life. In fact the first episode shows the audience how to use Distort, Warp and Layer Effects on a picture, Donnie's example piece is him pasting his marriage certificate on the windshield of his Wife's suspected Adulterer's Van.
The Vlog Brothers Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Not too long ago being a Nerd become cool, knowledge became sexy and geek culture spread like a virus infecting modern pop culture. Hank and John Green are two normal brothers who vlog to each and to the thousands of subscribers, whom they graciously refer to as Nerdfighters, a sort of internet movement they create over the continued years of vlogging with the common goal of making the World suck a little less.
The Vlog Brothers gained notoriety in 2007 with their Brotherhood 2.0 project which was that the two Brothers would only communicate to each other via blogs for a full year, cutting out all other forms of electronic communication and of course the written form too.
Improv Everywhere Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Everyone wishes their life was more like a television show, where unexpected things would just happen in front of them. Like if Life suddenly became a musical or some other ridiculous high concept swept the nation like riding the Subway with no Pants on.
Improv Everywhere provides that service, This sort of flash mob / internet movement created by a preforming arts group from New York City that goes around organising elaborate pranks they call Missions and recruiting as many people as they can which they call Agents to help pull off the Mission.
Dorm Life Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE Hulu Channel: HERE
College life is never portrayed as boring, stressful or mundane. According to most College Films and television shows most students do their best to neglect their studying duties. In fact the only idea we get from movies or shows about College is that it's full of saucy drama, love and wicked parties where somebody usually ends getting knocked up, raped or murdered.
Dorm Life is a mockumentary about a "typical" College Dormitory life in America as it follows the residents of 5 South for 2 Semesters. Filled with your usual College stereotypes of Drama Geeks, Frat Guys, Sluts and the Academic Overachievers, Dorm Life has a lot of Heart. The great cast work well with one another as they show us how students in a Dorm wing become something of an extended family over the course of College.
Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson Website: HERE Newgrounds Profile: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE ------- Awesome Series YouTube Channel: HERE
Chances are you've probably stumbled across some of Egoraptor's work on the internet, in fact I've already referenced him twice in previous entries on the blog. Ego has been making Flash movies since 2002, However his first big hit online was the audio track he released of "DBZ in a nutshell" back in 2001. Eventually it was made into a flash movie which is what inspired Ego to go in animation and voice acting.
Egoraptor is now a brilliantly talented and very influential flash animator and voice actor on the internet. He is most famous for his AWESOME series of flash animated cartoons which parodies various mainstream video games using Ego's unique art style and over the top voice overs. He also made the popular Girl Chan in Paradise series which is a parody anime series and is far too ridiculous to write up an accurate report on what goes on in it.
=3 - Ray William Johnson YouTube Channel: HERE Your Favourite Martian Side Porject Channel: HERE
Ray William Johnson is about as Internet famous as you can get, His =3 (Equals Three) channel is the second most subscribed YouTube channel of all time. You'd think he'd have some kind of exceptional talent like being able to fight dragons in space which would redeem such an honour. But quite simply put 2 times a week Ray presents his subscribers with the top 3 viral videos of that week while giving running commentary. Nothing special, it's a show about viral videos... Sorry to disappoint you. Then again I guess that's what the internet is all about so I really have nothing to be bitter about.
Besides hosting a insanely popular webshow he's also manages another channel about his animated comedy band 'Your Favourite Martian.' Admittedly their debut video "My Balls" is pretty catchy.
Kung Fu Jimmy Chow Heavy.com Website: HERE Youtube Channel: HERE
Japanese culture is always fascinating, I mean there is just a lot of messed up stuff that comes from that nation. I guess that's what happens when you drop a few bloody A-Bombs on a island. Japanese anime is notorious for it's ridiculous, far-fetch and sometimes even perverse content but frankly it's all those qualities that make it such an interesting medium in the first place.
Kung Fu Jimmy Chow is a discontinued anime webseries about a Kung Fu Master working menial jobs at a Mall as he tries to continue his life after the death of his Kung Fu Master. (A strange concept sure) His main nemesis and the one that prevents him from ever getting any work done is the one person who killed his Master, 'The Purple Lady' and her near endless supply of Purple Ninja Henchmen. The series follows Jimmy's quest to exact revenge onto the Purple Lady for killing his master while trying to dodge face biting monkeys and the dreaded purple nurple attack which of course is his one true weakness.
Freddie Wong Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE 2nd How to YouTube Channel: HERE
Freddie Wong is a some kind of film making wizard, making overly stylised gun play videos and masterfully edited works of art. His video archive is a portfolio of a gifted up and coming special effects guru, it's hard to imagine what he would be capable if he was given a sizable budget and full reign over a Hollywood Blockbuster. Currently he runs and owns his own video production company called Overcrank Media which operates out of Los Angelos.
His videos online have garnered him a great amount of recognition and respect as he's had various celebrity and YouTube personalities collaborations. From the largest explosion to the smallest muzzle flash. Each of his videos is expertly crafted.
This is one of those occasions where words alone can't describe the awesomeness of Freddie Wong, so be sure to check out his video archive in his YouTube Channel.
Old Spice with Isaiah Mustafa Website: HERE YouTbe Channel: HERE
The latest Old Spice commercials have to be the most successful advertising campaign of the last 10 years, 'The Man Your Man could Smell like' is already legendary on the internet and has been parodied by many people already. The Original commercial has 29.5 million views on YouTube alone. The advertisements follow a simple idea that Isaiah Mustafa plays this ultra cool, smooth and debonair manly man that is irresistibly charming and stating that any Man could be like him if they used Old Spice Body Gel, ending with the tag line "Anything is possible with Old Spice"
They even managed to film 100+ response to questions people sent in to Isaiah to answer while playing his character. Answering questions from people on Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and even Celebrities.
Toby Turner aka Tobuscus Website: HERE Tobuscus YouTube Channel: HERE YouTube Vlog Channel: HERE
Being a vlogger a essential skill to have is to be able to have one sided conversations with yourself. To entertain your audience with nothing but your charisma and charm. Toby Turner is special in a sense that his quirky nature, churpy attitude and endless energy separate him from most other vloggers. He's the kind of person you'd love to play a co-op game with or watch a particularly cheesy movie with while he runs colour commentary on everything that happens on screen.
Toby is the news host of LTA (LikeTotallyAwesome) and posts various skits on his Tobuscus channel. He also runs a weekly show on it called Cute Win Fail where he and Phillip DeFranco have bought out the rights to what seems like a never ending supply of random videos of cute puppies, adorable babies and various other home movie gems that most would expect to be viral videos on their own merits.
ROCKETBOOM - Daily Show with Molly Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
News on the internet is more enjoyable and disgestable then standard televised news broadcasts mainly due to the fact that there is no political agenda or required professionalism that forces the hosts to speak in a frank and serious tone of voice.
Rocketboom's Daily show is hosted by the exquisite Meme Molly and it's like a normal news broadcast except delivered in a ironic and comedic slant. Whether it be presenting stories about social movements, emerging trends in contemporary internet culture or providing political commentary, Rocketboom Daily provides a wide information and news coverage for it's broadcast and has been doing so since 2004.
Bytejacker Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE Revision 3 Channel: HERE
The video game industry is still a rapidly growing and expanding medium that manages to generate billions of dollars, even during the GFC the game industry managed to stay afloat. However the mainstream gaming market has become saturated with the same old formula for most Top tier games. Generic shooters about super soldiers in space or just reliving WWII or imagining what WWIII will be like. Gritty and Realistic Criminal sandbox games that act more like real life simulators. And of course long over bearing fantasy RPG filled with long quests filled with Dragons or some post-apocalypse wasteland.... Or a game about Zombies.
There isn't a whole lot different happening in Mainstream Gaming.
However the independent gaming scene has yet to bend to the will of trying to copy what is successful. There is still a lot of innovation going on in the indie game scene. New and exciting Games are freely available online or on the Playstation Network or XBox Live Arcade or even Steam where indie game makers don't have to be changed to meet big name company "standards" or requirements to what they want in a game. Where original ideas are welcomed rather then trying to replicate what the top selling game of that genre is.
Wacky Game Jokez, 4 Kidz! Newgrounds Profile: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Max Gilardi is the brains behind HotDiggityDemon animations, he creates, animates and voices animated shorts on the internet for sites like Newgrounds, Youtube and the Escapist.
One of his most popular animated webseries is Wacky Game Jokez, 4 Kidz. It's about a Street Thug named Mickey the Dick how is captured by an evil corporation named VGV (Video Game Videos) and is forced to write, film and direct a video game broadcast on the internet. Yes that sounds absurd and ridiculous but the series works because of the high quality of the animation and interesting characters involved.
Dick Figures Mondo media Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Mondo media are famous for their internationally acclaimed animated series Happy Tree friends and have been working on a new series called Dick Figures. it's a simple concept about two stick figure friends called Red and Blue who are best friends and generally go on adventures together.
Julian Smith Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE YouTube Vlog Channel: HERE
There isn't much to say about Julian Smith, he's an exceptionally talented young man that makes creative and funny videos on YouTube. Whether they be skits about Hot Kool Aid or a song about Racist Coffee, Julian Smith doesn't really follow a routine of video making. There is a lot to like about Julian's casual approach to film making, here are some of his more popular sketches.
The Gregory Brothers Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
This famous 4 piece comprised of Evan, Michael, Andrew and Sarah Gregory are probably the most famous YouTube musicians in existence.
If you haven't heard of the Gregory Brothers or haven't seen one of their videos then you clearly don't know anything about the internet at all. Their videos are some of the most watched and lucrative on the net. Their Auto-Tune the News series was the launching pad to internet stardom where they would jazz up the News broadcasts by Auto-Tuning the media presenters and sing-a-long with them.
A pretty random thing to Auto Tune but Auto Tuning random clips is now a staple of the internet. If there is a famous viral video online chances are days later a Auto-Tune remix will spring up.
Jon Lajoie - Comedian, Musician, Actor Website: HERE YouTube Channel; HERE
Quick, name your favourite Canadian Rapper.
Honestly I know only one and that was that guy that called himself Snow that sang "Informer", That's your homework. Look up Informer by Snow... If you watched MTV in the 90s back when they actually played Music Videos then chances are you probably had this catchy tune stuck in your head at some stage. (Don't deny it, it was a catchy song)
Alright I'll do it for you:
Now Jon Lajoie isn't just a rapper, he honestly deserves the title of musician. He has made his living from the songs he releases on YouTube, his most popular releases are just his rap songs. But it's just the normal rap you'd be use to in the Music Industry that tells tale of wayward youth and their "struggle". Jon specialises in a kind of loser middle class white awkward nerd style of music with a strange misogynist twist of satire.
I think Jon realises the internet is a place full of idiots and know-it-alls where the line between genius and moronic can be blurry at times. His music is so awkwardly offensive and ridiculous that it's delivered in such a way that the irony and satire isn't lost. Due to the fact that a he is dressed in Jean shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and 5 dollar sunglasses and gloats about his sexual prowess and gangsterly defiance of laws.
Jon doesn't just make offensively awkward rap songs though, His other songs showcase his song writing talents and outspoken passion about music as he criticises the state of Popular Mainstream music ironically in "Pop Song" and "Radio Friendly Song"
His 2 albums are available for purchase at iTunes HERE,
Whilst being a internet celebrity, rapper, singer and comedian he branched out to television and has a regular role in FX's show "The League" where he plays Taco McArthur who is Unemployed Stoner Musician.
Jon is a talented man and his career is still rising, even though he has millions of followers online and many new fans thanks to the League his career can only go on to bigger and better things.
Phillip De Franco Website: HERE Phillip DeFranco Show YouTube Channel; HERE Phillip DeFranco Vlog YouTube Channel: HERE
There are plenty of ways to get "News" these days, modern media gives us many different news outlets, Radio, Paper, Magazine, Televised and of course the most prominent and rel event is News available via the Internet. Internet Journalism is slowly making the other mediums less and less rel event due to the convenience of it's immediate availability, multiple sources and of course the fact that is costs practically nothing and is a standard feature on most mainstream web surfing sites like MSN, Yahoo and Google.
However with the agenda of news sources some important issues get glossed over for more rel event localised news and some stories never get the coverage they rightfully deserve.
Phil on Net Neutrallity
Phillip DeFranco is a popular and some what respected YouTube vlogger who has a Bi-Daily show called cleverly enough the Phillip De Franco Show on YouTube where he talks about all the important issues of the day to his Millions of followers and subscribers. Presented in a fast paced and edited clip using the jump cuts to help speed up the information transfer he runs down of events of the past few days it is often a mixture of serious world event news, political issues, crazy and unreal stories, concerning trends in society and of course some fluff pieces about attractive women to help gain his quota of impressionable males.
Alongside his News Show is his vlog and various other side projects Phil gets himself into every now and again, like the guest starring in Internet Horror series Black Box TV and Hooking Up a web series about the College Dating scene. Whilst also contributing to LTA (LikeTotallyAwesome), a electronic media review channel where they review games, gadgets and movies.
Still in his 20s Phillip DeFranco is a YouTube success story of how a simple idea about talking about the World to the Internet can get you voted 2008 Sexiest Geek by Wired Magazine.
Get to know Phil, Get a look inside the interesting life of an Internet Celebrity.
Tales of Mere Existence Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Some say that Life is Art, well I guess that is true in a sense but it can also be rather bleak, mundane and dreary. Movies and Television sensationalise everything to make you think that everyday is a new adventure when the sad truth is that most people spend their lives in a routine and have surrendered the idea of "Living" to just surviving.
'Tales of Mere Existence' is a cartoon project by Levni Yilmaz in which Lev animates all the small, abstract and mundane thoughts that pass through some people (Mainly Lev) whilst going through Life. Going onto his 5th year of the Project Lev releases these videos over the course of the year telling and animating his unique stories and lessons.
It's a fantastic character piece of a man struggling with his own identity in a matchstick society or whatever deep metaphor is needed here to explain his individually adequately. Just watch it, it's a lot more charming and relatable then most videos on the internet.
ROCKETBOOM - Know Your Meme Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
The internet maybe a fun and fast medium to gain access to databases of information, websites of interests, shopping and of course pornography but there is also a strong sense of community amongst fellow internet users. A landscape filled with like minded introverts that crack jokes anonymously about life, society and whatever is on their mind at the time. Eventually they from inside jokes which are usually refereed to as "Memes".
These inside jokes that are usually in reference obscure to popular trends, events, people, media, shows etc. Usually spring from various internet forums and communities like, SomethingAwful, 4chan, YTMND, EbaumsWorld and various other sites.
For casual net surfers or even for people brand new to exploring the internet these jokes and references can fly completely over their heads. People laughing about things like Goatse, Meatspin, Lemon Party and the infamous Two Girls One Cup video whilst people more adopt to socialising in real life would stay completely out of the loop.
Thankfully there are kind hearted people on the internet, yes they exist in very small numbers that like to educate the newbies and casual surfers in informing them about emerging or standardised trends in internet culture. The fine folks over at Rocket Boom productions have set-up a separate site and committee completely dedicated in collecting, archiving and presenting extremely detail reports about Internet Memes in the aptly named site production, Know Your Meme.
So if you're still behind on certain internet trends, jokes and "Memes", browse through the archives of Know Your Meme. You might shed some light on some jokes you've heard at parties that you didn't understand then.
Here are some to get you started on your Adventure in discovering a new side to the internet.
Barats & Bereta Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Luke Barats and Joe Beretta have been making millions of people on the internet laugh since 2003. Originally started as a fun hobby between the two when they attended Gonzaga University as theatre majors they started out doing a two man comedy routine and made various sketch videos to show friends. The two gained internet viral notoriety through their "Cubical Wars" Video.
They've been making videos ever since and are now one of the most watched and subscribed comedy acts on YouTube. They've made various pilot episodes and pitches to NBC over the past few years in hopes of transferring their talents to Television with little success. However coming out later in 2011 they're independently releasing a feature film that the two have been working on for the past few years called "Scott and Zander's Crazy Night"
I personally hope that this feature film brings them success as it did with Donald Glover of the Derrick Comedy comedy sketch group who landed a major role on NBC's Community show after their release of 'Mystery Team'.
Try and Lie to me... Tell me you don't want to see this movie now after seeing that they roped Tony Danza into sing Elton John's "Hold me Closer Tony Danza"
ScrewAttack - DEATHBATTLE Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
ScrewAttack have produced one of the most interesting and talked about webshows as of late; 'Death Battle' hosted by Wiz & Boomstick. A series of shows where they match-up two video game characters in battles to the death. Hypothetical match-Ups that have raged on for years and years and some match-ups that have never been considered.
First they run down and assess the abilities, attributes, characteristics, weapons and stats of the participants. Then after a quick word from that week's sponsor they then virtually simulate a Fight to the Death with the said combatants. They do a tremendous amount of research and decide the winners in a logical and well thought out conclusion.
So if you've always wanted to find out who'd win in a fight to the death between Akuma vs. Shang Tsung, Rogue vs. Wonder Woman, Bobba Fett vs. Samus Aran, The Koopa Troopa vs. The Goomba or Mike Hagger vs. Zangief then today is your lucky day....
I personally can't wait to see what other match-up the boys at ScrewAttack have cooking up.
Keep up with the Death Battle Series, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are next in line for a Battle Royale.
Cyanide & Happiness Website (Comics): HERE Website (Shorts): HERE
Cyanide and Happiness are infamous on the internet for having some of the most depraved, offensive, disturbing and of course hilarious comic strips to ever grace the cyber world. The group over at Explosm in charge of Cyanide and Happiness must be rather large to come up with such creative and contrasting stories on a weekly basis, in fact they've been doing this for 2004 and seem to get more and more popular as the years roll on.
The simplistic art style of stick figures takes nothing away from the superb and brilliant writing content exhibited in the comic strips. I'd go out of my way and say that I yet to see a web comic online as consistently funny as Cyanide & Happiness.
Coupled with it's comic success Explosm have been able to distribute real comics which are generally just a collection of strips which have been selected to be published into a book. Buy it on Amazon
Explosm have also been able to create a series of shorts on the comics. My current favourite is the Man vs. Wild Bear Grylls parody which was voiced by one of my favourite internet voice over artist's in Egoraptor.
After the success of the Streamy award winning series 'Agents of Cracked', the Latest CRACKED.com original web series 'After Hours' follows the strange but stimulating pop culture discussions of 4 friends set in a Late Night Diner. Snappy dialogue and tightly edited together the discussions often diverge into heated debates about strange conflicting ideals like lessons learnt from 80s movies about school bullies or some disturbing underlying elements of the Harry Potter universe. It's like a Modern take on that diner scene in Taratino's Resvoir Dogs, except nerdier.
Starring CRACKED favorites in Soren Bowie, Katie Willert, Daniel O’Brien, and Michael Swaim, each member of the panel brings a level of some what expert like knowledge and perspective about varying subjects of Pop Culture that helps diversify and enrich the conversation. The chemistry between the cast members is fantastic as their conflicting opinions and arguments make for compelling viewing.
So to all those that enjoy having semi-philosophical discussions using 80s and 90s forms of media as place holders than you'll greatly enjoy watching After Hours.
