The Onion News Network Official Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE Wikipedia Page: HERE
The Onion news network is a popular and well respected News source famous for delivering some of the more interesting, thought provoking and stimulating news stories around... And they're all fake.
Humbling the internet with its far fetched pieces and articles the Onion has tricked many unsuspecting people into believing ridiculous new stories since 1988. Originally a joke newspaper project the Onion is now the biggest satirical news network online and has been in business since 2007. The internet community has welcomed the Onion into its homes with open arms and it will only get bigger and better as the years roll on.
Steve McGranahan YouTube Channel: HERE Official Website: HERE
If Steve McGranahan was a character on King of the Hill he'd be the Star of the damn show, This Power-lifting Giant of a Man has a Heart of pure Gold. Mixed with Humour and good fun Steve makes videos that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Whether it's him creating a new unique form of Kung Fu as he shows us his Mastery of the Beer Can Nun Chucks or his gardening engineering brilliance as he trims his Garden hedges with a Lawnmower on a Stick, It's hard not think anything negative about this man. He's an absolute Legend to put it bluntly and since he's made Partner with YouTube releases a video each and every week where he shows off his Redneck ingenuity mixed with his Adonis like Feats of Strength.
This is a guy I would want to be best friends with, Jon knows how to have fun and has a freaking pet parrot named Jacques. Whilst Jon may seem like a pretty normal guy that plays videos games and posts videos about them there is more to it then that. Some videos he posts are serious and well thought out video game lists, others are sharp and intelligent reviews of games and others are just crazy rants about poor games in particular.
And some are just him screwing around and causing all kinds of chaos by drinking way too much then hitting record on his camera. You can clearly see Jon has a great time making videos and that energy translates to his online audience which is why he already has 20,000+ Subscribers in just 6 months.
Everyone loves a Top 10 list, they make you see what people hold dear and important, They don't always have to be the outright best in the field when making these lists and that's what's the best thing about the ScrewAttack Top 10s. Sometimes its a matter of counting down the most innovative creation, the most emotionally gripping and sometimes it necessary to countdown which video game character has the sweetest beard.
Hosted by Shuttering Craig with occasional help from Handsome Tom this long running web countdown has been running on and off for nearly 5 years now and even though they have a partnership with Gametrailers to share web content the ScrewAttack are usually kept in high regard compared to other video game countdown shows. It's probably got something to do with Craig's soothing voice.
Razorfist Reviews/Rants Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
The Internet is built on hate and that is the main fuel driving the Rageaholic, pure unbridled fury on the mediocrity the seems to be draping the entire video game industry like a shadow with by the book First Person Shooters and boring stat building fetch quests. Shortcuts and bad game design litter the mainstream gaming market and Razorfist is the voice of the people.
Whether they know it or not the consumer deserves better, Video Game companies seem to just work off a basic formula of games. They don't care about innovation they just want a safe investment that'll guarantee to make them money. No one is willing to take risks in the gaming industry, so we have people like Razorfist who loudly rebel and reject their offerings.
The Needle Drop Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
The Needle Drop is a daily vlog that reviews a multitude of music from various styles and genres of music. From Rock, Pop, Electronic, Experimental and of course Indie music alike the videos just keep coming. The Needle Drop has been running since late 2007 and have been singing the praises of many artists and musicians since.
Anthony Fantano is the brains behind the operation and of course the Host of the Needle Drop. He constantly updates the Needle Drop with a rigorous update schedule and holds claim to the title of "Internet's Busiest Music Nerd". It's easy to see why as he releases on average 4 to 5 videos a week on his YouTube Channel, this kind of devotion to his cause is admirable.
Epic Meal Time Website: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Whut chu' kno 'bout Food? NOTHING!!!
Epic meal Time is gluttony epitomised, I swear to Christ this Web-show just isn't good for you, period. The monstrosities they create on this show boggle the mind on how anyone could possibly abuse their body in such a way by consuming such unreal creation.
The mad genius behind Epic Meal Time is Harley Morenstein, a 25 year old Canadian Substitute teacher who with a group of friends each Tuesday shows the internet how to make high calorie artery clogging feasts using mostly just meat and alcohol. The show has already amassed a strong following since it's inception in October last year and the crew have already been approached by various networks to bring the show to television.
Diggnation Digg Website: HERE Revision 3 Channel: HERE YouTube Channel: HERE
Digg is one of the most influential websites online today, Ranked #13 on the Alexa.com survey their main purpose to to direct people to the biggest videos, news stories, online trends and issues on the internet each and everyday. Millions of people flock to Digg everyday to share or find what the internet has to offer.
Obviously a big social media site like Digg would have it's own little show showcasing the stories and issues of week on the site.That's where Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht come into play as they host Diggnation.
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.
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
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.
=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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
La Blogotheque Take Away Shows Website: HERE YouTube channel: HERE
You see some real good buskers in the street every now and again. People with exceptional talent without record deals trying to make it in the World as they try to traverse the wasteland of despair and deception that is the Modern Music Industry. (Okay that' a bit melodramatic but it damn hard to break into the music industry).
Then there is the notion of the Take Away Show which operates from the 'La Blogotheque' website. A French Music Blog group that organises Street Performances around France and the sometimes around the World with Professional Musicians.
There is something magical about watching famous Musicians playing stripped down versions of their big hits in the streets of Paris, something out of a fairytale book. It would be dream like if you were wondering the back streets of Paris to find your favourite band just sitting in the park playing your favourite song.
Then again of course most of the featured artists are indie music stars and most passer-bys might not even know that they have professional musicians performing for them.
Michael Swaim It's Hard to say what makes Michael Swaim so likeable... No it isn't, He's smart, well dressed, crass and razor sharp wit to match. This Internet Guru hosts multiple entries on the Popular CRACKED.com website and also from his own personal creation Those aren't Muskets! website where he posts his videos.
His commentary on everything internet is always informative, refreshing and hilarious. A true character of the cyber world. It almost feels at times like you're watching a man mould the very landscape of the internet in the palms of his hands like a wad of clay into a scale model of the Pantheon.... Before smashing it into the ground into a million pieces as he smiles gleefully over the wreckage.
His style of humour maybe dry and erratic but he rarely ever misses his mark.
