9 Great Online Shows for Your Viewing Pleasure
You’ve got an idea, you’ve got a camera, and all your life you’ve wanted to be a TV star, but when you grew up, you realized it was only a fantasy. Now, you work at Albertson’s on minimum wage and life just isn’t what you thought it would be. Fortunately, there’s the Internet, and you’ve got some editing skills. No company out there is going to take your show idea and turn it into a half hour timeslot, so you’re going to try Youtube instead. Good deal.
In this Internet age, many people are realizing their star potential posting videos online. And now, even advertisers see the money in what they do and once somebody out there with a show gets millions of viewers, advertisers will step in to pay those lucky sons of guns. Or if not, plenty of people will still have fun with what they do.
In this post, I’m going to look at some of the best Internet shows out there and give anyone reading this a taste of what they’re all about. But be warned. Most of these shows contain very mature language and fowl humor and are not intended for work environments. But I assure you that they are still gosh darned hilarious.
1. "The Angry Video Game Nerd”
Definitely one of the most popular Internet shows out there, filmmaker James Rolfe (AKA The Angry Video Game Nerd) takes a look at classic games or games that are at least ten or fifteen years old. Particularly, he focuses on the bad ones. Many years ago, Rolfe did reviews on “Simon’s Quest” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” for the NES. The videos were basic reviews he did just for fun, but once they hit Youtube, Rolfe became a celebrity overtime and now does this sort of thing for a living.
So how do you make a show about a guy who complains way too much about video games interesting long enough to spawn a series? You gotta switch things up after a short while. Overtime, Rolfe added a theme song to his show and started turning some episodes into sketches. If he reviews a game based on a particular movie, he’ll trick out the episode to make it somehow spoof the movie in question. Or he’ll release the video just in time for a new movie in the series. For example, the above episode was released in time for the last “Rambo” movie.
Rolfe continues to do videos to this day and hopefully we’ll get to see much more of them in the future. He’s now paid by Gametrailers.com to do these videos. He also has plenty of other videos he does worthy of recognition, such as the “You Know What’s Bullshit” series, “Top Ten” videos, movie reviews and a fan documentary on “Rocky” entitled “Rocky Jumped a Park Bench.” Check out his Youtube Channel for these videos. If you don’t think this show is hilarious, you don’t know what it was like to play some games on the old 8-bit machine and feel that frustrated. I’ve never played a video game and gotten so frustrated that I spat out such a creative string of profanities, but the frustration was always there.
2. “The Nostalgia Critic”
Continuing in the vein of guys reviewing classic media that turned out terrible or laughable and spew out too many insults in response to that garbage, here we have “The Nostalgia Critic,” another guy who wears glasses and hysterically overreacts to things. Only this time, he takes a look at movies and TV shows from people’s childhoods that may have been fun back in the day but now people see it for the garbage that it is. And when he’s not doing that, he’s busy doing “Top 11” lists (Why Top 11? Because he likes to go that one extra step) or working on some of the other shows on his website, ThatGuywiththeGlasses.com.
In the episode featured here, “That Guy With The Glasses” (whose real name I haven’t been able to find out) takes a scathing look at “Tom and Jerry: The Movie,” a movie that I ate up when I was nine years old and still have some fond memories of, but can’t shake the fact that most hardcore “T&J” fans hated it for being nothing like the classic episodes. And who doesn’t love watching their childhood classics get ripped to shreds? I sure do.
At this point, one might wonder why James Rolfe and “That Guy” don’t get together and do something since they’re so full of hilarious rage that they can’t help but shout it out loud? Well, they did. Not too long ago, the two engaged in a faked feud on Youtube posting videos in response to the other in what was the most obvious, funniest publicity stunt ever pulled off on the Internet. The feud climaxed when “That Guy” challenged Rolfe to review a bad nostalgic movie. Rolfe accepted the challenge and posted it on Youtube, on the condition that “That Guy” reviewed a bad classic game. Great switcheroo, fellas. When your formulas are this close, it doesn’t take that much to do the other guy’s job.
3. “The Irate Gamer”
In the wake of James Rolfe’s rise to Internet fame, many other game review shows and blatant copycats popped up everywhere. The most blatant and obvious of these knockoffs was Chris Bores’ show “The Irate Gamer.” His first episodes were the worst offenses reviewing the same games as Rolfe, having some of the same problems with them and spewing out the same kind of insults. Yet overtime, Bores managed implement some of his own style into his videos and take the humor in his own direction.
In this episode, Bores takes a look at a game that even I played as a child but never beat: “Goonies II.” I chose this review in particular because it was among the first of his unique game reviews and because I always asked myself the same question: Why “Goonies II” and not just “The Goonies?”
“The Irate Gamer” is definitely the best known of the “Angry Video Game Nerd” knockoffs. But since Bores is actually being paid by Youtube to post his videos, it just goes to show that sometimes, imitation really is the highest form of flattery. He also posts many of his other videos on his Youtube channel linked to above. And if you want reviews of some newer games for the Nintendo Wii, check out “Irate Gamer Neo” on Gottgame.com. They still make some pretty bad games out there, yunno.
4. “The Games You Might Don’t Know But Are Still Pretty Damn Sweet”
Let’s take a turn for the happier here with one of the most enthusiastic gamer shows out there. Benjamin Daniel (AKA Benzaie) takes a humorous look at games from back in the day that people may or may not remember, but were still great games as the excessively long title suggests. Being that he’s French, this might be the first bilingual gamer show out there as a lot of the episodes appear with French subtitles.
If you like a guy who can be both funny and positive, this is the show for you. I don’t have a link directly to this guy’s show site because I can’t find one. But still, you can find his shows posted everywhere on a lot of different websites. Just Google the title and you can find more.
5. “The VHS Show”
The VHS Dude, as shown in this video, started his show last year with a pile of unwatched videotapes and inspiration to start his own online show based on watching them. This guy made a habit of collecting old, obscure VHS tapes, some of which are now out of print, and needed a good excuse to start watching them. So “The VHS Show” was born.
Most of the movies he watches are pretty bad, but he doesn’t need to litter the review with curses to prove it. Most of the time, he just needs to show you clips of the show like in the episode above. For the longest time, he stopped putting on the show as he had to move out of his apartment. But he continued the show earlier on this year with the help of his girlfriend and continues to review these strange movies. The above movie, “Alienator,” I’ve never seen before and have no plans to watch any time soon, but it is one of his better episodes. It’s got better humor, better editing and better presentation than most of his other episodes.
6. “Chefprotoss Presents…Meh”
Before I stop pointing out shows that are solely based on video games, I want to give one final shout out to Chefprotoss, whose show, “Meh,” is a fun look at fun games. Like many of the other shows featured here, Chef has a good sense of history and a great level of enthusiasm. Who didn’t like “Super Mario World?”
Plus, I think it’s worth mentioning that not too long ago, Chefprotoss had a contest for creating an introduction to his show, the grand prize being a game of that person’s choice. Guess who won the contest and scored an awesome copy of “Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Dance Party?” Oh yeah, baby. That was me. And this is the first episode to show that introduction. Check out the show credits if you don’t believe me.
Good show, Chef. Keep them vids comin’.
7. “Hate By Numbers”
Wayne Gladstone’s “Hate by Numbers” returns to the format of using bitterness as your comedic weapon, but doesn’t get angry. Instead, it’s a more cynical, comedic approach to things. Carrying on Cracked.com’s tradition of pointing out wacky things and giving them a number list, Gladstone points out some very obvious errors in judgment in today’s TV shows, whether it’s Reality TV, nightly news or talk shows. It’s a funny show with some quick quips and good vibes.
8. “Odd Todd”
This one’s a definite classic. Starting in 2001, animator Todd Rosenberg starting releasing a series of flash cartoons entitled “Laid Off” in which he comically looks at his own life and his status of being unemployed. Since then, he’s gotten a number of small jobs here and there, but remains unemployed and manages to get by with his Paypal tipjar, online merchandising sales and other things he does. In high school, I loved this show so much, I got my family into watching it. I remember performing these shows in monologue format for my Dramatic Literature class and even made a cartoon for my mom’s birthday once that parodied Todd’s unique and comical style. And to think that I almost forgot to mention this one.
9. “Jaimetud”
This guy’s still a relative newcomer to the whole online show business. The best way to describe this show would be to say that it’s got a lot of variety with it’s strangely named host “Jaimetud” looking at anything he can think of and trying to put a humorous spin on it. I don’t know much about him or what it is he’s trying to switch on in that chair of his, but the show’s fairly professional and deserving of mention. And it’s got a nice theme song.
The only problem is that according to his most recent video, he won’t be able to post any more episodes until he gets his camera fixed, which could take some time. That’s why I posted one of his more popular episodes above. I just hope he gets the situation fixed soon.
In this Internet age, many people are realizing their star potential posting videos online. And now, even advertisers see the money in what they do and once somebody out there with a show gets millions of viewers, advertisers will step in to pay those lucky sons of guns. Or if not, plenty of people will still have fun with what they do.
In this post, I’m going to look at some of the best Internet shows out there and give anyone reading this a taste of what they’re all about. But be warned. Most of these shows contain very mature language and fowl humor and are not intended for work environments. But I assure you that they are still gosh darned hilarious.
1. "The Angry Video Game Nerd”
Definitely one of the most popular Internet shows out there, filmmaker James Rolfe (AKA The Angry Video Game Nerd) takes a look at classic games or games that are at least ten or fifteen years old. Particularly, he focuses on the bad ones. Many years ago, Rolfe did reviews on “Simon’s Quest” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” for the NES. The videos were basic reviews he did just for fun, but once they hit Youtube, Rolfe became a celebrity overtime and now does this sort of thing for a living.
So how do you make a show about a guy who complains way too much about video games interesting long enough to spawn a series? You gotta switch things up after a short while. Overtime, Rolfe added a theme song to his show and started turning some episodes into sketches. If he reviews a game based on a particular movie, he’ll trick out the episode to make it somehow spoof the movie in question. Or he’ll release the video just in time for a new movie in the series. For example, the above episode was released in time for the last “Rambo” movie.
Rolfe continues to do videos to this day and hopefully we’ll get to see much more of them in the future. He’s now paid by Gametrailers.com to do these videos. He also has plenty of other videos he does worthy of recognition, such as the “You Know What’s Bullshit” series, “Top Ten” videos, movie reviews and a fan documentary on “Rocky” entitled “Rocky Jumped a Park Bench.” Check out his Youtube Channel for these videos. If you don’t think this show is hilarious, you don’t know what it was like to play some games on the old 8-bit machine and feel that frustrated. I’ve never played a video game and gotten so frustrated that I spat out such a creative string of profanities, but the frustration was always there.
2. “The Nostalgia Critic”
Continuing in the vein of guys reviewing classic media that turned out terrible or laughable and spew out too many insults in response to that garbage, here we have “The Nostalgia Critic,” another guy who wears glasses and hysterically overreacts to things. Only this time, he takes a look at movies and TV shows from people’s childhoods that may have been fun back in the day but now people see it for the garbage that it is. And when he’s not doing that, he’s busy doing “Top 11” lists (Why Top 11? Because he likes to go that one extra step) or working on some of the other shows on his website, ThatGuywiththeGlasses.com.
In the episode featured here, “That Guy With The Glasses” (whose real name I haven’t been able to find out) takes a scathing look at “Tom and Jerry: The Movie,” a movie that I ate up when I was nine years old and still have some fond memories of, but can’t shake the fact that most hardcore “T&J” fans hated it for being nothing like the classic episodes. And who doesn’t love watching their childhood classics get ripped to shreds? I sure do.
At this point, one might wonder why James Rolfe and “That Guy” don’t get together and do something since they’re so full of hilarious rage that they can’t help but shout it out loud? Well, they did. Not too long ago, the two engaged in a faked feud on Youtube posting videos in response to the other in what was the most obvious, funniest publicity stunt ever pulled off on the Internet. The feud climaxed when “That Guy” challenged Rolfe to review a bad nostalgic movie. Rolfe accepted the challenge and posted it on Youtube, on the condition that “That Guy” reviewed a bad classic game. Great switcheroo, fellas. When your formulas are this close, it doesn’t take that much to do the other guy’s job.
3. “The Irate Gamer”
In the wake of James Rolfe’s rise to Internet fame, many other game review shows and blatant copycats popped up everywhere. The most blatant and obvious of these knockoffs was Chris Bores’ show “The Irate Gamer.” His first episodes were the worst offenses reviewing the same games as Rolfe, having some of the same problems with them and spewing out the same kind of insults. Yet overtime, Bores managed implement some of his own style into his videos and take the humor in his own direction.
In this episode, Bores takes a look at a game that even I played as a child but never beat: “Goonies II.” I chose this review in particular because it was among the first of his unique game reviews and because I always asked myself the same question: Why “Goonies II” and not just “The Goonies?”
“The Irate Gamer” is definitely the best known of the “Angry Video Game Nerd” knockoffs. But since Bores is actually being paid by Youtube to post his videos, it just goes to show that sometimes, imitation really is the highest form of flattery. He also posts many of his other videos on his Youtube channel linked to above. And if you want reviews of some newer games for the Nintendo Wii, check out “Irate Gamer Neo” on Gottgame.com. They still make some pretty bad games out there, yunno.
4. “The Games You Might Don’t Know But Are Still Pretty Damn Sweet”
Let’s take a turn for the happier here with one of the most enthusiastic gamer shows out there. Benjamin Daniel (AKA Benzaie) takes a humorous look at games from back in the day that people may or may not remember, but were still great games as the excessively long title suggests. Being that he’s French, this might be the first bilingual gamer show out there as a lot of the episodes appear with French subtitles.
If you like a guy who can be both funny and positive, this is the show for you. I don’t have a link directly to this guy’s show site because I can’t find one. But still, you can find his shows posted everywhere on a lot of different websites. Just Google the title and you can find more.
5. “The VHS Show”
The VHS Dude, as shown in this video, started his show last year with a pile of unwatched videotapes and inspiration to start his own online show based on watching them. This guy made a habit of collecting old, obscure VHS tapes, some of which are now out of print, and needed a good excuse to start watching them. So “The VHS Show” was born.
Most of the movies he watches are pretty bad, but he doesn’t need to litter the review with curses to prove it. Most of the time, he just needs to show you clips of the show like in the episode above. For the longest time, he stopped putting on the show as he had to move out of his apartment. But he continued the show earlier on this year with the help of his girlfriend and continues to review these strange movies. The above movie, “Alienator,” I’ve never seen before and have no plans to watch any time soon, but it is one of his better episodes. It’s got better humor, better editing and better presentation than most of his other episodes.
6. “Chefprotoss Presents…Meh”
Before I stop pointing out shows that are solely based on video games, I want to give one final shout out to Chefprotoss, whose show, “Meh,” is a fun look at fun games. Like many of the other shows featured here, Chef has a good sense of history and a great level of enthusiasm. Who didn’t like “Super Mario World?”
Plus, I think it’s worth mentioning that not too long ago, Chefprotoss had a contest for creating an introduction to his show, the grand prize being a game of that person’s choice. Guess who won the contest and scored an awesome copy of “Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Dance Party?” Oh yeah, baby. That was me. And this is the first episode to show that introduction. Check out the show credits if you don’t believe me.
Good show, Chef. Keep them vids comin’.
7. “Hate By Numbers”
Wayne Gladstone’s “Hate by Numbers” returns to the format of using bitterness as your comedic weapon, but doesn’t get angry. Instead, it’s a more cynical, comedic approach to things. Carrying on Cracked.com’s tradition of pointing out wacky things and giving them a number list, Gladstone points out some very obvious errors in judgment in today’s TV shows, whether it’s Reality TV, nightly news or talk shows. It’s a funny show with some quick quips and good vibes.
8. “Odd Todd”
This one’s a definite classic. Starting in 2001, animator Todd Rosenberg starting releasing a series of flash cartoons entitled “Laid Off” in which he comically looks at his own life and his status of being unemployed. Since then, he’s gotten a number of small jobs here and there, but remains unemployed and manages to get by with his Paypal tipjar, online merchandising sales and other things he does. In high school, I loved this show so much, I got my family into watching it. I remember performing these shows in monologue format for my Dramatic Literature class and even made a cartoon for my mom’s birthday once that parodied Todd’s unique and comical style. And to think that I almost forgot to mention this one.
9. “Jaimetud”
This guy’s still a relative newcomer to the whole online show business. The best way to describe this show would be to say that it’s got a lot of variety with it’s strangely named host “Jaimetud” looking at anything he can think of and trying to put a humorous spin on it. I don’t know much about him or what it is he’s trying to switch on in that chair of his, but the show’s fairly professional and deserving of mention. And it’s got a nice theme song.
The only problem is that according to his most recent video, he won’t be able to post any more episodes until he gets his camera fixed, which could take some time. That’s why I posted one of his more popular episodes above. I just hope he gets the situation fixed soon.
posted by Jaimetud at 1:52 PM
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