Today (YES two blogs in a row?!?!) I’m giving love to the deconstructions of Seth Rudetsky (he’s doing a deconstruction a day in May!). Seth is a… well, he’s played piano in the pits of musicals, he’s done acting, he hosts a program on Sirius Satellite Radio, he’s a music director, he’s an author, etc. etc. Basically, when it comes to Broadway, Seth has been involved in whatever he can get his hands on. He has his full bio at his website.

On his YouTube channel, he posts deconstructions — basically, he plays some of his favorite bits of songs (mostly Broadway but a little pop, classical, etc. too — he recently deconstructed Kelly Clarkson and Michael Jackson in the midst of all his Broadway deconstructions) and explains, as only Seth Rudetsky can with lots of arm-waving and lip syncing, why he’s obsessed with them. I find him to be a little bit of the TV Tropes of music, in that after you watch a ton of Seth’s deconstructions you start to notice choices singers make in their interpretations of songs that you perhaps never consciously honed in on before.

I’m not a fan of traditional showtunes as much as Seth is but I still enjoy watching all his deconstructions. He is an example of someone who has such personality that they can talk about anything and you’ll be entertained. His channel is Zonkzink but I’m going to embed one of my favorite deconstructions of his from an event: Barbra Steisand and Bea Arthur. I saw this right before I saw my high school do Funny Girl and throughout Cornet Man and Don’t Rain On My Parade I almost had to hold back laughter remembering this video (definitely no Broadway knowledge required to see how hilarious this is).

AHHH LATE AGAIN so this will be a quick one.

There are some times, as I get angry over shoe shopping or had to ask other people to braid my hair for me every night of my high school’s spring musical… when I wonder if there is some universal class in girly ways that I missed out on somewhere. One of these categories of feminine failure for me is makeup, which for most of my life I struggled to figure out how to apply correctly (still a work in progress). Luckily there is the internet, and YouTube is full of tutorials on all sorts of things, including lots of women who do makeup tutorials. The most popular of which is definitely professional makeup artist Michelle Phan, who is one of the most subscribed YouTubers (and is the most subscribed in the “Gurus” category). She has a lot of videos on everything from buying beauty products, to everyday tips, to these elaborate costume-y tutorials for Halloween and special occasions.

Her videos are professional yet friendly, and she’s someone who has used her fame online to get job opportunities and such offline.

Todaaaaay I have some more YouTube vloggers I adore. Let me see if I can be extra cool this time and include some pictures.

First up is Craig aka WheezyWaiter.

From wheezywaiter.com:

My name is Craig. I used to be a waiter in a downtown Chicago restaurant. It’s not as lucrative as it sounds. I started this video blog in late May 2007 out of frustration with a job that barely paid the rent and didn’t involve any of my creative skills. It was originally going to be a blog about the trials and tribulations of the dining experience, from the point of view of both waiters and customers. It became a showcase for my own brand of absurd humor which occasionally includes dining subject matter. After half a year of blogging and freelance video work, I eventually got a job as a video guy at a web development company.

Wheezy makes hilarious videos on a variety of unlikely subjects from President’s Day to Puppies which often involve punching himself and others, changing camera angles, and a choice of multiple endings but always ends with a wink.

Next up is Natalie Tran aka CommunityChannel.

From fansite Natalietran.me:

Natalie Tyler Tran is a video blogger on YouTube from Sydney, Australia, using the nickname communitychannel. She is a digital media student at the University of New South Wales, an amateur violinist and second-generation Vietnamese Australian.

Nat’s videos usually involve her making commentary on awkward social situations she finds herself in and generally involve self-deprecating humor, such as being the third wheel around couples and trying to self-diagnose using Google. Her videos almost always involve some skit to demonstrate whatever topic she’s describing, where she uses split-screen type editing to have every role in the skit (usually) played by herself just wearing different clothes. Her videos always start with a Hi! and end with her responding to comments from the last week’s video.

Last is Charlie McDonnell aka Charlieissocoollike.

From CharlieMcDonnell.com:

Charlie McDonnell is an English Video-Blogger and Musician from Bath, Somerset. Known on YouTube as charlieissocoollike, he is currently the second most subscribed YouTuber in the United Kingdom, with over 300,000 regular viewers. Currently, he has amassed over 30 million total video views. He is 19 years old, still lives at home with his Mum, and does not enjoy small talk.

Charlie’s videos are charming and include his ongoing attempts to complete a list of challenges that so far have included him painting his body purple and giving his opinions on different kinds of baby food.

Why love these vloggers? As Buck said in that video of his in an earlier post of mine — success on YouTube really is about personality. These three vloggers have charisma and an ability to make everyday topics incredibly entertaining. They have well put-together video without removing themselves from that everyday-person-talking-in-their-bedroom charm that draws a lot of people to these personal-type vloggers. They’re relatable enough to feel a sense of community and non-commercialism surrounding them, but also talented enough that they are consistently entertaining and high quality.

Today I want to talk aboooout two famous news-type vloggers on YouTube who I subscribe to. Both of these guys are YouTube partners who make a living off their videos, so if you’re wondering who those people are who are making money for vlogging and what they vlog about, here’s two examples.

Both of these vloggers occasionally use language and cover content that might be NSFW. Phil in particular. Nothing you wouldn’t hear in everyday conversation (I mean, YouTube is partnered with them, after all), but just a warning, since this is a school-y blog.

The first is Philip DeFranco aka Sxephil who is the 6th most subscribed YouTuber of all time. He makes 3-4 minute long videos on a schedule where he discusses popular news items. Part of why news vloggers are worth talking about these days is a ton of people get their news from sources like Phil. Here’s a video of his where he talks a little about this:

I’ve noticed he’s made some references, especially in his personal videos, about what it takes to be a top YouTuber — and the fact that I have to put a NSFW warning on his channel at all. He seems to be suggesting that it is his belief (and no doubt he has paid a lot of attention to this — you don’t end up in the top 10 by accident) that his sort of fast-paced, occasionally bordering on offense, self-deprecating style is what it takes to keep up his viewership. Both he and the YouTuber I’m featuring below seem to view the style of their videos as a sort of persona they put on for the purpose of entertaining rather than an actual reflection of themselves personally (and both have separate channels for personal videos where they reveal themselves to be nicer and calmer people than their main channels would suggest.) It makes sense, I suppose — think about popular stand-up comedians, etc. Isn’t that more or less what Phil and similar vloggers do? There are definitely people on YouTube who have gained a following for a more personal format, but news vloggers don’t seem to go that way.

The other vlogger I want to discuss today is a little tamer — he’s Michael Buckley aka WhatTheBuck who is the 13th most subscribed channel on YouTube. (In case you’re wondering, the full list is here (I’m not talking about anyone above Phil and Buck as I don’t subscribe to them, though I do intend to talk about a couple people below them on that list later.)) He also talks about popular news items, but while Phil is more quirky news in general, WhatTheBuck is more entertainment news and aimed toward a bit of a younger audience (and has a much larger following of women, as far as I can guess)

Buck has actually made quite a few videos on his personal channel discussing his status as a top YouTuber, the culture of YouTube, etc. Here’s a personal video of his where he discusses product placement in YouTube videos (and how personality often means so much more than content in vlogging):

That’s right, it’s post five and I haven’t given up on trying to post daily. But there’s still a long ways to go.

Today I’m presenting Know Your Meme. It’s a site about memes, which in an online context are sort of like internet in jokes. Know Your Meme attempts to figure out the origin of these jokes and then provides examples of how they’re used. It’s a nice resource for when you’re, say, wondering if anyone knows how Rickrolling started or looking to show someone an example of Mario Paint songs.

They also have a video series where satirical “scientists” examine memes. I’ve never tried to embed a video in Wordpress before, so let’s see what happens — this episode is about single-serving sites.

On today’s edition of Cool Stuff I Like On The Internet, we’re going to take a look at two of my favorite people on the internet who created one of the most awesome communities I’ve seen on the internet.

The Vlogbrothers, Brotherhood 2.0, and Nerdfighteria.

The Vlogbrothers are, well, two brothers: John and Hank Green. John is an author of young adult novels (such as Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns) and Hank runs the internet’s biggest environmental technology blog, EcoGeek. They sort of came to realize that as they’d gotten older, married, and ended up on different sides of the country, their relationship was far from what it was like when they were children. They decided to try a fun project to get to know each other better: a year long video blog project called Brotherhood 2.0. The rules were simple: they would switch off making 4-mins-or-less videos every weekday (excluding holidays) and stop communicating textually (meaning, no e-mails, IMs, etc.). Any time one of them failed to follow these rules, they would be punished (and they were several times, with punishments over time including eating a blenderized Happy Meal and spending an entire day in Target).

What started as a random project between two brothers EXPLODED. Hank wrote a funny song about Harry Potter and it got featured on YouTube (which is when I first heard of them), and it started these two brothers on a rollercoaster leading to crazy internet fame.

Since Brotherhood 2.0 ended at the end of 2007, John and Hank have continued to be a huge presence on YouTube. Their fans are called Nerdfighters — nerds who fight to “decrease world suck.” Nerdfighteria has been associated with a ton of awesome projects, including Project For Awesome, which is a yearly project to overrun YouTube’s rankings of popular videos with videos about charities, the record label DFTBA records, the upcoming convention VidCon, Truth or Fail, and a ton of charity projects.

They’re centered around their YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers. The Nerdfighter community lives at a Ning community they refer to simply as “The Ning.” Both John and Hank have Twitters as well. 

I was fortunate enough to see Hank and John when they did a giant tour of the country to promote John’s latest book (I’m also a big fan of John as an author — when I sat down to read his books I was shocked that the same sort of mixture of humor and intellectual commentary I see on their channel is very present in his writing as well) and it was an awesome experience. Shall I try and embed a picture? Let’s try it.

Why love the Green brothers? John and Hank have said it before and I think it’s definitely true — when it comes down to it, Nerdfighteria isn’t about John and Hank anymore. They’re just two guys who are intelligent and entertaining and they’ve managed to organize their following into more than just a fanbase for themselves but rather a community capable of accomplishing things. They make it cool to be uncool.