That was my first thought too - there’s definitely a Scarfolk-esque vibe to them. Keep it up and maybe your material will one day be a part of actual government publications too.
Yeah, Scarfolk was definitely part of the mood board for this stuff. It’s an interestingly common sort of trope in British writing - the more you look, the more examples you find of the slightly off-normal normality genre. The League of Gentlemen is another example
Where did you acquire the disturbing children from, and did you remember to recycle them afterwards as protein cubes?
I am a big fan of Richard Littler and the 70s, Hammer horror vibe that permeated PIFs. I guess British TV producers figured the best way to keep the audience’s attention was to scare the living shite out of us. The title cards that always shifted around, odd edits, and out of tune synth music is an aesthetic that I strangely adore. Maybe not so much when I was in primary school, but definitely today 
“For more information please re-read”
I was wondering about this also. The narration matches the tone of the videos so well, I wondered if it was a made up voice or you had hired/knew a voice actor. Very funny stuff.
I’ve been checking out your site for years now and no matter what you put up, it’s always entertaining. IIRC, you said this is is your full time work now. Is that correct? Either way, congratulations on your success in a tough market.
Thanks - Yeah, I quit my job in IT management in August 2020, in order to run the channel full time (in reality, it was more like cutting back from two full time jobs to one full time job because I had been putting 30 to 40 hours a week into the channel alongside the IT day job). I don’t regret this transition even slightly.
I think you should consider having a single, dedicated channel for the Slaughter Valley videos.
I know that’s what YouTube expects, but if I was to spin up a new channel every time I start playing with a new field of interest, I would just have a collection of small, obscure, unsuccessful channels instead of one moderately successful one.
I think I’m going to petition the mods to change my SDMB name to “the soul Mr Barrister John Barosa”. OK?
That was brilliant! It kept my attention, and I don’t usually have that kind of patience.
The videos were also amazing.
My 9 year old son aspires to be a “you-tuber”. So it’s really cool to hear that it is something that can actually be done. I’ve heard of insanely lucrative online success stories (earning tens of millions of dollars a year), but is there ground for a more moderate income stream?
I also like the Tom Mabe video where he dishes it out to a telemarketer.
Well, you COULD be like Simon Whistler, a YouTuber who I also subscribed to his many, many channels, but you were first (so many dang years ago!). Unlike your refreshing content, he does have sponsors. I’ve loved your channel for quite some time and if you can do an old timer like me a favor and add a few eat-strange-things-out-of-a-can every now and then. I did mention many years ago on one of your vids that this content really matched your SD handle.
If you work doings you like, are you really working? Continued success!
It’s pretty hard to break into - for example there are people who run very successful channels streaming gameplay - which might seem like something anyone could do - and many new YouTubers try to get started doing that, but never gain traction. There’s a significant element of chance, but also, the people who are successful are usually very determined and persistent, and usually have some USP such as their engaging commentary.
Most YouTubers who are earning from their work have a spread of YouTube ad revenue, YouTube memberships, Patreon sponsors, sale of channel related merch, and maybe monetisation streams from related platforms too.
In order to be successful on purpose on YouTube, it’s probably about finding a niche and committing to it (not what I do) - because that’s a faster way (when it works) to build a loyal audience, and it also means the YouTube algorithm can better predict who else might be interested in the content and recommend it to them (as well as the consistency of theme making it simpler to match ad types to the content)
By contrast, I ran the channel as a hobby for 12 or 13 years, slowly collecting a few hundred subscribers a year, until there was a sudden break - people often attribute it to the scambaiting content but the first abruptly successful video was, I think, one about a scam product I bought on Wish or somewhere. Once that happened, it started to snowball and the scambaiting videos also started to get popular.
I did go through a period in which there was quite a lot of ‘Ugh Why is a scambaiting channel making videos about cooking an omelette! Unsubscribed!’, but over time, my audience has sort of come around to the idea that the content will be a lucky dip. I think the audience might well have grown faster if I had done one thing consistently, but I tend to think a fast burn like that is not sustainable for the audience or the creator. Doing the same kind of thing each time would just make it like any other job for me and I’d probably end up hating it.
There have been opportunities to increase revenue; I’m turning away sponsor offers on more or less a daily basis. I thought about doing some for companies and that I like in principle (Audible, CuriosityStream, etc), but in the end, making content that is based on something someone else cares about, just feels immediately like an obligation - I did accept a request recently (unpaid) to review an app/game related to mental health, which seemed like a lovely idea, and the people running the charity are very nice, with great motives, and there was no reason to dislike it, but the moment I agreed, it became something I have to do now, not something I want to do, and it was genuinely difficult because of that.
I could load midroll ads into my longer videos and probably double my revenue, but I really dislike midroll ads when I watch other people’s content. I could set up Patreon, but I feel like that would inevitably end up with the patrons directing the kind of content they prefer me to make.
Clearly you emerge as winner thanks to being an active google user.
I will say that I absolutely lost it at “HOW IS GOOGLE FORMED”.
Oh God, me too, that’s the exact instant I fell in love
I’m not a fan of scambaiting videos, but I was laughing out loud constantly at that one.
I have to say that I’m extremely impressed that, for the sake of your principles, you’re willing to forgo what is clearly a substantial amount of money to do something that would require little or no effort on your part. I don’t think many others would do the same.
I’m reminded of Bill Watterson’s refusal to permit Calvin and Hobbes merchandise. He probably would have earned milions, and would continue to be raking it in even today, just by saying “yes,” but he didn’t want to compromise his characters.
Honestly, I’m just wary of turning it into a job that I don’t enjoy - and part of the enjoyment is the creation of something that is a little different from the norm.
Although I, for one, would applaud you turning this into some multimillion dollar (er, Pound? Euro? Whatever the wealthy use these days) operation that lets you sip drinks on the beach of your choice, provided you continue to post on the Dope, so I get to drop this very interesting, albeit supremely tenuous, connection whenever I’m making innocuous small talk.