I spend very little time following memes and popular Interwebz sites. I am vaguely familiar with people unboxing new stuff or playing games or commenting sarcastically on events and things and people.
A Grauniad column is about people watching crowds of people enjoying a close game, or the reaction of people to TV shows and such. How much time do people have on their hands? Which of these “meta sites” are most popular? Are there any you really enjoy?
It really depends on what you’re looking for. I watch a few different musicians and/or singers responding to music. They analyze the technique or artistic choices, or simply react in amazement on what some artists can do.
Some I like:
I couldn’t tell you what platform is the most popular (I’d guess tiktok or youtube), but ‘reaction videos’ are quite popular. Essentially just someone recording themselves watching a music video or sporting event or game or whatever.
The first time I recall seeing these is when 2 Girls 1 Cup came out. I feel like I saw dozens of videos of people watching it before I actually saw it.
In the 2 Girls 1 Cup video, however, I feel like the driving force was not wanting to upload/air the actual video so this was sort of a workaround.
Actual television, probably.
I mean, Gogglebox is really, really popular, for some stupid reason. Millions of viewers, many spinoffs too.
And because it’s so far off my radar I didn’t think about it and could, in fact, be entirely wrong, I think a better answer to this:
might be Twitch.
I like Gogglebox (mentioned above in post 4.)
The families appearing on the show are well chosen, with plenty of variety.
I find their comments give an interesting viewpoint on programs I’ve seen and a helpful recommendation on stuff I haven’t watched.
I particularly enjoy seeing all of them jump out of their seats when watching a horror film!
By one theory, this is just a return to the norm.
Up until quite recently, pretty much all entertainment was a shared experience. If you wanted to enjoy a performance of music or drama or art or dance or comedy or anything else you had to watch it with a bunch of other people and your shared reactions were part of the experience. Radio and TV and the internet mean that we can now, if we choose, enjoy these things in solitude but even then we want to check in with others. “Watercooler TV” was entirely about people wanting to share reactions with others. We have plenty of threads in Cafe Society about movies and TV which do the same thing. Reading is the most solitary way of engaging in culture - and yet we have book groups. For why? Because we* want to share.
So why not watch other people enjoy something you’ve enjoyed? Hear what they have to say, measure their appreciation against your own. It’s how we’ve always enjoyed culture.
*Hello. If you’re reading this thinking “Well I personally would never join a book group, or watch Gogglebox or post in a thread about Game of Thrones or chat with colleagues about the last movie they watched, so what’s this ‘we’ business?” then you personally are awesome, and yet people still do all this stuff.
Ooooooh! I like The Charismatic Voice. I like watching her reactions to music I’ve enjoyed for decades, sometimes she “sings” along(Pink Floyd Great Gig In The Sky) and she is just fun to watch. Also, she’s turned me on to some music I never would have considered in the past.
I like Trybals (link to their youtube channel) among a few others
I find it interesting to see the reactions of folks from a different culture, sometimes with little of what we call formal education, and to learn a little about their world and how they view the world generally and the things in it.
That’s true. There was another topic about the 1997 movie Jaws, and one of the great pleasures about seeing movies in theaters back then was the shared experience, so when there was a sudden scare, we all jumped or reacted at the same time. Or when seeing a movie like ET, we all cheered at the bit when ET caused the kids’ bikes to go flying.
One of my favorite photos is this one, of children in Paris watching a puppet show.
Family Guy even spoofed it.
I was all set to sneer at this entire genre, but a friend showed me Gogglebox and I immediately fell in love with these British families/couples/mates and their delightful takes on the media.
If you wish MST3K had more working-class Brits and fewer robots, try it.