I like watching “first time” reaction videos of people watching movies. It’s most fun when it’s something like “Psycho” and they are too young to know about the shower scene or the big twist.
I think I like it when the viewer is really enjoying the movie because it’s like watching with a friend.
What do you all think about this newish trend?
Not remotely a fan. People hamming up extreme pretend emotional reactions for clicks.
I watched a few of these a couple of years ago, and I wasn’t convinced that all of the reactions were really sincere. They know they are on camera, right?
They’re only worth watching if the reactor provides meaningful commentary. I follow a couple of musicians who watch, analyse, and teach about singers or musicians and give me a lot of information that enhances my experience. Most are first time reactions, but not all.
Watching someone experience a jump scare is about as fun as watching paint dry.
I genuinely dislike them, they seem really fake.
Yeah, they’re not all great. But I find there’s a few channels that I like and I stick with them, generally.
Oh wait, there’s one guy I used to watch, a classical type musician who’d light up big spliffs while listening to prog or other music. He was also kind of over-react-y, but still entertaining.
Is it a newish trend? It seems like it’s been around long enough, and there are enough of them out there, that someone could make ‘reaction to reaction video’ videos.
Reaction videos personally don’t do anything for me. Neither do unboxing videos. I do have my own little quirky video interests, mostly food-related-- like a guy who makes and cooks sausage using various odd ingredients, and then rates how good the resulting sausage comes out. Or a woman who tries reproducing ‘recipe hack’ videos, or the lowest-rated recipe videos, stuff like that.
The only unboxing we enjoy is from a board game channel called Dice Tower, every week they post “the most boring unboxing in the world”, which consists of opening all the mailers of all the board game review copies/purchases that have come in that week (they don’t actually open the games). It’s mostly new games, or upgrades, and the videos are usually 7 minutes or less, so we enjoy them.
Already done.
Ah, figures. ‘Reaction to reaction to reaction video’ videos, then?
This guy does analysis of music videos and his reactions seem genuine- he really loves his work. Lately he seems to be a kind of a pitch correction policeman.
Not a bit. Though I am surprised there aren’t more people in this thread that like them. Because someone must be watching them. Maybe AI?
It was all downhill after the guy showed his grandma the 2 Girls video.
The “related posts” tab has threads going back to 2013.
I think it really took off starting in 2020, when we were all isolated due to Covid and couldn’t get together with friends. Watching reaction videos was a substitute for activities like going over to a friend’s house and watching TV together.
And the appeal of reaction videos is similar to the appeal of showing one of your favorite movies (or TV shows or songs or albums) to a friend or family member and seeing how they react—only you’re watching the edited-down version at 2x speed so you get the “good parts” of their reaction in a condensed form.
They can be worth watching if the reactor provides meaningful, knowledgeable, insightful commentary, or if the reactor has “no filter” and expresses all the thoughts and emotions that are going through their head in an entertaining way. (So, a good reactor is almost the opposite of a good person to go out to the movies with.)
And, of course, Sturgeon’s Law applies.
I agree with that. Most of the reactors have nothing to say. When experts react they often provide an entertaining point of view. For some reason just watching people watch things without having anything to say is popular. Must be a generational thing.
One sub-genre I don’t quite get is best described as black people watch white people stuff. There are a ton of YouTube channels like that. Are people looking for validation for things they like?
You mean like Mr. Blue Cardigan Adam Rose? He’s an actor, and he’s also made some hilarious reels featuring his ‘wife’ (played by Adam Rose! with a hideous yellow wig!). There are also hundeds of him watching and reacting to what looks like America’s Funniest Videos messy accidents. His facial expressions are very amusing.
I’ve watched hundreds of reaction videos, so I must like them — but it’s a muddy topic. The only ones I watch are reactions to movies/songs I like, so I’m watching the reactor experience new stuff while I’m too calcified to find my own new stuff.
Movie reactions are more fun because films can be easily appreciated on first view. So I generally trust the reactions. The laughter seems real, the worry seems real, the tears seem real.
Songs open up more slowly. But a good reactor can notice things about a song that I’ve missed, even while they’re missing many other things, and maybe not caring for the song at all.
Recently I’ve watched dozens of reactions to some favorite films, including Up, the Incredibles, O Brother Where Art Thou, Big Fish, Burn After Reading, Fargo, Miller’s Crossing, and Princess Bride. Watching a condensed version of a familiar film 10 times can be interesting and slightly educational.
A special treat is when the reactor cries. Big tear jerker films include Up, the Return of the King, and Big Fish.
Princess Bride gets some tears, but the big deciding factor is whether the reactor was paying close attention at the beginning. If they realize Peter Falk is telling his grandson “I love you” then there’s likely to be tears. If the reactor was talking over the early scenes, then their reaction is “Is the granddad Westley??” And interestingly almost no one is familiar with Peter Falk, despite Columbo’s decades of worldwide success and frequent syndication. Reactors will often know Robin Wright, Billy Crystal, Cary Elwes, and sometimes Christopher Guest.
I just remembered-- I haven’t watched it in awhile, but I did occasionally watch this video channel where a woman, an opera singer and a voice coach, who grew up not listening to popular music, listens, reacts to, and analyzes popular songs of the past 50ish years or so:
