I regularly watch Let’s Play videos, but not ones where the player is on camera; I’m more interested in the gameplay and commentary on the game rather than overtly emotional reactions. There are so many indie games coming out all the time that it’s impractical to buy them all and play them myself (especially for a cheapskate like me).
I have several favorites that match those of Idle Thoughts’ list. Another of my favorites is “IT’S MISTER VIDEO”. His animation and laughter are a real hoot.
I like watching movie reactions to see which parts they choose to include and how early they can pick up the plot. I’m baffled by the fact that every single reaction to Airplane! includes the “put all your metal objects in the bowl” scene when in truth that wouldn’t crack my top ten sight gags in the movie. Sometimes I’m impressed by the reactor getting something much earlier than I did, like the Psycho murderer being Norman in drag.
Music reactions are fun, but seriously who the fuck hasn’t heard Bohemian Rhapsody? I like seeing professional musicians being blown away by something, like when they react to Roy Clark playing Malaguena.
I agree. YouTube is always showing me thumbnails of videos where it shows some Millennial twat with the same “overly shocked” expression, and a title like “Gen Z Music Producer hears ‘Stairway To Heaven’ FOR THE FIRST TIME!”
No, I don’t believe a word of any of that.
My kids are the age of those fake-twenty-somethings and there isn’t a single ‘Classic Boomer Rock’ song they haven’t heard. And if those were actually music producers, then there’s no way that these songs would be new to them.
Call me a sucker, but I genuinely like them. It’s interesting to see, say, a young Tennessee woman who grew up in an extremely religious household watch all the movies she missed back in the day. Basically I’m watching someone who doesn’t share my demographics showing me how media that I love hits them. For this reason I also like watching, say, teens reacting to 80s Heavy Metal, or Black folks reacting to things that weren’t necessarily intended for a Black audience.
Is a lot of it fake? Probably? Is a lot of it genuine? Also probably.
Reaction videos are an industry. People are at it to make money. As I said in this thread a year ago, there are/can be elements of authenticity and performativeness side by side, as well as plain old lying. That said, we’re living in a world where the average person’s online persona is a crazy mix of authenticity, performativeness, and lying. Getting worked up about things that might not be really true is, like, so 2000s.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed some music reaction videos as a way to re-visit some songs/bands I haven’t listened to in a long time. I’ve tried one or two movie/TV reactors, but I don’t enjoy it the same way. I just don’t have the patience for it. I do enjoy watching long form analysis of movies and TV, of which there is plenty.
I’ve noticed that I tend to stick with the reactors who have something of substance to say about the movie or show. And I especially like those rare times when they have an insight or notice something that is new to me.
I recently experienced one of those rare times myself.
As I recently replied in the “things you missed for the first 100 times until you have seen it again” thread (or whatever the legitimate title is, that is probably not correct)…
… I recently experienced this because of reactors.
When I was watching Deadpool and wolverine from the point of view of reactors one of them pointed out that during the Honda Odyssey fight, when wolverine is smashing Deadpool’s head against the radio again and again, the very first sound you hear is the opening to the first song in the greatest showman. I knew it sounded familiar but it couldn’t place it, even after watching the movie myself and watching two other reaction videos to it, it was only the third reaction video where a person said “oh, that was totally the opening chorus to the first song in The greatest showman.”)
I would have never caught that if it was not for reactors
Do we have to choose? Why can’t he be lying about the whole thing?
I like people reacting to John Carpenter’s The Thing basically for three scenes. I’m not listing them because you probably know which ones I’m talking about anyway.
I would agree with this but sadly I know real movie production people that have never seen Star wars or jaws or any number of other huge movies that defined genres.
Same. Probably my most watched movie, and my most watched reaction video subject.
I recently watched some videos that were titled “the most recognisable song in each month of the 80s” or something, and even i hadn’t heard of about a tenth of them. Most recognisable and yet unheard of? Made my head spin.
The reason is because some US or UK hits didn’t get released in every country so I was just never exposed to them, even tangentially. It’s 2026, fully a quarter into the century, its totally plausible for a contemporary teen to never expand their range of interests into the previous century.
The vast majority of reaction videos that I’ve seen are just people stealing other people’s content and coming up with a thinly veiled way to post it themselves. They’re dodging copyright, not adding anything of value.
The only ones I’ll watch are those where the commentator adds expert analysis, like a certain Youtuber cop that comments on bodycam arrest videos and explains the laws and what the cop is probably thinking or why they’re doing what they’re doing. He’s adding value from his personal experience. Same goes for big musicians analyzing how a song is produced.
But many people are just saying “Wow” and “Oh man” to random points in a video someone else made. No thanks.
If you consider 20-odd years, the age of YouTube, to be “newish”, anyway, it depends on what they’re reacting too. The first ones I knew of were mainly for shock videos like “2 Girls 1 Cup”.
Here’s one from one of my favorite YouTubers. I was puzzled as to why he wasn’t familiar with the song, but then again, he was a baby when it was a hit.
Doug Helvering, in my last post?
A lot of “reaction videos” are to people finding out that they got into Harvard, or medical school, or whatever.
You’re not wrong. But don’t you like to watch your favorite movie with one of your friends who’s never seen it before? You didn’t make the movie either. But your friends’ wows and oh mans are still fun.
There are some reaction vids that are fun to watch just for the emotional response. “Spinal Tap” is one of those, especially watching people hear “Big Bottom” for the first time. It’s great seeing younger people watch “Psycho” when they know nothing about the upcoming shower scene. I think it was Popcorn In Bed whose first reaction to Norman Bates was something like, “Oh, he’s nice!” And it’s fun to see people exposed to culturally and artistically significant films like “Double Indemnity.”
Sure, but only because I know my friend and have a connection with them. Seeing a random person do it feels (to me) like the Chris Farley SNL bit where he interviews celebrities and says “Remember, in that movie, where you shot the gun at that one alien? Yeah. That was awesome” and has nothing else to add or say about it.
No, you are seeing how they ham it up and mug for the camera. Or at least, when I’m watching movies I don’t spend it yelping like a The Price is Right contestant that has just won a minor appliance.
I like that guy. The first video I saw of him was reacting to Childish Gambino’s This is America. He knew the song but had never seen the video.
When that opening shot went off, he just sat back and exclaimed “holy shit!”
That was exactly my reaction too. He was able to identify specific things in the video that I’d never considered, like all the parked, empty cars with open passenger doors (maybe representing all the Black men who had been pulled over and harassed or killed.)
He also knew the chord progressions and how they were used in spirituals.
So I like the specific, informed analysis. But sometimes I like the goofy stuff too. And anyway, reaction videos are how I discovered the Ren song, “Hi Ren” which touched me deeply.
I don’t watch these videos all the time but sometimes they are just like comfort food.
There’s a great series “tribal people react to…” I can’t recall the name of the channel right off. But you get to know the personalities of the different people connecting Western popular culture with their own culture. One that surprised me was when they played Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name of. I figured these super religious tribal Muslim guys would have a problem with the rejection of law and order. Instead they were like (paraphrased) “Oh, definitely fuck the police. I was once held and tortured by the police for seven days, they abuse their power all the time.”
I guess Rage has a universal message.