The recent five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown reminded me of the noticeable shift that occurred in our generation's usage of the internet during the pandemic. Using Instagram and TikTok, once a casual pastime between classes or at sleepovers, became our lifeline to each other and held a monopoly on human interaction. This all-consuming overconsumption led to an influx of the most pointless (at best) and horrendous (at worst) media I came across on the daily, content that would seriously make me doubt some folks’ grasp on reality. Luckily, I was not alone in this sentiment. During my quarantine binge-watching era I relished in the Holy Trinity of YouTube content creators whose mission was to bring the internet's darkest, weirdest corners to light in the funniest way possible. Former Vine-ers Drew Gooden, Danny Gonzalez and Kurtis Conner kept me sane by affirming my aggravations with the cyberverse; that knock-off kids movie is stupid, and that family of vloggers should definitely be investigated. I've been finding comfort in their recent uploads, which now reiterate my hopeless frustration with soulless AI products, creepy internet alpha males and everything in between. The world is a scarier place than it was when I was 17, but I can always count on these silly YouTube videos to make me laugh about things that would otherwise make me cry.
I want to thank my sister for introducing me to Danny Gonzalez — notably, his videos ridiculing Troom Troom's craft "hacks" and a rip-off version of Ratatouille whose animation style would give any adult nightmares. Danny's talents surpass just comedy: he often wrote and produced parody songs based on his videos that, while adding to the hilarity, were surprisingly well done. Check out "Help Let Me Go” based on his video about a justice-seeking TikTok mom, or "I'm Gonna Kill Santa Claus” inspired by his commentary on the classic Christmas movie starring Tim Allen. Many videos featured people or products that weren't necessarily doing anything wrong, but whose absurdity made for low-hanging fruit in terms of poking fun. Although the nature of his comedic style could be read as cruel, Danny always urged his audience just to enjoy a laugh and move on without needlessly berating or bullying his subjects.
From Danny's channel we discovered Kurtis Conner and Drew Gooden, since the three of them did a stand-up tour together and had a backlog of videos featuring each other. All three gained semi-fame on Vine (Drew's "Road Work Ahead” bit is among the most recognizable Vine clips from that era) and then transitioned to longer-style comedic commentary on YouTube. Whether making videos together or apart, they often covered the same topics: in the late 2010s they all had many videos dedicated to the Paul brothers (Logan and Jake), whose terrible music videos and questionable antics made for endless content.
As fun as it is, I am not solely writing to reminisce about the funny videos my sister and I watched as teenagers. I want to explain why I still maintain such a strong connection to these YouTube channels, and why I believe their existence is actively healing the Internet. Revealing the weird and exploitative habits of Logan and Jake Paul, for instance, led fans to rightfully critique and bash their harmful behavior. In a similar vein, Kurtis Conner has made several videos criticizing the behavior of self-proclaimed “alpha males” who dehumanize women and spew their egotistical philosophies into an online echo chamber 24/7. Danny also has made several videos about a vlogger family that was obviously lying about their life (and probably exploiting their children) for views. Even his Troom Troom and Ratatoing videos expose the nonsensical, heavily monetized garbage that is being churned out with no thought and targeted towards a very young audience.
Much of my increased fear and frustration with the world is attributed to every company’s sudden obsession with inserting AI technology into places it has no business being in. Danny is apparently just as creeped out as I am, and has made a whole slew of videos poking fun at pointless AI gadgets, exposing AI's Facebook takeover and even tricking people into thinking he is an AI entity. I've been enjoying Drew Gooden's videos recently due to his tendency to go on passionate tangents about topics I also feel the strong urge to rant about. He has his own qualms with AI's influence on the internet and how the new autofill reply feature on YouTube is as unnecessary as it is hilarious. These videos have the perfect combination of wonderfully crafted jokes and serious criticism that showcase the time and effort the two creators invest into producing meaningful content.
What really pulled me back to their little YouTube world, though, was Kurtis Conner's absurd social experiments. For the past couple of months he has been putting himself through hell in a hysterical yet poignant attempt to test out Internet fads. He has attempted to de-age himself and then undoubtedly reversed all that hard work by surviving on only YouTuber food products for a week. Maybe on the surface these videos sound no different than the crazy things content creators are doing all the time to farm views. But Kurtis (and Danny and Drew) use themselves as vessels for satire and deep commentary on the corrupt state of consumer culture and toxic misinformation spewed online. Their comedy is a tool they use to peel back the layers of the absurd world that we live in, in the hopes that children will watch their videos instead of mindlessly absorbing content that was not made with their best interests in mind. For those of you that grew up laughing with them as I did, I hope you are still finding peace of mind and joy in their content. And for those who have never seen the videos referenced above, I highly recommend giving them a watch!
Maya Blanchard is a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She can be reached at mhb237@cornell.edu.
