as an older gen z, i can attest to how traumatizing the internet was growing up. Like clicking a link just to seeing violent (real) gore or 2 girls 1 cup or the tampon video, it all just really fucked me up. i’d be so down for a part 2 of this.
I need my older Genz BABES! The Scary Maze Game y’all? Or how about terroristic beheadings? What about the damn Slender Man game that I believe was on the App Store? How about the woman who banged her head on her desks to the point of all out mutilation? Yeah. 😶🫨
For me the standout aspect of early RUclips was the originality. There were no rules or even really advertising and it meant people were truly themselves, for better or worse 😂
The girls was UNHINGED. However I do miss the non monetized videos, when people posted for fun and not just trying to get on the right algorithms & trends😢.
Ah man, as a millennial (was around 15 when Charlie the Unicorn came out), these times were so strange but so fun. A lot of the "weird" YT vids also originated from Newgrounds and Adult Swim. It was all so weird, but also creative and I enjoyed that. And now people can't even say the word "dead", you guys have to say unalive. Wild.
As a gen z (16 as of posting this), I think words like unalive are genuinely more fun compared to their mundane synonyms. Parabola is a fun word to. Some words are just fun to say
Yes!!!! I just made a comment about that video. Charlie the unicorn was the first video I ever saw on RUclips. And it was so weird and funny. I was only 11 years old. I remember they took his kidneys. How strange 😂
I couldn’t handle Salad Fingers as a kid, I only saw bits of it and that was enough to scare me. I gave it a watch years later and I actually really appreciate it’s dark aesthetic and macabre sense of humour now! Looks like something I’d see in Smiling Friends now but I think that’s just a testament to how this series was really NOT for kids. Old RUclips really set out to traumatize us. 😭
Old RUclips was interesting, along with the weirdness amount of videos and content also the beauty of how youtube became an icon for gen Zs just like phones and social media platforms.
The fact that RUclips got Happy Tree Friends to do one of their official educational videos (it was part of that series that taught about copyright and stuff you need to know to upload a RUclips video) was wild. So much stuff RUclips did officially in the early years, I don't think they would do now lol. I'd love to see more stuff about RUclips history from you! I've been really interested in RUclips and general 2000s internet history lately. I'm thankful that I didn't get recommended any violent videos as a kid lol, although I did come across some weird inappropriate stuff on my own. Of course, everyone I knew (and myself) was really into The Duck Song, Nyan Cat, and the Gummy Bear Song. Sometimes I would search for random words on the RUclips app and there would be like, 5 results sometimes lol. That's how I discovered a music video uploaded from some educational DVD, titled "Just a Boring Square", and I still revisit that song sometimes. I think I mostly watched some more niche stuff that, unfortunately, isn't available on RUclips anymore -- like some kids' video series inspired by the show H20, titled "Mermaid Scales" (I remember it being very impressive considering they filmed it themselves). There was this cool video I found of this girl demonstrating her "magical powers" to the song "Glad You Came", I think she just recorded herself throwing things and reversed it to make it look like she was using telekinesis. There were also a lot of videos made by kids that were like "spell to turn into a fairy" and whatever. I watched a TON of those lmao, but they would always include some stuff like "wear this necklace and don't shower for three days", and my parents wouldn't let me do that. Surprisingly, I never watched Fred growing up, but I joined the small Fred fandom some months ago lol. I know it was really big in EARLY early RUclips. It's so funny that it became this relatively successful kids franchise that got picked up by Nickelodeon, when the original video series is kind of a dark comedy and has all this stuff in it that obviously could never make it onto Nickelodeon.
i think it's really great to take notice that most of gen alpha's humor is somewhat taken from what we had before. skibidi toilet, which i do find annoying, is rlly just a meme and other random shit coming together. which, a bit reminds of older memes. but iiiiiiiiiiddk
Literally, as soon as you pointed out the similarities between Gen Alpha humor and old youtube when the text came up, I said "yep makes sense their Skibidi toilet is our crazy frog." Then you made the same comparison and I was like "yoooo! I just said that!" and had to comment. Lol! X3
it's funny to realize how many these things I grew up on and think that I'm fine, I still rewatch DHMIS all the time like I did when I was 6 and 7 years old. I really loved these videos at the age, I actually dont feel like I was 'traumatized' and I watched all of these videos
I would love to see another video on old youtube. Also, I'd love to hear what you think about youtube "influencers" vs other platform's "influencers" because I have noticed a difference.
11:55 Younger Millennials were definitely traumatized by the internet too. I still remember how terrified and upset I was by that jumpscare maze game. Almost wish I could remember which of my friends sent it to me so I can hold a grudge against them lol
As an older millennial lucky enough to have one younger millennial and two Gen Z siblings, we watched RUclips evolve together and bonded over the content and its creators. Now we have so many funny stories to share 😂❤
i love david firth so much lmao, there's new episodes of salad fingers, and mr fingers isn't actually malicious. David Firth has even said he didn't really mean for Salad Fingers to be scary, he more just wanted to create a dark and surreal series, similar to his other content as well. David even said there is no ending in sight.
14:31 this video was so interesting! I would absolutely love to see you talk more about youtube's history. thanks for all of the effort you put into your videos
I have been on youtube from the literal beginning, I was 17 in 2005 when I found the site, and from the beginning it was weird because people used it just as a place to share home videos, once lonelygirl15 hit the stage things changed. Watching the people that were "big" on youtube at the time like Renetto and Boh3m3 and Emmalina and TheWineKone all talking about what produced content meant for the platform was very interesting. Even then the gatekeeping existed, when things like Salad Fingers and Charlie The Unicorn started to crop up there was already a sentiment of the platform being dead. Its funny how time makes fools of us all.
i always say ppls addiction to tiktok parallels with my addition to youtube. like i was super young on youtube to the point where i remember when the app was brown and there were fights about whether it was “youtube” or “utube” 😭.. i took ā deeper side of it though. i was obsessed with the illuminati and conspiracy videos to the point i would keep myself up at night :( i feel like i’ve seen every change to this app n it’s crazy. idk what i would do without youtube honestly.
I'm 27 now and the mere mention of "Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared" evoked a visceral reaction from me. My RUclips experience was a combination of catching those weird-ass viral videos and watching TV shows like Winx Club or Sailor Moon cut up into three ten-minute chunks.
I miss it too. Back then it was just weird and low budget, it felt like watching everyone’s weird home videos (bc thats what it was) and other stuff that would never be given the time of day on traditional media. But now? It IS basically traditional media since most people dont even watch tv anymore. Its all about ads, engagement, views, clout… I am old enough to remember when the internet was our escape from the real world. Now it seems like its the opposite. The real world has become my escape from the craziness and emptiness of internet today
I’m a younger millennial and I had the same thing of those fucked up viral videos. I also had like mostly unrestricted access to the internet and it was a LOT easier to find fucked up things, and talk to full grown adults 😳 one slight positive is that the messed up things were clearly messed up, I don’t remember there being as much subtle problematic things as they were very in your face. Now it’s harder to tell
Just statted the video but i will say this. Nostalgia and fondly remembering your youth isn't bad on it's own, but of course remember to have a critical lense plus usually (at least from what i have seen) people who tend to have alot of nostalgia tend to usually come from a privileged background and that there were people who didn't have a great youth whether its due to religious trauma, geopolitical issues, etc. Always keep a critical lense
I remember when I was like 9 I was obsessed with those body painting videos because I thought it was cool so I searched up “body paint” on RUclips to try to find those videos and…. I saw some crazy stuff…😭
old youtube was weird as hell but man i remember the days when it went from just a bunch of 20 second skits i'd binge through to full on episodes and podcasts and documentaries on this bitch and it became my go to TV. speaking of old youtube, it just came to me that you are like the reincarnation of Kingsley seeing as how your channel is all about pop culture and all :)
I used RUclips to learn to solve the Rubik's cube in 2006. Now cubing has evolved dramatically because of it. It's funny when my husband shows me old RUclips comedy content.
Watching a video about "old RUclips" that mentions Charlie the Unicorn as though it were some sort of artifact from antiquity is.... Well, it's a feeling, that's for sure. lol :) I distinctly remember watching that video as a college senior on a friend's giant brick of a laptop in the student lounge. That being said, I was also traumatized by Happy Tree Friends. So it wasn't just kids doing that to each other. Luckily, I managed to avoid being traumatized by two girls one cup. The person trying to trick me wasn't convincing enough!
Loved this and as a millenial it’s wild to have seen the changes in RUclips. I would love if you made a history of RUclips video, I would watch that !!
Elmo had a gun traumatized me as a kid like 6 or 7 I think. After that, I thankfully didn’t rly encounter the uncanny side of RUclips bc of the rise of the influencer era. Except when Annoying Orange came on Nickelodeon, I hated it bc the face of the fruits were not only unsettling to me, but the humor of it was actually very annoying and uninteresting to me. The Nickelodeon version took all the uncanniness of it out tho to meet kid friendly tv standards
I remember our senior slideshow having so many clips from youtube videos durng the section that covered the media during our high school years (2004-2008) Its funny to watch Smosh now because they were there from the jump and theyve come all the way back around to watching their old videos and commentating on them, including their Annoying Orange parts WITH the creator of Annoying Orange. The fact that they went for a period where they were even owned by Rhett and Link, another YT pioneer (thoufh they came about a few years later) whose stuck around, has really proved how cyclical the site can be. You can still look up and watch the old stuff and so many are and reacting to themselves watching them for the first time. Its crazy on here 😂
Millennial here. Salad fingers was my absolute favorite thing. And I had to be a freshman when I watched salad fingers. I Also really enjoyed happy tree friends. But I was at a stage in life where those types of things were hilarious. But I get how it could frighten little children. So i'm sorry that you are traumatized
It's worth remembering the role that Newgrounds had at that time. A lot of these 'unhinged animations' were just as popular on Newgrounds as they were on RUclips and there was also a lot of overlap. Some of these series got their start on Newgrounds, with others it was on RUclips, but there was a lot of influence between both websites. I actually remember being more into Newgrounds than RUclips for a long time, until I realised how many similar animations were on RUclips as well. XD
I miss this old era of RUclips so much. It was just so… innocent (i know it wasnt tho). Back then it was just weird and low budget videos, and people posted for fun, not for clout. It felt like watching everyone’s weird home videos (bc thats what it was) and other stuff that would never be given the time of day on traditional media. But now? It IS basically traditional media since most people dont even watch tv anymore. Everyone is on their phone either consuming content or trying to make it as a content creator. Its all about ads, engagement, views, clout… I am old enough to remember when the internet was our escape from the real world. Now it seems like its the opposite. The real world has become my escape from the craziness and emptiness of internet today
Loved the video and would love to see a deeper dive! I would say one of the things I miss most about old RUclips is the excitement around the rewind every year, hoping that your favorite creator would be in the video
Does anyone else remember when the copyright infringement information video that RUclips made you watch if you got a copyright strike was a Happy Tree Friends video? Because that was an unhinged time in RUclips lore.
@@imuRgency It wasn’t as absolutely violent as most HTF videos but it was… definitely a choice RUclips made. And you couldn’t use your backend at all until you watched the video all the way through and answered questions regarding it. I remember being so upset about it at the time because I thought I was going to be forced to watch something I really didn’t like at the time (I was similarly traumatised by Happy Tree Friends and a friend lying to me about it being cute and fun and then it very much wasn’t lol) I found a Wikipedia article on it, but it’s pretty bare. The video was aptly named RUclips Copyright School and it came out in 2011. It’s still up on YT’s official channel.
Thank you for bringing up the fact that most every creator had a "messy" era on youtube. When the whole Shane Dawson thimg started they all turned their noses up like he was a monster but they were fully family friendly. They're family friendly *now* but back in the day raunchy humor was the norm. Some of the biggest people on the platform had content that was just as bad as putting on a fruit hat and calling themselves "Fruit Lupe".
This was an excellent video and the first that I've seen of yours; I'm excited to check out more. But brother, I am begging you to google the term "uncanny valley" because it means something different than it seems like you think it does from the various contexts that you use it here. Especially with stuff like Charlie the Unicorn. He isn't in the uncanny valley - he's on candy mountain!
I’m 31 and I’ll I’m going to say is “Mr hands” and “2 girls 1 cup” old you tube was like the g-rated version of what was really circulating on the internet in the early 2000s. The internet definitely has a dark side no matter what platform/website you use. We have to be careful What we expose our minds to.
Alsoo, remember the musicians era (like Lindsey Stirling and The Piano Guys not tiktok musicians lol). Omgg I can't wait for a RUclips eras video Roomie!
Old youtube was gold tier. It was the plethora of that weird "lolrandom" zellenial humor and creativity that we're never getting on the internet again. I ZOOMED home for every new Ray William Johnson =3 episode. I kinda hate RUclips now because it's less animation and more just people TALKING and flexing all their money. Vloggers killed it and it started with the Paul Brothers.
They were pre youtube comma but youtube made them far more accessible, Banana Phone, Numa Numa, and most of the stuff on ebaumsworld shaped my idea of comedy
PLEASE DO A DEEP DIVE ON THE INFLUENCER ECONOMY!!!❤ you hear about people actually making a living off the media world yet not many of us aren’t motivated to start because it’s considered a cliche ! But i wanna know the statistics and psychology side of it, coming from an amazing person whose blessed me with an amazing platform to watch like this🥺❤️🌹 LOVE YOUR VIDEOS☺️🌹🌹🌹
I was in high school when RUclips came out and I remember sooo many of these videos! I don’t think they were dark per say but def very unfiltered and prob is why so many of us are so desensitized to things
The very first youtube video i saw was Charlie the unicorn. That one was so weird! It was about three unicorns on candy mountain and they end up drugging one of them named Charlie and when he wakes up he realizes they took his kidneys ... Lmao i was 11 years old when i saw this. And it was 2006 i believe.
I was on,one during the beginning of RUclips and was a kid back then but thought it was weird even then. Also please do a full video about original content creators! It would be so interesting
we were all traumatized as kids by something we watched, we didn't need to wait for youtube and Salad Fingers for that. if you were a kid in the 70s like me, you probably saw Watership Down when you were way too young. I was 4 when my father took me to see that bunny-slaughterfest in the movie theater.
tbh i'll take weird/unsettling youtube over being sent actual real life gore as a prank. like of course you can find gore on youtube if you go looking hard enough but there was no prominent 'goretube' community
Millennials had a nifty little site called eBaumsworld that harbored early form memes, wild videos, and haunted conspiracy theory videos that scared the she-she out of us lol and joe cartoon to shock us yet make us laugh
I miss old RUclips. I think most creators just said what they wanted without worrying about being canceled everything now it’s just like you have to say the right thing whether you’re a regular person or a content creator it’s too much. And I think the theory of canceling someone for something they did 10 years ago is so odd like 10 years ago I was 10 and on RUclips I said some weird stuff that I wouldn’t say today I think we need to allow creative to evolve and change❤ but I love this video
as an older gen z, i can attest to how traumatizing the internet was growing up. Like clicking a link just to seeing violent (real) gore or 2 girls 1 cup or the tampon video, it all just really fucked me up.
i’d be so down for a part 2 of this.
sigh, totally forgot about those videos til now 🥲
@ville__ a woman ate her dirty tampon on video
Oh god
Thank god i never stumbled upon those. And the disturbing stuff i did stumble upon i 100% forgot
I need my older Genz BABES! The Scary Maze Game y’all? Or how about terroristic beheadings? What about the damn Slender Man game that I believe was on the App Store? How about the woman who banged her head on her desks to the point of all out mutilation? Yeah. 😶🫨
Old RUclips was weird as hell but it was interesting and entertaining
It was innovative at the time. A lot of it was stuff that would never be given any air time of traditional media.
For me the standout aspect of early RUclips was the originality. There were no rules or even really advertising and it meant people were truly themselves, for better or worse 😂
The girls was UNHINGED. However I do miss the non monetized videos, when people posted for fun and not just trying to get on the right algorithms & trends😢.
Ah man, as a millennial (was around 15 when Charlie the Unicorn came out), these times were so strange but so fun. A lot of the "weird" YT vids also originated from Newgrounds and Adult Swim. It was all so weird, but also creative and I enjoyed that. And now people can't even say the word "dead", you guys have to say unalive. Wild.
As a gen z (16 as of posting this), I think words like unalive are genuinely more fun compared to their mundane synonyms. Parabola is a fun word to. Some words are just fun to say
Yes!!!! I just made a comment about that video. Charlie the unicorn was the first video I ever saw on RUclips. And it was so weird and funny. I was only 11 years old. I remember they took his kidneys. How strange 😂
I couldn’t handle Salad Fingers as a kid, I only saw bits of it and that was enough to scare me. I gave it a watch years later and I actually really appreciate it’s dark aesthetic and macabre sense of humour now! Looks like something I’d see in Smiling Friends now but I think that’s just a testament to how this series was really NOT for kids. Old RUclips really set out to traumatize us. 😭
I luved
Old RUclips was interesting, along with the weirdness amount of videos and content also the beauty of how youtube became an icon for gen Zs just like phones and social media platforms.
The fact that RUclips got Happy Tree Friends to do one of their official educational videos (it was part of that series that taught about copyright and stuff you need to know to upload a RUclips video) was wild. So much stuff RUclips did officially in the early years, I don't think they would do now lol. I'd love to see more stuff about RUclips history from you! I've been really interested in RUclips and general 2000s internet history lately.
I'm thankful that I didn't get recommended any violent videos as a kid lol, although I did come across some weird inappropriate stuff on my own.
Of course, everyone I knew (and myself) was really into The Duck Song, Nyan Cat, and the Gummy Bear Song. Sometimes I would search for random words on the RUclips app and there would be like, 5 results sometimes lol. That's how I discovered a music video uploaded from some educational DVD, titled "Just a Boring Square", and I still revisit that song sometimes.
I think I mostly watched some more niche stuff that, unfortunately, isn't available on RUclips anymore -- like some kids' video series inspired by the show H20, titled "Mermaid Scales" (I remember it being very impressive considering they filmed it themselves). There was this cool video I found of this girl demonstrating her "magical powers" to the song "Glad You Came", I think she just recorded herself throwing things and reversed it to make it look like she was using telekinesis.
There were also a lot of videos made by kids that were like "spell to turn into a fairy" and whatever. I watched a TON of those lmao, but they would always include some stuff like "wear this necklace and don't shower for three days", and my parents wouldn't let me do that.
Surprisingly, I never watched Fred growing up, but I joined the small Fred fandom some months ago lol. I know it was really big in EARLY early RUclips. It's so funny that it became this relatively successful kids franchise that got picked up by Nickelodeon, when the original video series is kind of a dark comedy and has all this stuff in it that obviously could never make it onto Nickelodeon.
OH MY GOD, and Potter Puppet Pals!!!! I actually got in trouble for watching that because it had bleeped out swear words lol but I loved it so much
the storytime and beauty influencer eras raised me for sure. from tana mongeau to laura lee and tati westbrook's crying apologies
i think it's really great to take notice that most of gen alpha's humor is somewhat taken from what we had before. skibidi toilet, which i do find annoying, is rlly just a meme and other random shit coming together. which, a bit reminds of older memes. but iiiiiiiiiiddk
yes i was thinking skibidi toilet is the same humour as goat simulator which as a child was peak comedy to me
@@sipsip8230 lmao exactly! i loved goat simulator tbh
I think we are entitled to mental compensation for the content we consumed back then 😂
the amount of crazy things i saw in that era was absolutely insane, but it was so entertaining and i couldn’t stop watching
Literally, as soon as you pointed out the similarities between Gen Alpha humor and old youtube when the text came up, I said "yep makes sense their Skibidi toilet is our crazy frog." Then you made the same comparison and I was like "yoooo! I just said that!" and had to comment. Lol! X3
great mindsss
Charlie the unicorn came out with an incredible finale recently if anyone is interested 😂
Omg !!!! So cool 😂
it was *fireeeeee*
it's funny to realize how many these things I grew up on and think that I'm fine, I still rewatch DHMIS all the time like I did when I was 6 and 7 years old. I really loved these videos at the age, I actually dont feel like I was 'traumatized' and I watched all of these videos
I would love to see another video on old youtube. Also, I'd love to hear what you think about youtube "influencers" vs other platform's "influencers" because I have noticed a difference.
11:55 Younger Millennials were definitely traumatized by the internet too. I still remember how terrified and upset I was by that jumpscare maze game. Almost wish I could remember which of my friends sent it to me so I can hold a grudge against them lol
As an older millennial lucky enough to have one younger millennial and two Gen Z siblings, we watched RUclips evolve together and bonded over the content and its creators. Now we have so many funny stories to share 😂❤
i love david firth so much lmao, there's new episodes of salad fingers, and mr fingers isn't actually malicious. David Firth has even said he didn't really mean for Salad Fingers to be scary, he more just wanted to create a dark and surreal series, similar to his other content as well. David even said there is no ending in sight.
14:31 this video was so interesting! I would absolutely love to see you talk more about youtube's history. thanks for all of the effort you put into your videos
This means the world! I’m so glad you liked it
I have been on youtube from the literal beginning, I was 17 in 2005 when I found the site, and from the beginning it was weird because people used it just as a place to share home videos, once lonelygirl15 hit the stage things changed. Watching the people that were "big" on youtube at the time like Renetto and Boh3m3 and Emmalina and TheWineKone all talking about what produced content meant for the platform was very interesting. Even then the gatekeeping existed, when things like Salad Fingers and Charlie The Unicorn started to crop up there was already a sentiment of the platform being dead. Its funny how time makes fools of us all.
i always say ppls addiction to tiktok parallels with my addition to youtube. like i was super young on youtube to the point where i remember when the app was brown and there were fights about whether it was “youtube” or “utube” 😭.. i took ā deeper side of it though. i was obsessed with the illuminati and conspiracy videos to the point i would keep myself up at night :( i feel like i’ve seen every change to this app n it’s crazy. idk what i would do without youtube honestly.
also there was soft porn on youtube too that nobody talks about…
I'm 27 now and the mere mention of "Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared" evoked a visceral reaction from me. My RUclips experience was a combination of catching those weird-ass viral videos and watching TV shows like Winx Club or Sailor Moon cut up into three ten-minute chunks.
I miss it. It was entertaining and odd lol. RUclips is way too serious now.
i think the problem is that it's not serious tbh.. most creators just care abt views imo
Yeah. It's seen only as a career space now, most of the time. Sad.
I miss it too. Back then it was just weird and low budget, it felt like watching everyone’s weird home videos (bc thats what it was) and other stuff that would never be given the time of day on traditional media.
But now? It IS basically traditional media since most people dont even watch tv anymore. Its all about ads, engagement, views, clout… I am old enough to remember when the internet was our escape from the real world. Now it seems like its the opposite. The real world has become my escape from the craziness and emptiness of internet today
I’m a younger millennial and I had the same thing of those fucked up viral videos. I also had like mostly unrestricted access to the internet and it was a LOT easier to find fucked up things, and talk to full grown adults 😳
one slight positive is that the messed up things were clearly messed up, I don’t remember there being as much subtle problematic things as they were very in your face. Now it’s harder to tell
the perfect timing is crazy
I remember showing Charlie the Unicorn to my great-grandma and it went over like a lead balloon lol
LMFAOOOO
Whoever watched smile as a child deserves compensation
I would love a part two to this.
I remember the post Vine era creators with my kids.
So many weird songs so they did not get demonized.
Just statted the video but i will say this. Nostalgia and fondly remembering your youth isn't bad on it's own, but of course remember to have a critical lense plus usually (at least from what i have seen) people who tend to have alot of nostalgia tend to usually come from a privileged background and that there were people who didn't have a great youth whether its due to religious trauma, geopolitical issues, etc. Always keep a critical lense
I remember when I was like 9 I was obsessed with those body painting videos because I thought it was cool so I searched up “body paint” on RUclips to try to find those videos and…. I saw some crazy stuff…😭
old youtube was weird as hell but man i remember the days when it went from just a bunch of 20 second skits i'd binge through to full on episodes and podcasts and documentaries on this bitch and it became my go to TV. speaking of old youtube, it just came to me that you are like the reincarnation of Kingsley seeing as how your channel is all about pop culture and all :)
Old RUclips was peak unhinged content. Weird video posted and HS would be crazy the next day.
I used RUclips to learn to solve the Rubik's cube in 2006. Now cubing has evolved dramatically because of it. It's funny when my husband shows me old RUclips comedy content.
Watching a video about "old RUclips" that mentions Charlie the Unicorn as though it were some sort of artifact from antiquity is.... Well, it's a feeling, that's for sure. lol :) I distinctly remember watching that video as a college senior on a friend's giant brick of a laptop in the student lounge.
That being said, I was also traumatized by Happy Tree Friends. So it wasn't just kids doing that to each other. Luckily, I managed to avoid being traumatized by two girls one cup. The person trying to trick me wasn't convincing enough!
Loved this and as a millenial it’s wild to have seen the changes in RUclips. I would love if you made a history of RUclips video, I would watch that !!
Elmo had a gun traumatized me as a kid like 6 or 7 I think. After that, I thankfully didn’t rly encounter the uncanny side of RUclips bc of the rise of the influencer era. Except when Annoying Orange came on Nickelodeon, I hated it bc the face of the fruits were not only unsettling to me, but the humor of it was actually very annoying and uninteresting to me. The Nickelodeon version took all the uncanniness of it out tho to meet kid friendly tv standards
I remember our senior slideshow having so many clips from youtube videos durng the section that covered the media during our high school years (2004-2008)
Its funny to watch Smosh now because they were there from the jump and theyve come all the way back around to watching their old videos and commentating on them, including their Annoying Orange parts WITH the creator of Annoying Orange. The fact that they went for a period where they were even owned by Rhett and Link, another YT pioneer (thoufh they came about a few years later) whose stuck around, has really proved how cyclical the site can be. You can still look up and watch the old stuff and so many are and reacting to themselves watching them for the first time. Its crazy on here 😂
Millennial here. Salad fingers was my absolute favorite thing. And I had to be a freshman when I watched salad fingers. I Also really enjoyed happy tree friends. But I was at a stage in life where those types of things were hilarious. But I get how it could frighten little children. So i'm sorry that you are traumatized
nah cuz why were we watching happy tree friends in elementary school…???? it was so gory 😭
it explains why the girlies (i’m girlies) go hard for invincible, the boys & gen v now
@@imuRgency no fr 😭
Yes pleaaseee to the full RUclips eras history!!! I feel as though you have the same kind of RUclips nostalgia as me and I'm soo here for it!!
It's worth remembering the role that Newgrounds had at that time. A lot of these 'unhinged animations' were just as popular on Newgrounds as they were on RUclips and there was also a lot of overlap. Some of these series got their start on Newgrounds, with others it was on RUclips, but there was a lot of influence between both websites. I actually remember being more into Newgrounds than RUclips for a long time, until I realised how many similar animations were on RUclips as well. XD
The fact that Poppy, Lamas with Hats, and that video of the ice cream woman eating herself weren’t mentioned is a CRIME
yeah, I knew a good portion of those videos would have been blocked by the school's firewall, but a friend's phone? nightmares
I miss this old era of RUclips so much. It was just so… innocent (i know it wasnt tho). Back then it was just weird and low budget videos, and people posted for fun, not for clout. It felt like watching everyone’s weird home videos (bc thats what it was) and other stuff that would never be given the time of day on traditional media.
But now? It IS basically traditional media since most people dont even watch tv anymore. Everyone is on their phone either consuming content or trying to make it as a content creator. Its all about ads, engagement, views, clout… I am old enough to remember when the internet was our escape from the real world. Now it seems like its the opposite. The real world has become my escape from the craziness and emptiness of internet today
Loved the video and would love to see a deeper dive! I would say one of the things I miss most about old RUclips is the excitement around the rewind every year, hoping that your favorite creator would be in the video
Does anyone else remember when the copyright infringement information video that RUclips made you watch if you got a copyright strike was a Happy Tree Friends video? Because that was an unhinged time in RUclips lore.
NO WHAAT
@@imuRgency It wasn’t as absolutely violent as most HTF videos but it was… definitely a choice RUclips made. And you couldn’t use your backend at all until you watched the video all the way through and answered questions regarding it. I remember being so upset about it at the time because I thought I was going to be forced to watch something I really didn’t like at the time (I was similarly traumatised by Happy Tree Friends and a friend lying to me about it being cute and fun and then it very much wasn’t lol)
I found a Wikipedia article on it, but it’s pretty bare. The video was aptly named RUclips Copyright School and it came out in 2011. It’s still up on YT’s official channel.
STOP i remember some kid at camp in like elementary/middle school showed me salad fingers and I was scared of spoons for like a week 😭
Went from salad fingers to skibidi toilet, both weird, just different eras lol
Thank you for bringing up the fact that most every creator had a "messy" era on youtube. When the whole Shane Dawson thimg started they all turned their noses up like he was a monster but they were fully family friendly. They're family friendly *now* but back in the day raunchy humor was the norm. Some of the biggest people on the platform had content that was just as bad as putting on a fruit hat and calling themselves "Fruit Lupe".
This was an excellent video and the first that I've seen of yours; I'm excited to check out more. But brother, I am begging you to google the term "uncanny valley" because it means something different than it seems like you think it does from the various contexts that you use it here. Especially with stuff like Charlie the Unicorn. He isn't in the uncanny valley - he's on candy mountain!
Yes, YTP was a nightmare for all. I never knew what to expect.
People from my elementary school class were watching 2 girls 1 cup in lunch break
I’m 31 and I’ll I’m going to say is “Mr hands” and “2 girls 1 cup” old you tube was like the g-rated version of what was really circulating on the internet in the early 2000s. The internet definitely has a dark side no matter what platform/website you use. We have to be careful
What we expose our minds to.
Alsoo, remember the musicians era (like Lindsey Stirling and The Piano Guys not tiktok musicians lol). Omgg I can't wait for a RUclips eras video Roomie!
Old youtube was gold tier. It was the plethora of that weird "lolrandom" zellenial humor and creativity that we're never getting on the internet again. I ZOOMED home for every new Ray William Johnson =3 episode.
I kinda hate RUclips now because it's less animation and more just people TALKING and flexing all their money. Vloggers killed it and it started with the Paul Brothers.
nah 'Happy Tree Friends' is actually the most traumatizing thing iv ever watched! How they HELL did i watch that as a kid !
Can we get the RUclips era video?
For me, I was heavy into anime chat rooms with non cannon story lines.
Bro happy tree friends 😭😭😭
Great video! Would definitely be happy to hear you talk more RUclips history!
yeah I was definitely traumatized by a lot of these videos. Why were we allowed to have unlimited internet access
They were pre youtube comma but youtube made them far more accessible, Banana Phone, Numa Numa, and most of the stuff on ebaumsworld shaped my idea of comedy
PLEASE DO A DEEP DIVE ON THE INFLUENCER ECONOMY!!!❤ you hear about people actually making a living off the media world yet not many of us aren’t motivated to start because it’s considered a cliche ! But i wanna know the statistics and psychology side of it, coming from an amazing person whose blessed me with an amazing platform to watch like this🥺❤️🌹 LOVE YOUR VIDEOS☺️🌹🌹🌹
Strange Thing About the Johnsons was later in the era, but still made me uncomfortable.
we don’t talk about that one HAHAHA
I was in high school when RUclips came out and I remember sooo many of these videos! I don’t think they were dark per say but def very unfiltered and prob is why so many of us are so desensitized to things
The very first youtube video i saw was Charlie the unicorn. That one was so weird! It was about three unicorns on candy mountain and they end up drugging one of them named Charlie and when he wakes up he realizes they took his kidneys ... Lmao i was 11 years old when i saw this. And it was 2006 i believe.
How animals eat raised me. Watching that man dive into a table multiple times sent me for some reason at that age
I watched like ONE happy tree friends video and was immediately scarred but I LOVED salad fingers.
How weird is it that salad fingers is obsessed with rusty spoons and then he says the feeling of them on his fingers is "orgasmic" .....like wtf
I was on,one during the beginning of RUclips and was a kid back then but thought it was weird even then. Also please do a full video about original content creators! It would be so interesting
we were all traumatized as kids by something we watched, we didn't need to wait for youtube and Salad Fingers for that. if you were a kid in the 70s like me, you probably saw Watership Down when you were way too young. I was 4 when my father took me to see that bunny-slaughterfest in the movie theater.
Man old RUclips was really something else. As a baby millennial it was just wild seeing all of the creative content
tbh i'll take weird/unsettling youtube over being sent actual real life gore as a prank. like of course you can find gore on youtube if you go looking hard enough but there was no prominent 'goretube' community
The videos that stick with me are a bit newer bc I’m 15 but they were the mlp ones with all the gore and “sexual” stuff
My dad showed us happy tree friends KNOWING it was not child friendly because he thought it was funny and wanted to see our reactions 😵💫
I grew up watching “Ren and Stimpy” so this all seems normal and fine to me 🤷🏻♀️
Nobody ever talks about that suicide cat video with repeating music in the background.😤
Millennials had a nifty little site called eBaumsworld that harbored early form memes, wild videos, and haunted conspiracy theory videos that scared the she-she out of us lol and joe cartoon to shock us yet make us laugh
The spoon guuyyyyy 😭
terrifying
At least it was entertaining. I miss Jacksgap and Caspar 😭😭
Did you forget to mention "Llamas with Hats"? 😭
My era was the very beginnings of RUclips, that "shoes" song by kelly era. I'm a millennial, but more towards the younger end of millennial
old youtube is the reason why i love youtube
I love how crazy it was though. Made it so entertaining.
would love a video on more youtube history for sure!!!
Watched this just for the salad fingers nostalgia 😂😂😂
I just saw 2 girls 1 cup for the first time last week... And Im just gonna leave it at that.
Yes. A part 2 would be good!
Old RUclips gave me nightmares lmao
I completly forgot about happy tree friends until now, was definitely to young for that
Salad finger was just strange and creepy
Im a gen z millinial cusp and I would LOVE to see a You Tube Eras series of deep dives from you
It was "dog of man" that scarred me. 😳
HOW TO BE NINJA 😭🙌 the original RUclipsr
Broooo I used to watch videos on AGTube (American girl doll) and mermaid shows. (Secret Life of a Mermaid and The3tails)
happy tree friends was wild😭
I miss old RUclips. I think most creators just said what they wanted without worrying about being canceled everything now it’s just like you have to say the right thing whether you’re a regular person or a content creator it’s too much. And I think the theory of canceling someone for something they did 10 years ago is so odd like 10 years ago I was 10 and on RUclips I said some weird stuff that I wouldn’t say today I think we need to allow creative to evolve and change❤ but I love this video
Do y’all remember the “Justin Bieber eats poop” video?
Newgrounds is the actual origin of cringe-tube.
There are so many facts in this video 👏🏻 Subscribed!
Charlie the unicorn was genius