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Pre-History of Online Video

2014-06-20 · review / recommendation · Hank · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Advice & reviews

Hank, since most viewers can't attend VidCon, assigns them a tour of online video's prehistory - the dancing baby, Homestar Runner, Flash animations, animutations and The Show with Ze Frank - arguing it matters to know where internet video came from.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — VidCon framing: most viewers can't attend, so Hank gives an assignment; John said last video they're old

  • ★★ Hank says most viewers, 99%, can't be at VidCon, so he gives them, and attendees too, an assignment instead. — 00:00:01 · VidCon

00:00:21 — Hank's online video obsession since 1998; the 1997 dancing baby; Hank as an expert; the 'course' of old videos

  • ★★ Hank first got obsessed with a video downloaded from the internet in 1998, and has been into online video longer than some viewers have been alive. — 00:00:21
  • ★★ Hank says the very first viral internet video, the dancing baby, came the year before 1998. — 00:00:25
  • ★★ Hank claims, self-mockingly, that old online video is better than anything made today, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★ Hank does not count the dancing baby among the really fantastic things. (hedged) — 00:01:13

00:01:17 — Homestar Runner (2000), the best online video project in history: its characters, HomestarRunner.com

  • ★★★ Hank calls Homestar Runner, launched in 2000, the best online video project in history, and says it remains the best. — 00:01:17
  • ★ Hank describes Homestar Runner as a bizarre alien thing in Free Country, USA, with friends including Marzipan, Coach Z, The Cheat and Strong Bad, who answers emails weekly. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank tells viewers to grab a friend and take Homestar Runner into their lives: check out HomestarRunner.com. — 00:01:56

00:02:20 — Flash animation: The End of the World, All Your Base, Peanut Butter Jelly Time; the animutation and Neil Cicierega

  • ★★ Hank says Flash animations of the same period - The End of the World, All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Peanut Butter Jelly Time - are important pieces of internet culture. — 00:02:20 · All your base are belong to us, Peanut Butter Jelly Time
  • ★★ Hank says the animutation was probably the first internet-native genre of video, pioneered by Neil Cicierega, later known for The Mysterious Ticking Noise. (hedged) — 00:02:31

00:02:48 — The Show with Ze Frank: a two-way medium, the sportsracer community, its influence on YouTube

  • ★★★ Hank calls The Show with Ze Frank the most important video series of all time: it used the internet as a two-way medium and let the sportsracer community participate. — 00:02:48
  • ★★ Hank says pretty much anything on YouTube today is directly or indirectly influenced by Ze Frank. — 00:03:05 · YouTube

00:03:09 — Why this prehistory matters; click the links; back to VidCon work; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says this early material was extremely important in the internet establishing itself as its own stand-alone legitimate culture; many more amazing things have happened since YouTube came along. — 00:03:09 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank calls this a prehistory of internet video and thinks it is important to understand it and know where it all came from; it is also fun. (hedged) — 00:03:26
  • ★★ Hank tells viewers to grab a friend, click the links in the description and enjoy. — 00:03:37
  • ★ Hank has to go back to VidCon work and, playfully, would rather keep making this video. (playful) — 00:03:43 · VidCon

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Hank calls Homestar Runner one of the internet's greatest treasures, worth weeks of rummaging, and says few things in his life are as joyful, peculiar and deeply pleasing. — video description
  • ★★ Hank recalls that, back in the day, his whole dorm would run to the nearest computer when a new Strong Bad Email came out. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says All Your Base Are Belong to Us was a self-sustained project of hundreds of willing collaborators - promoters, photoshoppers, musicians - who made it simply because they loved being part of its creation. — video description · All your base are belong to us
  • ★ Hank doesn't know why The End of the World caught on so hard, who made it or where they are today, but calls it a wonderful thing. — video description

Humor (significant)

  • Recalling the 1997 dancing baby, Hank insists it needs its chant. — 00:00:31

    “Except you gotta go "UGACHACA UGAUGAUGACHACA UGAUGAUGA"”

  • Hank has been into online video longer than some viewers have been alive. — 00:00:49

    “Which makes me...kinda depressed.”

  • Hank says the old online videos he assigns are better than anything made today. — 00:01:03

    “despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.”

  • Homestar Runner used to fill their whole computer monitors. — 00:02:13

    “And then weep for us.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Homestar Runner (web series) · The Show with Ze Frank

Also: Projects: VidCon

Works: Dancing baby · Hooked on a Feeling · Strong Bad Email · The End of the World · The Mysterious Ticking Noise

Organizations: YouTube

Groups: Sports Racers

Concepts: animutation · participatory culture

Characters: Coach Z · Free Country, USA · Homestar Runner (character, “Homestar Runner”) · Marzipan · Pom Pom · Strong Bad · Strong Mad · Strong Sad · The Cheat · The King of Town

Products: Adobe Flash

Memes: All your base are belong to us · Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Only in the description or credits: Neil Cicierega · Ze Frank

Also centred on Homestar Runner (web series): A Brief History of Homestar Runner

Replies to

  • continues · Old. — “John, you so wisely pointed out last video, we're pretty old.”

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