I've been watching Danny, Drew, and Kurtis pretty much since the beginning, and I'm dying about how Drew looks the same. You don't really realize how much people change over the years when you are constantly seeing them, but Danny and especially Kurtis look so different, yet Drew looks like 6 minutes has passed, not 6 years 🤣
I think that it’s because similar to being the first person to upload a video on UA-cam.com, Drew is also the first person to ever have a face so his face doesn’t receive updates like the rest of ours do.
Same! I remember scrolling through vine and seeing the road work vine in real time. I made stupid 1D related vines 😂 I think one direction catapulted Kurtis and David because they resembled the members harry and Liam at that time.
This era just brings up memories of trivializing depression and suicidal thoughts. Like it genuinely sucked being a depressed confused teenager seeking some sort of help, but online and in school, people would be making jokes about that stuff. Like implying people only do it for attention and what not. Straight up had a classmate tell me I should've offed myself when I admitted I just got out the hospital for suicidal thoughts. Like not to make this a pity party but this era was legit such a terrible influence on people during that time.
@@MikasRhetoric Yes, him and I'm pretty sure Pinkguy or whatever the youtube channel was called, relied a lot on making jokes about depression and selfharm.
Those “jokes” have unfortunately been common for a very, very long time. Hell, I’m 27 and when I was in school the internet would gleefully make jokes about emo kids cutting themselves. It wasn’t even a question of who was the butt of the joke to the people making the jokes. They just didn’t care.
Yeah same. I was 15 in foster care in 2016 & the two years following I moved away from home bc I couldn’t take it there & was in an abusive relationship with an older man… no guidance, no love, no care for my life or others… now I’m in a HEALTHY relationship and we have 5 cats together, also I’m in college! Never thought I’d make it this far! Life is good now. I’m blessed I didn’t end it all. And although I don’t know you, I am GRATEFUL to have read your comment, knowing you also struggled and now you’re here to tell your story.
In 2017 I told people I was suicidal not understanding boundaries because I came from an abusive home only to have someone scream at me that I was wrong for making suicide jokes when I wasn't I was actually suicidal and had tried multiple times.
Not really, as of recently he's still displaying his shitty behaviour. He can pretend like he changed all he wants, but he's a grown man and his personality still shines thru. He was still a massive racist in 2017 and still presents hints of mysoginy that nobody picks up on.
He literally still makes homophobic and racist jokes, then deflects criticism by being like GUYS STOP IM SUPER WOKE ABOUT THESE ISSUES and its cringe as hell, because he isnt, and he and Dan have literally told LGBTQA people to shut the fuck up for (very nicely, I might add) correcting them for it.
he’s worse now lol listen to any of his post frenemies podcast episodes, or even before. he’s so gross. i kinda feel bad for hila idk why she hasn’t divorced him.
This era to me is like how gen z must feel on TikTok from 2020-present. I was 18/19, in college, and felt like i was a ~trendmaker~ , prime audience for a lot of this content. So many good memories, a lot of super entertaining drama, but also so much cringe and embarrassing stuff that I can't believe I liked. Being like H3H3, living in NYC & making UA-cam reaction videos and funny commentary was my dream career at the time.
This is such an interesting comment!!! How you compared the two is so perfect, I hope people make videos like this about current tiktok and I can reflect on the video like you are with this one
I'm 19 and i think everbody in 2016-2017 thought they were the trend makers? I definitely don't fell like that now at all, it feels like I'm old enough that kids dont think im cool but young enough that adults don't take me seriously. I think part of that is also that how old influencers kids watch has shifted from when I was younger. When I was 12 i watched 18-20 year olds but my sister is currently 12 and she watches 13-16 year olds mostly
anytime i hear someone looking back on this era with fondness its a red flag... so much of this time was awful for minorities because of how normalised all sorts of bigotry was, especially ableism. i would never want to go back to this time on youtube i'm glad the platform as a whole has moved on significantly for the most part.
I wanted to make this video to highlight how weird the nostalgia was because I also think this time was weird and people stuck in this era are the worst
i couldn’t agree more trans people ESPECIALLY nonbinaries and gay people and literally any minority group faced so much fucking shit online 😭 you could not escape the anti feminist/leftists stuff. it really normalized conservative and facism without realizing. people would be so casual with harassment and we didnt see it as anything bad.
I look back on this era fondly but not really because of the creators I followed back then. Admittedly, i loved Idubbz's kickstarter crap and even now i sometimes go back and use those videos as background noise. I look back on those times because my life was so much simpler back then and now I have bills, a full time job, student debt, 2 cats, a house, etc.
Interesting. The only couples channel I watch is Dwayne N Jazz who are pretty chill, I watch some of their videos, mainly because I love Jazz and her gaming channel
Congrats on getting into grad school! Ideas for part 2: lifestyle influencers, family/ mommy influencers (this does get kinda dark), gaming community ( lots of allegations of inappropriate conduct ) also the craze of the magcon boys ( from like 2014-2017 you could not escape these people! ). Another interesting topic would be British UA-camrs such as Dan and Phil, Joe Sugg/ Caspar Lee, KSI/ The Sidemen, etc. ( There are so many of them ) Great video! I love your content!
I remember the bullying kids arc of UA-cam 😭😭 I watched a fair amount of Jacob Sartorius videos back in the day, as in people hating on him. But in my defense, I am the same age as him. So me laughing at a fellow 13 year old being cringe is one thing, and I was also too young to understand the power dynamic of grown adults hating on him, even by the time I was 15 I was like "okay but why tho, who cares, leave bro alone" 😭
I'd LOVE longer videos and deep dives, especially because imo you're very capable of meeting me where I am at and explaining concepts in a way I understand! I personally am interested in the gaming community, that's where I was occasionally at the time (ayy got access to internet late club) and I'd be interested in what you got to say. Great video :]
Congratulations for getting into grad school! That's amazing! This video was super fun, so if you enjoyed making it, feel free to keep going with this format. Your shorter videos feel equally as info-dense and are just as interesting, so you do what's best for you lol
you are so outspoken and i love hearing your perspective on things. i only found you very recently but you’re so naturally spoken and smart and it doesn’t feel forced just like we’re just having a convo about the topic with each other. being someone who’s struggled with making personal connections with people for various reasons (trauma, abuse, neglect, etc.) appreciate your openness and ability to make complete strangers feel welcomed. keep up the incredible work, you are going to go incredible lengths with your youtube career!
I'm only 5 minutes in and I'm already so happy about this video. I love that you shouted out a small business and I appreciate the amount of work and effort you put into your content and wanna say thanks and you kick ass! Btw if you want me to make you a squish gang cross stitch girl I got you
Hey mika this video is so cool, super excited for 1h48 min 💖 please don't take this the wrong way but I think sometimes you need to slow down and speak a bit clearer, and maybe add a bit of explanation when you're reading out of the textbook - as someone who doesn't know anything about rhetoric I find it a bit hard to understand sometimes. I think this covered this period of youtube so well tho, really excited to see what u put out next
Will keep that in mind, when I am done school here I also can utilize more materials, there's just some copyright stuff I have to be careful of when I am still here! I agree it can be confusing and I respect this comment
You just mentioned how women in commentary were so escarce and that brings me to this stupid drama vs commentary beef and how now that women are making a space for themselves in the same topics as some commentary channels and how big of a fuzz they have made
i think the reason i love this era sm was because that’s when i first really started watching youtube. it was my transition into middle school and youtube was one of my comforts since i didn’t have many friends.
Kind of an older video so idk if u will even see this comment but jay versace is actually a music producer now! He’s successful too he just won a Grammy for working on Tyler the Creator’s album
i think pyro is a great example of how an “edgy” youtuber can transform and mature their style/content. you can tell that he genuinely enjoys the content he is making now rather than the stuff he was making during his edgelord era. also, you should be glad you weren’t around much during this era of the internet. i was 10 - 12 between 2016 - 2017 and it is not something i look back at fondly. those 2 years felt like right wing politics had taken over the media, and trump winning the election really put that into place. i remember enjoying the shitposting humour but not usage slurs, and i especially didn’t like it when my friends at the time starting using slurs as “jokes” but i never really spoke up about it much because every time i did i would get shut down by them. i was one of 3 girls in this friend group and the 3 of us would get sexist comments from our guy friends like about we were “feminist nazis” or how we needed to “stay in the kitchen”. but because we were young girls we never really stood up for ourselves which i really regret now. this time of youtube really brainwashed people into becoming alt-right, especially straight white men. looking back on it now, it is so crazy how being a bigot was seen as funny in internet culture, and now that i’m 16 going on 17 i realise how young i was to have watching that type of content and how lucky i am that i didn’t fall into that trap.
I was talking about a student I was tutoring who is about your age and he also mentioned how wild it was to be consuming the edgelord content at such a young age. I’m happy you are past it now
I think Pyrocynical is easier to like cause he doesn’t seem to be mean just to be mean. Even in his harsh criticisms, it’s not like he’s trying to make a small child cry. I don’t watch him often but he seems to be more than just some edgy dude
This is such an awesome video with very minor inaccuracies, most of which are not even enough to comment on, but James Charles did not say he was going to get Ebola if he went to Africa. His friend did, and he said "we have had chipotle, how bad could it be "
The only youtube era i romanticize is when the site was launched and i had that first feeling of curiousity and possibility online, previously being “online” wasn’t even like…a thing. You surfed the web, yeah. But you weren’t “online” like we are now. I remember the beginning with the weird absurd paradise and the skits and the comedy. I dont know why i saw people insinuate millenials are looking back at this era at all…. A majority of us were well into adulthood by this time, we didn’t engage the same way the younger people did… im sure there are millennials who heavily used UA-cam at that time, but i think its more correct to say millenials overwhelmingly would be like “what are you talking about???” Upon seeing the title of this video. Like i did. I don’t think i can name a single person on that cover photo
just wanted to say that it's clear how much effort & detail u put into your vids ! I rly enjoy hearing your perspective on things, thanks for your hard work (~: also even tho i almost never wear makeup anymore, I think my fav palette ever was (and still is tbh) the abh ~ moonchild glow kit ~ solely for its versatility as inner corner eyeshadow
As for makeup: My fav liquid lipsticks are from beauty bakerie and coloured raine, and bite beauty has excellent colorful balms and the best lip stains known to mankind. I adore pat mcgrath blushes and I'm mad about it because the only reasonable time to buy pat mcgrath is when it's on sale lol I'm less picky about eyeshadows. Colourpop had me in a chokehold when I first got into makeup but they're still decent products. Coloured Raine has great eyeshadows (Juicy Boost was my first rainbow palette), Hank and Henry was surprisingly good quality (I wore Sex Talk for the entire autumn season of 2021), and my most recent find is Zeesea, and I've really loved every palette I've tried from them.
I am personally into Melt blushes, powder and cream, as far as eyeshadows I have lots from different brands and do not have any particular dedication to one over another. I love the BeautyBay formula and the Kaleidos formula is I had to pick I think. Also I know this comment means you got to the end so just know I appreciate you :)
Never been this early! I've got so much cleaning to do today, this video will save me from boredom lol. So I just wanted to say thank you! You always have such interesting perspectives.
The 2016-2017 commentary community drama is one of my former special interests, particularly the Leafy and Grade A Under A vs. Keemstar lore and while you did miss a great deal of detail and get some things wrong, you did a pretty stellar job considering you weren't around for that era. The Leafy vs. Keem stuff actually wasn't the shortest Keem drama, it lasted over a year and the inciting incident you listed (the view botting) was actually how the two became friends prior to all of the other Keem dramas. A summary would be: 1. Keem was broadly suspicious of and disliked any UA-camr in the commentary space that was a.) Successful and b.) Not his friend. 2. Because of Leafys success and because the two were not friends, Keem quickly reported on the view botting allegations that came from some random tiny channel. 3. This essentially created an excuse for he and Leafy to speak, and the two became fast friends. Keem would quickly denounce the allegations and led a witchhunt against the small channel. 4. Keem, seeing Leafy's popularity, often had Leafy as a guest on DramaAlert to comment on dramas or "debate" other guests. The two even met in person and went in a helicopter for some reason. 5. Pyro drama happens, everyone vs. Keemstar happens. Grade (also a friend of Keem and Leafy) and Leafy privately come to the conclusion that it would be best if they disassociate from Keem. 6. Both Leafy and Grade release Keemstar rants within 24 hours of each other. You can find re-upload of these by searching their usernames and "keemstar rant". 7. Keem, blindsided, spends roughly 1 year screaming about the betrayal. Grade and Leafy continue to grow in success. 8. Keem starts the Baited! Podcast with Colossal is Crazy and Tommy C. The podcast is highly successful, and is a commentary podcast. Many episodes devolve into arguments and keem rages about the Leafy Grade betrayal every episode. 9. Attitudes in the commentary community are reasonably positive toward Keem in light of the broader baited podcast. There is an unspoken shift in opinion toward Leafy in light of his snake behavior toward Keem, and general resentment towards his sub count and low effort content. Nobody says anything though, out of fear of Leafy making a video on them. 10. Ian releases content cop Leafy, in which he comments on the Keemstar betrayal. At last the flood gates have opened and commentary bros can finally voice their negative opinions of Leafy, and by association Grade. 11. Grade doesnt defend Leafy from iDubbbz despite being Leafy's best friend, says he's taking a break from the internet. He is literally never heard from again. 12. A number of popular commentary channels including Hey Watch Your Mouth, Herotic and Elvis the Alien speak out about being exploited by Leafy. He would not pay, underpay and/or not credit many channels when having them do editing for him. For more you can search "Leafy is 20 dollars okay" as this was a meme around the editing exploitation. Other search terms would be "Hey Watch Your Mouth Leafy," "Herotic Leafy," "Elvis the Alien Leafy". It is worth noting that some of the people Leafy exploited for free/underpaid labor were minors. Networking of this nature, particularly with large channels was also highly normal in the commentary community and was openly discussed and just generally part of the culture - the exploited simply cannot be blamed for agreeing to assist Leafy in hopes of growing their channel. 13. Nick (Hey Watch Your Mouth) drops the bombshell that Leafy and Grade did in fact betray Keemstar solely for business reasons, to disassociate themselves from Keem during his previous dramas. This had been heavily speculated to have been the reason, but Leafy and Grade had always denied this. 14. Leafy tries to respond to the hate, isn't taken seriously. His subcount falls, and UA-cam (the company) now seeing his fall in popularity takes the opportunity to begin striking his channel. 15. The Leafy content cop is discussed on Baited. H3H3 guests on the podcast in the following episode. Leafy is discussed at length, as the two are former friends. 16. In October, Leafy guests on the podcast to discuss the business decision allegations around the betrayal. Leafy completely denies these allegations, shifts the goalpost constantly. The two argue and Leafy will not admit to bring in the wrong. Nothing is resolved. The community backs Keem even further, is even more furious with Leafy. This is the deathblow of Leafy's career. 17. With his subcount falling by tens of thousands a day, no more blind eye from UA-cam, and everyone against him, Leafy disappears, with only a few later sightings and a n*de leak. Keem is triumphant, does a victory lap for about a week and then moves on. In later years, Keem clearly forgives Leafy and his opinion of him softens as he does not speak of him with as much anger. 18. Leafy eventually returns to twitter, he and Keem are already friends again and have previously made up in private. I believe Keem was the one who encouraged him to return to Twitter and YT. This is unique, as Keem as never been known to forgive anyone at all who slights him in any small way, let alone betray him. Keem is infamous for holding grudges, and Leafy is the only exception to this which is low key fascinating. I personally feel that the best way to catch up on drama from that era is just to listen to the first era episodes of Baited that feature Colossal and Tommy C. They are a fabulous time capsule and I adored listening to them in that time period. They are very much a product of their time and community though, with generally bad takes on social justice issues. Hot Wet Soup (a podcast) is also fine for other dramas that were happening, that one is a whole other story. And to answer your question - the only female 2016/17 commentary channel was Lt. Corbis, who was quite literally an 11 year old girl. She was the only one who was accepted by the viewers and bros. There may have been other girls and women who attempted to get into the community, bit I do not know of any... asides from Becky Boop who did a news show similar to drama alert but Keem absolutely destroyed her channel as she was potential competition and everyone let it happen because of misogyny, of which she experienced a lot. It was terrible what the community did to her. Edit: I've edited the above to correct some timeline mistakes I misremembered after several years of not fixating on this topic lol. As a bonus you can also have this: *Fun fact!* Prior to the release of the Baited podcast, UA-camr podcasts were highly uncommon. Upon the massive iTunes charting success of Baited, suddenly every UA-camr and their friend were creating podcasts - it essentially became the new craze. H3H3 were one of the channels who started their own podcast, among many others. Long story short, we wouldn't have had Frenemies, H3, Impaulsive, or thousands of other podcasts both modern and retired without Keemstar just deciding one random day in early 2016 that he wanted to create a podcast about UA-cam drama. Many other existing podcasts also gained popularity as a result of the podcast craze of 2016, and podcasting was introduced as a legitimately entertaining medium to a new generation of young people, whereas the opinion of podcasts had previously been that they were "boring" and on dry and educational subjects - like the audiovisual equivalent of a book. I hate Keemstar but the man is one of the most influential people on the internet.
@@MikasRhetoric it was honestly so much, like it really is a lost rabbit hole that time has forgotten. It was to the commentary community what dramageddon was to the drama channel community, but even more involved and complex. I also forgot to note that the whole Grade and Leafy secretly conspiring because Keems reputation was in the toilet was always speculated as being the reason for the betrayal, but that it wasn't confirmed until Hey Watch Your Mouth released his exposed video after the content cop, so not only did it turn out that Leafy had basically been running an editing sweatshop in exchange for the promise of life changing exposure that was never fulfilled, but the whole conspiracy had been true all along. I cannot express how entertaining and enjoyable the whole thing was to follow, it was like a soap opera or something.
Totally forgot about most of this beauty community stuff omg. (Esp The James Charles Ebola scandal lmao) Also I love this video it feels like you’re a friend ranting to me but with editing 😊✌️🤟💕
second comment haha, i'm really enjoying the video :p i love how commentary has evolved from this era to be much more thoughtful and analytical (not to say there weren't creators doing analytical content back then, but it wasn't "mainstream"). from dunking on cringey kids to discussing possible problems with child labor/exploitation and kids being exposed to things they shouldn't be, and how being internet famous can affect a growing mind.
I have a podcast reading romance novels and I am obsessed with the idea of having a “brand trip” where we read and invite a bunch of reading creators to chill. Like I’mdying to live my 2017 beauty guru fantasy! I wanted to be manny so bad lol
Love love loved this video, as always. I would love to see a similar style video about the rise and fall of family channels, and the current rise of the anti family channel community and all of its drama.
@@MikasRhetoric oh also for your Canadian menaces series, I would love to hear you talk about the dad challenge podcast. I know he’s not a huge name but dude is definitely a menace. Haha.
hey idk if you know about the Wayback Machine, its an internet archive and they've got snapshots websites which shows stuff thats been changed or deleted. i just thought it might be helpful if you're looking into things that you cant find bc they've been removed. theres snapshots of gabbie hannas channel starting from 2014 and you can actually watch some of her videos that have been deleted
if you ever wanted to do another rhetoric video I'd love to see one on pewdiepie. was kinda surprised you didnt cover all of pewdiepies controversies which were his biggest and happened in 2016-17 😬 personally I like him so I have a very biased opinion, but the whole ass videos that were being made (or still are) about him being a pipeline to alt right were kinda amusing/ disturbing. hes very personable and became more relatable what with opening about what kinda books he reads and talking about them, him frankly criticizing marvel actors for using stereoids and trying to pass off their physique as if it was all natural and especially with him recently openly discussing his addiction to alcohol and depression, I personally find it hard to hold his past mistakes against him. I also feel like hes just a genuine person and asking if you could do a video on him is making me feel conflicted as a long time fan but if you find his opening up and/or how he evolved into current pewdiepie interesting, I'd love to see your take on it.
I know very little about Pewdiepie actually, he was meant to be in part 2 of this video because his content then I would consider gaming not commentary - part 2 ideally will comprise of gaming, kids content, and prank youtubers
All the drama back then was harmless stuff and none of it was even that serious... Everyone just made dumb diss tracks about each other and that was that. Nowadays we have youtubers almost murdering their friends, ruining their health for views, grooming their underage fans, families breaking apart bc of youtube money etc... Most of the drama isn't funny anymore it's just shocking and sometimes even sad. I don't want to focus just on the drama because 2016-2018 youtube was more than that. The content felt more personal because you didn't have all these big cooperations dominating the website and taking away its authenticity. The jokes were funnier, creators had more freedom because monetization wasn't that much of a problem (but it was slowly starting to become one) and all the OG creators were still the same. It was a prime time for youtube and it's a shame we'll never get it back, but I'm glad at least I got to experience it. I still enjoy youtube, but I always feel nostalgic over the 2016-2018 era because it was such a blast. Half of the youtubers I watched back then just started uploading less and the other half either changed or I just grew out of their content.
i think there were iffy things with underage fans back then too tbh, but for some reason the discussion never took off as widely as it has done now (as it should, it's disgusting). i think there was someone who went to jail for that a couple of years ago.
2016-17 does seem like it was a better time, I feel like it was before all the major dramas and scandals really came out. Everyone was younger and hopeful. Idk
Hi! This is the first video of yours I see and I don’t even now how I ended up here - but I‘m super glad I did. Thanks for all the work you put into your videos! I‘m a happy new subscriber:)
The only person I still watch is drew gooden, he transcends time and space I never used vine back in the day so I never understood them when they came over to UA-cam
This is like right when i started college and stopped watching youtube. When i started working and got back into it, i eventually delved into videos covering it. Glad i missed it tbh…people (specifically men it seems) were so mean!
lindsay ellis is probably the only female “commentary” youtuber i can think of who has been on the platform for ages, but even still i would class it more as media criticism than commentary
@@MikasRhetoric btw I love the longform content and your perspective on things! i would 100% watch a part 2. and from someone who is about to finish grad school, CONGRATS on getting in and good luck!!
Even though I'm old enough to be your mom I completely understand the whole not having internet and only being able to get on it occasionally. I too got internet in 2016-17 so I also didnt know vine or any of these people until I got into UA-cam in 2017. I do felt it when you were talking about posting whats Jake Paul? Lol
@@MikasRhetoric I think it was really good! I watched a lot of these youtubers (especially the commentary youtubers) and think this video was a really good retrospective. I had an edgy phase where I liked content creators like iDubbbz and H3H3 which tbh I regret now lol
Girlll, I never really write comments but I really wanna support you because I loved this video. Also there are sooo many good video suggestions down here and I will definitely watch anything you post if it's in this style of video ❤❤
So I don’t really know what that means so… no??? (I assume they don’t even have that here because I’ve never heard of it) In Quebec there aren’t really honours paths in high school besides IB which I didn’t do. I went to a 2 year college in applied science and am just under a month out from an honours English degree with a research project.
I saw video titled Films I Recommend as a Film Student, thought it completely dumb because how does wasting 60k a year make your opinion worth anything, and i immedately thought of that filthy frank video where he says "im a student im a student"
The Niki Tutorials/Too Faced collab was really one of the first of its kind & in hindsight Nikki got a bum deal, there wasn't really anything to base a prediction of success on prior to that release. How well it did was really a surprise to everyone. Honestly, I think you might be able to argue that Too Faced was worried sales wouldn't justify the payment to Nikki bc it seems pretty clear they sent out one product in PR and released a much lower quality one for sale to cut costs. Although, the other argument would be that Jared Blandino is cheap & thinks very little of his customers which I wouldn't fight you on.
58:20 I remember there was that literal child who made leafy style videos, she was 11 or maybe 12? also wasn’t there that chick with a rantsona and orange hair? my memory of her is so vague. i think she’s got cancelled for being just wretched and im not sure if she still exists online. i can’t remember if she was around at the right time.
Enjoyed the video!! But pls work on enunciating, sometimes you were hard to understand… especially when I wasn’t looking at the screen. Keep up the good work though!
Heyy loved the video as always, but you don't need to feel the need to rush things, for example speeding your voice or sth. Longer videos on youtube are more and more liked, look at the famous Pretty Little Liars video by Mike's mic that is like 2 hours long!
I've been watching Danny, Drew, and Kurtis pretty much since the beginning, and I'm dying about how Drew looks the same. You don't really realize how much people change over the years when you are constantly seeing them, but Danny and especially Kurtis look so different, yet Drew looks like 6 minutes has passed, not 6 years 🤣
EXACTLY! I remember I kept checking the date of the first upload because I couldn’t believe it was 6 years ago
I think that it’s because similar to being the first person to upload a video on UA-cam.com, Drew is also the first person to ever have a face so his face doesn’t receive updates like the rest of ours do.
@@TheEnthusiasticHobo that's true actually, he did say that
Same! I remember scrolling through vine and seeing the road work vine in real time. I made stupid 1D related vines 😂 I think one direction catapulted Kurtis and David because they resembled the members harry and Liam at that time.
Dude I was literally just talking to my friends a few days ago about how ashamed we all were of our "iDubzz phase" 😭😭 2016 was honestly a fever dream
oh god pls I wanna cringe back into my body
@@KN-hg2nv same dude 💀
I totally agree! Researching this was a ride
@@KN-hg2nv don't feel bad most had this experience
Oof this is me with leafyishere
This era just brings up memories of trivializing depression and suicidal thoughts. Like it genuinely sucked being a depressed confused teenager seeking some sort of help, but online and in school, people would be making jokes about that stuff. Like implying people only do it for attention and what not. Straight up had a classmate tell me I should've offed myself when I admitted I just got out the hospital for suicidal thoughts. Like not to make this a pity party but this era was legit such a terrible influence on people during that time.
Didn’t iDubbbz literally have a ‘I have crippling depression’ gag
@@MikasRhetoric Yes, him and I'm pretty sure Pinkguy or whatever the youtube channel was called, relied a lot on making jokes about depression and selfharm.
Those “jokes” have unfortunately been common for a very, very long time. Hell, I’m 27 and when I was in school the internet would gleefully make jokes about emo kids cutting themselves. It wasn’t even a question of who was the butt of the joke to the people making the jokes. They just didn’t care.
Yeah same. I was 15 in foster care in 2016 & the two years following I moved away from home bc I couldn’t take it there & was in an abusive relationship with an older man… no guidance, no love, no care for my life or others… now I’m in a HEALTHY relationship and we have 5 cats together, also I’m in college! Never thought I’d make it this far! Life is good now. I’m blessed I didn’t end it all. And although I don’t know you, I am GRATEFUL to have read your comment, knowing you also struggled and now you’re here to tell your story.
In 2017 I told people I was suicidal not understanding boundaries because I came from an abusive home only to have someone scream at me that I was wrong for making suicide jokes when I wasn't I was actually suicidal and had tried multiple times.
Whilst Ethan Klein has his own issues, is it possible that rather than being a massive hypocrite, he just...grew up?
Not really, as of recently he's still displaying his shitty behaviour. He can pretend like he changed all he wants, but he's a grown man and his personality still shines thru. He was still a massive racist in 2017 and still presents hints of mysoginy that nobody picks up on.
Even if he did change, if the reason he changed was to save his brand and his money, then it's not that admirable imo.
He literally still makes homophobic and racist jokes, then deflects criticism by being like GUYS STOP IM SUPER WOKE ABOUT THESE ISSUES and its cringe as hell, because he isnt, and he and Dan have literally told LGBTQA people to shut the fuck up for (very nicely, I might add) correcting them for it.
@@HobieInTheBox if Ethan is a massive racist then the world has some big problems the
he’s worse now lol listen to any of his post frenemies podcast episodes, or even before. he’s so gross. i kinda feel bad for hila idk why she hasn’t divorced him.
This era to me is like how gen z must feel on TikTok from 2020-present. I was 18/19, in college, and felt like i was a ~trendmaker~ , prime audience for a lot of this content. So many good memories, a lot of super entertaining drama, but also so much cringe and embarrassing stuff that I can't believe I liked. Being like H3H3, living in NYC & making UA-cam reaction videos and funny commentary was my dream career at the time.
This is such an interesting comment!!! How you compared the two is so perfect, I hope people make videos like this about current tiktok and I can reflect on the video like you are with this one
I'm 19 and i think everbody in 2016-2017 thought they were the trend makers?
I definitely don't fell like that now at all, it feels like I'm old enough that kids dont think im cool but young enough that adults don't take me seriously. I think part of that is also that how old influencers kids watch has shifted from when I was younger. When I was 12 i watched 18-20 year olds but my sister is currently 12 and she watches 13-16 year olds mostly
*Gen A. Most Gen Z were in their teens during the mid-late 2010s.
anytime i hear someone looking back on this era with fondness its a red flag... so much of this time was awful for minorities because of how normalised all sorts of bigotry was, especially ableism. i would never want to go back to this time on youtube i'm glad the platform as a whole has moved on significantly for the most part.
I wanted to make this video to highlight how weird the nostalgia was because I also think this time was weird and people stuck in this era are the worst
i couldn’t agree more trans people ESPECIALLY nonbinaries and gay people and literally any minority group faced so much fucking shit online 😭 you could not escape the anti feminist/leftists stuff. it really normalized conservative and facism without realizing. people would be so casual with harassment and we didnt see it as anything bad.
It’s not a red flag wtf are u talking about 😭
I look back on this era fondly but not really because of the creators I followed back then. Admittedly, i loved Idubbz's kickstarter crap and even now i sometimes go back and use those videos as background noise. I look back on those times because my life was so much simpler back then and now I have bills, a full time job, student debt, 2 cats, a house, etc.
It was the best era of UA-cam lmao we all know it
Now I want an all-encompassing video on couples channels and their evolution
THIS IS A GOOD IDEA
Interesting. The only couples channel I watch is Dwayne N Jazz who are pretty chill, I watch some of their videos, mainly because I love Jazz and her gaming channel
Congrats on getting into grad school!
Ideas for part 2: lifestyle influencers, family/ mommy influencers (this does get kinda dark), gaming community ( lots of allegations of inappropriate conduct ) also the craze of the magcon boys ( from like 2014-2017 you could not escape these people! ). Another interesting topic would be British UA-camrs such as Dan and Phil, Joe Sugg/ Caspar Lee, KSI/ The Sidemen, etc. ( There are so many of them )
Great video! I love your content!
Thanks for the comment and these are great suggestions
yesss everything they said! that is like peak social media for me those names bring back so many memories
omg I forgot about magcon💀💀 wait who was that one kid that sang the ABC's in his concert thing??
JACOB SARTORIOUS DID THAT
I remember the bullying kids arc of UA-cam 😭😭 I watched a fair amount of Jacob Sartorius videos back in the day, as in people hating on him. But in my defense, I am the same age as him. So me laughing at a fellow 13 year old being cringe is one thing, and I was also too young to understand the power dynamic of grown adults hating on him, even by the time I was 15 I was like "okay but why tho, who cares, leave bro alone" 😭
I was 15 when this was popular so I can fee that sentiment
I'd LOVE longer videos and deep dives, especially because imo you're very capable of meeting me where I am at and explaining concepts in a way I understand! I personally am interested in the gaming community, that's where I was occasionally at the time (ayy got access to internet late club) and I'd be interested in what you got to say. Great video :]
Thank you for the feedback and suggestion ❤️❤️
Congratulations for getting into grad school! That's amazing!
This video was super fun, so if you enjoyed making it, feel free to keep going with this format. Your shorter videos feel equally as info-dense and are just as interesting, so you do what's best for you lol
Perfect! Thank you for letting me know :)
I had therapy and when I was out this was up and I got to listen while I did out of the house errands. Great content and well presented!
Thank you and I am happy to bring positivity to your day :)
Excellent point that there were basically no women in the 2016 commentary sphere
I still struggle to think of any, most of the popular female creators I can think of at the time were doing lifestyle content
you are so outspoken and i love hearing your perspective on things. i only found you very recently but you’re so naturally spoken and smart and it doesn’t feel forced just like we’re just having a convo about the topic with each other. being someone who’s struggled with making personal connections with people for various reasons (trauma, abuse, neglect, etc.) appreciate your openness and ability to make complete strangers feel welcomed. keep up the incredible work, you are going to go incredible lengths with your youtube career!
This is such a sweet comment oh my god 🥹. Thank you so much and I’m happy you few welcome
2016-2017 was one of the more miserable eras of my life, but dear god id give everything to go back to it
Shoutout to your friend for providing a usb fob with vines on it for you lol
She was the only reason I stayed in touch with pop culture
I'm only 5 minutes in and I'm already so happy about this video. I love that you shouted out a small business and I appreciate the amount of work and effort you put into your content and wanna say thanks and you kick ass!
Btw if you want me to make you a squish gang cross stitch girl I got you
And congrats on getting into grad school 🥰
A SQUISHMALLOW CROSS STITCH OH MY GOD AND ALSO ILY AND THANK YOU FOR COMMENTING
@@MikasRhetoric I will dm you on Twitter let's fuckin do this
@@porcupinesoda you are a saint
Hey mika this video is so cool, super excited for 1h48 min 💖 please don't take this the wrong way but I think sometimes you need to slow down and speak a bit clearer, and maybe add a bit of explanation when you're reading out of the textbook - as someone who doesn't know anything about rhetoric I find it a bit hard to understand sometimes. I think this covered this period of youtube so well tho, really excited to see what u put out next
Will keep that in mind, when I am done school here I also can utilize more materials, there's just some copyright stuff I have to be careful of when I am still here! I agree it can be confusing and I respect this comment
You just mentioned how women in commentary were so escarce and that brings me to this stupid drama vs commentary beef and how now that women are making a space for themselves in the same topics as some commentary channels and how big of a fuzz they have made
i think the reason i love this era sm was because that’s when i first really started watching youtube. it was my transition into middle school and youtube was one of my comforts since i didn’t have many friends.
Fitness influencers are the ones going on dramatic brand trips now 😅
I will look into that because I am intrigued
i love checking ur white board in the back of every video, ew math lol-good luck getting through the end of the semester
Oh hahah that's my boyfriend's, my whiteboard is in the rhetoric section of commentary
I love LOVE the longer form content!!! Please make a part two!
Kind of an older video so idk if u will even see this comment but jay versace is actually a music producer now! He’s successful too he just won a Grammy for working on Tyler the Creator’s album
I saw that on Twitter and was so excited for Jay!
i think pyro is a great example of how an “edgy” youtuber can transform and mature their style/content. you can tell that he genuinely enjoys the content he is making now rather than the stuff he was making during his edgelord era. also, you should be glad you weren’t around much during this era of the internet. i was 10 - 12 between 2016 - 2017 and it is not something i look back at fondly. those 2 years felt like right wing politics had taken over the media, and trump winning the election really put that into place. i remember enjoying the shitposting humour but not usage slurs, and i especially didn’t like it when my friends at the time starting using slurs as “jokes” but i never really spoke up about it much because every time i did i would get shut down by them. i was one of 3 girls in this friend group and the 3 of us would get sexist comments from our guy friends like about we were “feminist nazis” or how we needed to “stay in the kitchen”. but because we were young girls we never really stood up for ourselves which i really regret now. this time of youtube really brainwashed people into becoming alt-right, especially straight white men. looking back on it now, it is so crazy how being a bigot was seen as funny in internet culture, and now that i’m 16 going on 17 i realise how young i was to have watching that type of content and how lucky i am that i didn’t fall into that trap.
I was talking about a student I was tutoring who is about your age and he also mentioned how wild it was to be consuming the edgelord content at such a young age. I’m happy you are past it now
This content is so good Omg the makeup tutorial segment was genius lol it’s so fun hearing about these issues in an academic way. LOVE
Thank you so much!! I wanted to channel my inner 2016 beauty guru so I thought it would be fun to have in the video
I think Pyrocynical is easier to like cause he doesn’t seem to be mean just to be mean. Even in his harsh criticisms, it’s not like he’s trying to make a small child cry. I don’t watch him often but he seems to be more than just some edgy dude
This is a good point too. I was thinking that when re watching the videos while editing this one
too bad he’s a groomer
"2016 has a font" you are so freaken smart and funny and it doesn't get talked about enough 👏
i am so excited for this
I hope you love it, it's a long one!
It was really interesting hearing your commentary as someone who wasn’t all-consuming this content during that era!!
Thank you! I feel like it allowed me to have a little less bias
@@MikasRhetoric precisely! It was cool hearing such “major” events summed up from an outside perspective like yours! :)
Jay Versace is a great hip hop producer, I had no clue they were originally vine/youtube famous
That’s so cool! It’s interesting when people are able to surpass their social media fame
This is such an awesome video with very minor inaccuracies, most of which are not even enough to comment on, but James Charles did not say he was going to get Ebola if he went to Africa. His friend did, and he said "we have had chipotle, how bad could it be "
OH THATS RIGHT THANK YOU
The only youtube era i romanticize is when the site was launched and i had that first feeling of curiousity and possibility online, previously being “online” wasn’t even like…a thing. You surfed the web, yeah. But you weren’t “online” like we are now. I remember the beginning with the weird absurd paradise and the skits and the comedy. I dont know why i saw people insinuate millenials are looking back at this era at all…. A majority of us were well into adulthood by this time, we didn’t engage the same way the younger people did… im sure there are millennials who heavily used UA-cam at that time, but i think its more correct to say millenials overwhelmingly would be like “what are you talking about???” Upon seeing the title of this video. Like i did. I don’t think i can name a single person on that cover photo
Oh interesting, see that era you are talking about I was 6 or 7 years old so I couldn’t really have feelings about it like you do
The Amberlynn ‘lah’ music triggered my fight or flight for a second 💀
Apparently way more people used that song than I thought
so weird for my brain to comprehend we are essentiallynthe same age. respect how put together you are
I really enjoyed this. I had forgotten about so much of this stuff! Peak youtube drama.
I am happy you liked it!!
congrats on getting into law school!!! haven't even started watching but i'm so excited for this video ahhh
Haha it’s not law school it’s an MA in Language education but I still appreciate it ❤️❤️❤️
just wanted to say that it's clear how much effort & detail u put into your vids ! I rly enjoy hearing your perspective on things, thanks for your hard work (~:
also even tho i almost never wear makeup anymore, I think my fav palette ever was (and still is tbh) the abh ~ moonchild glow kit ~ solely for its versatility as inner corner eyeshadow
how lucky are we for this long video 🥰
your fit is super cute, love your shirt
Thank you it’s linked in the description if you are ever interested (not sponsored :) )
As for makeup:
My fav liquid lipsticks are from beauty bakerie and coloured raine, and bite beauty has excellent colorful balms and the best lip stains known to mankind.
I adore pat mcgrath blushes and I'm mad about it because the only reasonable time to buy pat mcgrath is when it's on sale lol
I'm less picky about eyeshadows. Colourpop had me in a chokehold when I first got into makeup but they're still decent products. Coloured Raine has great eyeshadows (Juicy Boost was my first rainbow palette), Hank and Henry was surprisingly good quality (I wore Sex Talk for the entire autumn season of 2021), and my most recent find is Zeesea, and I've really loved every palette I've tried from them.
I am personally into Melt blushes, powder and cream, as far as eyeshadows I have lots from different brands and do not have any particular dedication to one over another. I love the BeautyBay formula and the Kaleidos formula is I had to pick I think. Also I know this comment means you got to the end so just know I appreciate you :)
@@MikasRhetoric I appreciate you!
Never been this early! I've got so much cleaning to do today, this video will save me from boredom lol. So I just wanted to say thank you! You always have such interesting perspectives.
You are so sweet enjoy my 2 hour rant and some cleaning time :)
@@MikasRhetoric Thank you!! 💜🥺
That intro song gave me whiplash of memories😭😭
The 2016-2017 commentary community drama is one of my former special interests, particularly the Leafy and Grade A Under A vs. Keemstar lore and while you did miss a great deal of detail and get some things wrong, you did a pretty stellar job considering you weren't around for that era. The Leafy vs. Keem stuff actually wasn't the shortest Keem drama, it lasted over a year and the inciting incident you listed (the view botting) was actually how the two became friends prior to all of the other Keem dramas. A summary would be:
1. Keem was broadly suspicious of and disliked any UA-camr in the commentary space that was a.) Successful and b.) Not his friend.
2. Because of Leafys success and because the two were not friends, Keem quickly reported on the view botting allegations that came from some random tiny channel.
3. This essentially created an excuse for he and Leafy to speak, and the two became fast friends. Keem would quickly denounce the allegations and led a witchhunt against the small channel.
4. Keem, seeing Leafy's popularity, often had Leafy as a guest on DramaAlert to comment on dramas or "debate" other guests. The two even met in person and went in a helicopter for some reason.
5. Pyro drama happens, everyone vs. Keemstar happens. Grade (also a friend of Keem and Leafy) and Leafy privately come to the conclusion that it would be best if they disassociate from Keem.
6. Both Leafy and Grade release Keemstar rants within 24 hours of each other. You can find re-upload of these by searching their usernames and "keemstar rant".
7. Keem, blindsided, spends roughly 1 year screaming about the betrayal. Grade and Leafy continue to grow in success.
8. Keem starts the Baited! Podcast with Colossal is Crazy and Tommy C. The podcast is highly successful, and is a commentary podcast. Many episodes devolve into arguments and keem rages about the Leafy Grade betrayal every episode.
9. Attitudes in the commentary community are reasonably positive toward Keem in light of the broader baited podcast. There is an unspoken shift in opinion toward Leafy in light of his snake behavior toward Keem, and general resentment towards his sub count and low effort content. Nobody says anything though, out of fear of Leafy making a video on them.
10. Ian releases content cop Leafy, in which he comments on the Keemstar betrayal. At last the flood gates have opened and commentary bros can finally voice their negative opinions of Leafy, and by association Grade.
11. Grade doesnt defend Leafy from iDubbbz despite being Leafy's best friend, says he's taking a break from the internet. He is literally never heard from again.
12. A number of popular commentary channels including Hey Watch Your Mouth, Herotic and Elvis the Alien speak out about being exploited by Leafy. He would not pay, underpay and/or not credit many channels when having them do editing for him. For more you can search "Leafy is 20 dollars okay" as this was a meme around the editing exploitation. Other search terms would be "Hey Watch Your Mouth Leafy," "Herotic Leafy," "Elvis the Alien Leafy". It is worth noting that some of the people Leafy exploited for free/underpaid labor were minors. Networking of this nature, particularly with large channels was also highly normal in the commentary community and was openly discussed and just generally part of the culture - the exploited simply cannot be blamed for agreeing to assist Leafy in hopes of growing their channel.
13. Nick (Hey Watch Your Mouth) drops the bombshell that Leafy and Grade did in fact betray Keemstar solely for business reasons, to disassociate themselves from Keem during his previous dramas. This had been heavily speculated to have been the reason, but Leafy and Grade had always denied this.
14. Leafy tries to respond to the hate, isn't taken seriously. His subcount falls, and UA-cam (the company) now seeing his fall in popularity takes the opportunity to begin striking his channel.
15. The Leafy content cop is discussed on Baited. H3H3 guests on the podcast in the following episode. Leafy is discussed at length, as the two are former friends.
16. In October, Leafy guests on the podcast to discuss the business decision allegations around the betrayal. Leafy completely denies these allegations, shifts the goalpost constantly. The two argue and Leafy will not admit to bring in the wrong. Nothing is resolved. The community backs Keem even further, is even more furious with Leafy. This is the deathblow of Leafy's career.
17. With his subcount falling by tens of thousands a day, no more blind eye from UA-cam, and everyone against him, Leafy disappears, with only a few later sightings and a n*de leak. Keem is triumphant, does a victory lap for about a week and then moves on. In later years, Keem clearly forgives Leafy and his opinion of him softens as he does not speak of him with as much anger.
18. Leafy eventually returns to twitter, he and Keem are already friends again and have previously made up in private. I believe Keem was the one who encouraged him to return to Twitter and YT. This is unique, as Keem as never been known to forgive anyone at all who slights him in any small way, let alone betray him. Keem is infamous for holding grudges, and Leafy is the only exception to this which is low key fascinating.
I personally feel that the best way to catch up on drama from that era is just to listen to the first era episodes of Baited that feature Colossal and Tommy C. They are a fabulous time capsule and I adored listening to them in that time period. They are very much a product of their time and community though, with generally bad takes on social justice issues. Hot Wet Soup (a podcast) is also fine for other dramas that were happening, that one is a whole other story.
And to answer your question - the only female 2016/17 commentary channel was Lt. Corbis, who was quite literally an 11 year old girl. She was the only one who was accepted by the viewers and bros. There may have been other girls and women who attempted to get into the community, bit I do not know of any... asides from Becky Boop who did a news show similar to drama alert but Keem absolutely destroyed her channel as she was potential competition and everyone let it happen because of misogyny, of which she experienced a lot. It was terrible what the community did to her.
Edit: I've edited the above to correct some timeline mistakes I misremembered after several years of not fixating on this topic lol. As a bonus you can also have this:
*Fun fact!* Prior to the release of the Baited podcast, UA-camr podcasts were highly uncommon. Upon the massive iTunes charting success of Baited, suddenly every UA-camr and their friend were creating podcasts - it essentially became the new craze. H3H3 were one of the channels who started their own podcast, among many others. Long story short, we wouldn't have had Frenemies, H3, Impaulsive, or thousands of other podcasts both modern and retired without Keemstar just deciding one random day in early 2016 that he wanted to create a podcast about UA-cam drama. Many other existing podcasts also gained popularity as a result of the podcast craze of 2016, and podcasting was introduced as a legitimately entertaining medium to a new generation of young people, whereas the opinion of podcasts had previously been that they were "boring" and on dry and educational subjects - like the audiovisual equivalent of a book. I hate Keemstar but the man is one of the most influential people on the internet.
Man this went so much deeper than I thought omg
@@MikasRhetoric it was honestly so much, like it really is a lost rabbit hole that time has forgotten. It was to the commentary community what dramageddon was to the drama channel community, but even more involved and complex.
I also forgot to note that the whole Grade and Leafy secretly conspiring because Keems reputation was in the toilet was always speculated as being the reason for the betrayal, but that it wasn't confirmed until Hey Watch Your Mouth released his exposed video after the content cop, so not only did it turn out that Leafy had basically been running an editing sweatshop in exchange for the promise of life changing exposure that was never fulfilled, but the whole conspiracy had been true all along.
I cannot express how entertaining and enjoyable the whole thing was to follow, it was like a soap opera or something.
This is a great video, I was so excited about the commentary section
Its a lot but it was fun to talk about
Totally forgot about most of this beauty community stuff omg. (Esp The James Charles Ebola scandal lmao) Also I love this video it feels like you’re a friend ranting to me but with editing 😊✌️🤟💕
Thank you, I was yet to see a video with all this stuff put together regarding 2016 and I’m so happy the response has been good!!
second comment haha, i'm really enjoying the video :p
i love how commentary has evolved from this era to be much more thoughtful and analytical (not to say there weren't creators doing analytical content back then, but it wasn't "mainstream"). from dunking on cringey kids to discussing possible problems with child labor/exploitation and kids being exposed to things they shouldn't be, and how being internet famous can affect a growing mind.
The current small commentary community really gives me hope to be honest
Thanks for the video!
All hail the Algorithm
I have a podcast reading romance novels and I am obsessed with the idea of having a “brand trip” where we read and invite a bunch of reading creators to chill. Like I’mdying to live my 2017 beauty guru fantasy! I wanted to be manny so bad lol
Look at your channel! You blowing up! Congrats on your current and future success. I love your videos and always appreciate your perspective.
Thank you so much!! I should have a little bonus video up today 👀 and a regular video on Monday :)
congrats on getting into grad school! i'm relatively new to your channel but i love your content and wish you all the best!
Thank you so much and I am happy you are here 🤩🤩
I'm sick and bored, thanks for this! Also congrats on grad school
Thank you so much!! I hope you like the video :)
Love love loved this video, as always. I would love to see a similar style video about the rise and fall of family channels, and the current rise of the anti family channel community and all of its drama.
Another great idea!!
@@MikasRhetoric oh also for your Canadian menaces series, I would love to hear you talk about the dad challenge podcast. I know he’s not a huge name but dude is definitely a menace. Haha.
I remember ppl always thought I was lying with how late I was to getting the internet so I can relate
Wow those years actually happened, thought I dreamt them up
hey idk if you know about the Wayback Machine, its an internet archive and they've got snapshots websites which shows stuff thats been changed or deleted. i just thought it might be helpful if you're looking into things that you cant find bc they've been removed. theres snapshots of gabbie hannas channel starting from 2014 and you can actually watch some of her videos that have been deleted
Interesting, this might be useful for the inevitable part 2.
if you ever wanted to do another rhetoric video I'd love to see one on pewdiepie. was kinda surprised you didnt cover all of pewdiepies controversies which were his biggest and happened in 2016-17 😬 personally I like him so I have a very biased opinion, but the whole ass videos that were being made (or still are) about him being a pipeline to alt right were kinda amusing/ disturbing. hes very personable and became more relatable what with opening about what kinda books he reads and talking about them, him frankly criticizing marvel actors for using stereoids and trying to pass off their physique as if it was all natural and especially with him recently openly discussing his addiction to alcohol and depression, I personally find it hard to hold his past mistakes against him. I also feel like hes just a genuine person and asking if you could do a video on him is making me feel conflicted as a long time fan but if you find his opening up and/or how he evolved into current pewdiepie interesting, I'd love to see your take on it.
I know very little about Pewdiepie actually, he was meant to be in part 2 of this video because his content then I would consider gaming not commentary - part 2 ideally will comprise of gaming, kids content, and prank youtubers
@@MikasRhetoric looking forward to it! take your time tho and congrats on getting into the school you wanted to❤
oh my god that intro gave me such extreme whiplash
I am trying to create a time warp vibe with this one
All the drama back then was harmless stuff and none of it was even that serious... Everyone just made dumb diss tracks about each other and that was that. Nowadays we have youtubers almost murdering their friends, ruining their health for views, grooming their underage fans, families breaking apart bc of youtube money etc... Most of the drama isn't funny anymore it's just shocking and sometimes even sad.
I don't want to focus just on the drama because 2016-2018 youtube was more than that. The content felt more personal because you didn't have all these big cooperations dominating the website and taking away its authenticity. The jokes were funnier, creators had more freedom because monetization wasn't that much of a problem (but it was slowly starting to become one) and all the OG creators were still the same. It was a prime time for youtube and it's a shame we'll never get it back, but I'm glad at least I got to experience it.
I still enjoy youtube, but I always feel nostalgic over the 2016-2018 era because it was such a blast. Half of the youtubers I watched back then just started uploading less and the other half either changed or I just grew out of their content.
I agree a lot of the drama was either being stupid or egotistical instead of now where it’s often literal criminal activity
i think there were iffy things with underage fans back then too tbh, but for some reason the discussion never took off as widely as it has done now (as it should, it's disgusting). i think there was someone who went to jail for that a couple of years ago.
I just found your channel and you’re awesome! And as a fellow graduate student, hang in there it’s tough out here.
Thank you and I’m happy you’re here!
just came across your channel.. this video was great you are so good at speaking! plzz do a part 2 of 2018- til pandemic
I could work on that later in the summer likely when I have more time
love your content!!! you seem so intelligent and are so well spoken
Thank you!! I’m happy for the support ❤️❤️
how in the world do people make content like this while being in school 😳 i could never
It called having literally zero free time :')
I’m so ready for this video ☕️
Buckle in bro its a wild one
2016-17 does seem like it was a better time, I feel like it was before all the major dramas and scandals really came out. Everyone was younger and hopeful. Idk
Well also the dramas weren’t always about literal crimes which is what it seems to be now
IM SO EXCITED I LOVE CONTENT LIKE THIS
I HOPE YOU LOVE IT
I have been waiting for someone to take the time to go into depth about this odd time on UA-cam. I love it.
Yay thank you!!
I was so excited for this video and you did not disappoint!!!! 🤩🤩
Thank you!!!!!!
I died at the part where you mentioned that this sort of content will get you a ticket into research opportunities lol
Idk it was a joke kinda but I feel like research like this will be relevant later unfortunately
Howtobasic was the cameraman for those videos with that group of guys
i LOVE your long-form content but please put you and your schooling first! and congrats on getting into grad school :))
Will do! I am actually still writing a paper as we speak and its almost midnight here :(
Hi! This is the first video of yours I see and I don’t even now how I ended up here - but I‘m super glad I did. Thanks for all the work you put into your videos! I‘m a happy new subscriber:)
Yay!! Welcome and thank you for the support
The only person I still watch is drew gooden, he transcends time and space
I never used vine back in the day so I never understood them when they came over to UA-cam
That’s fair, I wasn’t active on vine really either and so many people I watch I had no idea they were on vine
This is like right when i started college and stopped watching youtube. When i started working and got back into it, i eventually delved into videos covering it. Glad i missed it tbh…people (specifically men it seems) were so mean!
It was definitely a weird time
Great work Mika! also congrats on getting into Graduate school, that is incredible! this video was great
Thank you so much and I am so happy you liked the video
Your red scrunchie is giving me Heathers vibes
Crazy era
lindsay ellis is probably the only female “commentary” youtuber i can think of who has been on the platform for ages, but even still i would class it more as media criticism than commentary
Oh I’ve heard of her!!
@@MikasRhetoric she uses a lot of feminist theory in her stuff, you might enjoy!
another banger video mika s-f, watched the whole thing. congrats on grad school!!!!!!!!
Thank you ❤️❤️❤️ and you’re a champ for sitting through it all
dude i totally get your thing for pyro because i have it too. he just seems like a sweet boy
Someone gets it! I personally simp... but cannot put my finger on it as exactly why lmao
@@MikasRhetoric btw I love the longform content and your perspective on things! i would 100% watch a part 2. and from someone who is about to finish grad school, CONGRATS on getting in and good luck!!
@@Goldenfur12698 Thank you so much!!! I am both super nervous and excited to start
Even though I'm old enough to be your mom I completely understand the whole not having internet and only being able to get on it occasionally. I too got internet in 2016-17 so I also didnt know vine or any of these people until I got into UA-cam in 2017. I do felt it when you were talking about posting whats Jake Paul? Lol
I love a long video! Whoop whoop!
Hope you enjoy, trying something new on the channel
No tattoo Kurtis weirds me out a bit.
taking a break from writing my grad school thesis to hear you describe academic paper formats in this video hehe 💔:’(
Omg hahah sorry
Yesss i love long videos
I wanted to see how these long videos would play out on my channel, so feel free to leave feedback when you are done
@@MikasRhetoric I think it was really good! I watched a lot of these youtubers (especially the commentary youtubers) and think this video was a really good retrospective. I had an edgy phase where I liked content creators like iDubbbz and H3H3 which tbh I regret now lol
1:33:37 THAT WIG LMAOOOOO GOTTA GO
I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE 💀💀💀😭
Girlll, I never really write comments but I really wanna support you because I loved this video. Also there are sooo many good video suggestions down here and I will definitely watch anything you post if it's in this style of video ❤❤
Thank you so much! I am happy that you commented this time :)
Realising I was 16 5 years ago makes me suddenly feel out of touch with the youth😭
YES ME TOO
2016 content has a font
Flashback to helvetica in 2010
Good choice
were you AP capstone in high school ? love how knowledgeable you are on how to conduct research.
So I don’t really know what that means so… no??? (I assume they don’t even have that here because I’ve never heard of it) In Quebec there aren’t really honours paths in high school besides IB which I didn’t do. I went to a 2 year college in applied science and am just under a month out from an honours English degree with a research project.
I saw video titled Films I Recommend as a Film Student, thought it completely dumb because how does wasting 60k a year make your opinion worth anything, and i immedately thought of that filthy frank video where he says "im a student im a student"
Jay is a music producer now! I think he worked with SZA
That seems like a better career path for them I am happy
Blaire White was a popular female commentary channel in 2016 I believe
the internet was a horrible place to be 2016-2018😅 only the strong survived😌
I wasn’t even there to witness most of it
The Niki Tutorials/Too Faced collab was really one of the first of its kind & in hindsight Nikki got a bum deal, there wasn't really anything to base a prediction of success on prior to that release. How well it did was really a surprise to everyone.
Honestly, I think you might be able to argue that Too Faced was worried sales wouldn't justify the payment to Nikki bc it seems pretty clear they sent out one product in PR and released a much lower quality one for sale to cut costs. Although, the other argument would be that Jared Blandino is cheap & thinks very little of his customers which I wouldn't fight you on.
Loved this vid :)
Thank you especially because this one was hard work
Please please please make a podcast
58:20 I remember there was that literal child who made leafy style videos, she was 11 or maybe 12?
also wasn’t there that chick with a rantsona and orange hair? my memory of her is so vague. i think she’s got cancelled for being just wretched and im not sure if she still exists online. i can’t remember if she was around at the right time.
Could you make a video about my UA-cam era ? Smosh, Fred, RWJ, grav3yardgirl, nigahiga. That was my prime time for UA-cam
That could make a good video yes
Enjoyed the video!! But pls work on enunciating, sometimes you were hard to understand… especially when I wasn’t looking at the screen. Keep up the good work though!
Heyy loved the video as always, but you don't need to feel the need to rush things, for example speeding your voice or sth. Longer videos on youtube are more and more liked, look at the famous Pretty Little Liars video by Mike's mic that is like 2 hours long!
I slowed down for my recent video I recorded today, I appreciate the feedback