Sounds like we need a video essay about YouTube plagiarism
One of those stories kinda pisses me off. Like yeah, the KFC guy is apeing Soul Brothas style, but you can't fucking copyright talking fast and using a hip hop backing track. Assuming the KFC guy did all of the research himself and made the video himself then SBN1 can fuck off with the "you're copying me" bullshit unless he's ready to cut a check to every single black guy in America.
This is cool and good actually. People infodumping about a topic they're interested in is good.
'i like to listen to long video essays as background noise' is my favourite defence because it implies that nobody who watches these are even paying attention to the video's thesis.
The longest video essay I ever paid much attention to was Noah Gervais’s resident evil retrospective at a whopping 8 hours. I did have to digest it in chunks but I actually do like his style of video.
The vid proved more useful when I was working the most mind numbing and monotonous machine workshop job - a video essay clocking in around 8 hours with clear delineations between each game in the series provided pleasant background noise and let me know when it was getting to be about lunch/clock out time.
how can three hours on bloons have a thesis?! So many video essays now feel like rephrasings of the wikipedia article with slides. Like totally void of argumentation or critical thought on part of the maker.
This is too much for bloons but ngl I enjoy an earnest video essay about something the creator is passionate about, even if it is a bit silly. I enjoy it when people infodump about hobbies or media and (yes I’m using this excuse) it does make for relaxing background noise. It’s nice to have someone talking in the background about something you can tune your focus back in to occasionally.
Now after the golden (oversaturated) age of video essays a couple years ago there has been a notable rise in absolute shit quality “essays” that don’t say anything of value at all and are often just following the trend. Fuck off with that shit, it needs at least a modicum of actual human soul put into it cmon
I usually stick to very safe creators (pretty much anyone who is on nebula)