Reaction Videos: Filmed By A Home-Studio Audience

   As a kid my predominant pop-culture diet was sitcoms, I'd be in front of the TV every Monday night for CBS' comedy line-up (Two And A Half Men, Still Standing, King Of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond were my faves) and when I went to my Grandparents' house on the weekend I'd binge Nick At Nite's run of The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. Laugh-tracks were reassuring, validating and, for the sake of my naivety, instructive when the more 'adult' jokes went over my head. Of course, the older I got, the more aware I was of how canned the laughter was. I despised it for the obvious phoniness and manipulation but, I realize now, it made me feel lonely. I didn't spend a lot of time with people outside of the idiot box and, when I was around someone for an extended period of time, all I wanted to do was show them my most cherished media so I could watch them watch it; sleepovers meant watching Fear And Loathing for the 30th time while inflicting it on someone for their 1st time - I was constantly chasing my own 1st Time again. That chase was especially difficult during the 2020 Lockdown. Going to the movies was at the top of the list of shit I missed, holed-up in my apartment. I'd had a steady, almost gluttonous diet of movies thanks to my roommate's 2-year stint at our AMC theater; he'd get me in for free so, naturally, I was spoiled. When the pandemic hit...I realized I'd taken all that for granted. I didn't just miss the big screen, the 4k resolution, or the wall-to-wall booming sound; I missed the communal experience.

  Reaction Videos are a lot like laugh-tracks but with a pulse, like the theater experience, but smaller...that is, those that aren't 'canned.' Like anything, it's a Gumpian box-of-chocolates odyssey finding the right ones. The wrong ones:

I've watched these and they're both complete bullshit

  I hate when they're performing. Reactions videos are magical when they're authentic, so, when they seem too aware of the camera and how their audience will perceive them: I scroll past that clickbaity desperation. They're usually overreacting or sitting there with virtually no expression whatsoever - an annoying binary. You can usually tell by their obnoxious Thumbnail Face.

Here are the realest reaction channels on YouTube:

  The first 'Reactor' I'd gotten into, courtesy of Jake, was
BigQuintIndeed

   It's spring 2015 and the new Kendrick Lamar album had come out. Jake emphatically turned me onto it and then suggested I check out BigQuint's reaction to it. At first I was, weirdly, insulted that he wanted to me watch it; I grew up in the 2000s, the heyday of trashy Reality TV, and at the time when 'reaction videos' took off, they were roped in as Reality TV. Some culture writer had claimed that people would be 'in a reality show where they watched reality shows' and, despite how Charlie Kaufman that description was, my interest was nil. Eventually, though, my misgivings withered and curiosity took hold. I've now seen his reaction to To Pimp A Butterfly so much that Jake and I still quote it to this day. Aside from being quick-witted, blunt, and charismatic, I appreciate Quint because, whether he's dancing, shouting, laughing, crying, tossing out killer one-liners, or accidentally breaking his chair getting rowdy - he gets lost in the content. There's nothing performative about his infectious energy: this is how he'd be even if the camera was off. His channel is the example of what a Reaction Channel should be. He doesn't have consistent output, unfortunately*, but he's one of the most entertaining and influential to ever do it.

  Notable Reactions: The Life Of Pablo, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, Run The Jewels 2, BLONDE, The Big Day, To Pimp A Butterfly

*I guess it's fortunate because he's not reacting to shit he doesn't care about so he's never going to force something fake. I respect the process even if I miss his presence.

LM Reactions

   Since I missed out on LOST and Sopranos when they aired, Breaking Bad was my first appointment television obsession and it became part of my personality that I LIKE BREAKING BAD, YOU SHOULD WATCH IT. Now it's one of the biggest non-anime series with First Time reaction videos - which makes sense, it's a clinic on shock-and-awe television. Rewatching BrBa by myself is still great but there's something about watching others experience it. Most notably, I got to feel the same rush of goosebumps that Walt's "Run." gave me at the end of Half Measures 12 years ago when I see it have the exact same effect on this couple in Serbia. More than that, though, the one in white--Lola--offers insights that enrich my own rewatches; she's perceptive while Milena is intensely expressive and visceral. They're a great mix and, when they both lose their collective shit, it's sublime.

  Notable Reactions: Breaking Bad, El Camino, Better Call Saul

 The Normies

  Their videos made me feel the least-lonely during the pandemic; a roomful of enthusiasm and thunderous laughter from a tight-knit collective of friends and family. Also, Community is my favorite show but I live on an island with it; no one I know personally, outside of these parasocial relationships, watch it/enjoy it. The Normies adore it and it's a fucking joy watching them fall for it like I did, it gets some of their biggest laughs and they're so in tune with its absurdity.

  Notable Reactions: Community, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, LOST, Halloween Kills

 

Brandon Likes Movies

  It took me a while, but... I adore Brandon. I used to find him lame and would hate-watch his videos. But then it hit me that he's like a character on Joe Pera Talks With You: inoffensive, well-meaning, wholesome, and, most importantly, honest. Like Joe Pera, he's kinda got a Bob Ross/Mr. Rogers vibe going; He never cusses, he points out the obvious, and his voice almost reaches ASMR levels of whispery. Even when he finds something especially funny or shocking, he barely raises his voice - it's like his parents are sleeping in the next room. His lack of cynicism took me from ironic mockery to outright endearment: he truly wants to enjoy everything he watches, there's no prejudging. But he is discerning: when he doesn't like the filmmaking in a movie, he doesn't hesitate to critique. That said, sometimes he's hilariously naive and maybe I ironically enjoy him being kinda dopey. Either way, he's worth checking out and maybe falling for, like I did.

  Notable Reactions: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Death Proof, Bone Tomahawk, Brawl In Cell Block 99, Mulholland Drive, The Exorcist, Breaking Bad, Uncut Gems

Red Letter Media

   The best channel on YouTube. I could write a post for each one of them: Mike, Rich, Jay, Jack, Josh, Jessi, Jim, Colin, Freddie Williams. Macaulay Culkin, Patton Oswalt, Len Kabasinski. They watch shitty old VHS tapes ranging from genre to genre - notably horror, sci-fi, and action movies - like a more cynical, grounded, and sometimes drunk version of MST3K/RiffTrax. There are even training videos, self-help tapes, children's videos, after-school specials, workout videos, senior living video brochures, and the dreaded seminars. Or they'll unearth scams, schemes, and cons for get-rich-quick endeavors that rightfully faded to time. My favorites are self-made clout-chasing Barney The Purple Dinosaur wannabes who never made it big (clowns, magicians, or crude mascots with shitty moralizing). RLM unearths this awful shit and endure it for us.

    Notable Reactions: Every episode of The Best Of The Worst

TwinsthenewTrend

  As we saw with the gatekeeping of Metallica and Kate Bush from older Stranger Things fans, there's a weird, entitled, almost possessive impulse by old people to 'protect' their nerd shit. My mantra is: leave the kids alone. Why get in the way of them discovering shit on their own, even from a TV show? TwinsthenewTrend's channel proves just how beautiful that can be. Yeah, I said beautiful. Watching young people get goosebumps from old-head shit is downright infectious and I can't remember the last time In The Air Tonight gave me chills like it does watching these two get lost in it. They clearly have a deep love for music and I cherish this shit.

  Notable Reactions: Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight, Dolly Parton - Jolene, Queen - Don't Stop Me Now, Nina Simone - Feelin' Good, Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit