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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3335 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 20, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What are some niche things you like to watch on youtube? The more obscure/random the better. Here are some of mine:

  • People grocery shopping in Seoul/Tokyo (they don't speak, they just show them picking up items and putting them in their carts)

  • People who use metal detectors and "fish" with magnets to find old relics (usually in the Eastern US and Western Europe, lots of civil war bullets and things like that are found)

  • This guy who builds huts and other primitive technologies in the woods by himself

  • Nail art videos

  • People building small models of things (like dioramas etc)

  • People doing traditional crafts (especially Japanese art craft like urushi and kintsugi, wagashi making etc)

  • Old documentaries (especially from the 70s or about foreign cultures or groups of people who are unfamiliar to me)

  • Videos from people who've bought castles in France showing their homes

  • How It's Made type videos (particularly bakery food production)

  • "Walk with me" type videos where people post high res videos of their walk through neighborhoods or nature

  • 70s cable tv variety hour skits

  • Women doing their makeup while talking about true crime stories

  • Videos of people eating at fancy cafes and restaurants in Paris

  • Videos about people who live in far flung places like rural Alaska or Siberia and how they survive or make their home

  • "Nostalgic footage" videos ranging from early 1900s street scene footage to compilations of everyday 70s and 80s scenes in east Asia

  • Animated fairy tale videos (usually anime or Eastern European ones for me)

  • Soviet movies (I particularly like fantasy ones for girls)

  • Animal Crossing island tours (people showing you how they've decorated their islands)

  • Walmart Story Time videos (mostly girls telling you about when they worked at walmart and weird stuff they saw or experienced)

I could go on but that's probably enough haha, let me know if anyone is interested enough in any of these and I can give recommendations for videos or channels to check out. But yeah I'm always looking for new interesting ways people use youtube so I'd love to hear what you all are into

I enjoy the old atomic weapons test films, many of them where well produced and quite cinematic:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=EeyEXkVAifM Plowshare device designed for canal digging

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ge865CR9pN8 Castle bravo

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yMP-jSKZhbI Etc.

Japanese train POVs: https://youtube.com/watch?v=g6zJ1puFrHg

This guy's 'day in the life of' videos: https://youtube.com/@PaolofromTOKYO

Assorted orangutan and gorilla clips: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pT_ZMbnm4qE

Asian street food vendors: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FZJ3JkU10E0

That train video is great, I'm traveling now but once I get back home I'm gonna love watching it on my big tv.

Thai night markets are awesome, I got to go to one a few months ago, that video you linked is making me hungry now haha

Great topic, I am very much into YouTube channels with unique proposition values, one that is remarkably great is https://youtube.com/watch?v=pDW4IYVlbbw

I am also in sapiosexual love with Vihart, the mathemusician, possibly the most brilliant woman on youtube, if not on earth

Throughout the decade I have been able to find the ultimate artists though, such as the unique masterpiece that is Umami's Interface

https://youtube.com/watch?v=b_V-VJQT6pM

And the vocally unique: The Minute Hour

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UvHP1mUcFDk

The squids are cool

Oh I found Vihart on soundcloud, I like her Christmas songs she has posted there. If you like her, she kind of reminds me a little bit of Maya Ben David: https://youtube.com/@MayaBenDavidMBD (though I think Maya seems a little more into irony/satire whereas Vihart seems more genuine from the bits I've watched just now)

Nostalgic footage" videos ranging from early 1900s street scene footage to compilations of everyday 70s and 80s scenes in east Asia

CR's Video Vaults is a good channel for old Irish stuff in this vein. They're usually only a couple of minutes long.

Nice tip, thank you! The videos on that channel remind me of this documentary I watched recently that I found engaging (ignoring the clickbait video title, the documentary itself is good): https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1w5CKs19MY

Object restoration hobby videos. A lot of them are suspiciously clickbaity but some are more straight forward. Clickbaity ones tend towards digging up a cosmetically damaged high value object like a Rolex, the straight forward ones are more like restoring a rusty antique bench vice or a pair of bespoke leather shoes.

Big Clive. An affable Scottish electical engineer who dismantles and analyses the circuitry of discount shop gadgets.

Techmoan. A man who buys and reviews a mixture of high end vintage hifi components that were out of the ordinary buyer's reach when released, or low end Amazon novelty hifi components that are beyond the ordinary buyer's good taste.

SoftWhiteUnderbelly. A retired commercial advertising photographer conducts open-ended studio interviews with the inhabitants of Los Angele's Skid Row. This is the one I'd most recommend to Motte readers for the obvious sociological aspects. The common thread running through many of their narratives is a shitty childhood that the person assumes is basically normal. While they often have a sympathic story reading the comments is mind boggling to see people praising pimps, johns and heroin dealers with bottom shelf platitudes about what nice boys they are. It's like they watched The Wire and can't tell Bubbles from Snoop.

IsaacArthur. A man with an amusing accent (Virginia?) analyses sci-fi technology through the lens of real world engineering possibilities.

This guy who builds huts and other primitive technologies in the woods by himself

The ones I've watched always seemed dubious, it might just be the one channel I landed on. A guy makes a beautiful swimming pool in the jungle using only a knife and a bucket... hmm. At the least it seems like they always pick a spot with the softest, loosest, most diggable dirt in the whole world. There's never half of two brick walls buried four inches down.

People doing traditional crafts (especially Japanese art craft like urushi and kintsugi, wagashi making etc)

Link it up. I love watching craft and Japanese woodwork videos.

SoftWhiteUnderbelly

This one is really cool, thanks for telling us about it. I love the show Intervention and this channel reminds me of like raw footage from the interview portions of that show which is cool.

IsaacArthur. A man with an amusing accent (Virginia?)

It sounds to me like he has a bit of a speech or hearing disability, the one man I know who speaks similarly to him is from California but I think he grew up in a very poor household and didn't have speech therapy but most people who would speak this way as adults have had their speech corrected. I only listened to a few minutes of him speaking though so I'm not sure.

primitive technologies

Yup, the guy I was talking about is the one @JhanicManifold linked to. Primitive Technology.

Link it up. I love watching craft and Japanese woodwork videos.

Incredible braided cord: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uXF_-eXRnUo

Handmade fans: https://youtube.com/watch?v=olIUslC6mv0

Also everything else on that channel is great: https://youtube.com/@aoyamasquare/videos

Good video on Japanese carpentry: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rMtSc2MJLcw

And not quite as relevant but I'm obsessed with this Japanese fruit sandwich making video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eatQ9-79zGU

speech or hearing disability

I realised after posting I probably should have said something like speech impediment instead of describing it as amusing. I've seen lots of people say that his voice makes it unwatchable but combined with the accent it's a little extra part of the appeal for me, and it's too prominent not to mention it. A hearing problem would make sense too.

The ones I've watched always seemed dubious, it might just be the one channel I landed on. A guy makes a beautiful swimming pool in the jungle using only a knife and a bucket... hmm. At the least it seems like they always pick a spot with the softest, loosest, most diggable dirt in the whole world. There's never half of two brick walls buried four inches down.

You've found the copycats, the original Primitive Technology dude is extremely impressive and realistic. The swimming pool videos are obviously fake and done with modern machinery, the dude I linked is making bricks, vases, kilns, hatchets, etc. which are much more realistic for a single guy alone in the jungle.

Thanks, bookmarked for later.

Japanese woodworking is amazing, I love how the techniques are so similar but still very different from Western woodworking, like pull vs push planes.

Random walking videos in random Asian cities, especially a Chinese city I pick randomly from a list. NHK documentaries (the filming style is maximally relaxed, nothing like it exists in American documentaries IMO). ToldInStone, a Roman historian who makes wonderful short videos on Roman life. Videos on old video games like Sanitorium (1998)

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