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Top 15 Favorite YouTube Channels (#15 – 11)
Image Credit: Cinemassacre
My Top 15 Favorite YouTube Channels: #15-#11
Over the last year or so I’ve become a big fan of checking out what, exactly, is on YouTube. Before then I mostly used YouTube to listen to music, check out the occasional movie trailer, or to look for old commercials and, every so often, someone’s podcast that was also on YouTube. But then I read multiple online articles about people “making a living” by creating content on YouTube and wondered what, exactly, that meant. Creating content for YouTube? What the hell were people creating? So I looked.
Jesus Christ, there’s a lot of content on YouTube. Just tons and tons of shit about any and all topics. Some of it is pretty good, some of it is excellent, and lots of it is fucking garbage, sort of like TV.
After perusing all sorts of content from various content creators, I decided to come up with a “mega list” of the Top 15 YouTube channels that I like to watch. The only real qualifications for inclusion on the list were being on YouTube and having more than one video. The actual content varies (the channels don’t all deal with the same kind of content). This mega list will take three weeks to complete, with five channels appearing each week. There will be a few honorable mentions but not as many as other mega lists where honorable mentions were allowed.
And now, without any further what have you, my Top 15 Favorite YouTube Channels list begins:
My Top 15 Favorite YouTube Channels: #15-#11
15- Big Joel: I’m not entirely sure how I found out about Big Joel on YouTube. I can’t remember, exactly, what I was looking for, but several of his videos popped up on the “suggested videos” thing on the main YouTube page and I decided to watch one about Dr. Phil (what the hell was someone on YouTube going to say about Dr. Phil?). The video, which was about “the conservative propaganda of Dr. Phil,” was a fascinating deep dive into what sort of bullshit Dr. Phil engages in with his show and his persona within pop culture. Joel spoke directly into the camera. Including the occasional clip of Dr. Phil, but it was mostly Joel talking and it was, again, fascinating. Did I completely understand everything Joel said in the video? Not really, but when the video was over it made me want to check out some of his other videos (and watch the Dr. Phil video again). I haven’t watched all of Joel’s videos but he does feature a variety of topics: movies, TV shows, politics, pop culture in general. They’re all well done and generally interesting, which is fantastic when it looks like it’s mostly Joel talking into the camera. That’s a performing fit of some sort. Definitely worth checking out if you like thoughtful analysis of, well, lots of things.
14- Cultaholic Wrestling: Cultaholic Wrestling is a YouTube channel that covers the world of pro wrestling, doing list videos on various wrestling subjects, previews and reviews of various wrestling events, and deep dives on historical wrestling subjects, like the rise and fall of TNA. I initially expected an annoying “smart wrestling fan” type thing, where everything is awful and everyone involved hates pro wrestling because that’s what real/”smart” fans do. Thankfully, Cultaholic is chock full of people who actually like pro wrestling, want to see all wrestling companies thrive, and don’t engage in that “perpetually miserable pro wrestling fan” thing. On top of that, the writing and editing on the channel is sharp and funny and the presenters and channel personalities are clearly enjoying themselves talking about wrestling. It also looks like the people involved put a ton of effort into creating their videos, which is always awesome to see. And they also seem to be able to produce quality content daily, which seems insane. Just how many people are involved in this channel and how do they do it and kick ass every single time? Just great stuff damn near every day.
Honorable Mention: AEW Botches: Also known as AEW Botches Again because the channel was issued one of those copyright violation things not that long ago, I found out about this channel via Jim Cornette’s Twitter page. This page doesn’t create its own content like other wrestling centric pages, but it does put together hilarious and concerning montages of the botches from All Elite Wrestling’s wrestlers. I’m a fan of AEW and like that they exist, but, after watching this channel’s videos, it’s obvious that the AEW roster needs some serious work (I didn’t realize just how green a lot of wrestlers on the AEW roster were). Hopefully this channel gets to stay around and function as an example of what the AEW wrestlers need to work on and stop doing.
13- Angry Video Game Nerd/Cinemassacre: AVGN is probably the first YouTube channel that I watched before deciding to dig deeper into what, exactly, was on YouTube, after looking for horror movie trailers. I found the AVGN episodes on the Friday the 13th NES game and the Halloween Atari game and, after checking them out, looked for more AVGN episodes. From the “simple” regular reviews where the Nerd, performed by James Rolfe, played the terrible video game and hilariously swore a lot to the super elaborate reviews that are really mini-movies, there was always something interesting and fun about the misery the poor Angry Video Game Nerd was going through. I then checked out some of the other videos and series on AVGN’s parent channel Cinemassacre and there’s tons of good stuff there, from a series about board games to straight up movie reviews. The movie review videos aren’t as slick or elaborate as the Nerd videos but they are usually interesting. How will the AVGN channel evolve into the future? What else will Cinemassacre do as it continues to grow and whatnot? I can’t wait to see.
Angry Video Game Nerd/Cinemassacre Channel
12- Trae Crowder: I saw stand-up comic Trae Crowder on Bill Maher’s HBO show a few times before reading his book, with Corey Ryan Forrester and Drew Morgan, The Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin’ Dixie Outta the Dark, which was hilarious. I found his YouTube channel during the run-up to the 2020 election and was instantly hooked. Crowder’s jokes were always biting and funny, and his timing was always impeccable, which is what all great stand-up comedians have. Crowder’s channel also includes his podcast WellRED, as well as something called Weekly Skews. The podcasts are longer form, but the commentary and stand up bits are usually no longer than a few minutes, which is perfect for YouTube. I can’t figure out which joke videos are my favorite: the ones from inside Crowder’s car or the ones in his backyard. I’m leaning towards the car ones, but, in the end, it could go either way.
11- nascarman History: One of many channels operated by Brock Beard, nascarman History is a terrific channel that features a mix of racing history documentaries and uploads of old auto racing shows like ESPN’s Speedweek. The documentaries tend to focus on NASCAR but there are also several fine documentaries about Indycar and Formula One (there’s a great four part documentary on the CART-IRL split and one about the failed CART street race that was supposed to happen in the mid-1990’s in New York City that I can recommend right off the bat). Some of the documentaries have Beard narration throughout and some manage to tell their stories through various video clips. The narrated ones are my favorite, but the “video clip” documentaries are technically brilliant (I mean, how does he find all of the footage for the documentaries? Does he have all of this stuff in his own personal collection? That’s a lot of VHS tapes, man). It’s also cool to see all of the old footage from the various races and TV shows and whatnot. If you’re an auto racing history enthusiast you should absolutely give nascarman History a shot.
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