Like/Comment/Subscribe – An Interactive Show About YouTube


Editor
03/04/13 09:03pm
4 Comments

For 9 straight hours, Andrew Gunadie also known as Gunnarolla and Andrew Bravener also known as Andrew Bravener performed and showcased some of the oddest and craziest amateur content YouTube has to offer. The show, called Like/Comment/Subscribe or #YTMTL  on Twitter, brought together all those elements to remind us what online video is all about.

Every hour they started a new show, which aimed to pull the audience into the corner of YouTube that makes you wonder what the hell you’re watching.  The show “celebrates content that is unintentionally entertaining,” according to the Andrews.

Compilations of horrible how to videos  and fails combined with bad music videos and bad lip readings of scenes from Twilight had an audience coming in off the street both confused and highly amused. This was often followed up by musical performances by Julia Bentley, Josh Bravener and some Gunnarolla originals, which always got the crowd moving.

What the show is really about though, is the beauty of our new media outlets. While online video does compel people to produce complete nonsense, it also reminds us that anyone can go out, produce something they’re proud of and share it with an audience. Sometimes that’s original content, but there is also beautiful re-appropriated content. Thanks to conventions like VidCon, “there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate professional and produced content,” as Andrew Gunadie put it, “but[they] don’t focus on that in the show.” It’s about the humor in the unintentional and the amateur. If you haven’t seen Mrs. Doubtfire as a horror movie trailer, you should.

People can take material and recreate it, add to it and make it original. As much as Like/Comment/Subscribe was a comedy and variety show, it was also a celebration of the medium, of YouTube as a venue for creation and originality.

And, as we here at LeakyNews know all too well, a large part of the beauty of the medium are the fans. The Andrews put it best,”we don’t ever get the chance to gather together and watching these kinds of clips together in a theatre setting”. Who the hell watches sketchy weird YouTube videos on the big screen with strangers?

Though the hourly shows were meant for people to come off the street and experience, there were some dedicated groups who stayed the whole 9 hours and danced along to every sing along and pop song lip dub. The “awesome and supportive community” that Andrew Bravener told me is critical to YouTube culture was represented both through the videos they screened and the viewers at the show. Getting pulled up on stage for impromptu dance offs and game shows definitely kept my energy up.

Like/Comment/Subscribe aimed to bring the spirit of YouTube to a live show. Amateur content, fan involvement and constant witty commentary from the hosts made guests feel like the essence of YouTube was in their lap.

Check out a couple of photos from the show below!

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The title page

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  • Meghan

    This night will haunt me for the rest of my life in a good way.

    I will never be able to look at Mrs. Doubtfire or a plastic bag the same way again.

  • http://www.facebook.com/frenchthellama Isabel Donald

    I usually just say “it’s a youtube thing and yeah…” when people ask me why I went to Montreal, so directing people to this article will definitely help me to seem a little less crazy. I mean, I am crazy, but I don’t need *everyone* to know that.

  • http://twitter.com/maddiefield Maddie Field

    Great article! I agree, we as a community increasingly focus on professional content, which is all fine and good, but appreciating the silly and completely random is important too. YouTubers are making amazing videos today in a way they weren’t five years ago, but this all started with people just turning on their webcams and winging it, and I love that the Andrews wanted to pay homage to that, while reminding us that this kind of content still has a place.

  • http://twitter.com/LBachle Lauren Bachle

    “Who the hell watches sketchy weird YouTube videos on the big screen with strangers?”

    Me. And I make awesome new friends while doing it.

    I feel that shows like Like/Comment/Subscribe are vital to the YouTube community. They give us a chance to interact with people we might not otherwise. I’ve made AMAZING friends at both shows. I’ve gotten to talk to, sing with, and high five some amazing talent who I would only otherwise known though my computer screen. I’ve been introduced to videos that will forever remind me of memories I made at the show (plastic bag, plastic bag, plastic bag!) and videos that I defiantly wouldn’t have seen otherwise (“How To Eat A Watermelon”).