YouTube has cultivated some of the best creators in the digital age, mainstream media could never replicate
But with that, comes the manipulative content with the sole purpose to garner views at the expense of the audience
Some very fake and others plain problematic
Give me my XBox or I'll chok him out
Come on. Come on!
I want my XBox!
but when the community sees a problem on the platform
many are quick to speak out
One of the most prominent figures Ethan Klein from H3H3 Productions
It's both of them. Yeah
It's both parents. There's no where to turn
there's nowhere to turn and that's not even the worst of their abus
Ethan has gained massive credibility for pointing out ridiculous videos on the internet
By winning a landmark lawsuit against Matt Hoss
some would even go as far to say that h3h3 solidified fair use and free speech for a number of creators
However, as of late, the community has began to turn against Ethan
calling him a hypocrite, arrogant, money hungry, and someone who throws his friends under the bus
Though Ethan does deserve some of the circisim he has been receiving, this also reveals something deeper in the drama and commentary community
Check this out
Right there
Whoa! Did they say something controversial?
Not really
Welcome to Psych IRL. My name is Donna
So, something I've noticed recently is
big drama or commentary channels being criticized
and for the sake of this video, I'm going to lump drama channels and commentary channels up together
but basically they're channels that talk about events that happen in the youtube community
aren't you a commentary channel?
sure people have lumped me in that category before
Um I do talk about other youtubers so I don't know. You can classify me as whatever you want
and I'm not trying to say I'm holier than thou
because I have made negative videos in the past
I'm just saying this is a very interesting pattern to take notice of
and I want to talk about that topic today
I'm not saying at all that these channels don't deserve the criticism. Big channels
that have been criticized include Philip Defranco
Peter Monn, Bobby Burns, and recently it's H3H3
H3h3productions is composed of husband and wife Ethan and Hila Klein
While Ethan is the main subject of the videos, Hila is usually behind the camera
Their early videos were short humorous edits that made fun of pop culture
and from time to time, they would create parodies
Have you ever been to outerspace?
Then how do you know it's there
What really began growing their channel though is their reaction videos
and in between they would comment on how absurd the content was
Somewhat attractive actually. She's a pretty girl
She's got nice teeth
I'll definitely ___ her face
to be romantic about it
Sorry Hila
Hey rain Florence here
Alright she's insan nevermind
This brought attention to a lot of problematic content on the site like fake pranks
CSGO gambling, and the suppression of free speech from those who threaten others with legal action
All in all though Ethan wasn’t the first to create this format but,
but he is a very influential figure in the commentary community that many have followed
Now, how could someone go from one of the most trusted YouTubers on the platform to one of the most criticized?
I decided to speak to Dara Tah
Someone who while making a few commentary videos himself has a love/hate relationship with the community
I hate almost all other commentary channels
but most importantly he’s a fan of h3h3.
they started off as commentary and it seems like they're receiving backlash
just overall thoughts
Yeah ok. So I mean look
the first time I ever came across an H3H3 video
I just found it hilarious. It was kinda like
here's this guy in his room. a bit older than most youtubers as well.
he was absolutely taking a
he's trolling on people but in an entertaining way
and you could tell he didn't take it serious
the reason I loved them wasn't because he was right, but because he was entertaining
he has just a funny gross out comedy to him
you know when he's doing ehhhhh ehhhhh kinda thing
yeah yeah yeah
there's just something...I don't know
that's almost like his trademark. There's just something funny to that kind of comedy
what's happening now was inevitable
you criticize enough people, you create
such high standards for other people
eventually you're going to fall flat on your face into it
I think most long term youtubers have come out
to be...look very hypocritical
As soon as people start scrolling through your content
they'll find stuff that just doesn't match up
and it's context
I mean your opinion can change a week later after making something a few days later after something
With H3, yeah he's looking like a serious hypocrite
but that's almost like the nature of his channel
the nature of his channel was to
criticize people and unfortunately once he started turning his own criticism
against himself, he looks bad
but it's not like I'm surprised
Like I said before, Ethan does deserve some of the criticism that he is getting
and yes this is inevitable if you’re a channel that blows up because of your opinions
First, you’re going to be constantly walking a tightrope with your new massive audience
in hopes of keeping everyone happy and agreeing with you
This of course is impossible
LeafyIsHere for example
had some very harsh criticisms for cringe content on the internet
Some would even call it bullying
Despite this, his small audience subscribed for just that
After covering popular topics like Jacob Sartorius
and FouseyTube, his channel grew
This new influx of people then saw the bullying
Many YouTubers including h3h3 criticised him for that
Eventually he stopped uploading videos and a lot of that can be attributed to popular opinion
In Ethan’s case, he had very unpopular opinions on religion and politics causing part of the current backlash
From my perspective it seems like they kind of became more serious
with the podcast and things like that
and then I don't know if you classify them as commentary channels
You know Cody Ko, Danny Gonzales, Drew Gooden, or whatever
They sort of do commentary but it's like in a fun
like teasing poking way
and it's not taken as seriously as h3
Do you think there's a difference between those 2 channels?
I actually don't. You don't? okay.
No I don't see a difference.
I would definitely consider Danny Gonzales and Drew Gooden
Drew Gooden as commentary channels
They're just better at it
You know I think H3 was the best in terms of simply making criticism entertaining
I think those guys are very entertaining as well
They're comedians but really their subject is usually commentary and criticism
Why do you think they aren't getting that sort of backlash though?
Because of the type of comedy that they do
I think it's the way the handle the subjects. Again like you said
It's not serious but also because they're not as popular
If you are going to take a more serious approach to criticism you have to do it right
Ethan’s podcast does unfortunately reveal a lot of hypocrisy and taking criticism too personally
His past content was entertaining and it felt like he was just being a troll
The same can be said for creators like Cody Ko
How he reacts is all in good fun
I guess you're supposed to brush your teeth with hot glue
You see that same attitude when Ethan seems to be doing a parody of Prince EA’s content
We use social media, but we're less social than ever
Isn't that ironic since it's called social media but it actually makes us less social
When he speaks about it more seriously and on his podcast though
it strikes one as being a bit hostile and the audience senses that
When they show the attention span of an average adult today, it's 1 second lower than that of a gold fish
shut up
I guarantee you that a human as more attention than a goldfish
if you're able to test that Prince EA
I don't know what kind of labs you're working in
When taking this approach you do have to detach from personal feelings
a good commentator that does this is boyinaband
Did you know that?
No.
The type of audience commentary channels attract also tend to be critical, so your every move will be picked apart
You aren’t going to get the audience that loves you unconditionally no matter what wrongs you’ve done
someone like the Paul brothers have
You taught your audience to think critically and to be careful of who you trust
It is also very likely that your viewers are subscribed to other commentary channels
and if you step on those other commentary channels toes
who's to say they won't side with them and turn against you?
Keemstar has decided to attack Inabber
but just yesterday he got featured in a new video by Shane Dawson
As soon as Shane's video came out
Keemstar just starts hating on Inabber on his twitter for no reason whatsoever
I nabber horrible YouTuber that has no respect for facts
Wrong! I'm in the series
Inabber is a bad YouTuber! Who spent 1 full year ___king off Shane by attacking Onision or whatever his name is!
Even your transition from type of content to content will be picked apart.
Many youtubers who have switched to the podcast format have been welcomed by their viewers with open arms
and if their viewers don’t like it, they simply don’t watch it
Ethan on the other hand is getting criticism
You see this same critique with other commentary channels like Bobby Burns
who has seemed to stop doing commentary in favor of music and vlogs
Bobby even made a video tearing it apart
tearing apart Shane
and turned his back on his actual audience in favor of Shane's audience
You became the very thing you swore to destroy
another thing that I noticed is that the drama channels and commentary channels that get criticized
are being criticized by up and coming commentary channels
and I watched this whole 1 hour criticism of H3 and I'm a big H3 fan
and I thought wow these cricisms actually make sense and they're valid
and it got me thinking why do bigger channels rarely criticize each other?
and I think it's because a lot of them have rapport with each other
I don't know if I said that right
It doesn't mean they have to be close friends
but they do work within the same MCNs
or they go to the same events
So, its really weird to criticize essentially your peers
So, that doesn't go on very often
Bigger commentary and drama channels are also very aware of the legal actions someone may take against you
But it does make me think, is it going to be this on going cycle where
the audience feels like someone is finally standing up for the little guy
but then once that person blows up and becomes larger
they're not going to think that anymore
I think the commentary community is going to disappear
Really?
I think that it's going that way
at least that negative toxicity
It's way oversaturated
and you have to have a remarkable angle
to your commentary channel down the line for you to be successful
You know what's funny though? I don't know if it's going to disappear
I think people always like drama
These toxic channels, one week they have 20K and the next week they're at 100K
Should I just be hateful now?
I know. I think me and you have definitely struggled with this
Positivty isn't as viral
That's it. People don't want to share positivity as much as negativity unfortunately
This is how I think it's going to disappear
There's going to be very little entertainment value
I guess that word can be a little confusing because entertainment is subjective
So, by entertainment value we simply mean
Kind of like effort
that doesn't sound right at all either
but kind of like you know how h3 use to do sketches or parodies?
there's going to be less of that and more of just talking and adding clips
if that makes sense
so something that you can just put out very quickly
in negative commentary
because the people that are going to be most successful
are going to be the people who simply
like put out videos really really quick
I think that's what's important is like how quick you can get on a story
I think what you're going to be left with are channels who are wildly successful
but are basically not very entertaining
the leafy guys. You know really low effort videos
You know in my mind, I like to think these are some super unhappy people
that's how I make myself feel better
and I agree
You know I said it before, but what do you literally believe in. What do you stand for?
You're only here once on this earth, is that the impact you want to have on people?
Because when you're getting that many views you kind of have a duty like, you know?
Why not just be a bit more happy for people?
That was really profound
See this is the problem, I've been thinking about this way too much
because I was looking down that barrel in some ways
I was like Oh my god the negative stuff does better
being a part of drama does way better
My relationship with that isn't done yet
I'm still trying to find my way through
I'm trying to be done with the commentary community in terms of like
I don't like to watch the negative toxic stuff
Sometimes I'll click in to see what kind of garden path they want to bring me down
and then I got to grant. Fine. Bored. Turn it off.
So, I'm trying to be done with consuming it
I'm not necessarily done with it as a creator
because I think I can bring more positivity to it
You know I've come to the conclusion as well that if I'm ever going to do a negative video
there has to be a good reason I'm being negative
I have to be very passionate about that
It has to be something I really believe in to actually criticize someone publicly
Isn't it funny that channels that don't want to be commentary or drama channels
are the ones that should be commentary or drama channels
What???
Okay so I do want to end this on a positive note because yes I have criticized
channels before and it's very necessary
i guess my gripe is channels that constantly promote
bad toxic material to their audience because it kind of reminds me of mainstream news
and this fear mongering thing that they do
but I don't know. Whatever. Tell me your thoughts on it. Who are your favorite commentary channels
and who are the people that you think do it right
That's the end of the video...Oh I forgot!
So, go check out Dara's channel
That's the end of the video. I will see you guys next time stay psyched.