Oh, hi there.
So good to see you.
I was just reading an article from [insert mainstream media company].
You know, the biased one?
With the misleading articles?
Oh.
Yeah, that doesn’t really narrow it down, now does it.
Whoops.
But, from this article, I learned that while YouTubers may have no marketable skills--
Check!
No real jobs--
True!
And, no grasp on reality--
Okay literally me.
What we do have is no personality . . .
Either . . .
As well.
But honestly, you don’t really need a personality to find an audience on YouTube.
For example.
♪♫♬ [Beef FloMix plays] ♪♫♬
But from what I found out, apparently, in order to run a YouTube channel, you don’t
even have to be a person . . . at all.
Today, we’re going to look at an internet mystery called Spill.
Who is Spill?
So we’re all familiar with drama channels on YouTube, right?
Every single video is about the tea--
Using the word tea unironically?
I actually hate when people do that, but I also just did it, so . . .
Suddenly it’s okay.
So drama channels like Sebastian Williams, the Viewer’s Voice, Here for the Tea, they
all have one thing in common:
Extremely repetitve content that is nearly indistinguishable from other videos in the
same genre.
Just kidding, that’s all YouTube videos.
What they have in common is the fact that they’re all run by real people.
So the Viewer’s Voice is run by Nick Snider, Here for the Tea is run by Sam, and Sebastian
Williams is obviously run by--
Um, actually I’m not sure what his real name is.
Maybe we’ll call him John?
So when I first saw a video from the drama channel Spill, I didn’t even question anything.
I just assumed this was a real person.
Spoiler alert: no.
But we’ll get to that in a second.
Before I get into the tea--
Spill’s video format is idential to that of any other drama channel, with the added
bonus of some sweet custom artwork.
We have the little avatar, the overly dramatic music, and the very straightforward approach
to presenting the content.
No jokes, no extras, no commentary.
However, spill does have one thing that I have never really seen in a drama video:
Actual research.
I’m not talking about digging up old tweets or finding archived web pages.
I’m talking about college level, research paper, MLA citation research—for internet
drama.
So, it takes Spill a lot longer to make a video on a topic than it does any other drama
channel.
And on top of that, Spill has captions on the bottom of the screen for every single
video.
Now, this is actually a big deal for a reason.
Not to avoid patting myself on the back, but I have captioned, paid for captions, or gotten
community captions for almost every single video on my channel, because some of you
don't know how to listen.
And some of you are deaf.
For me to caption one of my ten minute videos takes me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.
And Spill has videos that are five times as long as that that have captions on screen.
So the big piece in all of this is that between the custom artwork, the captions for every
single word, and the insane levels of research, Spill is somehow spending a lot longer on
each video than most YouTubers, but managing to release several videos a week.
So when I first realized that, I just thought to myself . . .
I don’t care.
Like I really didn’t.
Have fun I guess.
Imagine putting effor into a YouTube video.
Couldn’t be me.
So, I just moved on with my life, and that was phase one of the mystery.
Who is Brew?
So, we’re all familiar with science channels here on YouTube, right?
Every single video about is about the physics and the math.
Using math unironically—I actually hate when I have to do that.
But I also just did it so . . . suddenly it’s okay.
Wait, didn’t I just use that joke?
So science channels like Kurzgesagt, AsapSCIENCE, Vsauce.
They all have one thing in common.
Extremely repetitive videos that are nearly indistinguishable from other ones in the same
genre.
Just kidding, that’s all YouTube videos . . .
What is going on here?
What I’m referring to is the fact that all of these channels are run by real people.
For example, Kurzgesagt is run by Phillipp Dettmer, Vsauce is run by Michael Stevens,
and ASAPScience is obviously run by . . . actually I’m not sure what his name would be.
Let’s just call him A$AP Rocky.
Okay first of all, that’s not even funny.
And secondly, this is just the exact same script as the last segment.
Let me look at both of their channels, something weird is going on here.
[confused typing]
[both channels play at once]
I’m scared.
So from what I gathered, Brew was started about three months ago, which was a few months
after Spill.
Their names, channel banners, and icons are all extremely similar, and their content is
obviously in an identical format.
So, how many people are working on these channels?
I think we need to make a list.
So we have the scriptwriter for Spill, the scriptwriter for Brew, the narrator for Spill,
the narrator for Brew, and then the editing team for both.
And then we have whoever is illustrating and animating these videos, which I’m going
to go ahead and assume is two, because there has to be an assistant.
So we have eight people that are working on these two channels.
They don’t do brand deals, they barely promote their merch, and from what I looked at, their
social media accounts only promote their videos, so I don’t quite understand what’s being
sold here.
I have one of two guesses.
They’re either doing this for AdSense, which is laughably ineffective because I just got
a video demonetized for saying the word Satan . . .
Which I just said again in this video, so--
And my second guess is that they’re just not trying to make money from it at all, which
I would surely believe from one person, but not a team of eight people who is making this
much content on a weekly basis.
But then things got even more complicated.
Alright!
That’s enough!!
It’s time to burn some tweets!!!
Yes, there is a third channel, this one for reading tweets, called Grill.
It’s the same art style, but appears to be a different artist so . . . I’m just
going to go ahead and add the narrator, artist and writer for that one, bumping this up to
a team of at least 11 people, none of whom I was able to find any information on.
I checked through every single social media post, I went back to the beginning.
I was on their Socialblade, and all that made me think was that there’s actually a 12th
person, because somebody has to be maintaining all those social media accounts, as well as:
Uploading new videos, getting the title, tags, and descriptions right, inserting the ad breaks,
making sure the end screen is correct on each video--
That’s a job in and of itself if it’s being done multiple times a week.
So, who is running these channels?
Now at first, the only link between these three channels was that Spill would sometimes
cross-promote Brew and Grill’s videos in her community tab.
But then, one of my subscribers sent me this video.
I’m going to be away for today.
I’ve got a big group project at school that really needs to get done.
But don’t worry, I think I’ve got just the guy to cover a strange story about secret
government organizations and aliens.
Hi there.
So, tea, huh?
So yeah, turns out I was wrong.
They’re just college friends making YouTube videos together.
There’s no mystery.
Yeah.
Okay bye.
Just kidding.
Did you think that was it?
Huh?
You thought I was just going to end the video that way?
When have ever just wasted your time for ten minutes and then ended the video with some
vaguely meta punchline . . . recently?
When have I ever done that?
Never, that’s when.
I know that this is stranger than fiction at this point, but there is a fourth channel
which is way more in-depth than any of the other ones I’ve talked about.
It’s a full-blown fictional animation channel.
I was gonna reach out to Spill via business email for more information, but apparently
Spill isn’t even supposed to be a real person.
That’s what I meant when I said she wasn’t a real person.
They’re characters.
There’s-- there’s lore.
I was wondering if we could ask you for some help?
Sure, what’s the big issue?
Spill wasn’t talking about doing a literal homework assignment, she was talking about
doing a ficitonal college assignment for this fictional college in this whole fictional
world of fictional influencers.
This isn’t a team of people, okay?
This is a company.
Which is a team of people—You know what I mean.
I feel like this company is trying to create fake YouTubers for every genre.
What if they start a cooking channel called Grill?
They already used Grill as a name, didn’t they.
What if they start a cooking channel called Meal?
What if they start a true crime channel called Kill?
What if they try to start a commentary channel and replace me?
Just because my job is so fake and easy that someone artificial could literally do it,
doesn’t mean I don’t wanna collect the paycheck for it.
So I think I’m going to have to beat them to the punch.
Today we’re going to be reading the top posts from r/AskReddit.
LegendaryIke asks, what is a story that you want to tell but--
Okay and, upload.
Behold my new channel, Shill.
Now all I have to do is create like, 10 more of these channels, and then should once again
be secure.
Oh nevermind, I got demonetized.
Anyway, looks like I’ve gotten ten minutes of content out of this—I don’t have a
watch—
So leave a like, tell me what you think, and subscribe if you haven’t already.
Thank you for watching and a big thank you to my 130,000 subscribers.
Okay, bye.