10 Bizarre YouTube Videos You Need To See
Do you ever find yourself surfing through YouTube, watching cat after cat video, and wondering where to find some wacky gems? Want to be amazed, amused and quite possibly confused by visual media? In no particular order, here are some recommendations to send you into, yes, ‘that part of YouTube’, where hilarious, horrifying and wonderful things live…
10. CHOP CUP
A nice short video to get you started. It’s got funky music, frivolity, pleasing aesthetics, philosophical intrigue and cups! The message of the video is simple but interesting, and that music really is catchy. I couldn’t find out much about the YouTube channel, but it posted this years ago and hasn’t had much activity since, so it seems to have been made for fun or perhaps animation practice. All I know is that it’s rather kooky.
9. Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared
A stalwart of weirdness for YouTube, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is an important stepping stone for those wanting to be better acquainted with the bizarre in short video format. It’s notorious because of its style and subject matter, both of which quickly degrade into madness. It’s on the more disturbing side, but worth a watch.
Directors Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling, part of a production crew who go by the name This Is It, entered the short film for the 2012 Sundance Festival and it created quite a stir – the festival’s website says that ‘Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared doesn’t merely threaten to devolve into chaos, but gleefully flings itself over the edge.’ Have fun!
(Recommendation: watch the Kids React and YouTubers React videos, from The Fine Brothers, afterwards for emotional solidarity.)
8. “The Exorcist” (1973) Inappropriate Soundtracks
There’s only one thing better than horror films – YouTube videos making fun of horror films. Two fine examples are the Gangnam Style/The Shining mash-up The PSYning and this Stalking Cat video set to the Jaws theme, but this video is one of the best I’ve come across. I won’t tell you which song is amusingly applied to one of the most famous horror films of all time, you’ll just have to hear it for yourself.
Note: I’ve watched the other Inappropriate Soundtracks videos looking for similar hilarity, but unfortunately this one out-amuses the others by a large margin.
7. Eat Randy
Julian Smith, currently director for Ray William Johnson’s internet-dominating show =3, has his own channel which showcases his talents and flair for humour. It’s a fairly popular channel; this video alone has gained over 5 million views. Eat Randy got me hooked on Smith’s channel – its catchy 80s themed music, VHS-style rendering and mad lyrics make for a great parody music video, also worth a mention is how impressively high Smith’s vocal range can go. Note: look out for a cameo from YouTube musical giants Rhett and Link!
6. Mr Banks Has A Mental Breakdown
An under-appreciated (by view count) masterpiece, Mr Banks Has A Mental Breakdown was created by talented ‘youtube poop’ (also known as YTP) creator Gertilish. Youtube poop is a niche genre that can be spotted by a few tropes that are usually involved: taking a clip from a film or TV show, adding strange distortion (of video and audio), repetition, rewinding, speeding up or slowing down, inserting quotes and other popular culture references… they’re quite silly videos made for fun, though some can be quite disturbing. This video is my favourite youtube poop, it always makes me laugh. If you enjoyed this one I recommend some of Gertilish’s Lupin dubs, this for fans of Toy Story and this if you like Friends.
5. Kimi Ni Mune Kyun (YMO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HTyPPELmY0
Because no list of bizarre things is complete without a contribution from Japan, here is pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra‘s 1983 single Kimi Ni Mune Kyun (which translates loosely to ‘I have a crush on you’) from their album Naughty Boys. It might be the rampant enthusiasm of their dancing and facial expressions, it might be the tasteful and timeless costumes and sets, but there’s something about this music video that just refuses leave your brain after watching it. Accompanying game for extra fun: count how many times they say the word ‘kyun’!
4. He Man – What’s Going On
Arguably one of the best videos ever, He Man’s cover of 4 Non Blondes’ hit What’s Up (listen to the original here) has become a popular internet meme. According to Know Your Meme it was originally uploaded in 2005 by members of Slackcircus Studios under the title ‘Fabulous Secret Powers’ but has been known more recently as ‘What’s Going On’ and ‘Heyeyeyeye’, most likely because of the memorable chorus lyrics. 80s cartoon superhero He Man (from TV show He Man and the Masters of the Universe) is transformed into Prince Adam, who sings about his trials and tribulations in life whilst trying awkwardly to chat up men. It’s a viral camp masterpiece, and catchy to boot. A different uploaded version has garnered the most views, but I’ve linked the full version so you can enjoy it for even longer!
3. Sleepover with Crabstickz
Kickthepj is a youtube vlogger with some bizarre tendencies – he’s a good looking chap who likes to slurp tea and argue with his own animated creations. I wanted to include one of his videos in this list, there are many that would have fitted in nicely, but seeming as this one also features the hilarious crabstickz it had to go in. There will be awkwardness and vague feelings of disgust ahead! These two are friends in real life, let’s just hope that it’s not always this weird when they hang out. On a more technical note, the dialogue pacing and shot cuts are excellently done.
2. Blazing Meh – I Would Like A Female To Become My Girlfriend
A much less well known video than some on this list, Blazing Meh’s catchy song is bound to get you dancing, or if not at least it’s keeping it real – feldspar really does suck, most people would agree. The dead-pan facial expressions and monotonous vocals are genuinely funny, and if these boys haven’t found girlfriends yet I will be both shocked and dismayed.
1. BRODYQUEST
BRODYQUEST is, as uploader NeilCicierega puts it, ‘the best day of Adrian Brody’s life.’ Background information: Adrian Brody is an actor who is most famous for being the youngest receiver of a Best Actor academy award, at age 29, for his role in The Pianist. Neil Cicierega is a long-standing youtuber famous for Potter Puppet Pals and his musical output as Lemon Demon, which includes epic classic ‘The Ultimate Showdown’ and his marvellously rude parody of ‘The Song of the Count’. BRODYQUEST is a Lemon Demon project that is pleasing in its simplicity and strangeness – we get to see Brody go about his daily life as a cardboard cutout-esque figure, playing with his starfish friends by the seaside and then becoming a rock star by walking into the sun and coming back out with star-shaped guitar and glasses. Believable stuff. Things get psychedelic when Brody becomes an inter-dimensional space god, his face imprinted onto the Obamas, polar bears and the pope’s hat. If you want something beautifully bizarre, this is the video for you.
This was just a small selection of the crazy things that can be found on YouTube – and who knows what the YouTube community will come up with next!
What do you think? Leave a comment.
Anything by cyriak should be here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/cyriak
I absolutely LOVE how BRODYQUEST is listed in Adrien Brody’s Filmography on Wikipedia. THAT, is awesome!
Adrian brody, having surpassed all of what his world has to offer, and even all of the galaxy, he finds him self at the center of the universe which he is redeemed by becomming everything that has exisited for all enternity…..
Oh wow, that is amazing 😀 😀
Fun list! Some I like are “bundy is pon de floor” and “Jozin Z Bazin – original with english subtitles”, search for those.
I love those recommendations 😀 thanks Maia!
I would have believed Eat Randy was a 80’s/90’s film clip, the only thing that gave it away was the 2007-2009 Toyota Camry in the background at around 1 minute mark but it’s still a bloody good attempt.
Didn’t notice that – nice spot! 🙂
Great read! And Brodyquest as number one! Truly a colourful list!
I’m Alan Crayon
Thanks Alan, I’m sure Adrian Brody would appreciate your enthusiasm 😀
Just watched Crabstickz. Before I found out that Sensation is a brand of crisps in Britain I was so confused ‘why does Chris keep asking if PJ want a sensation? What’s going on?’ haha
Ahaha :’) don’t worry, I’m British and I didn’t get the joke until I saw the crisps bag!
Nice selection!
The Exorcist one and “Mr Banks Has A Mental Breakdown” almost made me pass out from laughing. Thanks for this – some really funny stuff here!
Hooray, I’m particularly glad you enjoyed ‘Mr. Banks…’ I LOVE that video!
The only one I have seen here is the Hugs one. My eyebrows pretty much were leaping off my head I was so weirded out.
Yep, it’s pretty famous – I think mostly because people like showing it to their friends to see their reaction! (I am personally guilty of doing this…)
Fantastic selection! There’s some really weird stuff in there.
Thanks Amelia 😀 that’s what I was aiming for, I’m glad I achieved a modicum of strangeness!
I enjoyed watching all of these videos–thanks for this.
‘Don’t hug me I’m scared’ was one of the strangest videos I have ever watched, and the more I watch it the less I understand about it, it has a very uneasy feeling to it.
Yep, it’s a weird one – a popular take on it is that children are often encouraged, regularly by TV programmes but also other sources, to be creative creative creative, even if that means making random figures out of papier mache and sticking beads to them. I guess the video warns about the downside of giving too much of yourself to creativity and not enough to other good qualities like logic, common sense, empathy etc. and I think this is why the video goes to the extreme of including really gorey images – I mean, in a twisted way serial killers can be very creative people, right? Creativity needs to be balanced with other qualities for children.
Nice list. I can’t believe I haven’t seen any of these videos. Apparently, I mostly only watch cat videos. I see that this article is from a while back, how about an update?
Don’t forget Trololololol as well as Trololololol Cat
You should add “to many cooks” to the list, it will mess with your head
These are really weird videos; definitely representative of the YouTube videos from that time.