The single greatest adversary to my productivity is YouTube. It's the perfect time-waster: an endless stream of readily available, entertaining content that adapts to my personal viewing preferences. There are a few channels that have stuck with me for some time and have remained consistently entertaining. For new viewers, these YouTube channels are a goldmine of hilarious content, perfect for ignoring your responsibilities and slipping into a state of blissful laziness
1. SovietWomble
SovietWomble makes gaming videos. But the thing that sets him apart from other channels is his mastery of and dedication to the art of editing. SovietWomble doesn’t just press record and upload—he goes back, cuts the footage down to the absolute essentials, and adds meticulously keyframed subtitles to the entire video.
Here is a great video essay on SovietWomble’s editing. The cherry on top of Soviet’s videos is that the group of people he records with (the ZF Clan) are a hilarious group of people.
2. Game Grumps
The Game Grumps are a YouTube powerhouse. Understandably so, as they are some of the most talented, dedicated, engaging, and funny people on the website. Over the years, the Game Grumps have amassed an army of followers who dutifully watch each video they put out.
The Game Grumps formula is deceptively simple: put a few people on a couch, and record them playing video games. With Game Grumps, the games don’t even have to be good—you watch for the interaction between the people playing the game (usually Dan and Arin). A good starting place for the massive library of Game Grumps footage is the Game Grumps Starter Pack, which includes a few of their most popular videos of each type.
3. Gus Johnson
Gus Johnson’s about page says, “I do comedy, I create skits, I craft memes, I make music, I crap out bad vlogs.” This is an accurate summary. Gus’s videos are short, sweet, and dense. A good example is “Mitchell Robbins Microwaves Soup.” This video is a relentless onslaught of dumb jokes executed and edited so quickly and precisely that it is actually funny. Each of Gus’s skits are entertaining and range from absolute nonsense to deep social commentary. Gus is charming, clever, and above all, he is not a bamboozler.
4. ProZD
ProZD is a voice actor and video game/anime/food enthusiast. He makes a wide variety of videos: short Vine-like comedy bits, food unboxings, board game reviews, Tumblr post dubs, etc. Even if you don’t watch anime or play video games, his videos are still entertaining, and food is universal. ProZD’s voice acting range is incredible, and he uses it to play a variety of characters in his comedy bits, most of which develop into recurring characters. ProZD’s short videos are perfect for bingeing because you can keep telling yourself “Just one more 20 second video won’t hurt” forever and ever and ever . . . .
5. videogamedunkey
videogamedunkey, as the name implies, is a gaming channel. Dunkey makes funny gaming content, but also posts the occasional serious (but still entertaining) review or commentary. The more Dunkey I watch, the more I see how much effort and planning goes into his videos. He develops themes and recurring jokes within each video, and knows exactly how much entertainment he can squeeze out of each joke. Nothing ever drags on too long, and each video cuts to credits immediately following the final joke the video has been building too. His commentary videos are insightful and researched, and he is not afraid to experiment, which results in some of his best videos.
