[epiccoleman]

Maybe MeatCanyon[1], or Joe Cappa's stuff[2], could fall into the modern "YouTube weird" - but I think a lot of the particular "weird" vibe of the early days of the modern web is pretty much dead - or at least not mainstream enough for me to know about it. There was a much more amateur bent to a lot of the old viral flash stuff, which I think just wouldn't stand out today.

These two are a sort of new kind of weird - MeatCanyon is based largely around gross-out body horror parodies of pop culture, and Joe Cappa is ... I'm not sure what it is, but I love his stuff.

If you like either of these videos the rest of their work is well worth a look. Especially the Joe Cappa "Haha You Clowns" series is just the weirdest kind of hilarious.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3BJpO59F4g

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUQckI_NqgY

[doublepg23]

> but I think a lot of the particular "weird" vibe of the early days of the modern web is pretty much dead

I take it you haven't had a 12 year old talk your ear off about Five Nights at Freddy's lore or "SCP" then?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCP_Foundation

[epiccoleman]

SCP Foundation has been around for like 15 years! The wiki itself is absolutely great though, it's definitely a good example of that DIY ethos. It's been interesting to see how much content has been generated from the stuff on the site over the last few years. My kids seem to enjoy the SCP lore explainer videos (at least, when they're allowed on YouTube).

[cafeinux]

Oh, I see you've met my godson...

[Kiro]

> There was a much more amateur bent to a lot of the old viral flash stuff, which I think just wouldn't stand out today.

The biggest thing right now is DaFuq!?Boom! and the Skibidi Toilet series, which looks like it was made in Garry's Mod or something.

[epiccoleman]

Skibidi Toilet is 100% worth calling out - very in line with that DIY weird vibe of the Newgrounds/AlbinoBlackSheep era. Has to have been Garry's Mod or probably these days, Source Filmmaker (SFM).

Makes me feel old, though - that's a meme from my kids generation, which I know about only because of them.

[astrange]

There's a YouTube channel called BuiltByGamers that does nothing but post absurd fake podcast clips where two guys pretend to argue about FNAF and Skibidi Toilet and get all the lore wrong. I think it's interesting because I've never thought of trolling elementary schoolers as a business idea. Watching them feels like getting a lobotomy though.

[epiccoleman]

That reminds me, tangentially, of the videos with deepfaked voices of Obama, Trump, and Biden playing video games together. For me it gets stale fast, but I will admit there's something pretty hilarious about the whole setup.

[quacksilver]

I think it is source filmmaker.

My nephew and everyone in his generation seem to be really into it, even to the extent that I heard kids singing 'tears for fears' songs (from the 80s) used in it in the street the other day.

I tried to show him source filmmaker in an attempt to get him to be interested in messing around / producing stuff rather than consuming it on an iPad, but sadly he wasn't interested.

[archontes]

It may not be as aberrant as MeatCanyon, but I would say that Felix Colgrave is defining his own genre enough to be considered weird.

https://www.youtube.com/@FelixColgrave

[epiccoleman]

Oh man, I absolutely love his stuff. Every once in a while that Fever the Ghost song gets stuck in my head, even a decade after that video debuted. He's definitely got a very psychedelic and surreal style that is 100% Felix Colgrave. And I think that he certainly deserves the title of weird as much as anyone.

Especially his earlier stuff very much has that old school net sensibility about it. (Although he's talented and polished enough that it's not _quite_ the same amateur vibe of those early Newground days).

Another source of phenomenally cool and interesting "content" is the Adult Swim Off the Air series, which also has a very psychedelic vibe to it. The series collects a wide variety of really awesome animations (and also lots of silly stuff).

Probably my favorite thing to ever come from the Off The Air oeuvre is the animated music video for Dan Deacon's song When I Was Done Dying[1]. They also did a 20 minute special episode featuring Dan Deacon's music which is extremely cool[2]. I was exposed to so much cool stuff via Off The Air, the first episode is still one of my favorite ten minutes of weirdness[3]. There are so many other great episodes, too, if you like this kind of thing.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59QBOO6m210

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X4fYP9bqqw

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59QBOO6m210

[dale_glass]

JaimeR is also weirdness on another level: https://www.youtube.com/@JaimeR2D

[zoklet-enjoyer]

Check out Conner O'Malley's stuff on YouTube. He did some really great stuff around the 2020 election.

[zoklet-enjoyer]

He just posted a new video. NSFW. Uses AI images and voices. https://youtu.be/pQs26c1klAU?feature=shared

[bitvoid]

Also, H3H3's original videos before he started doing reaction/commentary stuff as well, which was more early YouTube than current.

[j33zusjuice]

Dude, that is the best shit on YT right now. I think it’s more “absurd,” than “weird,” though. It’s more in the spirit of Tim & Eric than Salad Fingers. I haven’t checked MeatCanyon, but I will be soon.

[epiccoleman]

Maybe so, and I even agree - but if being in the spirit of Tim and Eric doesn't qualify as weird, idk what does.

[serf]

my personal rule of thumb : if they're going for the eccentricity, it's absurd -- but if they just act that way and they lean-in they're weird.

Tim & Eric and similar acts are absurd -- the people themselves are somewhat normal and put on a show when the gong sounds; this is obvious in their 'normal' productions.

Bjork, Steven Wright, Emo Phillips, Andy Kaufman, Tom Waits -- they roll out of bed 'acting that way'.