A little while ago I did a blog post about three youtube channels that are good for writing research. This is not a continuation of that blog post. As important as dedicating time, effort, and energy are to writing if you want to make a real go of it, it’s also important to have fun.
So, in that vein, here are three YouTube channels I recommend that are just pure fun.
Translator Fails
Google translate is an odd beast. It’s the closest we have, as a species, come to the universal translator of science fiction. On the other hand, language is far more nuanced than algorithms can account for, which can produce some hilarious results. If you ever want to have some fun, take a sentence and run it through twelve or thirteen different languages to see what comes out.
Malinda Kathleen Reese saw an opportunity in this. She takes famous songs, run them through Google translate a dozen times or more, and then sings them. The results are often weird, sometimes nonsensical, and always hilarious.
Favorite Video
Makes me laugh every single time.
Hello Future Me
A channel I found through a collaboration they did with last post’s featured channel Overly Sarcastic Productions, Hello Future Me is a channel I haven’t been able to get enough of. Hailing from New Zeland, Tim Hickson provides in-depth analysis of tropes in fiction through the lens of popular series, looking at both what they do well and what they can improve.
While technically this could count as a writing research channel, it’s also just a fun watch. Even if you’re not a fan of the works he uses for his examples, he’s careful to explain the important details so anyone can follow.
Favorite Video
Ahh, back when GoT was good. What? You didn’t think we were getting out of this post without me taking a shot at Game of Thrones, did you?
Movie Bob
I’ve followed Movie Bob’s career since back in his first round of Escapist days. He’s a somewhat controversial figure in some corners of the internet due to being loudly outspoken in his political beliefs, but his movie reviews are always interesting even if I don’t always agree with them.
For a little while, MovieBob was a solo operation, and his youtube channel has some real gems on it. The absolute pinnacle is his Really That Good series, where Bob takes an in-depth look at some of the biggest movies in popular culture and examines if they are actually as good as we remember them to be.
Favorite Video
First of a three-part breakdown of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, the one time the answer to Really That Good was “Really that Bad,” Bob’s huge breakdown is infinitely more enjoyable than the movie itself was.
The Home of Alex Raizman 