PREAMLBE

Over 2021 I cataloged every piece of decent-to-good media I consumed in my phone’s notes app.

I mean everything. Podcasts. Movies. TV shows. Music. If I didn’t hate myself for wasting time afterwards, it went in the list.

Starting January 1st, 2022, I began writing little reviews concerning each piece with the intention of turning my thoughts into a simple 10 minute video. But the more I went on, the less and less interested I became in actually making the video itself. It was fun to write the list, reminisce on the past year, but I didn’t really want to edit everything down into something consumable for other people. It was just, kinda, for me?

So around February I ditched the whole idea of making a video, and here we are.

I’ve decided to share my thoughts with you dear reader, but in order to get to the good stuff, you’re going to have to READ! Mwhahahahaha!

Thank you for giving even a half ounce of care in regards to my opinions on these things. And here we goooo!

MANGO ZAIN SUMMIT 11 FINALS BABY!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

In my very biased opinion, this was the internet event of the year.

Screw the bones vs no bones dog. Screw the Ratatouille musical. All of it. All of it perishes at the feet of Smash Summit 11 Grand Finals.

For those who don’t know, Super Smash Brothers Melee is a fighting game that’s been around over 20 years. Over those two decades, superfans have broken it to levels way beyond that little match you had with Dylan in the McDonalds Playplace. There are hyper specific rule sets, more slang terms for movement than you’d hear at a skate park, and rituals surrounding whether you win or lose. It’s this beautiful, fun, crazy little microculture that I’m sure I’ll make a video about someday.

A LOT of talent and effort goes into competing at the top level. We are talking reaction speeds at 1/60th of a second y’all. Think speed chess but harder, on a TV, and with characters from Nintendo.

Enter Smash Summit 11. The biggest melee event since the start of COVID that invites some of the greatest players from around the world. After 3 days of battling it out there are 2 finalists ready to take the top spot and $40k.

Zain, who hasn’t dropped a set all weekend, is a recently discovered talent and undisputed hero of the online era. (read: pandemic) This dude breathes melee – streaming HOURS and HOURS and HOURS of insanely technical play on Twitch. He’s so good at beating the character fox that people make memes. If you asked, pretty much everyone at the venue thinks Zain is winning this event. He’s on another level.

Then you have Mang0. A 14 year veteran of the game and described by many as the greatest to ever pick up a gamecube controller. Despite middling performances over the past few years, his recent game has gotten a lot stronger. Mang0 loses a match early in tournament, but after battling through a GAUNTLET in the double elimination bracket, he faces down the unproven (but clearly favored) Zain with a character he just recently started practicing with.

Fox.

What happens next will be talked about as long as people still play Super Smash Bros. The new champ vs the classic wildcard. Dragon vs Tiger. A match that embodies the very nature of the word “melee” and 20 years of fan development.

MANGO. ZAIN. BEST OF 5.

goosebumps

Allston Melee

These dudes have a kick ass punk DIY style and love SSBM more than pretty much anyone. Their top 10s are just as entertaining as they are informative, and if you’re a newcomer to the weird little world of Melee, you won’t regret subscribing to them.

Down the Rabbit Hole

You ever play the Wikipedia game where you click through a bunch of links until you’re on some crazy page about an instrument from 9th century Europe?

Down the Rabbit Hole makes videos that feel like that.

Exploring every odd corner of the internet and world, this mostly creepy sometimes wholesome channel creates feature length documentaries that youtube LOVED recommending to me this past year. With each viewing I got sucked in to the spell of creator Fredrik Knudsen, his flat delivery allowing me to sink into rabbit trails of my own, curiously spelunking worlds I would have otherwise never peered into.

Kenny Beats - The Cave

On The Cave producer Kenny Beats creates fun free styles with some of the best talent in the business. His infectious personality and the stellar editing make for great insight into the creative process, and ultimately, we get fun music out of it too. It’s a win-win-win kinda project and one I never miss an episode of.

Cas van de pol

This channel does wacky cartoon parody recaps. Like, here is all of Kung Fu Panda or Avatar or whatever… but more absurdist and violent? DON’T JUDGE ME!

I know it’s very old school internet and sometimes I can’t tell if the videos are actually funny or if I’m just immature. Or maybe they’re not even funny at all?

Regardless the art style is cute and the animation is really well done. The channel has amassed over 513 million views as of me writing this. So why not give it a shot?

Toonrific Tariq

Cartoon retrospective channels are an unsung pillar of youtube. Since the dawn of the platform, dorky nerds have hyper focused on their favorite episodes of Kim Possible or whatever to varying successes. Its thankless work, with the algorithm striking most into oblivion before they can ever truly rise to power. But nobody does it quite like Toonrific Tariqu.- who I discovered this year from his long running Charlie Brown series.

Thoughtful commentary presented with a personal touch, and plenty of inside jokes for long time fans, this channel is a 100% certified banger.

Tariqu can get into the weeds of forgotten media like the Little Lulu Show, bring out the emotion hidden behind something like Fat Albert, and give interesting analysis on the history of black cartoon characters. No matter what the subject is I know that I’m in for something equal parts entertaining and introspective when I tune in, and there’s not enough people making content like that these days.

I actually wrote about these next two already! My feelings about it haven’t really changed at all so I’m just gonna dooo a quick copy paste-y. Mk? Ok.

Bizarre Beasts

Hey, remember the Vlogbrothers? Back when I was in high school their channel was BLOWING UP! And nowadays it feels like John and Hank Green have practically touched every corner of the nerdosphere.

They’ve published some of the highest selling YA novels of all time, created Vidcon, raised millions of dollars for hundreds of charities, provide merch for like half the internet, got TikTok famous, and they even did a live show at Carnegie Hall! You name it, the Vlogbrothers have probably done it, and been very successful.

One of their latest forays into online entertainment is a little channel called Bizarre Beasts.

Created by Hank and co-produced/hosted by Sarah Suta, Bizarre Beasts chronicles peculiar fauna from all around the world, and is also, a pin club! So if you find yourself inspired by a bear cat who’s pee smells like buttered popcorn, you can have them immortalized as a little metal trinket, and stick em to your book bag. (as long as you get to the website within 3 days of the video posting)

Be sure to hit up the Playlist section on this channel because before Bizarre Beasts was its own thing Hank Green uploaded mini creature docs to the main Vlogbrothers account. There are 13 “unofficial” episodes out there, weirdly named after lyrics to Smash Mouth’s All Star, that are in my opinion just as good as the stuff on the main page.

My personal favorites from the channel? The video titled You Might as Well Swim about the Portuguese Man of War was incredibly fascinating. But I also really loved the episodes on Feather Stars and the Iberian Ribbed Newt.

Lackadaisy

Born in the smoldering dumpster fire known as Deviant art, Lackadaisy is a PHENOMENAL web comic that gained quite a bit of popularity in the early age of the internet (2006).

Following the antics of a dying speakeasy in 1927 St. Louis, a motley crew of morally ambiguous characters laugh and shoot their way towards dreams of better lives while spouting witty prose and loving pancakes…

Oh, also they’re all cats. Anthropomorphic cats.

It’s bizarrely perfect.

And as of March 2020, the creator of the series (Tracy J Butler) has announced Lackadaisy is getting its own animated short film! Hooray! The youtube channel linked above houses all sorts of animation updates, live streams of the process, and comics dubbed by the film’s cast. If you’re a fan of the series (definitely read it if you haven’t), love animation with more mature themes (I know some of ya do), or just want to support a bunch of really cool people going outside the studio system to create a unique project - GO SUBSCRIBE! And get hyped for the finished product coming soon!

OH! And if you’re super into it you can donate to the film via their patreon! How nifty is that?