This book contains one of the best dictionaries of vaudeville acts I've ever seen. I'd love to go through and make a dictionary of YouTube acts. Not that Encyclopedia Dramatica isn't already doing that but I'd prefer something with less editorial and more objective description. It's like a mash up between an encyclopedia and a flame war and YouTube already has some of the least interesting comment forums on the internet. It's like every comment section on each new video provides more and more evidence that people are rapidly losing their ability to write as their view count increases. Either that or, as one user commented on my video Ow My Balls! vs. Cremaster 4 vs. Rolling Rock vs. Humor, everything on YouTube is written by "a couple closet homo 12-year-olds playing with (computers)."
Here is a wonderful introduction to internet celebrities on YouTube called Internet People by Dan Meth:
It is becoming abundantly clear that there is a very strong relationship between YouTube and the variety theater. Henry Jenkins explores the similarities in this blog entry: YouTube and the Vaudeville Aesthetic
Here are some quotes from his blog:
"As the name suggests, the variety stage was based on the principle of constant variation and diversity. It represented a grab bag of the full range of cultural interests and obsessions of an age marked by dramatic social, cultural, and technological transformations. In the course of an evening, one might watch a Shakespearean actor do a soliloquy, a trained dog act, an opera recital, a juggler or acrobatic turn, a baggy pants comedian, an escape artist or magician, a tap dance performance, and some form of stupid human tricks (such as a guy with hammers on his shoes hopping around on a giant xylophone or an act where baboons play musical instruments). Similarly, YouTube brings together an equally ecclectic mix of content drawn from all corners of our culture and lays it out as if it were of equal interest and importance, trusting the individual user to determine the relative value of each entry."
"Second, vaudeville performances were short modular units -- usually less than 20 minutes in length -- and much was written about how the demands of economy -- get in, score big, and get off -- impacted the aesthetic choices made. There was no time for elaborate characterization or plot development. Every element had to pull its own weight. Nothing that wasn't necessary for the overall emotional impact could survive. Again, one of the characteristics of YouTube has been this similar push to conciseness. In theory, content can be of any length. In reality, the stuff that gets passed around the most is short and streamlined. YouTube viewers get restless if anything lingers too long. And there is thus a similar emphasis on the immediate emotional impact."
Below are some exemplary vaudevillian and neo-vaudevillian videos:
Of course by this point OK Go! is old news on YouTube but this video still represents a band using the aesthetic of YouTube to get their promo video through the clutter. One of the strongest elements of vaudeville was the musical performance.
Here is Eddie Cantor performing a comedic song from 1923.
The Evolution of Dance is the most viewed video on YouTube with a current count of over 67,000,000. This performance would have fit right in on the vaudeville stage but would have had little place on broadcast television.
W.C. Fields performing a juggling sketch from 1934.
Smosh with their video Transformers Rap. Smosh are the most subscribed to channel on YT. Their brand of comedy appeals perfectly to suburban upper middle class white males, a demographic they fit very comfortably into.
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