Post the names of youtubers and other internet microcelebs you love with a burning passion based on more than vibes. Very preferably not large.
A good example is Cathode Ray Dude, who makes long videos on older technology. He doesn’t seem to have done anything reactionary, he’s got a personality far beyond “the algorithm”, and he doesn’t associate with any terrible people. And I enjoy his videos.
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Honestly? Modern Yogscast.
I’m biased as I was a fan as a kid but watching their minecraft shit in 2025 is still so good, and Simon is even funnier now everyone is older and he spouts some hilarious shit. Politically they’re also decent folks too.
I’m glad the Sjin thing was dealt with (I wasn’t watching them back then) but now they seem to be hitting their stride.
Bonus mention
Posy explores weird and wonderful stuff that he enjoys with masterful editing, music, and a voice that should be immortalised on a golden record.
I’m sorry to keep NL-posting but there’s a reason he’s like the only youtuber/streamer with emotes on here. He’s simply the GOAT of being a nice well-rounded person who is also actually funny.
His balatro videos were food for the soul. anti-slop
- Retro Game Mechanics Explained - pretty much what it says on the tin. Super well-structured breakdowns of retro game stuff (like getting down to the assembly level) with some of the best visualizations I’ve ever seen.
- pannenkoek2012 - this man has so much passion for pushing the SM64 A Button Challenge to its limits and all of the SM64 minutiae that have been discovered in the process. I want to live in a world where everyone can pursue their passion like pannen no matter how seemingly trivial.
- Kaze Emanuar - detailed technical breakdowns from a German man with a monomaniacal drive to squeeze every last microsecond of performance gain out of Super Mario 64, which has led him to rewrite large swathes of the game engine.
- MartSnack - okay, so he’s only got two videos as of this comment, but they’re some of the best goddamn videos on YouTube. Even if he had just posted the first one he would have a better output than most could dream of, but then two years later he dropped an even more impressive video. They both involve playing Pokémon “deaf and blind”–in other words, coming up with a sequence of inputs that will beat the game regardless of any RNG. The amount of work that went into these videos is truly mind-boggling, and he presents it in a very digestible and entertaining way.
- 8-Bit Music Theory - wonderful music theory channel which teaches concepts using examples from all across the world of gaming (two great videos to start with are his videos on the Dolphin Shoals sax solo and Baka Mitai). I appreciate that he uses concrete examples with detailed transcriptions and doesn’t dumb down the explanations, and he doesn’t just focus on the what but the why, showing how you can apply these concepts in composition. I think you can enjoy his channel even without music theory knowledge just for the experience of going, “Oh, neat, I never realized that this technique was being used in these different pieces!” and gaining appreciation for the craft; that said, if you are interested in music theory this is a really fun way to get introduced to concepts big and small. You’re not going to master any one concept just from watching a 15 minute video with some examples, of course, but watching his videos has primed me for when I do come across those topics in my more rigorous study and helped me hear things when doing transcriptions. Just having that bit of prior exposure really makes things less daunting, and I treat his channel as a library for when I want to brush up on a topic (his series on modes is especially invaluable!).
- Jonko the ROM Hacker - Another channel with only a few videos, but if you’re interested in ROM hacking I can hardly recommend a better place to start. The channel is run by the leader of a Haruhi fan translation group (that website also has some technical blog posts if you’re hungry for more or prefer written explanations). As a bonus, you don’t have to worry about whether he’s some cryptofascist because he puts
at the beginning of all his presentations. - Hilltop - Another wonderful romhacking channel this one with a focus on PS1 games; I’ve linked to the playlist of all his romhacking breakdowns. Not much to say other than, if anyone can recommend other channels with romhacking/game reverse engineering videos of similar depth and quality, please share them!
- hazel - comfy cozy anime/retro game vibes. I’m gonna be real, I’ve only watched a few of her videos, but I’ve enjoyed all the ones I’ve seen so far. I think her video on old-school fansites will resonate with fellow millennials wistful for the days of the personal web before big tech got their claws into everything.
- Hunter R. - all the weird little trivia you could ever want to know about Animal Crossing and more! As you might guess from the other channels I’ve listed, this one has a fair bit of focus on some of the technical aspects of the series, and there’s a focus on the GameCube game in particular.
- KRAZAM - satire on the world of software development. Highlights include Microservices, The Hustle, and AI Boyfriend.
I sense a theme here (no shade)
Lol, yeah…they all basically check some or all of these boxes for me:
- Figuring out how things work/solving puzzles
- Programming
- Sticking it to the man (e.g. by taking their proprietary code and transforming it into something the people can use freely)
- Video games
I barely even play games these days, but I did a lot as a kid so I think that’s why it’s a comfy substrate for me. And since romhacking/game decompilation checks all of those boxes, I can’t get enough of it. None of my friends are remotely into this stuff, so to the internet I must go!
I play stormworks and no one I know does. I had a friend play with me for a bit, but tapped out once we started touching LUA and PIDs.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
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Astrum
PBS Spacetime
PBS Eons
Technology Connections. I know nothing about that guy, but being able to watch someone with terrible hair talk about washing machines for an hour basically justifies the existence of YouTube imho
He feels like someone who is hiding his power level, though the power level he is hiding is succdem
Through the magic of buying two of them!
I’m amazed it’s not been mentioned here yet - Luna oi! is a very cool socialist Vietnamese channel. Her videos are both fun and informative, and good for getting a non-western take on so many things.
Farya Faraji! He got really popular with his video on Orientalist music vs actual Middle Eastern music: https://youtu.be/LR511iAedYU
Really funny, clever, passionate, dedicated to his craft (the intersection of music and anthropology). I almost never like video essays but his are actually good and actually engaging. His music is great too and i love just he includes detailed descriptions about them.
Man’s channel deserves more love.
Yarr he’s got good research and good music. Great fella.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Moose2 (Brutalmoose)!
Extremely comfy streams of random stuff, mostly vintage games for Windows 98 and XP, on original hardware (no emulation). His Nancy Drew videos are just the best.
- a people’s history of rome, that sort of stuff. i get the feeling they’re marxists keeping it on the down-low, but who knows. - https://www.youtube.com/@tribunateSPQR
- some cool geology lectures about the west coast of north america - https://www.youtube.com/@GeologyNick
- she visits interesting houses - https://www.youtube.com/@kirstendirksen
- japanese man builds houses - https://www.youtube.com/@ShoyanJapaneseCarpenter
- history stuff, i think he’s not bad - https://www.youtube.com/@premodernist_history
- they build houses in western north carolina (they’re probably enormous chuds but they mostly keep it out of the videos. mostly) - https://www.youtube.com/@PerkinsBuilderBrothers
- various linguistics-related videos - https://www.youtube.com/@DrGeoffLindsey
- civil engineering stuff, with hand-built models and demostrations - https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalEngineeringChannel
a people’s history of rome, that sort of stuff. i get the feeling they’re marxists keeping it on the down-low, but who knows. - https://www.youtube.com/@tribunateSPQR
Either they’re Marxists or PhD level trained historians. The field pretty much agrees that the base premises of historical materialism are the right tools for analysis.
A similar internet person who does much more overt commie ancient history analysis is Patrick Wyman, and his Tides of History podcast.
she visits interesting houses - https://www.youtube.com/@kirstendirksen
Big fan of her. Some videos are rich people wankery, but a lot of them are forward-thinking examples of ecologically sound housing and/or cool community building projects.
yeah, not all of them are hits but eg the one about the italian immigrant guy who excavated a series of caves and underground courtyards in the desert? or the two videos about houses built inside greenhouses? hell yeah
This one about the semi-indoor village is my favorite: https://youtu.be/EzKSKqjEmDA
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
T90 for competitive aoe2 videos and just aoe 2 in general
Jimothy cool for mostly gen 3 OU pokemon videos
Wolfeyvgc for his pokemon vgc tournament videos that are always fun
Solid jj for funny videos
Hey guys, Spirit of the Law here
Spirit of the La Hire
I would imagine many people here who watch Youtube are already familiar with Folding Ideas, at least from his video about NFTs. He is imo the best video essayist by a wide mile.
Then there’s Jenny Nicholson, her videos are hit or miss in the sense that I really don’t care about most topics she talks about, but I find even those videos engaging and when she does talk about an interesting topic it’s an all-timer for me.
I watched all four hours of her video about the Star Wars hotel. Damn, that was almost a year ago and apparently she hasn’t posted a video since.
She posts more videos on her patreon, IIRC like 2-3x what’s on her channel now. She doesn’t advertise it much, probably because of how rarely she makes videos lol.
Big cooking video person here
J Kenji Lopez Alt is my muse. I will not hear anything against him.
Chef John/Food Wishes - He makes some great old school recipe videos, just no bullshit 8-10 minute videos walking you through the recipe steps. Also has great puns.
America’s Test Kitchen Has a bunch of filler videos, but I really like What’s Eating Dan and Techniquely with Lan Lam, just very knowledgeable chefs.
Did you ever give Tasting History with Max Miller a go? Might be up your alley. I’m def going to look these up, thanks!
I really enjoy Exurb1a
CW SA
that person is a r*pist (and will likely never face any justice unfortunately ): )
F.D Signifier is really cool but not exactly a hidden gem by now. He kind of blew up huh
I dont really care much for comdey on youtube but I do like “Man Carrying Thing”. Skits that are usually just like a minute or so.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_hK9fOxyy_TM8FJGXIyG8Q
Dhar Mann, the goat
Not sure if you meant this as a joke, but it made me laugh.
