So, I’ve been thinking lately since that PewDiePie thread went up and realized that, wow, we have a big problem with a lot of us somehow managing to end up watching, reading, or listening to people who happen to be really racist, sexist, homophobic, ect. Rather than make a list of these people to avoid, because that would definitely be a disaster waiting to happen, I figured why not take that idea and try something more positive instead?
The idea here is simple: just list out some content creators on the internet you enjoy and would like to recommend to people. Be detailed as to way, and be sure to list out any possible triggers or content warnings if necessary. You can recommend for whatever reason, be it someone has good politics, is simply entertaining without resorting to being racist or sexist or ect, and whatever else.
And the reason I’m making this instead of pointing to the other recommendation threads we already have for stuff like podcasts or leftist youtubers is because I think those are really restricting, especially because so many content creators today make all sorts of stuff. I’ll even update the OP post as long as I can with recommendations and credit to the original posters, and make additional summary posts every once in awhile after.
I think this is the best option in the long run than having multiple recommendation threads for something that’s become so universal for us. Just, like, have a big old list anyone can add to for cool people making cool stuff.
And hey, if you wanna plug yourself, feel free to (I will not be doing that since I made the thread and I feel that would be a bit gouache).
Just please remember to bold the name of the content creator or group and leave a link somewhere, maybe with some recommendations of their stuff to try. And remember, you can suggest video makers, podcasters, streamers, web comic artists, just artists in general, writers, and whatever else you can think of.
I’ll start the list out. Keep in mind that my expertise is mainly Youtube, I have to think a bit harder on other stuff (and I doubt I need to even mention Homestuck at this point).
Pop Arena - A Youtube channel dedicated to media criticism in general. Does a lot of literature stuff, but will cover most anything. Most notably doing a series about Nickelodeon right now called Nick Knacks, going over the full history of the channel and every single thing they ever aired. He’s even working on a book version, and it’s very well researched. Staunch anarchist.
Recommendations: Nick Knacks series, Goosebumps Monthly, Doctor Who Book Guide
EmceeProphit - Youtuber I’ve been following for the past few years. He does videos on games, and is known mainly for his Symbolism in games series, where he goes over a given game’s thematic core through examining their symbolism. He’s been hit by general Youtube shenanigans lately, so I figured I’d make him one of my first shout outs.
Recommendations: Digimon World Review, No More Heroes Symbolism series
Red Angel - A game critic I found out about through a short lived indie gaming podcast. Uploads are very sporadic, but her few pieces of work are all really well thought out.
Recommendations: Parasocial Relationships video, Oxenfree grief video
Movie Nights - Old TGWTG people (hello, fellow dinosaurs) probably remember Lupa, aka Allison Pregler. She still makes things on Youtube, if you didn’t know and only heard of her again after the Channel Awesome doc hit. She does a lot of silly stuff on TV and movies, and she’s grown over the years, even apologizing for some offensive jokes she made in her old Charmed series during a recent review of the Charmed comics.
Recommendations: Baywatching, The Ghost Writer review, a recent two part list of all the most ridiculous things Tyra Banks has ever done on Top Model
Lazy Game Reviews - Probably the guy with the highest subscriber count I’m bringing up here, but I just feel like more people need to be aware of Clint’s work. The guy is a genuine PC gaming historian who reviews old games, shares weird tech history stories, and talks about video production and PC repair, among all sorts of other stuff. He’s just a really chill guy with a great voice who might be the only nice guy on Youtube who is genuinely nice.
Recommendations: Anything from his Edutainment month specials, Tech Tales, the Ninja Nanny review (you HAVE to watch this one, whatever you do)
Renegade Cut - A film criticism channel run by Leon Thomas, a leftist and former teacher who does weekly videos using films to explore political and philosophical topics. Currently doing a four part series on tribalism among DC movie fandom, and plans to extend content into literature next year.
Recommendations: Left Behind movie (he made an actual movie digging into the Left Behind movies, it’s really good), It’s a Wonderful Life video, Little Shop of Horrors video, The Incredibles video
Panoots - Best known for a thirty second cartoon he made making fun of r/gaming way back in 2012, Panoots has started making videos again lately, shifting from animation to whatever he feels like. I bring him up because he did an hour long video about Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and gives actual interesting criticism of the game that has basically been impossible to find on the internet since forever. His earlier stuff has not aged well, but he’s grown since.
Recommendations: KONG - A Documentary (the whole video is a piss-take and it made me laugh more than anything has in awhile), Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts retrospective
Nitro Rad - pretty nice guy living in Canada who studied film and ended up making videos on Youtube. Some rough early videos, like the Ty reviews, but his stuff nowadays is slickly produced and filled with great game design criticism. He looks mainly at indie games, B-grade platformers, and when October comes around, horror games.
Recommendations: Bubsy 3D (he actually completed it), Clock Tower series, Petscop, Haven: Call of the King, Siren series
Matt McMuscles - One of the former members of Super Best Friends, he started a solo channel about a year ago and it’s been growing in size and scope since, moving from regular LPs to cut and edited LPs, retrospective videos, and a few running series with wildly different topics, including one where he sits down with his wife and they judge video game fashion. The crown jewel might be the Wha Happun series, based on an old catchphrae of his that looks at video game history disasters and goes into why they even happened. The Guy Game episode is especially incredible.
Recommendations: Crymetina Critiques (minus the JoJo episode where Matt revealed to everyone he hasn’t watched past part three), Wha Happun, Best Killer Instinct themes list, Prince of Persia retrospective, Edgelords