The first poster for Magic Mike XXL is out, and it’s quite something.

Channing Tatum posted the photo on Twitter and Facebook Tuesday (the latter through Facebook Mentions) with a tease for fans: “Look, but you can’t touch.” He’ll be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday to present the world premiere of the first Magic Mike XXL trailer.

The original film followed a group of male strippers and was loosely based on Tatum’s experiences as a male stripper in Miami when he was 18. The sequel is bound to be bigger—and not just because of the “XXL” in the title.

This time around, the men are taking a road trip from Tampa, Fla., to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for a stripper convention, inspired by events that Tatum attended when he was 19.

“The women would come from miles and miles around,” Tatum told GQ back in July. “Then you lock the doors and you say all bets are off. It gets zany and crazy, and it’s a wild ride. It’s an incubator for insanity.”

Magic Mike XXL comes into theaters July 1.

Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

In the last few days, the #50dollarsnot50shades hashtag has been circulating on social media, asking people to donate to domestic abuse charities instead of seeing the movie. On Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter, supporters of the campaign are arguing that Fifty Shades romanticizes abusive behavior.

Photo via fiftyshades-movie

I went through a lengthy, internal debate over whether or not I, as a white male, should undertake penning this particular roundup. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I was long overdue for a refresher of the civil rights movement, and as it was unlikely that I'd be opening up a book anytime soon without some sort of test being involved, I decided this would be a great way to simultaneously get some work done and learn myself some things. 

Without further ado: Here are three great films, currently streaming on Netflix, that you probably haven't seen before—and one that you definitely have.

1) The Long Walk Home (1990)            

The Long Walk Home covers the Birmingham bus boycott of 1955 from a peripheral view—we hear Rosa Parks’ name as somebody reads the paper, and Rev. King is discussed in black churches as strategies are laid out and nonviolence is stressed as a means of protest—but the film looks past the key players in favor of exploring the implications of the boycott for two families: one black and working class, the other affluent and white.

Whoopi Goldberg plays Odessa Carter, a maid that lives across town from the wealthy family that employs her: Sissy Spacek is matriarch Miriam Thompson, and her husband—Dwight Schultz (TheA-Team’s Howling Mad Murdoch)’s Norman Thompson—is an important city official. He’s a good father—for Christmas, he names some streets after his kids, and that’s a swell thing to do—but he’s uncomfortable with his wife’s growing tendency to treat their maid as a human being. The film’s careful to not portray him as an all-out monster, but it makes no qualms about him being a coward, which is important: Although all-out monsters were certainly involved, segregation was, like many structural injustices, only successfully perpetrated with the mass compliance of foolish cowards.

When the bus boycott begins, there isn't much question among the black community of whether anybody will get on a bus or not—it’s just simply not an option to ride it, and this means Odessa is required to walk an insane distance to and from work every day. She shows up tired and ends up being forced to ask Miriam if she can cut her schedule down to three days a week. 

Meanwhile, Norman is being increasingly teased by his monstrous brother—played by Dylan Baker (who also appears as J. Edgar Hoover in Selma)—for his wife’s perceived sympathies for the family’s maids. He puts his foot down, mandating that Odessa will have to be fired if she’s willing to let this dignity nonsense with the boycott affect her job performance. Miriam responds by covertly driving Odessa to and from work two days a week—a major faux pas for the wife of a city official—and her husband is furious when he finds out. This time, Miriam puts her foot down and continues driving her, marital cold shoulders and grudges be damned, and Norman is pretty much forced to just accept it. 

Soon after, Miriam’s newly discovered empowerment and her conversations with Odessa result in her taking things up a notch—she begins hanging around a car lot that’s being used to organize rides for boycotters. 

Actively aiding in the boycott, by helping people with rides—unbeknownst to her husband—isn’t just about helping the black community. It's largely a matter of her practicing her own freedom and listening to her own conscience, in a time when it was only acceptable for women to think about dinner, children, and how unconditionally wonderful their husbands were. As it would turn out, the civil rights movement would go on to resonate very strongly with American women, and it would greatly influence second-wave feminism a decade later.

But though Miriam—as somebody gradually shedding her neutrality on a practice she disagrees with—goes through the most dramatic character arc in the film, this is really Goldberg’s showcase. Her performance is nuanced and subtle, with a mere glance communicating a deep spectrum of internal emotion. She knew exactly how she felt long before Rosa Parks was ever arrested, and her performance is drenched in physical and mental exhaustion. It's the sort of exhaustion that kickstarted the boycott in the first place, with a peaceful gesture of resistance from a fed-up 42-year-old woman. Odessa and her husband—a pre-Pulp Fiction, slimmer Ving Rhames—represent a movement that was not yet dominated by youth activists, as it would be in the ’60s, but by frustrated workers who were willing to walk 10 miles to work for as long as it took (as it would turn out, just over a year) to show white Birmingham how much a better future for their children meant to them.

There’s a subtle but very deliberate measure taken by the screenplay that protects Miriam’s arc from veering into White Savior territory: When she expresses her interest to aid in the boycott, Odessa tells her, very plainly, “This boycott will survive without you.” And she’s right—the boycott is a well-oiled machine, and though Miriam takes an active role in supporting it, none of her actions inform its eventual outcome. It’s never about the boycott needing her—it's the other way around—and it's a better movie for it.

A lot more could be written about this movie, and how it successfully avoids a lot of trappings that similar films would fall victim to, but you should watch it instead. It’s quite the unknown gem, and it looks great, too (it’s shot by Roger Deakins). 

While segregation on buses would be declared unconstitutional with the ruling of Browder v. Gayle in 1956, the civil rights movement was just getting under way, and it would be in full swing a decade later.

2) The Watsons Go to Birmingham (2013)

The Watsons are fairly well-off—they live in Flint, Mich., but decide to spend a summer with the children’s grandmother in Birmingham for a change of scenery and to allow their mother to reconnect with her hometown. The film is based on the book The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, written by Christopher Paul Curtis, and the family feels very real and quite fun. The family is constantly joking with one another, their banter is always witty and exciting, and the first act thankfully sticks around with them in Flint for the audience to grow familiar with their dynamic. You feel close to them by the time they set off for Alabama.

When the family stops in a diner on their way to Birmingham, they’re waited on by a smiling white waitress, and when they tell her where they’re going, a concerned look comes across her face. She says, very genuinely, “Y’all be careful, all right?” On the road, they hear a news report on the radio about President Kennedy fighting to cut federal funding for states practicing segregation and then a report about “another bombing in Birmingham.” It feels, at this point, like The Watsons Go to Birmingham is setting itself up as a horror film.

It turns out that, despite a couple of horrific scenes, the film maintains its status as a family drama throughout the running time, albeit one set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement.

Like The Long Walk Home, the plot here largely spends its time on the periphery of the main action, but there are differences in the civil rights movement here, 10 years later. For one, bombings are a regular thing. An explosion will interrupt a conversation, and it’s not even a big deal—a native to Birmingham will simply squint a bit and say, “It’s OK, that sounded at least a couple miles away.” Another big difference is the youth involvement. The Watson children’s cousins tell them about how their teacher turned their back on the day of a big march, and students left their classes in mass to join in on the famous protests, organized by Rev. King, in which the goal of each protester was to be arrested without resistance. The film breaks away during this story, switching to 8mm and 16mm documentary-esque footage of that protest, and shows a church before the march began. A preacher instructs everybody to put anything that could be interpreted as a weapon by the police, including large combs, into a basket sitting in front of the pews. It’s a detail that makes you realize just how much these protests had their shit together and how their strategies were crafted and goals defined in ways that would never happen again, especially with such total precision, in a mass movement in the United States. 

On the first day of this particular march (called D-Day), 900 protesters were arrested—a big success for the movement. On the second day (Double D-Day), the police released dogs on the marchers, and the fireman turned hoses on them. One of the cousins, a young girl, shows the children a scar on her knee from that second day—a protest that had evoked great violence from the city's infrastructure solely because its black citizens were congregating and voicing their concerns.

The Watson children are amazed at the segregated movie theaters and water fountains, and they’re confused when at a diner that mirrors the one up north, they're told, in very plain terms, that “their kind” won't be served there. But, as bad as things are, when the famous march on Washington, D.C., happens that summer, and they watch it on television with their grandmother, she reminds them that they “have no idea how lucky [they] are” when she sees the 200,000 people gathered at the Washington Monument. Yes, things are bad, but she’s old enough to remember a time when nobody was demanding that they get better—and she clearly remembers those times being worse.

The Watsons come face-to-face with the white-perpetrated violence that’s been occurring in the near distance in the last 20 minutes of the film, and it’s a heartbreaking scene—but the overall message is more concerned with the psychological consequences of this sort of violence than it is with the blunt physicality of it. Although it contains heavy subject matter, I wouldn’t think the film would be inappropriate for any kid over 6 years old. There are implications of bloody events, but it’s never gory—it did, after all, originally air on the Hallmark Channel—and it's probably a better film to introduce a child to the civil rights movement with than the one that introduced me to it (more on that later). 

If you're an adult, don't let its cover (or the trailer) fool you into thinking this is a schmaltzy movie that won't affect your cynical heart. I won’t say that I teared up in the last five minutes, but…well, I won’t say that I did, and let’s leave it at that.

3) The American Experience: 1964 (2014)

Of course, there's a very legitimate concern among historians regarding the extent to which our historical knowledge is defined by watching narrative features, which may contain an inherent dramatic bias built into their foundation; after all, while it's certainly possible for a narrative feature to educate and expand the mind, its ultimate purpose is to entertain.

This documentary pairs well with the previous two entries, and it’s a good primer to weigh any narrative feature set in the civil rights movement against. Anybody wondering if the racial inequality seen in films like The Watsons Go to Birmingham is exaggerated needs to watch a documentary, like this one, to confirm that things were actually far, far worse.

Many historians mark the start of ’64 at the assassination of President Kennedy in late ’63; in turn, The American Experience: 1964 opens with Lyndon Johnson being sworn in, making such bold and reassuring statements as “I will do my best. That is all that I can do.” Fortunately, Johnson’s best turned out to be really good (on the civil rights front, anyway), with him somehow managing to persuade 27 Republican voters to cross the aisle and pass the Civil Rights Act. It was a monumental, revolutionary bill, and a righteous blow to the face of evil itself, but Johnson was unable to back this massive stride in civil rights with adequate federal protection, which resulted in a great deal of death and mayhem at the hands of angry white yokels.

Race relations in ’64 can probably be adequately represented by the documentary’s coverage of three Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee members who were murdered in Mississippi. The three members—two white, one black—were visiting a black church that had just been burnt to the ground, and, upon leaving, somebody tipped off the police that they were on the road. They were promptly falsely arrested for speeding, thrown in jail, and then released in the middle of the night into the presence of Klansmen, who murdered them. The three missing students were major news, and President Johnson was livid, demanding that J. Edgar Hoover use the FBI to find the bodies and the murderers by any means necessary; the entire nation eagerly awaited a break in the case. With great regularity, in the course of the investigation, bodies were found. When they’d fail to identify the bodies as one of the three missing SNCC members, the nation would collectively sigh, and the search would continue.

But here's the rub: While the media was indeed fired up over these young men being murdered, and the dire situation in Mississippi in general, it was still being extremely racist in its handling of the story—the most newsworthy aspect of all these mystery bodies was that they weren’t the missing white students. The non-news of the mystery bodies had tragic implications: Turning up massive amounts of black bodies in the woods and in riverbeds was just something to be expected when poking around in Mississippi. There’s something farcical about an investigator finding his 12th body, nonchalantly saying “nope, this isn’t them, either,” and then casually brushing it aside—but that was how the investigation went down.

The documentary also covers the campaign of Barry Goldwater—a sort of proto-Ted Cruz/Ron Paul hybrid—plus the dawn of Ronald Reagan’s place on the political stage and the transformation of the Republican party into the apeshit circus that would end up electing Richard Nixon four years later. It also features extensive, fascinating interviews and footage of David Dennis, a colleague of MLK and a major leader in the civil rights movement. It is not possible to watch this man speak without goosebumps appearing on your skin.

The film is a good reminder of the rest of the headlines from ’64, too: the Beatles coming to America and destroying everything psychologists had come to believe about the young female brain, the rise of Muhammad Ali from the ashes of Cassius Clay, and the advent of second-wave feminism with Betty Friedan’s revolutionary book The Feminine Mystique becoming a best-seller after its release two years prior. The book started an entirely new line of thinking by defining—but not quite classifying—what it called “the problem that has no name.” It explored the quandary that, despite having the right deodorant, figure-toning soft drinks, and female-proof tires, women were generally unhappy and lacked a sense of fulfillment—and adding extra appliances and/or children to their lives wasn't helping. Whereas first-wave feminism had tackled suffrage and constitutional rights, the second wave took issue with the insane underrepresentation of women in the workplace and took aim at the country's shoehorning of women into roles they didn't necessarily want.

While it was met with laughter from Congress when introduced, and didn’t end up being enforced very well, an amendment to prohibit gender discrimination was successfully added to and passed with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

4) Forrest Gump (1994 )

In Gump’s travels through American history, his encounter with the civil rights movement is largely limited to his time at the University of Alabama, when Governor George Wallace stood in the doorway of the university to symbolically block the entrance of its first black students. In 1972, Wallace would briefly have a slim, but nonetheless legitimate—after gaining sympathy by being shot while campaigning—chance at nabbing the nomination to be the Democratic presidential candidate. So, just 43 years ago, we could have had a Democrat running for president that once took it upon himself to stand in front of black students to prevent them from entering a college. 

There are people who are somehow under the impression that racial discrimination ended a very, very long time ago, and it really didn’t—just 52 years ago, there was no federal law banning segregation, which means that there are still a whole lot of people alive today who actually remember that. 

At any rate, I felt that I owed Forrest Gump a mention for introducing me to the civil rights movement at a young age—when I knew that Martin Luther King had made a speech but didn't really grasp its context—and encouraging me to learn more by speaking to my parents.

Also: Thank you, parents.

Photo via Nisha Jones/Wikipedia (CC BY SA 3.0) | Remix by Jason Reed

The upcoming Netflix series is a reboot of the superhero's origin story, with no relation to the 2003 movie starring Ben Affleck. Starring Charlie Cox as New York lawyer Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil), this series is the first example of a classic street-level crime-fighting drama from Marvel Studios. Thanks to its Netflix format and showrunner Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus), we suspect Daredevil may be tougher and more mature than other efforts in the franchise, and its blood-spattered trailer supports that theory.

Daredevil is the first of five Marvel/Netflix series set in New York's Hell's Kitchen, with 13 one-hour episodes debuting on April 10. That gives you just under a month to watch the entire show before Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out, although let's face it, most people will be binge-watching the whole thing in one weekend.

Photo via Daredevil/Marvel

Neil Young finally got to play a duet with the one person he never previously could: himself.

Jimmy Fallon already made a quasi Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young reunion happen while he performing as Young, so the next step was to make a Neil Young clone. Since we don’t have the science for that quite yet, Fallon brought on the very person he portrayed onstage to play with him.

The performance itself—which would've normally featured Young playing something more modern—goes classic instead. It's a tune Young actually played himself, so it’s that much sweeter when he actually comes out with a guitar of his own.

Screengrab via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

The trailer features notoriously buff star Channing Tatum operating some suggestive heavy machinery in a dimly lit shed—while sporting a peek-a-boo muscle tee—before breaking into his smooth signature dance moves.

The montage that follows promises the sequel will be every bit as raucous and sexy as its predecessor. It closes with a cheeky Tatum telling a girl, "Nice to meet you. Magic. Magic Mike," before literally spinning out of the room, as if to leave audiences wanting more. 

"You're welcome" indeed.

The yet-to-be-named show will be co-produced by Lyle Friedman and Ashley Skidmore, the two women behind the #hotmessmoves webseries, which revolves around the often-embarrassing lives of two young women trying to make it in NYC. 

That penchant for awkward will likely translate to this new project, which will focus on two women struck by lightning after meeting at camp a decade ago and "bonding over their enthusiasm for feminism," according to Variety. Soloway added that “Lyle and Ashley have a magical ability to tap into the female psyche, and through their own special brand of truth and humor they absolve us of our most humiliating moments.” The two also write for the TV Land show Younger. 

The show is still in development. In the meantime, you should just dive into #hotmessmoves. 

BY JESSICA KLEIN

Playlist Live, which is two days away from its annual winter festival in Orlando, will offer a “virtual experience” to those who are not able to attend in person.

The event, which runs from February 6 to 8, is already sold out for in-person attendees. Hence, the internet, where action from Playlist Live will stream for viewers for free.

Cameras at the event will capture what’s going on throughout the main stages and behind the scenes. Creator profiles will also appear on the Playlist Live Virtual Experience along with other extra footage for die-hard fans. Virtual viewers will be able to choose which camera they’re watching at will.

Major YouTube stars like Jenna Marbles, Tyler Oakley, GloZell, Mitchell Davis, and more will appear at this year’s Playlist Live. If you want to watch them from the comfort of your own home (or coffee shop or what have you), submit your email address here.

Does the world need a service that sends another person to your local store to pick out bananas in your stead? Maybe not, but the Uberfication of tasks has led to a deluge of apps promising you the convenience of a personal assistant, driver, or chef at a fraction of the price.

Screengrab via PBS Digital / YouTube

By Sam Gutelle

In order to test out its new feature, YouTube has turned to Madilyn Bailey, a musician best known for her cover songs. Bailey performed at the YouTube Music Night in December, and YouTube set up multiple cameras around the stage. Throughout the nearly six-minute performance, viewers are invited to flip between four different views. The transitions are mostly seamless, though I did encounter a few minor bumps as I switched from view to view. You’re welcome to test the feature out yourself by clicking here to watch Bailey’s video. 

As TechCrunch notes, a few companies have tried this sort of feature before, but with limited success. One company that has executed a similar “flipping” mechanic is Interlude, which has used multiple camera angles to play with narrative conventions and surprise viewers. 

On YouTube, the feature may generally serve a more utilitarian use, but as with YouTube’s annotations, there could be some creative, unexpected uses of multiple camera angles. Ultimately, creators will use it to offer a more interactive look for their viewers. A YouTube rep told Billboard the plan is to make fans feel like “the guy in the booth,” and that seems like a very rewarding experience. 

Creators can obtain access to this new feature by joining a YouTube-run contact list. 

HBO has ordered a pilot from co-creators and writers Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore. Insecure, a half-hour comedy, will feature Rae and tackle similar themes to those found in her hit webseries, Awkward Black Girl.

Rae released Awkward Black Girl in 2011 and soon gained a tremendous following on YouTube and critical acclaim for her realistic portrayal of being young, black, and female in contemporary society. She was featured on Forbes’s 30 under 30 Entertainment list in 2012, and won the Shorty Award for best webseries.

Since then Rae has produced a second season of Awkward Black Girl and has worked diligently to promote and produce new and diverse voices through her Color Creative initiative.

Rae’s work is highly watchable, witty, and almost always adopts an easy, laid-back tone. But her subtly pointed narratives unearth deeper revelations about the complications of being black in contemporary America.

Rae spoke to the Daily Dot in December about her most recent project, a new webseries, The Legend of Human Black Guy, which was inspired by the aftermath of unarmed teen Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a Ferguson, Mo., police officer. 

"This is my tool—creating images and creating a narrative. This is my way of humanizing black men," she said.

The HBO project was set up in the summer of 2013, and since then Wilmore has become the host of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show. It’s unclear what level of involvement he will maintain. The project is underway, however, and currently seeking a director and a showrunner.

H/T Deadline | Screengrab via iamOTHER/YouTube

What's the best way to tell if you were a 90s kid? It's certainly not by taking pointless online quizzes or even by looking at the birth date listed on your driver's license. The answer is simple. You're a 90s kid if the words "Saved By The Bell reunion" give you the sort of instant high you vaguely remember Nancy Reagan warning your older brother about.

It's a dream that has remained elusive—until now. On Wednesday night, Jimmy Fallon got the SBTB gang back together, and intense nostalgia ensued. Not only did the Tonight Show host reunite the cast of the beloved teen sitcom, but he recruited them for a segment imagining himself as a student at Bayside High.

The reunion didn't feature the entire cast. Dustin Diamond, who played Screech and was arrested late last year for carrying a concealed weapon and reckless endangerment, wasn't there. Nor was Lark Voorhees, who played Lisa Turtle and whose mother told People she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

The segment was part of Fallon's weeklong working vacation in Los Angeles that has seen the host insert himself into more than one classic L.A.-based sitcom. Earlier this week, Fallon opened his show with a shot-for-shot remake of the intro to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

All in all, how did the reunion make us feel? Some combination of both excited and scared.

YouTube is no different; it's a grand repository of some of the weirdest moments caught on camera. Most of these are strange one-offs, caught out of context or by accident. But occasionally someone will create something longer, aligned to their own interests but no less odd.

So here's our picks for the five most bizarre webseries to be found on YouTube, collected in one place for your convenience and sanity—trust me, you don't want to be surprised by a few of these when you're looking for Pitbull's latest video.

1) Jon Eats Carrots

Jonathan Harchick is currently up to video No. 322 of him eating bags of carrots. Usually baby carrots, if you're still interested. Filmed through what we earlier guessed was "a peephole in a horror film," he accompanies each nose-bag with songs played on repeat or podcasts. 

Harchick is a serial offender when it comes to the creation of l'art de l'ennuyeux. His other seminal work, Jon Drinks Water, is currently up to episode 2,231 while a now sadly deleted series where he counts to 100,000 resulted in an interview on MSNBC.

But forget the fame—you're thinking about the side effects of all those carrots, right? Well, sure, they will turn your skin orange, but considering Harchick seems to live most of his life in semi-darkness, he might do well with what people in the carrot scene probably call an "indoor tan." 

2) SMOKEROFCIGARSPIPES

But there is—as we originally revealed—a sad note to Mateo's channel, as it also includes touching tributes to his wife, Ana Maria, who he confirmed has passed away. Say what you like about the man and his pipes, but unlike some poor, repressed souls at least he's not afraid to show the world his great loves.

3) Things for Hands

Even the best of us don't get to choose our hands: Mine are too small to the point of self-consciousness (two people have commented), Nicole Kidman can't keep hersout of the news, and Vince Vaughn rocks an additional phallus. But the premise behind Things for Hands—outlining the services available at a clinic for people who are suffering from having various objects as hands—is nonetheless still strange. Hands as soda cups? Hands as toilet brushes? It just seems like some sort of creepy future where people are bred for specific jobs. And that woman whose hands are sandwiches? I bet after each take she forgets what she's filming and keeps biting her fingers.

4) Gigahoes

Long before humans start being bred with shoehorns for hands, we will be having sex with robots. In fact, it may be happening right now with Roxxxy, she of the “beautiful skin,” dead fish eyes, and Skank Mode.

Gigahoes, a mockumentary set in a sex-bot escort agency, avoids the sickening uncanny valley of Roxxxy and friends—just imagine the post-coital tristesse when you look into those lifeless, Crispin Glover eyes and realize what you've done—through the use of human actors, but it's a nervy, close-run thing. Some of the acting is so wooden and bereft of emotional authenticity that, robotic role or not, you can almost hear gears grinding within the actors' groins.

5) Vikram Yadav's Medical & Surgical Education Videos

You may have already experienced the work of Dr. Yadav. Nobody ever knows just how they got there—his videos' comments are littered with things like, "I was just watching Clay Matthews at USC videos eating garlic parmesan fries AND THEN THIS HAPPENED"—but like some grotty dive bar that everyone ends up in at 5am, many YouTube journeys finish at his channel.

Simply put, Yadav is the king of the Internet zit scene. And he revels in it: "Hi friends, for better enjoyment watch this video under full HD," he trumpets at the beginning of the classic "Gold Mine of Black Heads on Nose." "Later in the video you will see that someone is licking it."

Some of his videos are far, far beyond disgusting (tip: don't watch this), but it's usually only when he can get his trusty "comedone extractor" dirty that Yadav becomes particularly passionate and creative. And if he's the David Lynch of this artistic movement, the clogged pore his muse, then his series—the immodestly but accurately titled "The World's Best Blackhead Videos"—is his Twin Peaks. 

As a collected piece, it is remarkable in its emotional breadth, from the horror of "Monsters Crawling in Me" and the sheer (explosive) power of "Sebaceous Cyst and Keratin," to the comfortingly relaxed "Draining a Huge Abscess on Neck" and the mystique of the series' "deleted" video.

Like all auteurs, Dr. Yadav is a man who lives for his work—going so far as to seemingly only eat food that looks like blackheads and puss. So when his wife recently found an infected pore on his own back, his excitement was palpable. Here was a chance to bring work home! Here was a chance to finally be the subject of his own art!

The result is, as expected, brilliant. Unhurried, respectful, and photographed "from all angles," I could think of no more fitting way to celebrate the delivery of his new child into the world. 

Screengrab via Things for Hands/YouTube

BY DAN WILKINSON

As if the Twilight saga or anything by Zack Snyder weren’t bad enough already, YouTube channel Cinema Sins has become a huge success through its succinct takedowns of these and a host of other flawed Hollywood hits. Founded by ex-cinema employees Jeremy Scott and Chris Atkinson, the result of three years is hundreds of videos, millions of hits, and a truly distinctive voice: the well-informed yet bitter amateur filmmaker disillusioned with unimaginative mainstream cinema. It’s a voice that speaks to a wide audience.

So like Ron Howard stepping off the set and into the director’s chair, this prosperous channel with a notable fanbase and idiosyncratic style decided to branch out. What resulted was Brand Sins, How to Make and Music Video Sins, new additions to the already flawless original. The driving force for the expansion was simply “fun and world domination” for the duo.

But soon, a problem occurred: How could co-founder and voiceover artist Jeremy Scott split his time between three simultaneous weekly projects? The answer appeared to be to diversify the ranks; Jess Whitton and Bobby Burns, already established YouTube personalities, became presenters for the new shows. Scott and Atkinson were comfortable giving away a portion of the control, saying “We think our brand naturally extends to other areas, but we won't always be able to be the voice, the host, or the editor of each new thing.” They gambled that one aspect of Cinema Sins’ success—its strong writing—would be enough to make the new shows a hit, ignoring the importance of Scott’s talent as a unique presenter.

But did the risky new direction of Brand Sins and How to Make—the only two series with new presenters—go against the Cinema Sins formula? It’s inevitable that the channel was going to expand beyond a point where a lone presenter could handle everything. As a YouTube channel gets more attention, positive or negative, the audience becomes important content influencers; they are integral to the channel’s future and, effectively, some people’s only source of income. We meet an old dilemma here: the compromise between creator’s intention and audience’s desire. Does this creatively constrict the channel, bound by the overwhelming notions of what a multitude of fans want? Or, through giving a multitude a voice, is a more democratic process with an inclusive atmosphere possible?

As Steve Jobs once said, “People don't know what they want until you show it to them.” This lambasts the notion of giving people everything they want, that it’s better to surprise and tease their whims, potentially met by initial opposition. Sometimes instead of listening directly to the consumer, you have to give them the unexpected, stick to your guns, and know there’s a chance they’ll be receptive to it. Indeed, a few personalities on YouTube are able to rise above the fray, dictating their own content to a receptive audience. PewDiePie, the most popular person on the platform (with more than 34 million subscribers), spans a diverse set of subjects in the knowledge that his loyal fanbase comes directly for him, rather than specific content.

But on other channels, you could be run out of town with burning pitchforks (or at least the online equivalent thereof) for defying expectations. Take online film commentator Doug Walker, or the Nostalgia Critic as he’s better known. Walker, tired of straight video criticism, wanted to make his own film parodies and believed that this passion would be contagious to his fans. The resulting series, Demo Reel, mixed film parodies in a comedy sketch style and was hated by fans. After his experiment failed, Walker went back to recording Nostalgia Critic, reflecting on what the experience brought him: “I learned a lot from the mistakes of that show, especially in terms of marketing and working to please the fans,” he told Huffington Post’s Mat Greenfield. Walker has now compromised: Live-action parody does make up a lot of his new videos, but only with the criticism at the forefront, giving the viewers what they desire.

Success can come more easily when you operate with a more democratic ethos to content creation. Beauty vlogger Alissa Marino agrees, saying: “I get more views for requests because that's what they request me to film, so they want to see it, so naturally they get more views.” Believing that requested videos are one of the best ways to draw people in, she’s less inclined to experiment: “When I try new things, usually my subscribers aren't interested because they like seeing familiar videos and tags.” However, no matter what the topic, she says she believes you have to always be comfortable with the videos you produce. “If someone suggests something that is completely out of my reach or that I genuinely do not feel like filming, I’ll ignore it.”

Adam Johnston of Your Movie Sucks has decided that relying on requests wouldn't work for the type of content he’s producing. He avoids critiquing cult favourite The Room because “I want to be a bit more unique than that. I don't want to regurgitate everything that everyone has already said. I want to be able to continue providing fresh perspectives.” He did, however, capitulate when it came to last year’s biggest movie, Frozen: “When I hit 100,000 subscribers, I reviewed Frozen as a way of saying ‘thank you’ to my audience. That film was easily the most requested of that year.” Sure enough, the video gained 403,082 views and a new fanbase for Johnston. Both Johnston and Marino realize the importance of listening to the general consensus and trying to satisfy both the creator and the viewer, however tricky that may be.

After getting so badly burned in their debacle, how do the guys from Cinema Sins view the whole debate? When we asked about the backlash, they replied, “People don't like new things, basically. Our audience, especially, has been groomed (by us) to spot ‘sins’ and to nit-pick and to be grumpy about content. So we get it.

“There is a clear gut-reaction thing on YouTube when popular channels try something new. We were prepared for it and expected it,” they added. “We’re involved in the new channels and series as producers, and give plenty of feedback to those hosting or creating, but our focus in terms of our time remains on the main Cinema Sins channel's videos.” I asked Bobby Burns, one of the channel’s new presenters, for his thoughts. “People want to be able to sum you up after just a few seconds of seeing you. If you take into account what everyone wants, it does get you down. But at the end of the day you want to just make what you want—that’s what YouTube is all about, really.”

Ultimately, at a time when we have unlimited entertainment options and a finite amount of free time, we often judge things with a knee-jerk opinion to discern what’s the most worthy. But the folks at Cinema Sins aren’t scared. “We're stubborn. But also, any channel/YouTuber that sticks with only one thing for too long will eventually wither and die out. We have to keep trying new things, both for our online video future and our own creative fulfilment.” Who knows? If we can get past Richie Cunningham and enjoy Apollo 13, there’s always a chance of loving something you’ve taken a risk on.

Screengrab via CinemaSins/YouTube

It still remains to be seen if Sam Smith will walk away the big winner at this Sunday’s Grammys, but according to Spotify’s predictions, things look promising. Until then, the six-time Grammy nominee is keeping himself busy by unveiling the music video for his next single, “Lay Me Down.”

The video for one of Smith’s more tender ballads tracks the love and loss of the openly gay Brit, opening on a solemnfuneral service before transitioning to a jubilant gay wedding. Directed by Ryan Hope and shot at a church outside London, the moving video is intended to send a message to not only the United Kingdom but to the larger global community about the beauty of LGBT love. 

The singer spoke with Rolling Stonefrom the set about the music video for his latest single. 

Obviously gay marriage isn't legal in churches, and we're doing a gay marriage today, in the church. We're the first ever to do it. It's obviously not a real marriage, but still. The priest just said to us, 'We're going against the rules by doing this today,' which I thought was a lovely element in the video.

Smith took to Instagram and Facebook on Thursday morning to release a note to fans about the video. In it, the singer expressed his hopes that one day members of the LGBT community will be able to get married "under any roof, in any city, in any town, in any village, in any country."

Photo via SamSmithWorldVevo/YouTube

Tom Servo and his pals have put in a change of address form as they move from second bananas on Netflix to headliners on their own stage.

Shout! Factory, rights holder to heaps of cult nostalgic TV shows and movies led by Mystery Science Theater 3000, announced via a tweet and in a YouTube promo that it would be launching its own ad-supported streaming channel, ending many of its existing distribution partners such as Netflix.

Shout! is an offshoot of Rhino Records, a ’70s record label focusing on oldies and rock classics. While MST3K is the most recognizable of its video titles, the company’s streaming service showcases some cool programs that richly deserve an online presence. Included in that lot are Fridays (which brought us Michael Richards), It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (a precursor to his hit HBO series), The Weird Al Show, Route 66, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. The latter, based on the short stories of humorist Max Shulman, was a well-written sitcom far ahead of its time (it ran 1959-1963), as well as serving as the launching pad for Bob Denver (better known as Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island). Denver’s portrayal of beatnik Maynard G. Krebs looms as one of TV’s most iconic characters.

Some of the details behind Shout!’s new streaming service are a work in progress. While its MST3K content seems to have vanished from Netflix, some episodes still remain on Hulu (which is streaming some of the MST3K episodes for the new service). Shout! Factory’s YouTube channel has morphed from showing full episodes of such older shows as Hart to Hart and Facts of Life to presenting short ads for DVDs.

Beyond its life as a Web-based service, the new Shout! Factory streamer is available on Roku, but has yet to show up on Amazon Fire or other over-the-top platforms.

Screengrab via MST3K Official/YouTube

The time for rejoicing is now: Three new episodes of High Maintenance, widely known as the best webseries of all time, dropped on Vimeo today. And they are, in a word, blunt.

If you’re just now hearing about this show—and make no mistake, you have led a shadow of a life till right this moment if so—you may be surprised to see that each episode after the first 13 costs $1.99 (you can also rent the whole series for a year for $7.99). Something funny on the Internet costs money? Believe it, and believe me when I say it’s worth every stinking penny.

The brilliance of High Maintenance, of course, lies in being a “stoner” comedy about almost anything other than weed: Our only continued thread is that of The Guy, a bike-borne pot deliveryman who services a dizzying cross-section of New York weirdos—and even he is sometimes more of a grace note than a lead character. The first installment of this latest episode batch, “Sufjan,” tracks the disappointment of a money-strapped couple that moves to Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park and discovers that it doesn’t match their vision of outer-borough paradise (and that Sufjan Stevens doesn’t live there anymore). It’s comfortably situated in the series wheelhouse: a blindingly realistic romance infected by the melancholy of circumstance, with an oddball B-plot that involves diabetic shock and an intimidating ice cream truck driver.

Photo via High Maintenance/Vimeo

Pop icon Madonna's newest music video got a groundbreaking release on Thursday as the first to premiere on Snapchat.

 "Living for Love," the first single from Madonna's upcoming Rebel Love album, made it's debut via Snapchat's Discover feed, which hosts branded content that requires users to swipe right to find, instead of filling their personal feeds. 

The video itself is impressive, with Madonna taking on a matador theme and battling bull-inspired dancers. However, fans are already calling for the star to make it more accessible via other video services like Vevo.

H/T Billboard | Screengrab via Snapchat Discover/Snapchat

Kim Kardashian may have attempted to #breaktheinternet with her booty-baring cover shoot, but The Daily Show may have actually achieved the feat with its most recent Throwback Thursday on Instagram.

Today the Comedy Central show unleashed a clip of host Jon Stewart vamping between former colleagues Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert—all shirtless. It's a throwback to Oct. 11, 2011, when this clip was the show's Moment of Zen.

Our recommendation: Leave it on loop and let the sultry sax sounds combined with their perfect posing bring you to a true place of zen.

H/T Zap2It | Screengrab via The Daily Show/Instagram

If you're wondering what could make a film adaptation of romance best seller Fifty Shades of Grey more tolerable, may we suggest Lego?

There's been much Internet chatter about the chemistry, or lack thereof, between lead actors Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. The Lego version carries just about the same amount of heat with a shot-by-shot recreation of the trailer. Yes, that even includes the Red Room of Pain.

Screengrab via Antonio Toscano/YouTube