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Drake shows Instagram support for Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez

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Ah, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. Sometimes they're on, sometimes they're off. 

For the past couple years they've been decidedly off, but every once in a while Bieber will make a grand gesture that gets the Internet buzzing again. Like the other week when he serenaded Gomez with "My Girl" in a Beverly Hills hotel and a bystander uploaded the video to Instagram

Did the gesture work in winning back Gomez's heart? Probably not. But did it launch 10-billion blog posts and clog Gomez's Twitter mentions with fans who identify as Team Jelena? You betcha. 

The latest installment in this will-they-won't-they saga comes in the form of a throwback Instagram Bieber posted Tuesday night:

Initially, the photo went up captionless, and fans started freaking out that the two must be back together. The best part? Among them was none other than Drake.

Bieber quickly updated to let everyone know it was a throwback, but now the world knows once and for all where Champagne Papi stands on the Gomez/Bieber breakup—he's team #Jelena. 

H/T Vulture | Photo via Vulture/Twitter


The best new movies and shows on Amazon and Hulu this month

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We here at the Daily Dot love our streaming TV and movies, but we also know how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the massive lists of comings and goings on streaming platforms each month. Here’s our curated take of what’s new on Amazon and Hulu this month.

Check our for Netflix list for more streaming picks.

December 2015

Pick of the Month: Transparent: Season 2 (Amazon, Dec. 11)

Amazon’s slate of original programming finally found its flagship success with Transparent, which stars Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) as the patriarch of a family who announces to his grown kids that he’s transgender and will begin living as a woman. The series explores both Maura’s transition into living out what she always felt to be true, and her kids—played by Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, and Gaby Hoffman—dealing with the changes. The show boasts a ridiculously impressive 98 percent Fresh rating on RottenTomatoes, and it has picked up a slew of awards, including an Emmy for Tambor’s performance and a Golden Globe for Best TV Series – Musical or Comedy. The show is already renewed for a third season as well.

Best of the rest

1) Dr. No (Hulu, Dec. 1)

Last month Hulu added a motherlode of James Bond movies, adding damn near the entire pre-Brosnan run of agent 007’s adventures. One notable absence, however, was the movie that started it all (setting aside the non-canonical original Casino Royale). Now that oversight has been remedied, as Hulu added 1962’s Dr. No on the first of the month, ensuring you can begin your holiday Bond binge with Sean Connery’s very first outing as the debonair spy with the license to kill. After all, it just wouldn’t be a proper Bond-athon without Ursula Andress emerging from the surf in that white bikini.

2) Friday the 13th series (Hulu, Dec. 1)

Speaking of long-running movie franchises, Hulu’s also ringing in December with a very different killer. I’m not sure who’s got the higher body count, James Bond or Jason Voorhees, but I’m pretty sure Bond wins in the “flagrant womanizing” department. We all know Jason’s aversion to people having sex, after all… December is a weird time to stock up on slasher movies, but if you’re in the mood for a seasonally dissonant bloodbath, Hulu’s got your back, stocking the streaming catalog with the first eight Friday the 13th movies—well, seven. For some reason Friday the 13th – Part V: A New Beginning is missing. Maybe it’ll pull a Dr. No and show up next month. Slay bells ring, are you listening…

3) Good Morning, Vietnam / Good Will Hunting (Hulu with Showtime, Dec. 1)

The holidays are often a mix of the merry and the melancholy, and few actors have ever brought to life both ends of that spectrum as well as the late, much-missed Robin Williams. However your holiday season is playing out, Hulu with Showtime has left a wonderful present under the tree: two of Williams’ best films. And hey, they both start with “Good,” so it’s a natural double feature. In Good Morning, Vietnam, Williams plays an Armed Forces radio DJ in 1965 Saigon whose on-air antics inspire the troops but put him increasingly at odds with his superiors. In Good Will Hunting, Williams gives an Oscar-winning performance as a therapist trying to crack the affected apathy of the brilliant but troubled math genius Will Hunting (Matt Damon). Watch ’em both and raise a glass in Robin’s honor.

4) Young Sherlock Holmes (Hulu, Dec. 1)

Even though it was released in 1985, Young Sherlock Holmes would fit right in with today’s crop of films. It’s a prequel, it’s about an iconic pop-culture character during his younger years—hell, it even has cutting-edge CGI special effects! Well, they were cutting edge at the time. The film explores the first meeting between Sherlock (Nicholas Rowe) and John Watson (Alan Cox), who encounter each other at school and are soon swept up in a mystery involving poison darts, an ancient cult, and good old-fashioned human sacrifice. Barry Levinson directed YSH, from a script by Chris Columbus.

5) Man Seeking Woman: Season 1 (Hulu, Dec. 7)

Jay Baruchel, (Undeclared, How to Train Your Dragon) stars in this FXX sitcom about a young man navigating the perils and pitfalls of trying to find love after a breakup from his longtime girlfriend. That sounds like a thousand other disposable sitcoms you’ve seen before, but this one at least has the advantage of a singular creative vision guiding it. It’s based on Simon Rich’s 2013 book of short stories, The Last Girlfriend on Earth, and Rich serves as showrunner on the series. The show’s featured some noteworthy guest stars in its 10-episode run thus far, including Bill Hader, Sarah Silverman, and Battlestar Galactica’s Michael Hogan, and it’s currently rocking an 81 percent Fresh rating on RottenTomatoes. It’s due to return for a second season on FXX on Jan. 6, 2016.

6) Interstellar (Amazon/Hulu, Dec. 12)

Christopher Nolan’s space epic was one of the most anticipated films of 2014 before it came out… and one of the most controversial and divisive afterwards. Visually stunning and unquestionably ambitious, the film becomes either more interesting or a complete mess in the third act, depending on who you ask. Matthew McConaughey stars as Joe Cooper, a widowed NASA vet living on a dying Earth that’s running out of natural resources. Through a weird set of circumstances related to the aforementioned bonkers third act, Joe winds up enlisted in a secret last-ditch mission to travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new planet for humanity to colonize. Taking the mission could literally mean saving the species, but it will also mean he’ll have to leave his young daughter behind, where, thanks to the vagaries of physics, she’ll keep getting older while he stays the same age.

7) Mozart in the Jungle: Season 2 (Amazon, Dec. 30)

Transparent isn’t the only Amazon Original returning for a second season this month. Created by Paul Weitz (About a Boy), Roman Coppola (The Darjeeling Limited), and Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore), Mozart in the Jungle takes viewers inside a world of “sex, drugs, and classical music.” The behind-the-curtain look at modern classical music is revealed through the eyes of Gael García Bernal as composer Rodrigo and Lola Kirke as young oboist Hailey. Like Transparent, Mozart received rockstar critical ratings, currently sitting at 95 percent Fresh on RottenTomatoes, even if it didn’t get nearly the same level of spotlight as Tambor’s show.

November 2015

Pick of the Month: The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Prime, Nov. 20)

The Man in the High Castle is Amazon Studios’ most ambitious project yet, a much-anticipated adaptation of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick’s infamous novel of alternate history. Set in a divergent 1962 in which the Axis powers won World War II, The Man in the High Castle imagines an America under the bootheel of Japanese and German forces. That status quo is threatened by the appearance of a film titled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, said to have been created by the mysterious so-called “Man in the High Castle” and depicting a very different America—our America. Is it merely anti-authoritarian propaganda, a postcard from a different reality, or something else entirely?

The Man in the High Castle was executive produced by Ridley Scott, a bloke who knows a thing or two about successful adaptations of Dick, having given us the best of the best in the form of Blade Runner. It was written by X-Files veteran Frank Spotnitz, with a cast that includes Alexa Davelos, Rupert Evans, Rufus Sewell, and DJ Qualls, to name a few. The pilot was the most-watched since Amazon began its “pilot season” system of development and audience voting, and it’s already been renewed for a second season.

Best of the rest

1) Bond. James Bond. (Hulu, Nov. 1)

Agent 007 returns this month with the much-anticipated Spectre, and if Bond’s latest adventure leaves you craving more, Hulu has got your back and then some. Continuing a press to beef up its movie catalog, Hulu has snagged streaming rights to the mother lode of classic Bond. While it doesn’t have the entire Bond catalog—Daniel Craig’s modern era is missing, as are the Pierce Brosnan years—you can still watch three decades’ worth of licensed killing for your streaming enjoyment. Clear your schedule and you’ll be able to watch From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Never Say Never Again (1983), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), The Living Daylights (1987), and License to Kill (1989).

2) Adventures in Babysitting (Hulu with Showtime, Nov. 1)

Chris Hemsworth may be perfectly cast as Marvel’s Nordic beefcake God of Thunder, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Thor’s appearance in Christopher Columbus’ 1987 directorial debut, Adventures in Babysitting. OK, so he isn’t really Thor, but it was still his most noteworthy live-action appearance until the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. Elisabeth Shue—cementing my childhood crush begun in The Karate Kid—stars as Chris Parker, a teenage girl who gets stood up, takes what should be a simple babysitting gig, and winds up having a night of crazy adventures across Chicago.

3) Arachnophobia (Hulu with Showtime, Nov. 1)

If you’ve got a thing about spiders, there’s a very good chance you won’t survive viewing Arachnophobia. After a rare and deadly Venezuelan spider hitches a ride to the States, the creepy crawly and its offspring begin terrorizing a small California town. Jeff Daniels is a local doctor trying to figure out what’s causing all the mysterious deaths, and he’s increasingly paralyzed by his crippling fear of spiders. Come for the ookiness, stay for John Goodman as no-nonsense exterminator Delbert McClintock.

4) Exists (Hulu with Showtime, Nov. 1)

Back in September in this column we profiled Bobcat Goldthwait’s found-footage Bigfoot flick Willow Creek. Behind that movie, Exists is probably the second-most noteworthy of the recent trend of Bigfoot horrors. Directed by Eduardo Sánchez—one of the men responsible for kickstarting the modern found-footage genre with The Blair Witch ProjectExists opens with a standard horror setup, with a group of friends venturing into the woods for some fun. Unfortunately, strange noises escalate to mysterious damage to their car, and the friends soon realize there’s something menacing stalking them. Exists only has a 35 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but fans of Sanchez will likely enjoy the ride.

5)Grosse Pointe Blank (Hulu with Showtime, Nov. 1)

Martin Blank (John Cusack) is a professional killer, but his personal life is more of a mess than his crime scenes: He’s bored, depressed, and in therapy years before Tony Soprano got the idea. After fouling up a hit, he takes a job in his hometown to appease his irate client, attend his 10-year high school reunion, and hopefully reconnect with the girl he stood up at prom a decade earlier (Minnie Driver). Grosse Pointe Blank is an eminently rewatchable flick, and the blending of rom-com tropes with edgier scenes like Martin killing a guy with a ballpoint pen in the hall of his high school perfectly mirror Martin’s internal crisis. Bonus points for Dan Aykroyd’s role as a rival “professional” who’s determined to put Martin in the ground.

6) Out of Sight (Hulu with Showtime, Nov. 1)

Say what you will about J-Lo, but her onscreen chemistry with George Clooney is electric in this Elmore Leonard adaptation directed by Steven Soderbergh. Clooney is a professional bank robber named Jack Foley; Lopez is U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco. The pair meet-cute while crammed inside a trunk during Foley’s escape from prison, and after that she’s determined to take him down. But is she really pursuing him for the right reasons? The rest of the top-tier cast includes Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, and Albert Brooks. The script by Scott Frank is one of the best Leonard adaptations ever, and the flick is worth watching for the nonlinear love scene alone.

7) Turner & Hooch (Hulu with Showtime, Nov. 1)

I’m a sucker for a Tom Hanks ’80s comedy—The ‘burbs is unapologetically one of my favorite movies—and watching him play straight man to an oversized canine with a drooling problem sounds like a great way to kill an afternoon to me. Hanks is a Scott Turner, a neat-freak cop forced to take the slobbery Hooch into his life after the dog is the only witness to his owner’s murder. Hooch proceeds to eat more or less everything Turner owns, but damned if he doesn’t start growing on the reluctant cop. Half the fun is watching Hanks interact with the dog, but Turner & Hooch also has heart to spare. That heart is just covered with ropes of dog saliva.

8) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Amazon Prime, Nov. 5)

Star Heath Ledger died a third of the way through filming on Terry Gilliam’s fantasy film, but his friends rose to the occasion, with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell all stepping in to play different incarnations of Ledger’s character. It was a clever solution to a heartbreaking problem, but also a lovely tribute to a powerhouse talent taken far too young. Ledger & co. headline a tale of a travelling theater troupes, magic mirrors, and outsmarting the Devil himself.

9) Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened? (Hulu with Showtime, Nov. 6)

Superman Lives has become one of the most notorious failed productions in Hollywood history, thanks in no small part to Kevin Smith’s accounts of his time on the project, not to mention those pictures of long-haired Nic Cage in the Superman costume. Death of ‘Superman Lives’ dives deep into the history of the doomed project, which was set to be directed by Tim Burton but was canceled three weeks before filming was set to begin in 1998. The documentary includes interviews with Burton, Smith, writer Dan Gilroy, and producers Jon Peters and Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

10) Ex Machina (Amazon Prime, Nov. 14)

Alex Garland has been the screenwriter on some of the best and most intriguing genre films of the young century, from 28 Days Later and Sunshine to Never Let Me Go and Dredd. He finally made his feature directorial debut with Ex Machina, a critically acclaimed science-fiction thriller about a Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer invited to the home of his wealthy, eccentric employer (Oscar Isaac) to investigate a breakthrough: an android named Ava who may be the first example of true artificial intelligence. The more Caleb interacts with Ava (Alicia Vikander), the easier it becomes to forget that she’s machine, but it soon becomes clear that his boss’ motivations may not be as clear-cut as they first appeared. Ex Machina has been almost universally praised, currently rocking a 92 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

October 2015

Pick of the Month: The Back to the Future trilogy (Amazon Prime, Oct. 1)

This year rings in the 30th anniversary of Robert Zemeckis’ beloved Back to the Future trilogy, and in fact we’re only a few weeks away from “Back to the Future Day”—Oct. 21, 2015, the date Marty arrived in the future in BTTF2. There are plenty of crazy celebrations going on this month, from this cheeky fake trailer for Jaws 19 to the sudden appearance of Pepsi Perfect. But the very best way to celebrate the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown is to rewatch them, and Amazon Prime customers can do just that throughout the month of October. Amazon Prime has added all three Back to the Future movies to the streaming catalog, so now’s the perfect time to play hooky from work, school, or family commitments and settle in for six hours or so of pure time-hopping, hover-boarding, paradox-inducing, “Great Scott”ing, 1.21 gigawatting awesomeness. Our real-life hoverboards may still not be as cool as the movie version, but at least we have the Back to the Future trilogy on-demand for our marathoning delight. This is heavy.

The best of the rest:

1) Blood Simple (Hulu, Oct. 1)

The Coen Brothers have been a pair of the most fascinating filmmakers in the industry for the past three decades, but it all started here, in 1984’s bleak noir crime thriller Blood Simple.

Small-town Texas bar owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) hires a private dick (M. Emmet Walsh) to investigate his wife (Frances McDormand), whom he suspects is cheating on him. That simple act is the beginning of a long, crooked road full of bad turns and dead bodies. In addition to marking the Coen Brothers’ directorial debut, Blood Simple also kickstarted the careers of cinematographer (and later director) Barry Sonnenfeld and actress Frances McDormand. Blood Simple is currently rocking a 94 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

2) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Amazon Prime, Oct. 1)

Jim Carrey mostly makes the news these days for being a vocal anti-vaxxer, so it’s easy to forget just how good he can be when paired with the right material. He’s never been better than in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and directed by Michel Gondry. Carrey plays Joel Barish, coming off a bad breakup with the former love of his life, Clementine (Kate Winslet). He hires a mysterious company to erase all memory of his relationship with his ex… but then changes his mind halfway through. Unfortunately, the procedure has to be done while the subject is sleeping, so Joel is left fleeing through the landscape of his subconscious, clinging to a memory of Clementine and trying to save her from the encroaching darkness. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind won the 2004 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and is rated 93 percent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

3) The Expendables 3(Hulu, Oct. 1)

Sly Stallone managed to resurrect both of his iconic ’80s franchises with 21st century installments of Rocky and Rambo, so it made sense when he eventually put together a series designed to bring every last aging action relic of the Reagan years back to the big screen. In the third Expendables outing, merc badass Barney Ross (Stallone) and his crew face off against one of the group’s co-founders (Mel Gibson), an arms dealer who’s nursing a grudge and determined to make the Expendables live up to their name. The cast for this go-round also includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, and… Kelsey Grammer?

4) Girl Most Likely (Hulu, Oct. 1)

Imogene (Kristen Wiig) is a failed playwright struggling with writer’s block, working a crappy job at a New York magazine to make ends meet. After a failed suicide attempt in hopes of luring back her ex, she winds up in the custody of her mother (Annette Bening), who frankly would rather be gambling. After inadvertently discovering that her long-thought-dead father is actually alive and living in NYC, Imogene enlists her friends and brother to help track him down, and along the way falls for a charming Backstreet Boys cover band performer.

Girl Most Likely got nailed with negative reviews, but Wiig and Bening’s performances were singled out for praise. If you’re a Wiig fan, double-feature it with Welcome to Me over on Netflix, or wait around for another Wiig entry further down this list.

5) The Innkeepers (Hulu, Oct. 1)

Director Ti West has established himself as one of the most talented young horror directors in the game with flicks such as The House of the Devil and The Sacrament, as well as segments in the V/H/S and The ABCs of Death anthologies. The Innkeepers is by far my favorite thing he’s done thus far, a good old-fashioned ghost story buoyed by charming performances from Sara Paxton and Pat Healy.

They star as the last two remaining staff at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, a historic hotel that’s about to close its doors permanently. With the building mostly abandoned, the pair set out to try and gather tangible evidence of the spirits said to haunt its hallways, and what unfolds bounces between funny, tragic, and slow-burn terrifying. If you like the cut of West’s jib, The House of the Devil is also available on Hulu, and The Sacrament is on Netflix Instant. The Innkeepers has a 79 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

6) Joe (Hulu, Oct. 1)

In recent years, David Gordon Green has mainly been on a comedy run with things like Pineapple Express and HBO’s Eastbound & Down, but he returned to his drama roots with 2014’s Joe. Nicolas Cage stars as the titular Joe Ransom, an ex-con who runs a tree-removal crew in rural Texas. He hires and then befriends 15-year-old Gary (Tye Sheridan), a good kid with a particularly bad dad (Gary Poulter). That friendship will put Joe on a path for either redemption or destruction… maybe both.

With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 86 percent Fresh, Joe earned praise from critics for both Green’s direction and Cage’s performance, and god knows it’s nice to see Cage actually being good in something these days. One tragic and morbid footnote: Actor Gary Poulter, who played the alcoholic father in Joe—who was homeless in real life when he was cast—was found dead before the film even made it to the festival circuit.

7) Much Ado About Nothing (Hulu, Oct. 1)

Joss Whedon has spent the past several years earning Disney billions of dollars with the juggernaut Avengers franchise, but he cleansed his palate between them with Much Ado About Nothing. A modern-day remake of Shakespeare’s beloved proto-screwball comedy, Whedon’s Much Ado enlists several of his regulars, including Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, and Tom Lenk. The reunion of Acker and Denisof in a romantic pairing—playing Beatrice and Benedick, respectively—should be more than enough to lure in Angel fans still stinging from the respective ends of Fred and Wesley, but the film was well received overall, currently sitting at 84 percent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It even earned a Guinness World Record, courtesy of a Blu-ray commentary track that crammed in a whopping 16 members of the cast and crew.

8) Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (Amazon Prime, Oct. 1)

Paul Reubens is on the cusp of resurrecting Pee-wee with the help of producer Judd Apatow and Netflix, but in the meantime you can re-experience one of the best iterations of Reubens’ hyperactive manchild. In Big Adventure, Pee-wee sets out cross-country in search of his stolen bicycle, along the way encountering hobos, biker gangs, and “Large Marge,” a creepy trucker who single-handedly soiled the pants of my entire generation thanks to one iconic close-up. Scripted by Reubens with Michael Varhol and the late Phil Hartman (Simpsons, NewsRadio), Pee-wee’s Big Adventure also marked the feature directorial debut of Tim Burton and the first of many collaborations with composer Danny Elfman.

9) The Skeleton Twins (Hulu, Oct. 1)

Kristen Wiig’s second appearance in this month’s list is in another movie that, weirdly enough, also involves a suicide attempt as inciting incident, just like Girl Most Likely up top. In The Skeleton Twins, Maggie’s (Wiig) attempts to end it all are interrupted by a phone call notifying her that her estranged twin brother Milo (Bill Hader) also just tried to kill himself. She travels to Los Angeles to visit him in the hospital and eventually convinces him to return to their hometown and stay with her a while. The pair’s mutual brush with death proves to be the unlikely catalyst for their own reconnection and discovery of reasons to keep on keeping on. The Skeleton Twins is rated 87 percent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so if you’re only going to watch one streaming Kristen Wiig suicide comedy this month, it should probably be this one.

10) The Wolf of Wall Street (Hulu, Oct. 1)

Hulu just snatched a ton of content from Netflix after the latter ended a multi-year deal with the cable net Epix, and one of the big fish switching ponds is the award-winning Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio joint The Wolf of Wall Street.

Based on the memoir of ruthless former stock trader Jordan Belfort, Wolf follows Belfort’s (DiCaprio) rise and fall on Wall Street, earning millions through crooked business practices before eventually being brought down by the feds. The cast is stellar across the board, including DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, and Rob Reiner, and screenwriter Terence Winter’s adaptation of Belfort’s book is by turns funny, infuriating, and profane. But poor old Leo still didn’t get to take home an Oscar

11) They Came Together (Hulu, Oct. 1)

There’s plenty to mock in modern romantic comedies: the cliched twists and turns, the tired formulas, the inevitable comic misunderstandings. All of that is grist for the mill in They Came Together, a sharp satire of everything rom-com starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler, directed by David Wain from a script by Wain and fellow Stella comedy group veteran Michael Showalter. Molly (Poehler) runs a small candy shop. Joel (Rudd) is the head of a massive candy corp that wants to shut her doors permanently. Naturally, they hate each other. But wait...maybe they actually love each other? Because that’s how it works in these things.

12) You’re Next (Hulu, Oct. 1)

If you still haven’t seen Adam Wingard’s acclaimed post-modern slasher flick You’re Next, this will make perfect viewing for the Halloween season. Like Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods, You’re Next is best approached with as little foreknowledge as possible, so suffice to say it involves a family gathering that goes sideways when masked figures start trying to kill everyone in the house. Where it goes from there… Well, just watch and know that You’re Next ably mixes scares, gore, pitch-black humor, and a star-making performance by Sharni Vinson. It’s rated 75 percent Fresh on RT, but horror fans can easily add another 10-15 percentage points onto that score. Also be sure to check out Wingard’s The Guest on Netflix Instant, which reunited the director with You’re Next screenwriter Simon Barrett, to good effect.

13) American Horror Show: Freak Show (Amazon Prime/Hulu, Oct. 6)

The fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s FX horror anthology series unfolds in 1950s Florida, set in and around “Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities,” one of the last surviving “freak shows” in America. As with previous seasons, much of the earlier cast recurs in new roles, including Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, and Gabourey Sidibe. Even more intriguingly, several other actors, including James Cromwell, actually reprise their roles from season 2’s Asylum, strengthening theories that all of these stories are unfolding within the same narrative universe. Also, there’s a scary-ass clown, because of course there is.

14) Casual (Hulu, Oct. 7)

Jason Reitman has racked up the résumé over the past decade, including Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air, and Young Adult. He also directed several episodes of the American incarnation of The Office, and now he’s diving back into television with Hulu’s Casual, which he created.

Michaela Watkins (SNL) stars as Valerie, a newly divorced therapist and single mom who moves herself and her 16-year-old daughter (God Bless America’s Tara Lynne Barr) in with her bachelor brother (Tommy Dewey), who runs a dating site. Hijinks will undoubtedly ensue.

15) Red Oaks (Amazon Prime, Oct. 9)

Amazon’s much-anticipated Philip K. Dick adaptation The Man in the High Castle is due to arrive next month, but in the meantime they’re serving up another new original series—and this one’s a bit less heavy than “What if the Axis powers won WWII?”

Red Oaks is set at the prestigious Red Oaks Country Club in 1985, following a young college tennis player named David (Craig Roberts) who is working a summer job there. It’s a coming-of-age tale blended with a workplace comedy, with a dash or two of familial dysfunction thrown in for good measure. Red Oaks was created by Joe Gangemi and frequent Steven Soderbergh collaborator Gregory Jacobs (Magic Mike XXL). Soderbergh also executive produced the series, with David Gordon Green (see also Joe) directing the pilot. Red Oaks’ 10-episode first season features a cast that includes Paul Reiser, Richard Kind, and Jennifer Grey.

16) Camp X-Ray (Hulu with Showtime, Oct. 17)

Kristen Stewart continues carving out a post-Twilight career with this drama set at the infamous Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Stewart plays a guard at the facility, spending her days watching over the prisoners designated “enemy combatants” as part of America’s ongoing war on terror. Both the prisoners and her fellow soldiers are frequently hostile toward her, but she befriends one man in particular, who has been incarcerated in Guantánamo for eight long years. That relationship causes her to begin questioning her convictions. Camp X-Ray earned a 73 percent Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes, with critics singling out the performances of Stewart and co-star Peyman Moaadi.

17) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (Amazon Prime/Hulu, Oct. 23)

Hollywood will be in need of a new reigning young adult movie franchise to milk after The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 hits theaters on Nov. 20. The fourth film in the franchise will wrap up the big-screen adaptation of author Suzanne Collins’ best-selling YA book series, with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) determined to take down the oppressive government of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) once and for all.

But before then, both fans and newcomers alike will get the chance to revisit the path that led Katniss from simple small-town girl to revolutionary. The original Hunger Games flick isn’t available on any of the core trio of streaming services, but Hulu already has Catching Fire, and the third film is coming to both Amazon Prime and Hulu later this month.

18) While We’re Young (Amazon Prime, Oct. 23)

While We’re Young is one of the latest from writer/director Noah Baumbach, who previously gave us indie hits such as Frances Ha, Greenberg, and The Squid and the Whale. While We’re Young reunites Baumbach with his Greenberg leading man, Ben Stiller, with the actor this time playing a New York City documentarian named Josh, alongside Naomi Watts as his wife Cornelia. Their marriage is on the rocks, and Josh has been struggling to complete his latest film for years. Their lives are energized after befriending a younger couple (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried), but they soon learn that sometimes something that looks too good to be true, is. While We’re Young is currently sitting at 83 percent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

19) Danny Collins (Amazon Prime, Oct. 30)

Screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s (Crazy, Stupid, Love) feature directorial debut stars Al Pacino as an aging ’70s rock icon named, well, Danny Collins. Based loosely on the real life of folk singer Steve Tilston, Danny Collins has the titular rocker reexamining his life after discovering a 40-year-old letter written—but never delivered—to him by the late John Lennon. He moves into a hotel in Jersey, tries to start a relationship with the grown son he’s never met (Bobby Cannavale), and tries to reconnect with the creative fire he lost somewhere along the way. The flick is rated 77 percent Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes, with Pacino’s lead performance earning much praise, alongside a dynamite cast that also includes Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner, and Christopher Plummer as Collins’ long-time manager who discovers the Lennon letter.

September

Pick of the Month: Hand of God (Sept. 4, Amazon Prime)

Hand of God is the latest original series from Amazon Studios, and it landed a helluva lead in Ron Perlman, fresh off making us love to hate him for five years on FX’s Sons of Anarchy. In Hand of God, he’s on the other side of the law… or, at least, he starts out that way. Perlman plays Pernell Harris, a morally flexible judge who suffers a mental breakdown and becomes convinced that God is “compelling him onto a path of vigilante justice.” (I’m guessing his vigilante career won’t involve any tights, but you never know.) The series was created by Ben Watkins, whose primary previous credit was working on Burn Notice, but Hand of God definitely looks to be darker fare than USA’s fun-loving spy drama. While Amazon hasn’t received quite as much attention as Netflix, it has some solid original content in their lineup, including the award-winning Transparent and the upcoming adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. With a meaty role for Perlman to chew on and a cast that also includes Dana Delany and the ridiculously talented Garrett Dillahunt (Deadwood, Raising Hope), Hand of God should definitely be on your must-see list.

Best of the rest:

1) The Blair Witch Project (Sept. 1, Amazon Prime)

“In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary… A year later their footage was found.” It’s hard to believe it’s been over 16 years since The Blair Witch Project was unleashed on the world, igniting a found-footage horror trend that continues to this day. Blair Witch was a viral marketing hit before social media made such things commonplace, and it played the whole “is it real?” card better than any of the imitators that have followed in its shaky-cam footsteps. Filmmakers have been trying to find new ways to bend, twist, and evolve the found-footage genre ever since, but The Blair Witch Project’s simplicity is also one of its strengths: Kids go into the woods looking for a monster, bad shit happens, and the cameras keep on rolling…

2) Elementary: Seasons 1 - 3 (Sept. 1, Hulu)

At the time it premiered, Elementary played second fiddle to the more critically admired British Sherlock series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, but over the ensuing three seasons, CBS’s modern take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s consulting detective has built its own loyal following. Johnny Lee Miller stars as a Holmes who relocated to the States after a stint in rehab, and Lucy Liu plays Dr. Joan Watson, the “sober companion” assigned to Holmes by his father. Together the pair assist the NYPD in solving crimes that leave the police stumped, as well as interacting with retrofitted Doyle icons such Rhys Ifans as brother Mycroft Holmes and Natalie Dormer as a gender-swapped version of Holmes’ archenemy, Moriarty. Elementary returns for a fourth season on CBS this November, so there’s plenty of time to binge.

3) Hannah and Her Sisters (Sept. 1, Amazon Prime)

Thanksgiving is still a few months away, but you can get an early jump on the holiday with Woody Allen’s 1986 comedy, which is bookended by a pair of Turkey Day gatherings hosted by the titular Hannah (Mia Farrow). Hannah used to be married to neurotic TV writer Mickey (Allen), but now she’s married to Michael Caine’s Elliot, who is developing a crush on one of her sisters. People are sleeping with people they’re not supposed to be, people aren’t sleeping with the people they are supposed to be, and all the relationship drama unfolds using flashbacks and the two holiday gatherings, set two years apart, as narrative anchor points. The excellent cast also includes Max Von Sydow, Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher, future Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and even perpetually angry Daily Show contributor Lewis Black. Hannah and Her Sisters was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three, including Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Caine and Best Original Screenplay for Allen.

4) Killer Klowns From Outer Space (Sept. 1, Amazon Prime)

Everybody knows clowns are creepy, and Tim Curry in particular traumatized my entire generation as the demonic Pennywise in the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s It. The killer clowns in Killer Klowns are more goofy than nightmare-inducing but still just as homicidal. It all begins with a mysterious object falling out of the sky into a field. But instead of a smoking crater, it leaves behind a big-top tent and a mess of murderous clown-like aliens. There are toy ray guns that will really kill you. There are acid cream pies that will melt your face off. There’s even a puppet show.

Nobody’s suggesting this is high art, but it is art you should watch while high, preferably with a room full of buddies to make clown-related puns the whole time. (Believe it or not, there’s actually a sequel in pre-production: The Return of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space in 3D is tentatively slated for release in 2016.)

5) Pitch Perfect 2 (Sept. 1, Amazon Instant)

The 2012 musical/comedy hit ricocheted off the popularity of Glee, introduced the world to Rebel Wilson, and further cemented the general awesomeness of Anna Kendrick. This year’s sequel picks up four years after the Barden Bellas a cappella group won the nationals, but their fame hits a serious roadblock after a disastrous performance at President Obama’s birthday gala. Bellas leader Beca Mitchell (Kendrick) sets her sights on restoring the group’s reputation by winning an international a cappella competition that no American group has ever won. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Pitch Perfect 2 hit a high note of $285 million worldwide box office, making it the highest grossing musical comedy of all time, dethroning School of Rock.

Correction 7:13am, Sept. 2: While Pitch Perfect 2 is newly available on Amazon for streaming, it is not one of the selections Prime users can watch for free.

6) Popeye (Sept. 1, Amazon Prime)

And on the less auspicious end of the musical-comedy spectrum, we’ve got Robert Altman’s 1980 outing Popeye, based on E.C. Segar’s beloved comic strip (and the cartoons that followed). Popeye was never exactly begging for a live-action adaptation in the first place, but that didn’t stop Altman and stars Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall from giving it their best shot. Well, a shot, anyway. It’s not the finest hour for anyone involved, but it’s almost worth a watch for the surreal train-wreck factor alone. To the film’s credit, Duvall makes a shrilly pitch-perfect Olive Oyl, and if ever there was a human capable of pulling off the lead role while saddled with a permanent squint and comically oversized prosthetic forearms, it was Robin Williams. Also, at one point he punches out an octopus.

7) Willow Creek (Sept. 2, Showtime with Hulu)

There’s been a run of found-footage Bigfoot movies in the last couple of years, but few were as interesting as Willow Creek, which earned indie cred by being written and directed by standup comedian turned filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait. His résumé includes such controversial flicks as Sleeping Dogs Lie, in which a woman admits to her fiancé that she once dabbled in bestiality. Willow Creek isn’t nearly as provocative as all that, but it’s no less fascinating simply because it’s not the sort of material you’d expect to see Goldthwait tackle.

The flick follows a couple as they venture into the California wilderness in search of the location where the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film was shot. Needless to say, they find more than just a guy in a gorilla suit. Willow Creek doesn’t do anything earth-shattering with the material, but it’s worth watching for a standout sequence that wrings serious tension out of nothing more than spooky noises and a long shot of two people cowering in a tent. It’d make a solid double feature with The Blair Witch Project, actually. (Note: Willow Creek is only available to customers with the Showtime with Hulu package.)

8) That Guy Dick Miller (Sept. 3, Hulu)

So who is Dick Miller? As this documentary’s title suggests, he’s one of the many “that guy” character actors who has appeared in countless films over the years, the sort of person you would instantly recognize but could never name. A quick perusal of Miller’s IMDb page reveals appearances in The Terminator, both Gremlins movies, General Hospital, two Star Trek series, and—my personal favorite—The ’Burbs, to name just a few. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, That Guy Dick Miller examines Miller’s long career, which includes roles in over 100 films and television shows, and features interviews with Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Fred Dekker (who directed Miller in Night of the Creeps), and of course Miller himself. That Guy Dick Miller is currently rocking a 77 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so it’s worth checking out this Dick.

9) Dear White People (Sept. 4, Amazon Prime)

Writer/director Justin Simien’s social satire follows the lives of several black students at an Ivy League college. Samantha “Sam” White (Tessa Thompson) hosts a controversial radio show where she unloads truth bombs such as, “Dear White People, the amount of black friends required not to seem racist has just been raised to two. Sorry, your weed man Tyrone doesn’t count.” The campus’ already simmering racial tensions reach a boil after Kurt, the white son of the school’s president, hosts a blackface party. Dear White People stirred up plenty of positive buzz at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and it boasts an impressive 91 percent Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. A glance at the evening news on any given day confirms that Dear White People is all too timely, but thankfully it handles its hot-button issues in a way that’s intelligent, honest, and funny.

10) I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (Sept. 5, Amazon Prime)

After joining Jim Henson’s Muppeteers in 1969, Caroll Spinney helped launch Sesame Street and bring to life two of its most iconic characters: Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. He’s a figure who’s been an integral part people’s childhoods for over four decades, but there’s a good chance most of those people couldn’t pick him out of a lineup. Hopefully I Am Big Bird will fix that. Like That Guy Dick Miller, I Am Big Bird was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, so kudos to crowdfunding for continuing to assemble interesting projects that otherwise might not have come together. Having been a staple of the pop-culture landscape for 40 years, Spinney has no shortage of ripping yarns to tell, from the time he was almost killed by a trash-can fire to how Big Bird nearly went into space aboard the Challenger space shuttle.

11) St. Vincent (Sept. 5, Showtime with Hulu)

Bill Murray can pretty much do no wrong at this point in his career, but so long as he keeps picking roles like St. Vincent, he won’t have to coast solely on goodwill anytime soon. In writer/director Theodore Melfi’s theatrical debut, Murray plays Vincent MacKenna, a cranky Vietnam vet whose hobbies include gambling, alcoholism, and hating people. He meets his new neighbors—single mother Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) and her 12-year-old son, Oliver—after they accidentally damage his car, which isn’t exactly an ideal introduction. Nevertheless, Vincent soon reluctantly allows Oliver to start staying at his house after school, and Maggie and the boy slowly drag him out his self-imposed social cocoon and reveal the beating heart lurking underneath all that misanthropy. Murray is outstanding as always, and McCarthy seriously impresses in a more complex role than she’s usually given, one that lets her be funny but also do more than just mug and pratfall. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on director Melfi’s career from here on out. (Note: St. Vincent is only available with the Showtime with Hulu package.)

12) The Awesomes: Season 3 (Sept. 8, Hulu)

Hulu is a distant third behind Netflix and Amazon when it comes to earning buzz for its original programming, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some gems in its lineup. If you’ve already binged through BoJack Horseman and are looking for a new animated series to dive into, Hulu is launching the third season of The Awesomes on Sept. 8. Created by Saturday Night Live alum Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker, The Awesomes tells the story of Professor Doctor Jeremy “Prock” Awesome (voiced by Meyers), the son of legendary superhero Mr. Awesome. After Mr. A retires, it’s up to Prock to take the reigns of his dad’s team—which, in practice, means recruiting a bunch of second-tier capes and hoping they don’t screw things up too bad. Together they’ll face supervillains, bad press, and their incompetence. The voice cast includes tons of SNL vets, including Meyers, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Will Forte, and Amy Poehler.

13) Men, Women & Children (Sept. 12, Amazon Prime)

Director Jason Reitman gave us Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air. That alone should be reason enough to give Men, Women & Children a look-see, even if it didn’t fare enormously well among critics. But Reitman’s latest also has an added sheen of timeliness thanks to the fact that it includes the Ashley Madison infidelity website as a plot point in its web of stories about various sorts of online addiction and dysfunction. Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt star as a married couple each trying to cheat on the other—her through Ashley Madison, him through an escort service. Their teenage son is hooked on increasingly extreme pornography. Teenage Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia) posts salacious pictures of herself online… on a site maintained by her mother (Judy Greer). You might have guesses this isn’t exactly a “feel-good” kind of movie…


August

Pick of the Month: Curb Your Enthusiasm (Aug. 6, Amazon Prime)

Amazon Prime has added the full run of the HBO classic to its streaming catalog. That’s eight seasons of crankiness and misanthropy from and starring Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld. Just as Jerry Seinfeld did in that legendary series, David plays a fictionalized version of himself in Curb: a retired TV writer/producer whose hobbies include social anxiety and being irritated at everything everyone around him does at all times. Cheryl Hines co-stars as his wife, and Jeff Garlin plays his manager Jeff. The show was heavily improvised and—also in the spirit of Seinfeld—features a revolving door of celebrity cameos, including Mel Brooks, Martin Scorsese, Ben Stiller, and Ricky Gervais, to name a few, not to mention all four Seinfeld leads: Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards.

Best of the rest:

1) Difficult People (Aug. 5, Hulu)

Hulu has been running a distant third behind Netflix and Amazon; it has yet to find its House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black, or Transparent. Hopefully Hulu will get a little time in the spotlight with the new Amy Poehler-produced comedy Difficult People, which earned a straight-to-series order from Hulu after USA passed on the pilot. Created by author/performer/podcaster Julie Klausner, Difficult People stars Klausner alongside Billy Eichner (Funny or Die’s Billy on the Street) as a pair of struggling New York comedians “who hate everyone but each other.” Klausner cites the aforementioned Curb Your Enthusiasm as a major influence on the show, and also describes it as “Will and Grace, if one was a six and the other was a seven.”

2) 52 Tuesdays (Aug. 6, Hulu)

Shows such as Transparent, Orange Is the New Black, and Sense8 have all featured transgender characters prominently, shining a light on a community that is still widely misunderstood and discriminated against. For those seeking another intelligent and insightful exploration of the topic, look no further than the acclaimed Australian coming-of-age drama 52 Tuesdays. Tilda Cobham-Hervey stars as Billie, a teenager whose lesbian mother Jane (Del Herbert-Jane) announces her plans to transition to a male. She sends Billie to live with her uncle (Mario Späte) during the transition process, and for the next year, Jane/James and daughter see each other only on Tuesday evenings, a situation that further strains their already troubled relationship. 52 Tuesdays premiered to much critical acclaim at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and earned director Sophie Hyde the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award.

3) A Most Violent Year (Aug. 7, Amazon Prime)

Rising star Oscar Isaac stars as Abel Morales, an immigrant in 1981 New York City who is building the American dream, having taken his father-in-law’s heating oil business to the heights of success. Even more impressively, he’s done it all honestly and above-board in the midst of an industry with a substantial criminal element. Now a new business deal could expand the family business even further, but a series of robberies and attacks of Abel’s workers could threaten that future. To make matters worse, Abel’s father-in-law didn’t run nearly as clean a ship as Abel does, and now the company is being targeted by an assistant D.A. eager to root out corruption. Abel tries to save his company without sacrificing his ethics, but even his own wife (co-star Jessica Chastain) believes they need to do whatever it takes to protect what’s theirs. Critics praised both Isaac and Chastain’s performances, and A Most Violent Year currently sports an impressive 90 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

4) Doctor Who: Season 8 (Aug. 8, Hulu)

See our recommendation from this month’s Netflix picks.

5) You’re the Worst: Season 1 (Aug. 10, Hulu)

Continuing the “cranky people doing cranky things” trend of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Difficult People, we come to FX’s You’re the Worst. Created by former Orange Is the New Black/Weeds producer Stephen Falk, You’re the Worst explores the relationship between writer Jimmy (Chris Geere) and PR exec Gretchen (Aya Cash). Jimmy excuses his assholish nature as blunt honesty, and Gretchen is determined to self-destruct in a variety of creative ways. The pair meet-cute as he’s being kicked out of a wedding and she’s sneaking out with a food processor stolen from the bride’s gift pile—it’s a match made in self-obsession. Critics praised the show’s writing and the chemistry between the two leads, and You’re the Worst will return for a second season on FXX Sept. 9.

6) Misery Loves Comedy(Aug. 16, Amazon Prime)

Curb Your Enthusiasm, Difficult People, You’re the Worst… The strange truth of the matter is, unhappy people can generate some of the best comedy. Given the inclusion of those shows on this list, it’s oddly appropriate that we round out the month with this Kickstarter-funded documentary, which asks the question: Do you have to be miserable to be funny? Directed by comedian Kevin Pollak, Misery Loves Comedy enlists a ridiculous lineup of talent to dissect that central question, including Judd Apatow, Janeane Garofalo, Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau, Stephen Merchant, Jason Alexander, Lewis Black, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Gaffigan, Paul F. Tompkins, Christopher Guest, Bob Saget, Martin Short, Marc Maron, Penn Jillette, and (bringing it full circle) Larry David. And that’s not even close to everybody involved. This is pretty much a must-see for comedy fans.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Watch Nick Offerman's 45-minute Yule Log video

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Nick Offerman shows his holiday spirit while sitting by the traditional Christmas Yule Log, maintaining a comfortable silence and keeping the straightest of faces.

Perpetuating the long-standing tradition of Yule Log videos, Offerman gives his own version—balancing a soothing mix of warmth, relaxation, and manliness. Following a 10-second montage of Offerman doing various holiday things is 44 straight minutes of the Parks and Recreation actor sipping whisky in front of a crackling fireplace. 

The actor looks cozy by fire, perched in his armchair, a glass of single malt scotch in hand, and wearing a plaid shirt under a tan blazer and dark jeans. Much of the time, he wears his signature frown, eyebrows knitted and all. The times Offerman looks straight into the camera almost makes you feel like he's staring into your soul.

Screengrab via My Tales of Whisky Official/YouTube

Little YouTuber Sam Saffold on diversity and the power of community

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There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of U.K. vlogger Sam Saffold. But the conversations this 19-year-old university student is having on his YouTube channel will ring a bell with anyone who cares about the platform and its growth.

Studying film in the hopes of becoming a director, 19-year-old Saffold has only been on YouTube for little over a year; he joined in 2014 after resolving to step outside his comfort zone. In his time online, Saffold has had more than just adventures, proving to be one of the most promising talents on YouTube. His secret? Using his lack of brand deals and millions of subs to spur uninhibited, honest conversations on race, ethnicity, and media’s relationship to both.

“Representation is something I’ve always noticed, even from a kid’s age,” said Saffold, whose racial background includes African-American, English, Indian, and Native American roots. “You watch things like Harry Potter and play it on the playground, and I never felt like I could play this character. There is this perception of everyone around you, the lack of representations makes you feel like an outsider.”

Originally inspired by MeowItsLucy’s videoWhy Is My YouTube White?,” his June 2015 video “Why Is YouTube So White?” examines why there are so few creators of color being highlighted and given opportunities on YouTube.

“YouTube is fundamentally a media-sharing platform dominated by Western society.”

“YouTube is open to any race,” he states in his video. “There are plenty of people that are racial minorities who are making videos; I just think there is not as many as there could be because of the kind of YouTube ecosystem that we have. So why do I think YouTube is white? To put it simply, because all of Western media is, and YouTube is fundamentally a media-sharing platform dominated by Western society.”

He goes on to explain why setting white as the media default is detrimental to the mindset and advancement of other races seeking relatable representations.

“In a world where people with white skin are given more attention and more validity to their experiences offline, why would that not be reflected online?” Saffold explains. “As someone white, you’d feel more encouraged to make things on [YouTube] because you’d already had positive racial representation and you’d be given more attention because your traits are already what’s considered to be the norm.”


Increasing awareness to YouTube’s diverse creator community has been one of the largest online discussions of 2015. It all started after Akilah Hughes published her game-changing article “YouTube rarely promotes black creators, even during Black History Month.” In it, Hughes investigates why, on a platform publicized as being available to everyone, only 30 creators out of the top 500 are not white. The article spurred a video trend among creators around the world including MeowItsLucy, Chescaleigh, MarinaShutUp, and the ThirdPew, each of whom discussed the need for YouTube audiences to become more aware of the diverse communities often overlooked on the platform.

This year’s “Diversity on YouTube” Vidcon panel hosted by Chescaleigh gained mass attention as such prominent creators as Kingsley, Timothy DeLaGhetto, and JusReign explained their frustration of not receiving the same opportunities as white creators with half their number of subscribers.

With GloZell interviewing President Obama, Issa Rae opening her own studio, Todrick Hall starring in his own MTV show, and gamer KSI being one of the largest creators in the U.K., creators of color are as visible as ever, both on the platform and off. But the viewership and subscriber counts aren’t following suit, so now what?

As Saffold states, subscribing to a creator just because they’re a creator of color is not the answer. For many creators, being a person of color is one part of their identity but not necessarily the defining factor of who they are or what their channel is built upon.

“I never wanted to be somebody that spoke of race on YouTube or never thought I would be that person because I didn’t want that to be all I was capable of. But I realized being scared to talk because you’re afraid of being labeled is just as bad as not talking a subject at all. If I have an opinion on things I think I can make a good difference on, that’s something important to do,” Saffold told the Daily Dot.


Outside of fighting for a better YouTube, Sam is a movie-obsessed ZeFrank fanboy whose quick wit and hilarious tangents have gained him fans such as Jake Roper (VSauce3), MeowItsLucy, and Dodie Clark.

His videos range from vlogs about existential crises and demon horses to daily adventures and interviews with other creators. Before filming, Saffold says he writes out a script to decrease the number of tangents he can accumulate in one video; he then spends hours editing his videos before crossing his fingers and hoping his molasses Internet will upload his video in less than 10 hours.

Longtime YouTuber Leslie Datsis says of Saffold: “When you go back through Sam's backlog of videos, it seems as if he found his natural video style pretty quickly. I don't see that a lot in new-ish creators—they usually have to experiment a bit to find what's best for them. But funny enough, his natural style isn't anything tricky; it’s his genuine disposition mixed with his quick wit.”

For Sam, being in front of the camera isn’t about the fame or how many views a video can collect. Instead, he finds being a part of a growing community dedicated to creating compelling, experimental content the thing to drives him forward. “I was at the small YouTube panel at Summer in the City and it just felt like I was in a room full of people who were people, not people treating each other like numbers,” Saffold shared of so-called “Little YouTube.” “I’ll see the same [people] in the comments, talking to each other and conversing, and there is something supportive about that. I feel like [on] big YouTube, being you is cool and it’s inspirational to see people getting up to that level doing things that they love, but I don’t feel a sense of camaraderie.”

It’s creators like Sam Saffold that provide confidence in the next generation of YouTubers and remind us that even the tiniest voices, when used authentically, can cut across the mass of YouTube noise.

Screengrab via SuperSamStuff/YouTube

Lupita Nyong'o tiptoes around 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' details on 'The Daily Show'

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This articles features a video that will autoplay.

Lupita Nyong’o may not have been allowed to reveal anything new about Star Wars: The Force Awakens on The Daily Show, but she still demonstrated her Star Wars fandom, discussed her CGI filming experience, and shared her love of fashion that will help inspire the next generation.

Even though we already know what Maz Kanata looks like and how she sounds from the poster and trailers—and even though the movie is practically within our grasp—Lucasfilm maintains a tight, Marvel-like grip on its stars and their secrets. But Nyong'o and Trevor Noah still managed to find some common ground by chatting about her CGI filming and the saga as a whole. She watched the Star Wars films on TV during public holidays, so she associated it with getting out of school.

One thing Noah couldn’t help but notice was her dress, which was made with LED lights. It wasn’t just a fashion choice, but rather part of Zac Posen’s collaboration with Google to encourage girls to code through fashion. The dress would likely fit right in with the Star Wars universe.

Screengrab via The Daily Show

The guy behind 'Friday' is back with a colorful ode to pregnant women

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Have you been wondering what happened to Patrice Wilson, the architect behind earworms like “Friday” and “It’s Thanksgiving”? Well, he’s apparently been busy getting ripped, and his latest release is… well, it’s a release. 

Wilson, known for a string of increasingly bizarre, made-to-enrage videos featuring pre-teen pop stars, is back with “Beautiful,” and this time he’s the star. All of Wilson’s “hits” focus on a very specific topic, and we quickly learn that “Beautiful” is about pregnant women, their beauty, Wilson's abs, and lots of colored paint. At least we think it’s paint? (Editor’s note: We hope it’s paint.)

When we spoke with Wilson last year, he acknowledged his “haters are there, 80 percent, but then there are 20 percent fans. And you’ll get the haters to become lovers.” “Beautiful” currently has more than double the number of dislikes than likes on YouTube, so it seems everything’s in order here. 

H/T Death and Taxes | Screengrab via patomuzic/YouTube 

'Star Wars' saga in 3 minutes gives you the 6 films' most important info

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Whether it’s your first time marathoning them or your 100th, cramming in all six Star Wars films before seeing The Force Awakens can be quite an undertaking—especially if you’re doing it in one day.

But our time is limited—and some of us might not want to sit through one or two of those prequels. Luckily, Eclectic Method has our back. The group stitched together a three-minute video detailing the most important plot points.

It has practically no Leia Organa or Han Solo, it nixes nearly all of The Empire Strikes Back, and it skips over what the rebels are doing, but on the other hand there’s hardly any Anakin/Padme romance or Jar Jar Binks in it, which is a somewhat fair trade-off. But if all you want to know is the Skywalker story, then you’ve come to the right place.

Screengrab via Eclectic Method/YouTube

YouTube Red angles for streaming rights for TV and movies

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In a bid to compete with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, YouTube is reportedly seeking streaming rights for movies and TV shows as part of its new YouTube Red subscription service. 

Right now, for $9.99 a month, Red subscribers get access to exclusive webseries and original content from their favorite YouTube creators—a business model people both within and outside of the YouTube community have voiced concerns about in terms of sustainability. But with an expansion into film and TV, the service would become a major competitor in the streaming space overnight.

According to the Wall Street Journal

Netflix, Amazon and Hulu license many older movies and TV series that have already run elsewhere, while YouTube is focusing on new material, according to one of the people.

The shows or movies may be streamed exclusively on YouTube Red, or could be released through traditional channels like movie theaters, cable networks and DVDs alongside the YouTube subscription service, the person added.

With a bunch of Netflix alums leading the charge over at YouTube’s offices, it seems pretty likely that licensed content with a higher-budget feel will be making its way to YouTube Red in 2016. 

H/T The Wall Street Journal | Screengrab via YouTube Spotlight/YouTube


Celebrate Linda Ellerbee's retirement with these 'Nick News' highlights

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Nickelodeonannounced this week that after 25 years anchoring Nick News, the longest-running children’s news program in TV history, Linda Ellerbee will be retiring in December. 

Any child of the ’90s can probably remember the spinning globe logo from the opening credits and Ellerbee's chill, laid-back attitude as she reported cross-legged in her Converse sneakers. It wasn’t the most high-octane show in Nickelodeon’s Sunday night lineup, but it was far and away the most different. Who else has ever—or, more importantly, will ever—dedicated their career to educational Dateline-style interview series on topics kids generally need help wrapping their heads around? Things like gender and equality in a Title IX report, or on privilege and empathy in a report on autism. 

The show has won two Peabody Awards in its tenure, and held the No. 1 spot in Nickelodeon’s ratings in 1992 and 1993. According to the show’s Wikipedia page, it never dipped below the No. 6 spot in its entire run.  

So to celebrate Ellerbee’s awesome canon, here are three of the most iconic full episodes available to watch on YouTube

1) Homelessness, Malcolm X, and mountain biking

2) Domestic violence

3) Animal rights

The network will retire the series after airing a one-hour retrospective of Ellerbee's work, entitled Hello, I Must Be Going: 25 Years of Nick News With Linda Ellerbee, December 15.

Photo via Toshiyuki IMAI/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed

For Vimeo's first comedy special, Bianca Del Rio flips through her 'Rolodex of Hate'

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If you’re a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, you likely know Bianca Del Rio, winner of season 6. If you’re not, Del Rio’s new comedy special, Rolodex of Hate, is your crash course.  

The special is Vimeo’s first dive into comedy specials, a genre streaming competitor Netflix has been especially successful growing in the past year. In a statement, Sam Toles, Vimeo’s head of global content acquisitions and distribution, said Vimeo zeroed in on Del Rio (real name Roy Haylock) for a simple reason: “We felt Bianca’s fresh, edgy perspective was the perfect voice for Vimeo’s first-ever comedy special.”

Indeed, Del Rio gives edge. She channels the late, great Joan Rivers in the special, which was filmed at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, stating early on that “people get offended too fucking easily” these days. For the next hour, Del Rio stretches her imminently GIF-able Drag Race persona into an F-bomb-filled roast, pointing the white-hot firehose of hate at herself, the audience, and anyone within striking distance (including Selena, via a bit with an audience member), in an effort to offend multitudes. 

The shout-talk delivery starts to wear after about 30 minutes, but once Del Rio brushes past some pretty tiresome racial stereotypes and gets into more personal stories about growing up gay in the South—as well as a pointed criticism of a younger gay culture that doesn’t know drag history—the special comes into focus a bit more. 

Harnessing the popularity of High Maintenance, its first original series, Vimeo is now putting more weight behind original comedy: In addition to Rolodex of Hate, the site is debuting a special from YouTuber Elliott Morgan on Dec. 10, producing a series from SNL’s Aidy Bryant, and bringing in acclaimed webseries The Outs. In our current culture of political correctness and one-click outrage, Del Rio is certainly not going to be a mainstream hit, and whether the perspective is “fresh” is subject to interpretation, but if Vimeo’s leadership wanted some edge, they got it. 

Screengrab via Bianca Del Rio/Vimeo 

Twitter doesn't understand why 'The Wiz' is an all-black musical

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Musical theater lovers are gearing up for NBC's live-stage performance of The Wiz tonight, a rock musical retelling of The Wizard of Oz that promises to be great fun for the whole family—except for the racists on Twitter who don't understand why it features an all-black cast.

Let's ease on down the road of embarrassment:

While all you sweet things might think this is just the world and the way things are on the Internet, home to mean ol' racists everywhere, there's an extra component to this absurdity: The Wiz is actually a 40-year-old musical done by an all-black creative team including Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross. The movie was produced by Quincy Jones and starred Diana Ross, Lena Horne, and Michael Jackson

That's right. I don't wanna bring you no bad news, angry white people, but if you're gonna complain about why NBC's version is doing what every other performance of this musical has done since 1978, you're running just a little bit late.

But even with the lack of musical theater history on their side, Twitter's confusion is understandable. After all, it's not like all-minority musicals retelling previous stories has ever been a thing before tonight, right?

...Oh, wait.

Thankfully there's still a reason to rejoice—the prejudiced voices on Twitter have rapidly been drowned out by hours and hours of subsequent ridicule from the rest of the Internet.

There's an easy solution to this problem, and that's to look inside our hearts to find a world full of love, like yours and mine—like the year 2015, where black people can do things without it being a big deal. If you believe, within your heart you'll know that no one can change the awesomeness of the original L. Frank Baum story—not even the all-white cast we had to put up with in 1939.

It's almost like you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game.

H/T Buzzfeed | Screengrab via Movie Clips/YouTube

Coldplay reportedly tapped to play Super Bowl 50, and the Web is fuming

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When it was announced on Thursday that Coldplay would perform as the main attraction during Super Bowl 50 next February in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Internet exploded with joy. OK, it was mostly mockery.

Because while Coldplay might make mainstream fans who aren't exactly diehard NFL supporters quite pleased, those who mostly tune in for the football weren't quite as happy.

(Ah, we miss you, Left Shark.)

All might not be lost, though.

Bruno Mars, who put together a solid performance at the Super Bowl two years ago, and other "friends of the group" could join the band, according to US Weekly.

Until then, one can ponder one of the most important unknowable questions of our era.

Photo via Alex Bilkfalvi/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Daisy Ridley, in R2-D2 hat, plays 'Star Wars' Flip Cup with Jimmy Fallon

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Daisy Ridley can handle her staff and a blaster in The Force Awakens, but she also knows how to deal with a Solo of a different nature.

Ridley and Jimmy Fallon played a game of Star Wars-themed Flip Cup on The Tonight Show—which basically just meant playing regular Flip Cup while wearing R2D2 and C-3PO hats and drinking out of cups with Han Solo on them. And when either of them successfully flipped a cup, Chewbacca growled in approval.

Ridley might not be as seasoned at it as Fallon, who’sbeendoingthisontheshowfora whilenow, but she can hold her own and keep up with his pace—and it beats having to artfully dodge the questions she can’t answer about The Force Awakens for a few more weeks.

Screengrab via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

Trevor Noah tears Ted Cruz a new one for holding gun event after San Bernardino shooting

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This article contains an autoplay video.

Trevor Noah was disgusted with how one politician reacted to the San Bernardino shooting on Wednesday—and no, it had nothing to do with his “thoughts and prayers.”

Shortly after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) offered his condolences to the victims, his campaign decided to continue with a Second Amendment campaign event that will take place at a gun range in Iowa Friday, just two days after the shooting. And considering how those events transpired, Noah is taking Cruz to task for it—although it’s not exactly that much of a surprise.

“Yeah, 14 people just lost their lives in a shooting, and Ted Cruz’s first thought is, ‘Oh, that reminds me, got to send out my invites to my gun party,'” Noah said. “That seems like something you would only do if you were an asshole, which it turns out is exactly what voters are looking for.”

But by looking both at Cruz’s policy hypocrisy over the ages and just what people thought of him, Noah realized something: Cruz is finally the person who can bring Republicans and Democrats together—because of how much they both hate him.

Noah had an even bigger field day after discovering 18 hours of unedited Cruz campaign footage on YouTube—released as an unsubtle way for him to legally share ad material with his Super PACs—that mostly show awkward family interactions and his family telling him how great he is. On its own, the footage is pretty bad, but once the Daily Show team gets its hands on the video, it easily turns to comedy gold.

And the best part is, the footage is all there for the taking. The Daily Show already made horror and classic-sitcom versions, but there was simply too much footage for even Noah’s staff to get through. So he’s offering his audience the chance to #CruzYourOwnAdventure and make their own Cruz parodies, some which might end up on the air.

The possibilities are endless.

Screengrab via The Daily Show

Netflix's 'A Very Murray Christmas' attempts to update the holiday special

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The holiday TV special is nearly extinct, but if there’s anyone who could give it a little life, it’s Bill Murray

Via Netflix, A Very Murray Christmas both throws back to the golden age of variety shows and allows Murray to poke a little fun at himself. His persona here isn’t far removed from his sad-faced Lost in Translation character, and that’s no coincidence: Sofia Coppola directed the special. She told Vulture: 

Christmas is a time when you can be old-fashioned. We liked the idea of making our version of a corny holiday special that doesn’t seem to be around anymore, where you can kind of throw anyone together and it doesn’t have to have any logic — when David Bowie sang with Bing Crosby, that sort of thing, except with Bill Murray and Chris Rock and putting them in matching sweaters.
There is sadness, panic, and doubt: the essential elements of the holidays. 

Murray is supposed to host a holiday special at the Carlyle, but a blizzard has strangled New York City. (Somehow, Michael Cera got in, though.) Murray’s producers (played by Amy Poehler and Julie White) and musical accompaniment, Paul Shaffer, try to console him in the absence of scheduled talent. But then he runs into Chris Rock, and the string of celeb encounters within the halls and bars of the Carlyle is set into motion: Maya Rudolph, Rashida Jones, George Clooney, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Lewis, Miley Cyrus. Every scene is connected by a performance of a holiday song, but beyond that, there’s not much holding it together. 

And that’s fine. It feels like Netflix threw a budget at them and said, “Get some big names. Get some of your friends. Do whatever.” A Very Murray Christmas isn’t necessarily trying to imitate the specials of yore; instead, there’s more of a fantastical foundation, as Murray tries to help the stranded people around him: in love, in booze, in song. There is sadness, panic, and doubt: the essential elements of the holidays. 

Is this something you’ll want to watch with your family? Possibly, but at under an hour, it functions more as background viewing. Perhaps we’ll see Murray or Coppola on Netflix again soon. 

Photo by Ali Goldstein/Netflix 


Australian band's creepiest fan bluffs his way backstage by editing Wikipedia

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A fan of Australian electro-house duo Peking Duk was able to live his dream Wednesday by pulling a simple prank: he changed the "Family" section on the band's Wikipedia page to list himself as their step-brother, then got backstage after the show by showing the page to security. 

To the bouncer's credit, he could tell something sketchy was going on. When the fan, Melbourne mental-health practitioner David Spargo, presented his phone as evidence, security took it to verify the story with the band. 

The guys were so amused by Spargo's prank that they invited him backstage to have some beers.

"I just had a lightbulb-above-the-head kind of moment and thought, 'Yeah, I’ll give it a crack,'” Spargo told the Guardian. "No harm in trying, is there?"

The band even tweeted about the stunt the next day, with the perfect Anchorman quote for the occasion.

Peking Duk's "Background" section on Wikipedia has since been updated to read: 

In December 2015, at a show in Melbourne, a fan accessed the backstage area by editing the band's Wikipedia article page and inserting himself as a family member. Upon showing the article and his ID to the security guard, he was granted access to the band with whom he shared a beer. The band reacted positively to this scheme, stating "He explained to us his amazing tactic to get past security to hang with us and we immediately cracked him a beer. This dude is the definition of a legend."

It's safe to say that Peking Duk will probably get a few more fans trying this stunt. After all, it worked so well for Spargo. 

H/T The Verge | Screengrab via Peking Duk/Instagram

Here’s the lip-sync video that convinced Google to buy YouTube

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When it comes to the history of YouTube, Jarid Kawim’s “Me at the zoo” video gets all the attention. Granted, the clip was the first one ever to be uploaded to the online video sharing site that now sees more than 400 hours of new content every minute. However, there’s another (and arguably more important) piece of media which changed the entire future of the online video site: the video which convinced now-CEO Susan Wojcicki that Google had to purchase YouTube.

Back in 2006, Wojcicki was serving as Google’s SVP of Adwords and AdSense. The long-time employee was tasked with running the Google video initiative and dealing with acquisitions which could help the project grow. YouTube was one of the prime acquisition candidates, even though the site wasn’t profitable at the time. At that time Wojcicki found a video of the Chinese duo Back Dorm Boys lip-syncing to the Backstreet Boys’ song “As Long As You Love Me.”

YouTube’s CEO found the lip-syncing video hilarious, and realized the potential entertainment value in the site. “That was the video that made me realize that ‘Wow, people all over the world can create content, and they don’t need to be in a studio,'” Wojcicki recently said onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit, as reported by Business Insider. Over the next six months, Wojcicki orchestrated Google’s acquisition of the online video site for a whopping total of $1.65 billion. Wojcicki was made CEO of YouTube in February 2014. Since then, the YouTube executive has seen the site hit over one billion global users.

It’s possible YouTube may have eventually taken off on its own or found another partner and grown into a flourishing, profitable online video site. But thanks to the “As Long As You Love Me” clip, Google can claim YouTube and all its hours of content as its own.

Screengrab via nitroxunit/YouTube

'The Drunk Series' will drive you to drink

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Here's a tip for any would-be performers out there: If you’re having a better time than your audience, then you’ve failed. It’s a maxim that could have prevented all the effort making The Drunk Seriesa multi-genre collection of shorts that replicates the tedium of being sober at a party where a swarm of sozzled fools all try and remember the plot of Lost.

The series—which is written and performed drunk by a group of Portland actors and filmmakers—has its foundations in a short from a couple of years ago, Star Drunk, that you may well have seen. And just like the puppeteer behind William Hung, they’ve decided to extend an unlikely one-off success into something bigger, the predictable result being a magnification of just how threadbare the central idea is.  

Ah, you say, but what about Drunk History? That's pretty funny, right? And yes, it is. But the differences between the two highlight just what’s wrong with The Drunk Series. 

For starters they deviate on their intended sources of humor. Drunk History derives its laughs from the contrast of having straight actors playing out the spiraling ramblings of the inebriated storyteller. But The Drunk Series relies entirely on the hope that people being drunk is, in and of itself, funny. And sometimes it is. But it’s usually only funny when you’re drunk as well.

Another major difference between the two series is that Drunk History is filled with actors and comedians that you may well know. So at the very least there’s an intrigue as to what those people are like when wasted. 

But when you have a no-name cast expecting continual laughs just because they’re slurring their lines incomprehensibly, it’s less intriguing than insulting and arrogant—insulting to a crew that have shot and edited this series better than it deserves and arrogant in the expectation that people will watch actors they’ve never heard of purposely performing below even their own standards.

One time was fine. Any more will drive you to drink. 

Screengrab via Ganglebot Films/YouTube

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey parody the competition—which is 'The Force Awakens'

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Unless you are living under a rock, you know that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out Dec. 18. Apparently, there are other movies coming out that day, and one of them is starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Normally it would be a blockbuster—but, again, Star Wars.

In an attempt to trump up some business, the gals have released a video, aptly called "The Farce Awakens." The video parodies Star Wars, and features cameos from Maya Rudolph and Bobby Moynihan.

The video is hilarious, and frankly a Poehler and Fey Star Wars movie would be incredible. But they should be banned from ever doing British accents again. 

Poehler and Fey try to convince you that #YouCanSeeThemBoth, but, let's be honest—we are giving all of our money to Star Wars.

Screengrab via Universal Pictures/Youtube

The music-lovers behind Sing King Karaoke on hitting 1 million subscribers

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BY SAM GUTELLE

Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.

Music is a huge category on YouTube, and much of its appeal is social. When listeners crave specific songs to share with their friends on-demand, they can use YouTube to easily search up and find the tunes in question. For a similar reason, karaoke backing tracks have emerged as a viable music subcategory on YouTube. When it’s time to get singing, a quick search reveals all the instrumentals you need.

One of the most popular karaoke channels is called Sing King Karaoke, and its appeal is so great that it recently passed one million subscribers. We spoke to Sing King’s executive team—whose names are Kieran, Dan, and Natalie—about their process.

Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?

Sing King Karaoke: It’s truly incredible to be honest. It’s quite a hard number to visualise, although that didn’t stop us from trying! We’re from the U.K. so we tried to imagine 11 packed out Wembley Stadiums or the entire city of Birmingham, which is pretty nuts. To our fans, thank you sooo much, we appreciate the love we get from all of you! We get hundreds of comments every day; hearing about how our channel helps people to gain confidence in themselves, to perform their first live show, to win a talent show, or just to simply relax and deal with whatever is going on in their life. It’s an amazing feeling to know that we are able to make a positive difference in our fans’ lives. We love engaging with our fans and it gives us great drive to do even more in the future.

TF: What has it been like to see all of your fans’ messages for you as you compile your million subscriber video?

SKK: The morning that we broke one million, we walked in to an explosion of comments and e-mails. It was great to see how creative people got with their fan videos, and that’s what’s constantly inspiring to us—being part of a creative community. As we saw pictures of us in Sonic the Hedgehog-style fan art and found some outstanding singers and fans with unique senses of humour, we began to realise we’re far more loved than we ever could have known! We really felt the love from our fans, which we greatly appreciated.

TF: What do you think are the components of a good karaoke track? Are there any particular elements you try to avoid?

SKK: Usually we know when a song is going to be good when we’re all jamming out to it and discussing for about an hour on why it’s good or bad. We spend a lot of time talking about music. Ballads, hooks, and really catchy cheesy lines are a MUST! Karaoke isn’t really about being able to sing well, or being a professional singer, it’s primarily about having fun. We’re all terrible singers, but don’t tell Dan, he fancies himself as a star. First and foremost, we love music and that’s a huge driving force.

We learned early on that backing vocals aren’t too hot! I guess our singers want to be the star of the show and they don’t need anybody else dragging them down!

TF: Who writes the music for your channel and how long does it take to compose each track?

SKK: We work with a variety of different studios, which is an absolute necessity for us just to keep up with the amount of new music coming out. It typically takes a few days for a professional recording, but we have multiple tracks being worked on at the same time. Then, the video creation process can take anywhere from half an hour to 4 hours depending on the complexity of the vocal track. From there, we add our video templates and the total turnaround time becomes about a week or two weeks. We are very conscious of our instrumental quality being the best it can possibly be, so we always prioritise sound over speed.

TF: How do you decide which songs to feature on your channel?

SKK: We have a mixture of method. We use the U.K. and U.S. charts as a good indicator, and we try to make a note of every single request we receive from our fans (although that is becoming harder and harder to stay on top of!) We’re currently sitting on over 5,000 different song requests, and that’s not even taking into account the sheer volume of requests for each individual song. Popular YouTube artists also catch our eye, and they’re often the most fun to do because they’re so damn quirky! We’re all involved with music, both inside and outside of the channel—whether it be playing in a band, blogging, or hanging out at shows.

TF: How do karaoke videos interact with digital copyright laws?

SKK: We’re very lucky to work with YouTube. Licensing is a very complex process, one we’ve all had to deal with in the past. Luckily YouTube’s Partner Program allows content owners to make claims on music that they have contributed to, and YouTube deals with most of licensing and accounting from their end. It makes it very straightforward compared to the usual rigmarole of music licensing, allowing creators to be remunerated and channels to focus on further creation.

TF: Do you ever get feedback from the original artists?

SKK: Sadly, we haven’t yet! Not that we wouldn’t love to, we’d drop everything in a heartbeat to have a drink with our faves (we’re looking at you Ariana, Bieber, and Melanie Martinez!), so consider that an officially extended invitation! We’ve been lucky to build relationships with some awesome YouTube channels too though, and to see our music used by talents such as The Annoying Orange and Twin Melody is nothing short of incredible. It’s always nice to see some familiar YouTuber faces pop up in the comments, too!

TF: How would you describe your channel’s typical subscriber?

SKK: Can we say the best people ever? ;D

Karaoke is such a universally loved phenomenon that I don’t think you can really pinpoint it to one particular type of person. We definitely lean more towards the ladies, I don’t know why the boys are so shy! Our channel isn’t just used for parties and singing though, some people come to listen to the instrumentals, some like to use our music in their vlogs/speed art videos, others use us to discover new music, and of course we have a huge audience of budding superstars! If I could describe our subscribers in one word… it would be YAS!

TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?

SKK: Leading up to 1 million subscribers, we took the leap of faith to put our real human selves on the channel! It was daunting… but we wanted the fans, those who got us to where we are today, to share some of the limelight for our big milestone. We are all about the community after all! Now that we’ve broken 1 million we really want to start making more fun videos alongside the karaoke. When our fans didn’t all run to the hills after seeing our faces, we were mightily relieved! So next year you can expect to see more of our (beautiful) faces, as we’ll be collaborating with some talented musicians and YouTubers. 2016 is going to be an exciting year for all of us!

Screengrab via Sing King Karaoke/YouTube 

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