One of the things I’ve been digging through while riding out the Coronavirus is my YOOOGE Youtube favorites folder. I have over 2,500 saved videos that date back from 2007 when I first set up an official profile/channel on the site. A few days ago I started going through these favorites in a descending order, from my first, earliest "favorite” video I saved on Youtube back in 2007 to the present. There were so many cool clips I forgot about, lots of music videos, old TV shows and a lot of hilarious early viral videos. I thought I’d share some of this funky nostalgia with you while we weather this time together.

One thing to note is that the quality of almost all these clips is really shitty given they were all uploaded between 2007 and 2010. Many of these are likely converted from VHS tapes so the aspect ratio is square and the sound quality is low, but in many ways that just adds to the nostalgic appeal of the clips.

DIMEBAG DARRELL DESTROYS A CAR

This is one of the most juvenile, but funniest, online videos from the early days of Youtube (2006 to be exact). It’s a transfer of an obviously old VHS tape of the late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell smashing up his beater car on a suburban Texas street in the 90’s. I was never a fan of Pantera, but Dimebag’s drunken joy in the deconstruction combines with his stand-up drunk riffing and laughing to make for the greatest 2 minutes of video tape ever transferred to digital, with the exception of these jokers at Clarion University.

CORKY’S SPEECH

If you haven’t seen the film Waiting for Guffman, this is a great time to stream it or order the DVD because it’s worth every penny. It’s 1990 mockumentary classic from the same people that created, wrote, and starred in the cultural classic This is Spinal Tap and the not-quite as funny but still good Best in Show. Writer and Director Christopher Guest (who played Nigel “this one goes to 11” Tufnell in Spinal Tap) stars as Corky, the underdog community-theatre producer in rural Missouri who finds out a big Broadway producer might be attending his latest production.

I think Corky speaks for all of us in this clip:

LARRY “BUD” MELMAN GREETS NYC TRAVELLERS

This might be one of the funniest skits from classic Late Night with David Letterman, especially at the 2:45 point in the video when Larry is giving a passenger the hot towel and David is back in the studio laughing “What the hell was that?? HOW MAY WHA?” Larry Bud Melman (real name Calvert DeForest) became a recurring actor on the show after being discovered by two writers from Late Night cast him in a movie they produced in the early 80’s. Larry went on to become the most beloved of all the Late Night personalities, and was featured often.

From the Wikipedia entry on Calvert DeForest: “Melman would sometimes be given odd chores to perform by Letterman, such as handing out hot towels to arrivals at the Port Authority Terminal. At other times, Melman would give (pre-scripted) answers to unlikely audience questions, or appear at unexpected moments to heckle Letterman or the audience. A hallmark of the Melman character was his seemingly genuine lack of acting polish. Melman's scripted lines were clearly read from cue cards and usually delivered in a forceful shout—but when Letterman or others forced "Melman" into ad-libbing, the actor's naturally more soft-spoken and polite nature came to the forefront. As well, Melman routinely fluffed or mangled lines, but gamely persevered with whatever sketch he was in.”

THE INFAMOUS MAX HEADROOM
PIRATE TV INCIDENT

Back before digital TV and streaming radio, local TV channels radio stations broadcast their signals through the airwaves, which made them susceptible to “pirating” - that is the broadcast could be hijacked by someone with the right equipment “jamming” the station’s signal (containing the program) with their own, different signal. Back in the old days pirating a TV signal was a lot harder than pirating a radio signal, but it did happen occasionally, like this infamous incident in 1987. Some pranksters in Chicago hijacked the local public TV channel with a parody of then-popular character Max Headroom. I had only read about this back when it happened, so in the early days of Youtube it was fun to finally see it. Looking at this weird clip in today’s world it’s basically a quaint prank, but back in the day these incidents were investigated by the FCC and prosecuted. In fact, there was a movie made in 1990, Pump Up the Volume, with the entire plot revolving around the main characters pirate radio station and the FCC trying to shut him down.

JACK HORKHEIMER - STAR HUSTLER!

If you were a fan of Public TV in the 80s, you no doubt recognize that synthesizer intro! Whether or not you were an amateur astronomer or not, Jack Horkheimer's weekly astronomy lesson was always delivered with such genuine wonderment you couldn’t help but be captivated by his delivery. Jack’s program was called Star Hustler, and I’m sure back in the day I found this by searching for that hilarious name. There are a lot better clips, clearer clips than this one that have been uploaded recently, but I saved this one back in the day, and I’m including it here in all it’s VHS-taped-from-TV glory.

CHILLER THEATER - VINTAGE PITTSBURGH TV

Growing up in Pittsburgh in the 70’s and 80’s I used to watch “Chilly” Bill Cardille, the host of Chiller Theater, every weekend if I was allowed to stay up late. Chilly Bill was Pittsburgh’s own version of the ubiquitous late night b-movie show host, and this clip was one of the first uploaded to Youtube back in the day. There are several others up now that are better quality, but this clip is a classic mainly for the excellent commercial in the beginning for a former disco night club in Pittsburgh called VIP. Boogie fever!

WINNEBAGO MAN

A true classic from the early days Youtube, the angry, profane Winnebago man. This clip went viral, really viral, and became so infamous it spawned not one, but two documentaries about the “star” Jack Rebney. I personally never saw the documentaries, but from what I remember Jack The Winnebago Man was an actual Winnebago salesman picked to star in a promotional video about the vehicles, but was such an angry guy he would just erupt in the most obscenity laced outbursts at each flubbed line, and he actually got fired because of the problems the crew had on this commercial shoot.

THE KOREAN DRUMMER

Watch Kwon Soon-Keun, a drummer with a ridiculously high passion for drumming, and contemplate if anything brings you as much joy as this guys gets behind the drum set. And if you want something even funnier, watch the Kwon/Metallica mash-up video right below.

MR. ROGERS - THE GARDEN OF YOUR MIND

I don’t remember when exactly this came out but it was a delight when I first saw it. If you never saw this back when it first went around the net, you’re in for a treat.

HOW ENGLISH SOUNDS TO
NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS

I loved this short movie from the first time I saw it, though it always tended to get a mixed reaction when I’ve shown it to other people. Though I must say a lot of friends who speak English as their second language have always found it accurate.

FRANK COSTANZA

Frank Costanza is probably one of my top three all-time favorite characters on TV. He has so many great moments in the series, but I had this one saved in my favorites folder, and it made me laugh out loud the whole time. Enjoy!

VIETNAM AND CAMBODIA INNA WILD STYLE

I couldn’t not plug one of my own videos in this post, since I’ve been posting to my Youtube channel since 2007. This was a quickly edited video I made years ago from some video footage from a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam, set to a Switch/Diplo mix. This is one of my favorite non-super 8 videos. Check out my Youtube channel if you want to see more of my old video posts.