Media Analysis Video Essays

Have I mentioned that I love video essays? I think I might have. Anyway, here is a collection of all my favorite video essayist channels and why I like them so much, categorized by what topics they (mostly) talk about.

-Benji

Essays about videogames

pannenkoek1012

Depending on how much of a nerd you are you might have already seen this video. It became a meme 8 years ago and sadly made the creator step back from posting on his main channel for a while. But since the climate online has become more positive towards him, about a year ago he announced that he will be posting more frequently again and he has since put out some of my favorite videos of his. Of course as a true fan I followed his second channel closely over the years and can proudly say that a sizeble amount of my brain space is taken up by the very useful knowledge of the intricate workings of Super Mario 64. Anyways, I probably should explain what this is all about: Pannen posts videos about the A Button Challenge (or ABC), which is an ongoing community project of over 15 years that tries to beat SM64 in as few A presses (A is the jump button) as possible. Over the course of this project, SM64 has been thoroughly dissected and many, many exploits have been found, leading to 120 star sitting at only 13 A presses right now (theoretical TAS) and Any% having actually been beaten in 0 A presses by a human! If you are interested in the history of the ABC, Bismuth has made a 5 hour documentary about every development up to 2023. If you have seen the Watch for Rolling Rocks video at some point and are interested to know more about pannenkoek, you might want to check out this fun little video about how 1-Ups flicker or this longer, more math-heavy video about pendulum manipulation. But in case you have never heard of this challenge, I definitely recommend the OG Watch for Rolling Rocks video. It's a great entry point in my opinion, simply because it showcases how crazy this challenge actually gets (Mario travels to parallel universes in this one), even though the strat is outdated by now. Oh, and he also made this short, which makes me unreasonably happy every time I watch it.

Cybershell

I don't only love Cybershell because he shares my love for the blue hedgehog, no, he also shares my love for Earthbound! Jokes aside, he has some great videos that aren't about Sonic but instead about other games or some fun internet phenomena, which is what I will be recommending here. The video I have featured is about M.U.G.E.N. and how people started a war over who could make the most overpowered character for this fighting game. I love to fall asleep to it haha. I also really love this video about fan Wikis and this one about a funny forum post that resulted in a meme you might have seen floating around to this day. Anyway, I love his videos and his podcast as well, so if from perusing this website you got the impression that you have a similar taste in videos to me, you should definitely check him out. Also he played through a mod for Sonic Generations with Mario from SM64 and his entire moveset in it, which seems to be made specifically for me.

Patricia Taxxon

You might have heard of Patricia without even knowing it, because so many people use her music in their videos. I like her music, Aeroplane is probably my favorite album of hers, but her video essays are what really speaks to me. I chose her video about Marble Blast as the feature here because it fits the videogame category, but she has made videos about all sorts of media in the past, including responses to other video essays. My favorite video of hers is actually about Don't Hug Me I'm Scared and autism, which really gets to me personally in a way few other videos have. She also is openly furry and has made some videos about her experience, which I find very interesting. They made me have a more positive view of the furry community, as I'm not a furry myself and have only ever see them treated as basically the trash of the internet. I love her stuff, even though I don't always agree with every point she makes in her videos, but that somehow makes me like her even more.

hbomberguy

He is already on the Lefitst Video Essays list, but I wanted to feature his channel again here for his essays about media, mostly videogames, as they don't really intersect with politics at all, which means you might enjoy them even if you're not into politics. I originally found his channel (like a lot of people) through his video about the BBC show Sherlock. I've been a huge Sherlock Holmes fan since childhood and was fascinated by the show as a young teen when it came out. And even though I have some nostalgia for it, this video takedown of the whole series is just so much fun to watch and basically my preferred way to engage with the show now. But I digress. The video I have featured here is about an obscure old RPG from Russia and it's a great watch. I haven't played the game myself and don't intend to, but that's honestly the case for many of the games I watch youtube videos about. I just like to have my experience filtered through someone, who's opinion I trust, from time to time. Another one of my frequently rewatched videos is about Deus Ex Human Revolution. And then he also made this horrifying video about Ctrl Alt Del? The guy's a madman.

Errant Signal

Errant Signal makes videos about all sorts of interesting indie games, but since they fall more into the review category than under video essay, I'm mainly going to recommend his ongoing series "Children of Doom". It's a year-by-year look at how Doom has influenced the games in the first person shooter and RPG genres that came out following its release in 1993. The episodes started out relatively short but have become more and more indepth as he talks about mechanical influences and devitations, story and design ethos. It's very interesting to me as someone who is interested in the evolution of videogames as a medium but is too young to have been around, let alone be able to play, videogames when all of these games came out.

Joseph Anderson

I might be stretching my definition of "video essay" by including this channel in the category, but I feel like Joseph Andersons videos go beyond what is usually included in a critique and add much more of an analysis element into it, which is especially obvious in the Soma video I have linked here. It's probably my favorite of his but that's because I like his interpretation of the game's story so much. The same goes for this video about What Remains of Edith Finch, a game I have actually played and enjoyed quite a bit, without noticing the connections about the "true villain" of this game that he talks about. So in this case his analysis made me look at the story in a different light, which a good analysis is supposed to do. That doesn't mean that I agree with all of his opinions; he made a video about Breath of the Wild, one of my favorite games of all time, that is quite negative about some aspects of the game, but I still enjoy these videos, because it gives me a new perspective on these games. His magnum opus are probably his videos on the Witcher series, which is his favorite game series of all time, of which the third one still hasn't come out, lol. But the first two are a great watch, especially if you have only ever played the third one but wanted to know more about its predecessors.

Jasper

I could have chosen any of this channel's videos about the science behind videogame graphics (and physics), so I just went with his first ever video essay and the first video I ever saw from this channel, about water effects in Super Mario Galaxy 2 (a very nostalgic game for me). He has made very few videos to this date but all of them are super interesting. If you are at all interested in how videogames are made, you should definitely check out his stuff!

Essays about movies

Folding Ideas

Folding Ideas is back, this time for his videos about bad movie editing. Since he is a professional videographer and editor he knows his stuff, which doesn't keep him from being also very funny in his takedowns. The most savage video on youtube is his "review" of a Nostalgia Critic musical about The Wall and everyone should see it, whether they know about Doug Walker or not. Another very funny movie analysis is about The Book of Henry, a very bad childrens movie about a kid genius who makes a plan for his mom to kill their neighbour. But he has also made some great videos about World of Warcraft and internet phenomena like the Metaverse. High quality stuff all around.

Lindsay Ellis

If you are interested in movies you probably know about Lindsay Ellis already, but I wanted to mention her great video essays anyways. Unfortunately she stepped down from publishing videos on youtube (but you can still find her on Nebula) after years and years of online harassment. She still has quite a big catalogue of videos on many different movies, musicals and the occasional other topic, like her two videos on a deranged omegaverse author (a niche fanfiction genre) and all her lawsuits that are pure gold. She has also published a book series about aliens and just recently posted a new video essay to youtube that was previously a Nebula exclusive!

Jenny Nichsolson

Jenny Nicholson is a Star Wars and theme parks nerd and talks about those, but also many other movies and shows in her videos, and sometimes just some random things she is interested in (like in this very funny video about amazon reviews of spiders). The video I have linked here is another very funny one about a bad teen movie adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, but I could have just as easily chosen her video about all of the A Land before Time animated movies, which I as a dinosaur fan of course greatly enjoyed. Oh, and this one about a very badly made ghost hunting show. If you love nerdy stuff and have for some reason never stumbled across her channel before, hop over there and watch her hours long rants about Disney rides.

Princess Weekes

I could have also put this channel in the Lefitst section because like many of the essayists listed here it is at least lefttube-aligned and uses some political talking points (like in the video I have listed here). But since the channel still focuses on movie analysis first and foremost and I hope you are not too scared of having a little bit of politics in your essays (since it is very difficult to avoid politics in fiction that depicts human societies), I will just recommend this one on the basis that these are some great critiques of relevant movies!

Maggie Mae Fish

Not only does Maggie share my love for David Lynch (AND Sonic AND Adventure Time), but she also makes some great video essays about movies, again with a little politics sprinkled in from time to time. She has branched out a bit from only talking about movies (e.g. this video about fake Off-Grid youtubers is pretty funny) but most of her videos are about movies with a focus on acting, since she herself is an actor.

Every Frame A Painting

This channel is possibly the originator of the video essay genre on youtube and has made some of the best short essays on film basics that you can find on the site to this day. Most of their videos are under 10 minutes and all highlight directors, movies or film techniques that you would learn about as a film undergrad. The high quality editing of these make them classics. You have probably seen all of their videos already, so this is simply a reminder to go back and watch all of them again for a third time.

Essays about literature

Lola Sebastian

This channel has my favorite video essays as art on this platform. Lola is obviously very passionate about theatre and literature (even though she also makes videos about movies), which is why I put her in this category. Her favorite video of mine about Anthony Bourdain is unfortunately now only available on Nebula (due to some copyright issues as far as I'm aware), so if you have that streaming service you should definitely check it out! She has made several videos about adaptations of Lolita and how they so often get the fundamental message of the book wrong, which is what I have linked here. But here videos about the James Franco adaptations of Faulkners books are also very well made and analyse what worked about the books and why the adaptations fail. This is one of my favorite channels on this list, so even if you aren't into reading that much, you should give her channel a watch.

Roughes Drafts

This is a pretty new channel that makes videos about literature and especially poetry. I read much more prose than poetry so I like to discover some interesting poets trough these videos, but of course I also like a good takedown video like this one about Rupi Kaur and her imitators that have flooded the internet with bad poetry these past few years. But his videos are usually less about dislinking something and more educational, for example in this video he analyses Taylor Swift lyrics to see if songs count as poetry, or in this one he combats an often voiced misconception about media analysis using Bluey as a case study. Very interesting stuff!