Seeing the other post here about YouTuber that went downhill and seeing content creators I am familiar with makes me sad. But how about those that still makes great, high quality content?
Tom Scott. Only gotten better with time.
Amen. Shame he’s jacking it in. But he has been going non-stop for like 10 years
Youtube viewership has been quickly declining in the past year… hes just running out the clock.
Tom Scott
Won’t he stop doing videos in like a week?
CAPTAIN DISILLUSION
deleted by creator
Definitely some of the best production value on youtube. Even his stuff from 10+ years ago holds up incredibly well aside from the resolution.
bigclivedotcom has been my favourite channel for almost a decade. Specalized on electronics and his soothing voice is pleasant to listen to.
I’m vaguely interested in what he’s doing, but I sure enjoy watching him do it lol.
He has a video where he talks about his experience caring for his mother who had alzheimers at the end of her life. Very sad situation. His video was informative on the difficulties it presents and the perspective of trying to make it as easy as possible to let your loved on live while having to watch them regress and adjust.
Oh yeah that one hit hard. :'-|
Captain dissolution, doesn’t post often but makes up for it with insane editing quality
Disillusion?
oops
Karl Jobst for sure.
There’s plenty more, but here’s a few of mine:
RedLetterMedia - Got pretty big on YouTube about 15 years back for their review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, where they made an actual, honest critique of why the film (and later the other prequel films) didn’t really work on their own merits and hid it inside a 1.5-hour skit about an elderly serial killer. They’re, uh… they’re not for everyone, but I like them. Also, Macaulay Caulkin as a recurring guest star. Worth your time.
Technology Connections - Did you ever want to know why ceiling fans start at max power when you turn them on? Because I already knew before I clicked on the video and I still watched the whole damn thing. I swear this person could make ANYTHING sound interesting, no matter how dry.
They’ve been mentioned already but Second Wind - I mean, Yahtzee Croshaw pretty much picked up his fanbase and moved it here when his bosses at The Escapist made the boneheaded move to fire, uh… his boss? I think? I don’t watch a whole lot of the other stuff, but I haven’t had any complaints about anything of theirs I’ve watched.
Project Farm - This dude legit goes out with his own money, buys like 8 different items in the same category (mainly tools, though his most recent video is on space heaters) and subjects them all to fairly rigorous testing to see which one is the best for the money. If I’m looking to buy something, I’ll check and see if Project Farm has a video on it first.
LGR (Lazy Game Reviews) - I think someone already mentioned this as well, but I thought I’d bring it up too. The channel covers more than just games now and just covers all kinds of (mainly 80s/90s) computer tech. Plus, Clint’s a good dude.
Colin Furze - He’s a bit extra but he started making Wolverine claws in his little garage workshop and now he’s building a “secret” tunnel under his house. Following this man’s videos are wild. He basically says “what if (crazy idea)” and then just… does it.edit: omg how did I forget DankPods? Of course he has like five channels now. He’s got a masters in music, he made a living playing jazz drums, he started a dumb YouTube channel about fixing iPods, and now he has a warehouse where he plays drums and games and fixes cars and all kinds of shit. Wade is great.
Brian David Gilbert has always made cool stuff, but as he spun off from polygon he’s created some wild existential videos.
Climate Town, Adam Something, Not Just Bikes, Contra Points, Hbomberguy, World War Two, The Great War, The Linux Experiment, CivDiv, The Thought Emporium, and there are some others that currently escape my mind.
I also have GioPizzi and Yotobi but their videos are in Italian.
I feel seen.
- Some More News (Last Week Tonight-like political commentary)
- AngryTurtle (fallout 76 content)
- videogamedunkey (gaming/humor)
- Yahtzee Croshaw (game reviews/rants)
- Wendover Productions (random interesting education and air travel gameshows)
- Practical Engineering (how the world around you is built)
- Technology Connections (deep dives into engineering everyday gizmos)
- Tom Scott (interesting tech/education)
- RealLifeLore (explains geopolitics)
- Internet Historian (amusing yarns, discussions, and stories)
- LegalEagle (law)
- Kurzgesagt (explains scientific concepts, lots of what if scenarios, animated birds)
- Tasting History with Max Millar (historical cooking in a modern kitchen)
- Let’s Game it Out (dude who breaks games in the most amusing way possible)
- My Name Is Andong (cooking)
- Chef Jean-Pierre (cooking)
- Economics Explained (economics)
- Matthew Berman (explores the latest AI/LLM tech)
I’m honestly surprised to have not seen Super Eyepatch Wolf show up yet. Because of him, I’ll never look at Garfield the same way again. He might not put out content often, but as far as I’ve seen, it’s all top notch quality.
Tokyo Lens is another I enjoy. Fun explorations of Japan, lots of cool informational stuff, stuff like that. A little bit Abroad in Japan, but somewhat less bombastically edited, and a bit more positive.
Clemps is another one that doesn’t put out content very often, but does some great deep dives into older JRPGs, and some fantastic looks at Yoko Taro’s games.
Then there’s the ones that have been posted again and again: RedLetterMedia, Technology Connections, Tom Scott, Jacob Geller, Food Wishes, You Suck At Cooking. I’m sure there’s more out there, and there will always be more new ones popping up, too.
Primative Technology. A dude out in the bush building houses and tools out of mud, sticks, and rocks without speaking a word.
I know there are several similar channels so maybe I’m mixed up, but wasn’t this the one where they found out the guy was using machinery to create his projects off camera and claiming it was all done by hand?
Nope. This guy is the real deal. Nothing he does is large scale or unbelievable. If you turn on captions he walks you through what his thought process is/what he is doing. Very enjoyable.
Good Mythical Morning has been around since before YouTube even existed and they still put out good shit. Even more so, with the GM Kitchen stuff (which I actually like more; those guys are fun as hell).
I loved GMM until every episode became a food episode. I’m trying to watch what I eat and every episode being a food tier-list or guess-where-the-food-is-from really turned me off.
I still like the guys and their staff. I listen to Ear Biscuits and catch the longer-form stuff they’re experimenting with but I no longer watch GMM/GMMore daily.
- The Bread Circus
- They go through the Star Wars movies from a book lore perspective, point out flaws in the writing and lore-breaking, and offer suggestions on how the sequels could have been handled differently. They did The Last Jedi, and I really enjoyed it. They also have some cool videos on podracing, ships, and guns.
- Defunctland
- History of Disney rides, takes the culture of the time into consideration, the video on queues is a must-watch, imo.
- Draw Like a Sir
- Really solid drawing tutorials that aren’t very complicated, takes the time to break down high-level concepts into simple exercises. Overall a really fun channel to watch, even if you’re not into drawing.
- Fredrik Knudson
- Long, deep-dive videos into internet history/culture. Rare uploads, but a banger every time.
- James Lee
- Newgrounds-era animator with amazing compositing techniques and a very unique animation style where he inserts himself into his videos as a very animated caricature of himself.
- Lemmino
- Like the History Channel but without the fluff. Cool topics, very nice animations, high production, high-quality content.
- MattKC
- Known for a Lego Island decompilation project. Also does retro console repair from time to time — very fun watch.
- Paper Will
- Rare uploads. but interesting video essay topics. High quality and a nice watch during lunch.
- Pecos Hank
- A storm chaser who is Reed Timmer’s ying to his yang. Very chill, documentary-quality footage featuring himself playing guitar and talking about the beauty and power of nature. You’ve probably seen his footage on the Weather Channel!
- Technology Connections
- Great deep dives into random technology, old and new. The video on the popcorn button on microwaves is really good (I think that may be on his second channel?)
Technology Connections
“It’s november, so that means no effort videos all month.” proceeds to make high effort video
- The Bread Circus
Consumer Tech: mkbhd, LTT, MrMobile, Dave2D, JerryRigEverything, UrAvgConsumer, GamersNexus
Geeky Tech: TechnoTim, ServeTheHome, Explaining Computers, Level1Techs, Jeff Geerling, , Low Spec Gamer, Modern Vintage Gamer, Wolfgangs Channel, Network Chuck, Project Farm, Tech Rules
Smart Home: Everything Smart Home, The Hook Up, Smart Home Solver, Paul Hibbert, Reed’s Smart Home, NotEnoughTech
Popular science: Veritasium, Kurzgesagt, Smarter Every Day, Hank Green
Science: Cleo Abram, Physics Girl, Nile Red/Blue, Computerphile, NumberPhile, Minutephysics, The SciShow, PeriodicVideos, Sixty Symbols, Scott Manley, The Action Lab, 3blue1brown, Kyle Hill, Steve Mould, Fermilab, PBS Space Time
Engineering: Practical Engineering, B1M, Coby Explanes, engineerguy, Technical Connections, Simone Giertz
Entertainment with some science/engineering sparkled in: Colin furze, Mark Robert, Slow Mo Guys, Johnny Harris, TheBackyardScientist
Entertainment: CGP Grey, Tom Scott, Max Fosh, Lockpicking Lawyer, Legal Eagle, Kitboga, Not Just Bikes, Cheddar
Docutainment: Cold Fusion, Wendover Productions/Half as Interesting, Anything with Simon Whistler (Megaprojects, etc)
Programming: Fireship, The Primeagen, Tech world with Nana, freCodeCamp, Ben Eater, Jake Wright, Dreams of Code, mCoding
Electronics: Andreas Spiess, GreatScott!, Tall Paul Tech, EEV
Chess: Anna Cramling, Gotham Chess, Hikaru
Cars: Carwow, Out of Spec Reviews, TeslaBjorn, Throttle House, Engineering Explained, autoTrader, Donut, Hagerty, RSEV
Travel: HONEST GUIDE (the Prague guy), Pack Hacker, SV Delos, Tim Traveller, Trek Trendy
History: the fat electrician, historigraph, history matters,
Woodworking: Shaun Boyd, Blacktail Studio, Foureyes furniture
Late Night: Colbert, Meyers, Kimmel, Daily Show, Last Week Tonight
Russia/Ukraine: LazerPig, 1420 (Daniil Orain), Perun (edited to add)
If you speak German: HausbauHelden, FelixBa, Lohnt sich das, Finanzfluss, Next Move, Autogefühl, Smarthome yourself, Jonas Winkler, Held der Steine
Half of the channel you mention here were listed in the thread about youtubers who went to shit, which triggered this one here…
If by half you mean
4(edit: 7), I addressed those in a separate comment, and I stand by them.
It’s funny because I read through that other thread about creators going downhill and (while I don’t know most in either thread) you mention a couple of them here.
Interesting, I just checked it out, and it seemed people really idealize “the good old days” plus they go absolutely crazy the second a youtuber wants to earn some money doing what they do.
Here’s what I think of the individual channels that I saw mentioned:
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LTT had a big controversy after the Gamers Nexus video and it looks like they corrected. MKBHD was never super deep, he does reviews after a week or two of using a phone. You never get a full picture with just one review, if you are interested in spending your money watch a few, otherwise it’s just entertainment. I like LTTs server/Linus’ home series and MKBHD for the visuals.
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Mark Rober had a few bad videos a year ago and now has a product that he sells, that fits perfectly with his theme “learning engineering by building stuff”. But his videos were never always perfect, people just remember the good ones.
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The Primeagen reacting to stuff is the very reason I watch him (actually mostly listen while doing other stuff). He reads articles about programming/It stuff and comments about them. Yeah, sometimes he’s not an expert on the topic, but it’s still informative and very often he admits it from the beginning.
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The lock picking lawyer picks locks. I don’t know what people expect him to do, there’s only so much variety. The 100th video about picking locks is not going to be so thrilling as the first one you watched… And again, him trying to monetize by creating products related to his hobby and selling them doesn’t seem like a capital sin to me.
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Edit, because I forgot about Veritasium and Kurzgesagt: I completely disagree. Veritasium has gotten better with time and the last year has been awesome. The “Epic Math Duel” (somewhat older than a year, but the channel is 10 years old, so relatively recent), “Franz Haber” or “Sawing Machines” are excellent videos. Kurzgesagt is completely transparent about their funding and cite all sources, if some people feel a video about using stars as fuel for intergalactic travel or about Dyson spheres is “capitalist propaganda”, that is their right to an opinion I guess. If anything I would criticize for being a bit “too dreamy/science fiction”, but the visuals are great and it’s a great watch nonetheless.
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