Old Internet Videos/Content - YouTube videos and websites that were good back in the day

[Judge Dredd]

Much of the old internet is gone. GeoCities is no more, and everything made with Flash is basically dead (RIP Happy Tree Friends and the Madness series). While not having to update Quicktime and DivX all the time to watch online videos might be convenient, the content was generally worth the headaches.

These days, YouTube likes to pretend it's origins were videos like "Me at the zoo", and changed into squeaky clean (ie. boring) young people making advertiser friendly reaction videos and sharing clips from mainstream news media.

In truth, YouTube was made popular due in part to videos like Bum Fights, backyard wrestling, Angry Kid, Ask a Ninja, and Angry Video Game Nerd. Some of which still exist, but I have to imagine much has been nuked.

Back then, the biggest issue facing YouTube users were bait and switch videos, and "reply girls". Women who would make video replies to popular YouTubers showing their cleavage and contributing little of substance. Thinking about it now, Twitch Thots are the new Reply Girls.

Outside of YouTube, there were other popular videos. Red vs Blue, Consolevania, and Pure Pwnage. Archives of which are on YouTube, though I don't know how the content will hold up for new people 10-15 years after the fact.


But it's not just videos. There were some classic text and images back then too, though again, much has been lost, buried, or dated badly. Remember when Cracked was funny, or the Onion would be unironically cited by fundamentalists? Remember when people would fall down hours long rabbit holes on Wikipedia and TVTropes? Good times.

One site that I didn't read at the time, but love after the fact, is Old Man Murray. A gaming website that was not only hilarious, but who's satire articles are still relevant today. The two I know are the article about the first death of adventure games, and this article reviewing games based on crates.


I don't want to flood the OP with links, so I'll end it by mentioning music. Unlike the examples mentioned above, many internet trends in music still feel new to me. Vaporwave is nearly 10 years old (Lisa Frank 420 came out in 2011), and the big Synthwave/Retrowave songs also came out around the same time.

If that's too new for you. Then what about Chiptunes? I was a big fan of this stuff in the late noughties, though my friends at the time didn't see the appeal.

Edit: Fixed typo.

 

[Radical Cadre]

Here's some mid-internet junk. It's not gay BBS shit from the land before fun, but it is still quality.

albinoblacksheep.com
realultimatepower.net
weebls-stuff.com
YTMND.com

And now we ask all that are able to rise as we hold a moment of silence for stickdeath.com. The customary Snoods will be passed around starting from the back rows.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

The first time ever i entered on youtube was because someone told me to open the site and look for this specifically , i didn't even know what youtube was.

Just a fat kid that fell into a water stream and it went viral.

 

[Dick Pooman]

Group X flash videos from Newgrounds/AlbinoBlackSheep are over 20 years old now.

 

[Enig]

Going back to look at Wiibrew's wiki after all this time feels like walking into the remains of Pripyat, just years and years of the biggest homebrew scene explosion in all of gaming history now left where it was when it all suddenly faded out with only a few emulators being kept up to date to keep the dome from crumbling. It's the same feeling that comes up when you stumble onto an old message board or proboards forum and there's been no posts for years and even the spambots stopped posting, just an unsettling feeling like walking in will disturb the dead that remain, and if you do walk in it's just a stagnant shot of lives that moved on and might not even exist now, all sorts of injokes and community references to misunderstand, dead youtube links everywhere with the occasional live one coming as a surprise. Damned if the internet doesn't feel like diving into ruins after even just a decade. At least SHOUTcast radio for WiiMC still works even if the video server's long dead.

 

[Interchanger]

The early internet is a period I wasn't there for and yet am strangely nostalgic for regardless. It might be because it was for a short time truly a frontier were you could say whatever you wanted to say.

Nowadays forums like Kiwi are all that's left that preserve that concept. As most sites are censor heavy.

 

[Epic Fail Man]

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

Probably one of the best things to come out of Something Awful.

 

[LmaoCow]

 

[Iron Lungus]

The one-eyed calf of Ebaumsworld. We set every screensaver on the school network to this back in the day.

 

[Epic Fail Man]

From Newgrounds.

 

[Stasi]

Probably one of the best things to come out of Something Awful.

Ahem
Superior version

I miss old newgrounds

 

[Dom Cruise]

It's definitely depressing how much of the old internet is gone, imagine how great it would be if you had a time travelling computer that could visit the net exactly as it was at any date.

Going back to look at Wiibrew's wiki after all this time feels like walking into the remains of Pripyat, just years and years of the biggest homebrew scene explosion in all of gaming history now left where it was when it all suddenly faded out with only a few emulators being kept up to date to keep the dome from crumbling. It's the same feeling that comes up when you stumble onto an old message board or proboards forum and there's been no posts for years and even the spambots stopped posting, just an unsettling feeling like walking in will disturb the dead that remain, and if you do walk in it's just a stagnant shot of lives that moved on and might not even exist now, all sorts of injokes and community references to misunderstand, dead youtube links everywhere with the occasional live one coming as a surprise. Damned if the internet doesn't feel like diving into ruins after even just a decade. At least SHOUTcast radio for WiiMC still works even if the video server's long dead.

Had that experience when I tried to look up an old forum I didn't post on for long, but randomly remembered, not only was it long gone and only available through internet archive, but most of the links to threads were actually broken, it was sad to see this obscure but still fairly busy forum reduced to that.

 

[Geralt of Rivia]

 

[BootlegPopeye]

The first thing I can really remember watching on YT were those shitty debates people used to have. Some guy would sit in front of a webcam for 6 minutes, and argue a strawman version of what some other guy on YT said. That was basically the predecessor to breadtube. And back then, YT would show the 'reply' on the bottom of the guys video. This led to some major lulz - I can remember seeing videos of kids or lady YTers that would have 'replies' by some old coomer pervs on them.

Shitty things about old YT - the limits on video length, 8 minutes or whatever, is why you see old shit part 1/7 particularly if its an old upload. They were also really scattershot about censorship; if you think them cracking down on 'nazi' videos is new, think again - I can remember early on, Holocaust Denial and other controversial stuff would get pulled all the time. This seemed to calm down around 2009 or so, until the post-Orange Man era when the censorship was dialed up to 100.

I've tried to tell younger people on here that the old internet wasn't paradise - yes, it was harder to quash hatethink, but online transaction were way less secure. You were much more likely to get ripped off by ebay sellers for instance (money orders used to be the main way of paying them before paypal). I was happy with the progress of the internet until 2 things happened - first, wikipedia, and then even more shitty, social media. Both of those just seemed to eventually eat up independent content creation.

 

[Darksy DePhil]

Shitty things about old YT - the limits on video length, 8 minutes or whatever, is why you see old shit part 1/7 particularly if its an old upload. They were also really scattershot about censorship; if you think them cracking down on 'nazi' videos is new, think again - I can remember early on, Holocaust Denial and other controversial stuff would get pulled all the time. This seemed to calm down around 2009 or so, until the post-Orange Man era when the censorship was dialed up to 100.

I've tried to tell younger people on here that the old internet wasn't paradise - yes, it was harder to quash hatethink, but online transaction were way less secure. You were much more likely to get ripped off by ebay sellers for instance (money orders used to be the main way of paying them before paypal). I was happy with the progress of the internet until 2 things happened - first, wikipedia, and then even more shitty, social media. Both of those just seemed to eventually eat up independent content creation.

As a tool or education resource, the current internet is better than it has ever been. As a community or place to just fuck around on... It was definitely better back then.

 

[一个日志]

I remember this circulating like wildfire

 

[Judge Dredd]

The first time ever i entered on youtube was because someone told me to open the site and look for this specifically , i didn't even know what youtube was.

Just a fat kid that fell into a water stream and it went viral.

I didn't see that one, but those edits reminds me a lot of The Star Wars Kid.

It was just a clip of a fat kid with a golf ball retriever waving it around. It went viral and people edited the footage put him in the star wars films, among other things. Similar to the video you posted.

The original (no edits)

From Newgrounds.

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I remember those blue plasticine men. I didn't know they had a fanbase.

The first thing I can really remember watching on YT were those shitty debates people used to have. Some guy would sit in front of a webcam for 6 minutes, and argue a strawman version of what some other guy on YT said. That was basically the predecessor to breadtube. And back then, YT would show the 'reply' on the bottom of the guys video. This led to some major lulz - I can remember seeing videos of kids or lady YTers that would have 'replies' by some old coomer pervs on them.

Do you mean the atheist vs. Christian debates? The early days of YouTube were full of them. The glory days of the likes of Thunderfoot, Jordan Owens, and Hannibal The Victor 13.

The atheist community was arguably patient zero for SJW fuckery, culminating in the infamous "elevatorgate" controversy. I don't know if Kiwi Farms was a thing back then, but if it happened today, there'd definitely be a thread here. I remember one male feminist begging online for any prostitute to give him a freebie.

As a tool or education resource, the current internet is better than it has ever been.

I was going to disagree, but thinking about it, you're probably right. You have lots of tutorials nowadays. With popular, wholesome channels like Dad, How Do I? being a good thing.

I guess I just miss the days when wikipedia was the go to source, science had a lot of credibility, and you didn't have to wade through outdated tutorials.


The original Die Hard song.

 

[BootlegPopeye]

you mean the atheist vs. Christian debates? The early days of YouTube were full of them. The glory days of the likes of Thunderfoot, Jordan Owens, and Hannibal The Victor 13.

The atheist community was arguably patient zero for SJW fuckery, culminating in the infamous "elevatorgate" controversy. I don't know if Kiwi Farms was a thing back then, but if it happened today, there'd definitely be a thread here. I remember one male feminist begging online for any prostitute to give him a freebie.
]

I wasn't thinking specifically of them but the atheists also. The ones I used to watch were political debates unrelated to religion for the most part. From what I saw the religious debates, it was mostly atheists attacking a handful of other YouTubers but I don't remember that many real back and forth debates, the one YouTuber I used to watch who did engage in that a little bit they just bombarded him with profanity after a couple of videos and he stopped responding to them after that. It became clear very quickly that they were debating a straw man.

I strongly associate that era with the hangover of George w Bush's presidency, it's always been my belief that the new atheist movement really became a thing because of him and his claimed Born again Christianity.

 

[seri0us]

I didn't see that one, but those edits reminds me a lot of The Star Wars Kid.

It was just a clip of a fat kid with a golf ball retriever waving it around. It went viral and people edited the footage put him in the star wars films, among other things. Similar to the video you posted.

The original (no edits)

Didn't he act like a little bitch over it instead of just owning it like a boss?