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Weird Is The New Black, And How YouTube Helps Us Become Better Humans

By Caitlin Johnstone
Published on: 16:21 PST, Jul 5, 2016

There’s a gorgeous girl on the Facebook page Humans Of New York today who is talking about her YouTube channel and it’s all about outdoor adventuring, how to be happy, and — wait for it — paranormal videos.

Haha! That made me laugh. Ghosts and happiness. Imagine trying to pitch that to a regular TV outlet? There’s no way that would get past the suits-with-beards at NBC.

I love that about YouTube. Crowd-sourced television, where people just get to be all of themselves and have all their little eccentricities and hobbies and stuff in their own “channel.” No beard guy there to tell you to “Stay on brand” or “Play to your demographic” or “I don’t know how to sell ghosts to your sponsors.” Just do your thing, as you, by you, and the more “you” you are, the more people will gravitate to your channel.

https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/photos/a.102107073196735.4429.102099916530784/1292556717485092/?type=3&theater

Because it’s true, isn’t it? In the world of YouTube, the people who seem the most happy and comfortable being their own weird selves are the ones that are the best to watch. PewDiePie, Jenna Marbles, Miranda Sings, Ryan Higa — all people who started by uploading videos of themselves just being relentlessly weird. Anyone can do it. And if you can get past the hump of the few jealous people trolling you for being successful at being relentlessly yourself, and you keep uploading regularly, eventually you get a bit of a following. Turns out humans like real humans after all.

It’s a reversal of the television model where they work out what the viewer wants and then try to provide it. YouTube is what the talent wants, and the audience finds it. It’s made for a lot healthier viewing, and a lot more variety in people being viewed.

I noticed this phenomenon in Australia back in the early noughties, at the advent of Big Brother-style reality TV. Before that, everyone on television had to be a certain type — thin, and pretty or handsome in a particular way, and white. That was entry-level. There was no room for any variation, and the very few exceptions stood out. If you were a woman, you also had to be under 40. There were some old relics like Bert Newton from the beginning of television when entry-level was only “Hey, are you brave enough to stand in front of this and talk into this?” but since then, every TV producer would only consider people from a very small genetic pool.

Big Brother blew that apart from the first season. Sara Marie Fedele came very close to winning the show. Her success was a breath of fresh air for television. Not only was she chubby, but she also liked nothing more than to jiggle all her wobbly bits. In her pajamas. She was funny and crass and outspoken, but she also was acutely emotionally intelligent and had some very sweet, very quiet moments with people. She was real and complex and we all knew and loved someone like her — so of course we were happy to watch her on television.

That must’ve blown the minds of more than a few casting directors. They’d been trying so hard to impress us while not offending us with their TV personalities that they’d forgotten the key word was “personality.” Love them or hate them, there is nothing more interesting than a real live human with all their contradictory, jiggly, wobbly bits on show.

TV in Australia is a lot more relaxed about who they cast to host shows now. One of my favorite shows of last year was The Great Australian Spelling Bee, hosted by a small man and a large woman — standing together, they looked nothing like your typical hosts of yore, but gosh-darn-it, they made that show. Grant Denyer was the perfect garrulous, cheeky front-man, and Chrissy Swan always gets the best out of people and was wonderful with the parents back-stage.

Chrissy also, of course, came through that crack of light into normality which was reality TV. There was no way she could’ve come to our national screens in any other way. Reality TV of course, has been taken over by the suits more and more and there is as demanding a casting process for any reality TV show than there is for the next new drama. But for a few years there, before the egos could get involved and try to “make” the magic, there was a flow of actual humans into mainstream TV. And it was marvelous.

And that’s what’s happening on YouTube now. I think there’s a lesson for all of us in this, in our daily lives. Are we finding out what the viewers want from us, and packaging ourselves up that way? Or are we letting our audience find us naturally?

For me, watching this play out in the world has been a big revelation on how I portray myself. How am I packaging myself up for what I think other people “want” of me? And is any of it necessary? My journey has shown me that the more myself I am, the more like-minded people gravitate to me.

It seems to me in the past I was spending a lot of time advertising myself as McDonald’s, but when you got inside, I was serving fugu, goulash, hot cross buns, and bubble tea. Not surprisingly, I got a lot of very confused and slightly angry customers.

Now I just have a sign that says “weird stuff in here, come sit down and try” and I get much less walk-ins, but those that do come in are delightful.

So, let me introduce myself — hi, I’m Caitlin. Weird stuff in here, come sit down and try.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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