Bored With Summer TV? Here Are Five YouTube Channels You Should Be Watching Instead

As these summer days drag on, the offerings on TV are getting slimmer and slimmer (how much coverage of the Rio Olympics can even the most die-hard sports fan actually stomach?). Sports-wise, we’re in the awkward period before the baseball season starts to matter and the football season begins. And the height of the summer movie season has already come and gone. So what’s an entertainment-starved consumer to do? Turn to YouTube, of course!

Here are five YouTube channels that you may want to take a look at to get you by until things pick up again TV-wise.

Adam the Woo/The Daily Woo

Adam WhatsHisName (he reveals it here, but it’s hard to understand: “Jonasasssiathon”?) is like a poor man’s travel vlog. But rather than staying in five-star hotels, Adam lives the life of a modern-day hobo, living out of his van. And instead of visiting top-ranked travel destinations (although he does his share of that, too), most of his videos are just about Adam traveling around the country, seeing what’s going on, and vlogging about it.

The beauty of Adam’s videos lies in his choices of destinations. His videos have included everything from filming locations around Pasadena where scenes from the horror classic Halloween were shot to abandoned theme parks all over the country (often sneaking past “No Trespassing” signs to get there) and backstage areas of Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. In fact, so prolific was Adam at sneaking around backstage at Walt Disney World that he eventually got caught and was banned from the property for life. He appealed, and eventually his lifetime ban was lifted. In the video below, you can see Adam’s joy at being allowed to return to what is probably his favorite place.

For reasons that I don’t fully understand, Adam has split his vlogging activities into two channels. His original channel, Adam the Woo, doesn’t get much new content anymore (the last update, as of this writing, was two months ago). His other channel, The Daily Woo, is updated, well, daily (go figure).

Vegan Black Metal Chef

This is, by far, the weirdest YouTube channel on this list. The concept is pretty straightforward: It’s a vegan cooking show where the chef teaches you how to make delicious recipes. Except he does so in full black metal regalia, giving you directions in a guttural growl while pounding heavy metal plays in the background.

I’m not a vegan, a foodie, or a fan of black metal, but I can’t get enough of this channel! The weirdness is off the charts, from the altar of Satan (complete with a pentagram) that doubles as a cutting board to the homemade medieval weapons he uses as cutting tools and the instructions that double as heavy metal lyrics (“stir it with your demonic spork!”). VBMC isn’t preachy about the benefits of a vegan diet, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously — when he makes a mistake, he’ll scream obscenities (“F**K! Sometimes the oil is too hot!”)

Even better, VBMC carries his shtick over into the comments section.

Unfortunately, VBMC doesn’t produce a lot of content. In five years, he’s only produced about 20 instructional videos and a couple of one-off videos about other things going on in his life. As of this writing, his most recent video was produced five months ago. Check out VBMC’s channel here.

Getting Doug With High

This is probably the most low-concept YouTube channel on this list, with the most basic of premises. Comedian Doug Benson invites a couple of friends to his studio, they get high (getting Doug with high, get it?), and they talk. It’s like Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” only without the cars and, instead of coffee, lots and lots of pot.

Production values are non-existent, and the whole thing wouldn’t be out of place on a cable access show. Without all the pot, of course.

There’s nothing meaningful or earth-shattering going on here. Apart from the occasional political commentary about the insanity of pot laws, mostly it’s just comedians getting stoned and riffing on various topics with Doug. Think of it as a low-rent version of a panel show like Inside the Actors’ Studio if the hosts and the guests were all baked.

The Slow Mo Guys

Two scientists in lab coats do various science experiments in super-slow motion. If that sounds boring, you’re completely missing the point. Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy aren’t droll college professors — they’re more like a couple of bros who just happen to have half a million dollars in high-speed camera equipment and love seeing what the world looks like in super slow motion.

As you can expect, sometimes things go awry, but science isn’t always pretty. Check out the video below, where the boys take one for the team and show what a paintball hitting the skin in super-slow-mo looks like (hint: it looks just as painful as it feels).

You can subscribe to the Slow Mo Guys’ channel by clicking here.

Wreckless Eating

I am warning you now, this next channel includes videos that are disgusting to the point that you may very well vomit from watching them. You have been warned.

And as you can guess from both the title of their channel and the disclaimer I wrote up above, the guys at Wreckless Eating are all about eating gross food. To be fair, they also eat some not-so-gross (depending on your taste buds) food. Here they are below trying out the new Burger King Whopperito. (Long story short: They liked it.)

But of course, the real reason subscribers like Wreckless Eating is so they can see the grossest of the gross — years-old food, for example, or obscure foreign delicacies. Here they are eating Icelandic delicacy hakarl, which is basically rotten shark, and which has been described as the most foul-tasting food in the world. Turn away now if you don’t want to watch people vomit.

Check out more Wreckless Eating videos here.

Which YouTube channels do you watch to pass the time? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Image via YouTube]