Everything is Terrible!

Everything is Terrible!

Website logo/title card as used at the end of most of the site's videos
Type of site
 Video blog
Available in English
Slogan(s) If everything is terrible, then nothing is.
Website www.everythingisterrible.com
Alexa rank 247,750[1]
Launched 2007 (2007)

Everything is Terrible! is a Chicago-based video blogging website that features unusual, dated, and campy clips of VHS tapes from the late 20th century. The project was founded in 2000 by a group of friends while at Ohio University. "Every weekend or free afternoon they get," according to NPR, they search at thrift stores, garage sales, and bargain bins for the worst and most outrageous VHS tapes to share with each other.[2] The website was launched in 2007 in Chicago.[3] The website has also been attempting to amass the largest collection of Jerry Maguire on VHS; according to member Ghoul Skool: "We always have noticed since the beginning that there seems to be nothing but just Jerry Maguire tapes filling our nation's thrift stores. I don't know why."[2] Collective members keep a tally of tapes and a leaderboard of contributors on their website watch.everythingisterrible.com. Donations are accepted via mail to P.O. Box 50825, Los Angeles, CA 90050. As of June 27, 2016, the group has gathered 12,240 VHS tapes, but they are about 5,000 tapes shy of their goal of building a pyramid in the desert. [4]

In addition to posting videos of old VHS tapes, the people behind Everything is Terrible have performed live shows where, while wearing cloaks and gold VHS tapes around their necks, they show their new VHS discoveries.[2] In 2009, the website released a video titled Everything is Terrible! The Movie, which featured the same type of VHS clips that would be featured on their website. The A.V. Club called the video "a portal into a world halfway between showbiz and real life—a look at how the people who make entertainment for a living think the rest of us saps actually live", adding that it's "simultaneously enlightening, hilarious, and deeply sad".[5] Paste magazine called the video "the best (worst?) clips from a range of categories and spin them together like a terrible salad".[6] Wired has praised one of the site's more popular clips titled "Infomercial Hell" – a series of clips from different infomercials pasted together – calling it "depressing" as well as "terribly funny".[7]

Notable videos

One of their more notable videos has been an instructional clip titled "So Your Cat Wants A Massage?" – a video that was designed to show people how to massage a cat; it has amassed over 4 million hits on YouTube.[2][8] The video's creator, Maryjean Ballner, has since appeared as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman on December 9, 2009.[2][9] According to Ghoul Skool, despite her feelings that "YouTube can be a very negative place", Ballner thanked Everything is Terrible for bringing back something which she had not seen in over 15 years.[10]

Other notable videos have included an edutainment clip about a dinosaur named Yello Dyno who, while dressed in a leather jacket and sunglasses, teaches children to protect themselves from pedophiles.[11] Videos from Everything is Terrible have also been featured on the comedy show Tosh.0, in which the show's blog has posted the website's request for any available Jerry Maguire tape.[12] Other videos have included a rejuvenating mask infomercial that featured Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" (which, according to the Chicago Tribune, helped launch the site in 2007),[13] a direct-to-video crime drama featuring Jay Leno,[14] and a video that features babies singing "Ten Little Indians" that was followed by, according to The Huffington Post, "what can only be described as 'A Clockwork Orange' reel for toddlers".[15]

DVD releases

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Information from Alexa Internet". Alexa. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Raz, Guy (January 23, 2010). "'Everything Is Terrible' Digs Up Gems Of The VHS Era". NPR. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  3. ↑ Raftery, Brian (July 23, 2010). "The Best Worst Viral Videotapes, Picked and Explained by Everything Is Terrible!". nymag.com. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  4. ↑ http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-jerry-maguire-everything-is-terrible-20160627-story.html
  5. ↑ "Everything Is Terrible! The Movie / Rip! A Remix Manifesto". The A.V. Club. July 8, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  6. ↑ Chapman, Gray (June 4, 2009). "Everything Is Terrible: The Movie to Feature the Best of the Worst of Video Mash-Ups". Paste. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  7. ↑ Watercutter, Angela (April 19, 2010). "Screen: Video Scavengers Spin Cultural Slag Into Comedy Gold". Wired. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  8. ↑ "So Your Cat Wants A Massage?". YouTube. August 18, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Late Show with David Letterman - Pet Massage". CBS (from YouTube). December 9, 2009. Retrieved July 2, 2012.
  10. ↑ Simakis, Dimitri (January 23, 2010). "'Everything Is Terrible' Digs Up Gems Of The VHS Era" (Streaming audio) (Podcast). NPR. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  11. ↑ Alvarez, Alex (April 8, 2011). "This Exists: 'Yello Dyno' Hunts Down Pedophiles". Mediaite. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  12. ↑ Pomranz, Mike (January 14, 2010). "Everything Is Terrible Wants Your 'Jerry Maguire' VHS Tapes". Tosh.0. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  13. ↑ Schmadeke, Steve (April 27, 2009). "Everything is Terrible blogs tales of terrible tapes". Chicago Tribune blog. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  14. ↑ Pomeranz, Mike (February 25, 2010). "Jay Leno 'Is Terrible'". Tosh.0. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Creepy Singing Babies: The Worst Viral Video Of All Time? (VIDEO)". The Huffington Post. March 27, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
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