Youtube divas are a subscriber away

Youtube divas are within us all, but some of us have the restraint to not make everyone else sick.

Natalie Timperio

InsideOut Editor

YouTube, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Like any technologically adept person, I value YouTube for its many uses. I’ve bookmarked the site on Firefox and frequent it most often to watch beauty tutorials. Ladies, and perhaps gentlemen, there is quite possibly no better (and free) forum in which to perfect those sought-after hairdos and makeup looks—it’s like having an at-home beauty consultant free of charge, which is especially beneficial for penny-pinching students.

Sometimes, on the rare but notable occasion, I’m even overcome by a stroke of studiousness (or possibly hopelessness over that looming midterm) and use YouTube to watch news clips capturing significant moments in history or current international affairs. Of course, I do enjoy a cats-doing-cute-things video from time to time as well.

With the exception of watching cute kitty videos, I do use the site primarily as an information source. Its usefulness has been proven time and time again. In fact, I’m unsure as to how the world functioned prior to the advent of Youtube.  After all, where else can you learn to beautify both your outer and inner being without ever having to leave your computer?

But when the world in which I live has deemed shows like Epic Meal Time worthy of being called entertainment, I wonder even more how the world functioned prior to. To say the least, I’d say we were far more intelligent, to confirm my grandparents’ rants on today’s generation.

Up until last week, I’d taken no interest in these and many other YouTube divas. Though upon Epic Meal Time’s tour stop at TwelvEighty Friday Oct. 21, my curiosity at last took flight.

Despite whisperings of an awful performance, as a fairly well educated individual I’ve learnt to set aside all prior judgements before devising one of my own. And now, after having watched Epic Meal Time’s “best of” on Youtube, I can at last say that I see the value in vegetarianism.  The whisperings heard around McMaster campus were proven quite true.

Epic Meal Time’s celebrity status on YouTube leaves me questioning what we, as blooming adults, value in today’s day and age. Since when is compiling grotesque and gargantuan meals of fatty foods considered entertainment? Goliath-sized, obesity-inducing platters of meat slapped together by a sorry group of macho men, and I use the word men generously here, is hardly deserving of being called entertainment, much less deserving of a tour.

Let’s put things in to perspective: my five year-old brother, who has just recently entered senior kindergarten, finds it quite humorous to mash different foods together, like hot dogs, macaroni and cheese—you get the picture, I’m sure. Even at his age I see him quickly growing out of this pastime, however.

How old are the men of Epic Meal Time? Though I do not doubt that their birth certificates indicate clearly that they are well over the age of five, their performances say otherwise.

Yet, by endorsing Epic Meal Time and other YouTube divas by, say, subscribing to their channels, we’ve somehow placed value, at least to a degree, on nonsensical diversions.

I fully understand wanting and needing to momentarily escape life’s burdens by distracting ourselves with something that does not require “thinking” –as God knows we do enough of that in our lives already. Or do we?

In the case of Epic Meal Time, consider the amount of food it takes them to put on just one show. Consider the sexist innuendos embedded in their shows, or even outright spoken. I suppose years worth of education regarding hunger issues and gender equality, which are most often learnt in primary school, have no standing when it comes to YouTube divas. Or perhaps they do, we just choose to make the exception.

It seems all too easy to dismiss these and other similar values for the sake of quick-fix “entertainment”, especially when it’s truly just a click away. Though last time I checked, endorsing counter-values like gluttony and sexism were far from being okay—unless, of course, they’re popularized on YouTube.