Yep, Youtube is all over the news in recent weeks as the latest major boom in Internet activity is fueld by all kinds of folk discovering broadband + simple software / obvious site x illegal videos = cheap entertainment. Is YouTube any different to Napster though? Well, since they disclaim any apparently illegal content and probably have all kinds of legal loopholes in their favour, at least it will seem so.
Because It's now the number one source of uploaded clips to be found easily in one place, it's great for passing along great stuff you might not otherwise be persuaded to have an interest in. Some of it won't ever appear on DVD, some of it is too much part of the general day-to-day flow of TV never intended to do anything except broadcast itself and leave. Good stuff out there.
So, you can unintentionally help support their share prices and the illegitimate end of what people put on there whilst they still allow it - I recommend aserbic TV critic, a man sharing a lot with Victor Lewis-Smith's style, but very much an individual with his own brain, it's 'Screen Wipe' man Charlie Brooker - then go off and see what you can find on the man, he writes online regularly and has done for years, and he contributed to shows like 'Brass Eye' and 'Nathan Barley'. Stunning, sharp, entertaining, laugh-out-loud funny.
Oh, and Iannucci's 'Time Trumpet' is being sliced into favoured clips by some viewers too - I like the Jamie Cullum sketch, but come back at look for last nights 'Tesco War' section, that was a very clever sketch.
Search Charlie Brooker on YouTube.
Charlie Brooker at Wikipedia and Answers.
Search 'Time Trumpet' on YouTube.
Victor Lewis Smith's TV Offal and Ads Infinitum can be found on YouTube, both are at least as good as Screen Wipe, if not better.
If you like Charlie Brooker you might want to checkout: http://www.tvgohome.com/ and his book "Screen Burn" ISBN 0-571-22755-4.
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