Thank you! I like how the concept allowed me to touch every sport I care about. It was really flexible in that way.

I appreciate it! After I made the intro for the sophisticate, I made the intro for that UKposts thumbnail video. Following that video, I made this one. The thread between the three has been the emphasis on music and how I've been allowing score to dictate the pace and editing of my video. For the longest time, my scripts have been the backbone of my videos. But, just as a jazz band can deemphasize a singer's voice so that the other band members have a chance to speak, I think this video is effective because I've foregrounded something other than my words. With regards to selling out I am hopeful that I will never conform to the algorithm as reinventing myself and experimenting with formats means that I am not serving up the consistent brand and content that the algorithm rewards. Art > Content

Lol it might be an eternal game of wack-a-mole. Doing a little bit of research, sports videos interact with copyright issues in an entirely different way than video games or music. If you ever submit copyright disputes, there is this question that asks, "is this the most important part of the video?" and I always thought that was an odd question. Like, I guess you could argue that the chorus is the most important part of the song or, sure, the climax of the movie is the most important part. But with regards to sports, coyright owners are able to claim that the goal is the most important part of the video. Because of this, I've found companies such as FIFA far more difficult to work around than UMG as FIFA has more purchase with UKposts in this regard.

So this upload is insurance in that I've cut the latter half of the video out because it has many more goals in it. While this 2 minute video does have goals in it, they are from much older games (some 20 years ago) and are therefore less likely to cause issues. I read somewhere online that it is just a matter of time before someone reports your video and it gets taken down (which creates this sense of existential dread) so the more popular this video gets, the more likely it is to get taken down. One bit of hope is that someone else has said that, so long as the clip you use is less than 4 seconds in length, you are able to keep your video up. I've uploaded this video because I think it is more likely to stand the test of time.

One last copyright comment. I am working on my first gameplay video and was surprised to learn that the music used in game is a copyright issue. While the gamemakers are able to use the music, we as people playing their games do not have permission to use the music. I think the argument is that our gameplay and narration is transformative enough to allow us to fairly use gameplay footage, but we are not actually transforming the music being used in the background. I'm sure that you are aware of this because you've been making gameplay videos far longer than I have, but for me this is a wild discovery. It's fascinating to me that each sphere of the world interacts with copyright in entirely different ways. Because of UKposts Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok, companies like UMG have given content creators a longer leash (although the how the UMG/TikTok dispute resolves may change this). In the sports world companies like FIFA can bully content creators, but companies like the NBA and NFL are far more cooperative. And in gaming, I've heard that Nintendo can be quite strict (i.e. its lawsuit with Palworld), but, generally, most companies "play nice." Copyright law, especially because of A.I. now, feels like the wild west.

Lol am worried that the accent is going to make this video age poorly. As long as the accent holds up, this is, in my opinion, the best video I have made.

No doubt. Chance is slept on, 100%. Such a good lyricist.

Thank you! There's a UKpostsr (much better artist than I am) whose format I am imitating. His name is Brandon Shepherd. I find watching someone build something quite satisfying and tactile (despite none of this being physical). Somewhere down the line, I want to demonstrate how I craft a poem or how I craft a paragraph. The trick is making it visually appealing like a thumbnail

Totally have the paid version of Canva. I swear by it. It has graphic design and video editing. Now, the video editing is probably not as good as Filmora. But little by little it is getting better. I especially appreciate that they allow you to make 4k videos.

Oh wow, I appreciate this feedback. Since this is an entirely new format (I'm much more comfortable speaking from a script than from stream of consciousness) its helpful to know whether or not the change is an effective one. That said, the food analogy was totally scripted lol. The basketball one was a lot of fun to make.

Lololol I was wondering if you were gonna see this!

If all goes to plan, will be doing a circling back episode early March, Sophisticate mid March and World Class late March.

That bad? Lolol voice acting is not in my future

Am wanting to do a joke documentary on Zuko one day, think I’ll get Alison to do the British voice. She’s pretty good at impressions.

Thought I’d steal some eyeballs away from the biggest televised event in America. Mineo > Usher

lol nah, but that is Pollock’s painting behind Andy Mineo in the thumbnail

Well stated. I don’t know why I was thinking about divorce in “Little Bird.” I went back and forth about whether to include my thoughts, because I think that my comments will rub Jonas brothers fans the wrong way. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take as it invites deeper conversation than if I avoided the broader context of the song.

I feel like, in America, we have a very poor vocabulary when it comes to articulating critical thought. My style of writing is a bit dense and clunky, it feels like I’m throwing a metaphoric wrench in the algorithm’s well oiled machine. Even if this video doesn’t get much reach, I’m proud of the fact that it will at least invite the few people who interact with it into vulnerable and raw conversation.

I was back and forth as to whether or not the movie was good - I find myself wanting to distance myself from the way the main character views the world. But if you read the movie as, I believe, the writers intended it, Hitch is a flawed character who is in the process of learning that he is flawed. He understands the mechanics of a relationship, but he hardly understands relationships. Through this lens, the movie holds up - I think this is a fine candidate to be anyone’s favorite movie.

Lol I’m not sure how serious this comment is, but I’d love to entertain it for my own sake: I’d argue that while we are all a product of society, we are not always consciously aware of the ways in which society has shaped us. As such, while everything can say something about society, I don’t think people are living their everyday lives with the sincere intention to subvert or affirm societal norms. Which is to say, if people are commenting on society in all that they do, they do so unwittingly.

Lol I am going to choose not to ask how many poems you consume per week for fear that the answer might be 1. Which would imply that this is your favorite poem by default lol.

Compliments aside, I do like how the introduction to this video is anti-algorithm. Though my video is “commenting” on art, I like to consider my videos as art, themselves. As such, making things that I am proud of always trumps making content filler. One final thought here. My most popular video has much broader appeal, to date it has 25k+ views, 1k+ likes and 100 some odd comments. But all those numbers are vapid; comments, like this one, are so much more rewarding to me. I like how, as part direct consequence of editing choices and part happy accident, the introduction to this video has been gatekeeping meaningless comments (which, to get meta, is what the video is squarely criticizing).

Compliments on the table, the rest of my channel is devoted to self-serious art critique and this video acts as a pressure release valve as it takes the mick out of my many attempts to sound intelligent. I’m encouraged that anyone 1) actually watched the video and 2) actually received what I was trying to communicate. Genuinely appreciate the thoughtfulness of your comment!

Lol this is our great service to the internet. It’s the least we could do.

Lol, I was editing the intro in the style of Bridgerton or Great British Bake Off. It’s a risk, the true nature of the video doesn’t rear its head until 1:20 (most people will click away from the video because they will think I’m actually, and not ironically, being pretentious here). In this way it’s unoptimized for the algorithm. But I think that people who stick around will enjoy it. Selfishly, I like this format because it will be easy to crank out in the future (not many edits). The editing makes my wife and I seem funnier than we actually are lol. We seem quick witted.

I wanted to add more diversity to my channel and think this is a nice alternative to the poems and the video essays. Am glad my wife and I can lend our efforts to the shaping and defining of human culture lololol

LOL RIP TO ‘WEATHERED AND WORN’, YOU WOULD HAVE LOVED WEATHER BOY. Genuinely funny and clever. Took me a while to get it but that’s written so well. I love when other writers do things with words that surprise me.

I think it's the most entertaining and flows very naturally!

Fair point. I’m definitely showing my hand in that what little I know about Hip Hop is not enough to do its rich history and culture justice. And thank you!

Whoops, was in a rush to publish and forgot to create a description. Didn’t mean anything by it lol. My reputation makes this poem seem more poetic than it is. The poem is very literal in that it is trying to make sense of my childhood (which was spent going to my grandparents’ lake house - I am ashamed to admit that I am a child of privilege). Any Christian undertones are completely coincidental.

Lol irony is a particularly elusive literary device. To be honest, I struggle with it too because arguing for or against a case of irony is a subjective affair. This is me ‘thinking out loud’ - I don’t pretend to have all the answers here: Your example isn’t verbal irony, because you aren’t being sarcastic and you aren’t meaning the opposite of what you are saying. You could make the argument that it is a case of dramatic irony because you are saying that you don’t know what irony is despite using it constantly. This would mean that your language contradicts true reality. You could also make the argument for situational irony as, situationally, it is rich that a person who knows nothing about irony constantly finds themselves in situations where they use irony.

Isn't that ironic?

Isn't that ironic?

Isn't that ironic?

Isn't that ironic?

I do want to make Christian content more of a main stay on my channel, but it unfortunately doesn't get the clicks. Until I monetize, I can't do religious content (and yes, that has caused me to question my integrity as an artist, but here we are).

LOL I didn't know if anyone was reading those. Have been doing that solely for myself.

Thanks for the kind words! I’m hopeful that when I find my audience, I’ll have enough videos in the backlog to incentivize an influx of subscriptions. Been trying to catch the attention of the algorithm. But every time I upload, it feels like I’m scratching a lottery ticket. Here’s to hoping the next video is the lucky winner.

Lol I never even used to watch Seinfeld. To be honest, I’m not even sure why I made this one.

Yo, didn’t get a chance to say this about your channel when we were at dinner. It is SO exciting that your analysis vids are popping of to the tune of 50k, 60k. Congrats on 5k subs. Big year for phatmidnight!

Thank you!!!

Lol I thought that Steph Curry’s appeal would earn me some more views but this video performed quite poorly. Probably cancelled out by the fact that this video is about math and the fact that people were busy with new years plans.

@@SundayBestStudios yeah maybe it’s cause it’s new years but sometimes videos blow up at a later date! You got this!!

Nice to hear from you (as always!). Lolol thanks, I had no idea how to end it so I just made it up.

Am actually going to try to push to monetize (my wife and I are some broke boys). It will be cool to reference this thread if the channel actually gets there. I’m hoping that the increase in content doesn’t mean that the videos will take a dip in quality. Would love if you could keep me honest in this regard.

@@SundayBestStudios I think that's a great idea and also a cool goal to have in mind. I think you've spent a fair amount of time working on the channel purely a personal joy project and hobby so I think that expanding it further would be very cool. (Though of course if you've seen Kiki's Delivery Service then you know what to avoid!) You can trust me to keep you honest haha. Though a lot of the videos I've enjoyed of yours have been slightly less popular😅 like your poetry or longer video essays. I always found it slightly brave to post poetry online like that because it felt so vulnerable and also required a lot of technical skill. So you're judged on two fronts in that sense and the medium of youtube just didn't suit that sort of thing. But as I've started to plan out my own videos more (which will never be monetized even if I wanted them to be lol) I have realised that I really admire how the visual quality of UKposts compliments that work. I think some of your writing works best with simply lyrics and animation format but other stuff like your dog poem was really complimented with the video format. That was really cool! I've tried to start working on writing for that kind of format and I just published a video (like yesterday lol) so I'm not very experienced in it but I'd love to see more of that side of you on your channel!

I totally agree with you about being at odds with UKposts as a medium. The algorithm favors content over art. So, although I love writing poetry and making more obscure pieces, it’s not what’s going to get the clicks. I think that my rationale is if I can make enough money to make YT a viable income stream, I can at least continue making videos (even if I have to consider algorithms and trends from time to time). Being a starving artist is an easily romanticized idea, but not so much when you have a dog and a kid to feed.

Oh, excited to watch your video! Just looked it up and I like the title. I do envy you. I wish monetization were not in my plans. In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to worry about it as I think financial pressures are often the bane of artistic expression. I am excited that you are planning your videos out. Looking forward to see more!

Hi, thank you. This is very encouraging. I’ve been struggling to gain subscribers so it’s always encouraging to hear that I’m impacting people in a real way, even if I’m not impacting the algorithm.

Huh, I never noticed this! Some cool symbolism there. I think that Rafiki also is on a tree when he realizes Simba is alive. May be unrelated. May be speculation, but there may be enough there to marry an ongoing motif to the symbol of trees.

Disney’s corporate greed never ceases to amaze me.

Actually its not true! YMS did a whole video about how the lion king and Kimba are VERY different properties and Disney didn't steal an ounce from it

@themelburnianartist5122 Have to admit, I have now watched YMS's video and I have been humbled. Although there are a few similarities, and a few people who worked on Lion King were on record saying that they were inspired by Kimba, ultimately they are just too different in terms of themes and story. Thanks for the heads up.

I will say the Lion King may have been more respectful to Africa, compared to the racist and heavily caricatured stereotypical depictions of African people, something Osamu Tezuka regretted in hindsight.

If anything The Lion King is closer to Hamlet.

Thanks! I think this video will age well (for me, at least, idk about my subs lol). It’s kind of morbid, but I want documentation of my dog when he passes. I look at photos of my childhood dog and she doesn’t look the same to me. Am hoping to make more videos to preserve his memory. Would love to see a video of your pups!

@@SundayBestStudios I know how you feel. My puppy isn't even a year old yet, but my phone is swarming with photos of her doing random things, like sneezing or chewing blankets.

It doesn’t surprise me to hear that Disney made that adaptation. Making Hercules heterosexual, especially back in the 90s when this film came out, makes the movie more marketable. Things have changed since the movie came out. Wonder if they would make the same decision if they were releasing the movie today. But it does surprise me to hear that the Greeks wrote about his cross dressing and that Hercules’ approach to his gender was fluid.

in today standards ,Hercules not being hetero but still animated can be a sellable option and true to his origins and this will be opposite to being representative by force for example Live action Little Mermaid, or previously announced SNOW WHITE by disney that was postponed to a later date, because people didn't like the announcement, specifically the actress and her behavior towards the original movie@@SundayBestStudios

Yeah I did hear about that Snow White stuff! And good point to contrast the Little Mermaid stuff.

Thank you for the feedback! While I try my best not to let sub count affect me, it can be easy to conflate poor viewer traction with poor quality - with so few subscribers, it’s only reasonable that one would start to question the worth of what they are creating. And while, on the other side of things, I don’t ever want to chase views, it is definitely rewarding to receive affirmations such as this. Thank you for your comment, truly means a lot.

Thank you for your comment ❤️

Thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it!

Yeah, I think it would be wrong to categorize Olivia’s work as simplistic. I think the better word is elegant - opting to do a lot with a little. And if you’re asking whether Olivia wins in the head-to-head with Taylor, Olivia has a long way to go to match Taylor’s longevity and consistency. But I’d say that, as far as the music industry goes, the fact that Olivia is a household name means that she is winning.

@@SundayBestStudios thank you understand

Lol, in retrospect, those words sting quite a bit.

Honest trailers version “I just can’t wait till Dad dies!”

@@Dragon_Lair Le roi est mort, vive le roi

As an aspiring/hobby writer myself, I’m always looking to add tools to my toolkit. I’m glad to hear that this video can help other writers (if even in a small way).