“Internet killed Television”

Kids react to CTFxC by FineBros

In the 21^st century the Internet seems to offer everybody the possibility to become famous. “Broadcast yourself” is YouTube’s slogan, and millions of users are doing just that. They are using the opportunity to express themselves, make their own shows and share their opinions. With creativity and the right equipment, some YouTubers are even able to make a living with their videos. Have you ever heard of Kimmy West, the Hillywood Show, Charles Trippy or Shay Carl? Never heard of any of these names? You’re clearly not part of the new Internet killed television media generation. Don’t be afraid! Not being up-to-date is not a total disaster.

Let me give you a little insight into the world of fans who become celebrities themselves. In my last post it seemed as if there were only fans who would sell their soul for a piece of crappy merchandise. This time I’d like to honor the people who are amazing personalities - equal to the actors who bring the characters of our beloved stories to life.


Just a few years ago, I discovered the opportunities the Internet provides as a medium to convey information. It was a useful tool to dig even deeper into my obsession with books. Connected to the whole world, I was able to retrieve the latest news on my favorite stories. I also came across a new world of creative people, who had the same interests as me and put all their passion for their beloved books into websites, establishing amazing portals for all fans.

Kimmy West picked the Twilight books up randomly, loved the story and created a fansite for it. She also founded websites about The Hunger Games trilogy, The Mortal Instruments series and the Uglies series. Her Twilight fansite became one of the leading sources of information on all things Twilight. Soon Kimmy was being asked to go to the premieres and join the ranks of journalists that interviewing the actors. Even MTV recognized her work; She co-hosted the Eclipse premiere with MTV host Josh Horowitz. With the increasing success of her websites, Kimmy decided to create the page to premiere network to follow every book that is adapted for a movie version. Only 18 years old, she’s on the way to a great career and it all started out with the love for a book and MySpace knowledge of how to make a website.

The Hunger Games Parody by The Hillywood Show

Others like the two sisters Hillary and Hannah Hindi began with their own show on YouTube and had their breakthrough with parodies of the Twilight movies. The Hillywood Show had already been a great success with their funny mix of Johnny Depp character impersonations. The sisters told their own stories of Jack Sparrow meeting other characters portrayed by Depp like Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands and Willy Wonka. Besides their excellent copying of Depp’s acting style, the most striking aspect of their videos is the detail and accuracy of costumes and props. This was also a reason why their Twilight parodies reached iconic status within the fandom. But they didn’t just stay famous in the fan community. Hillary and Hannah still accompany the actors on their tours through the US hosting the Twilight conventions. And fans don’t just want to have autographs from their favorite artists, but also from the talented sisters. 

Watching YouTube almost every day, I also became aware of other YouTubers who videotape their life and share it with the world. In videos of about ten to fifteen minutes length Charles Trippy and Shay Carl, both in Wikipedia’s list of YouTube personalities, show the highlights of their day. With their daily VLOGs they are two of the most subscribed channels.

jump to 4:35 for Charles’ marriage proposal

Back in 2009, Charles Trippy planned to make a video every day for at least a year on his channel CTFxC. However, after one year he and his girlfriend (now wife) Alli decided to continue making daily VLOGs under the slogan “Internet killed television – A homemade reality show”. Today, after four years of recording, they have filmed the marriage proposal, their wedding and also Charles’ treatment for a brain tumor. From a walk with their dogs Zoey and Marley in the park to their treatments in hospital, you can find documentation of the exigencies of their life on their channel. Within a few minutes after a new video is posted, the number of views jumps to three hundred or more, and subscribers all over the world will leave hundreds of comments. And for the die-hard fans Charles and Alli even provide a store to buy merchandise.

Shaytards VLOG from May 26

Shay Carl started out posting just a few VLOGs every once in a while, but when he realized that people were interested in what he was saying, he decided to make them more regularly. He captures his family life on camera, calling it the daily video diary of the ‘Shaytards’. The name refers to Shay wearing his wife’s unitard in a video and was never meant in an offensive way as in retarded. He and his friends made a bet on who could stay awake the longest for a live-stream show. In the last hours of the show Shay’s fans started to cheer for him calling themselves the Shaytards Rebellionites Army. Since then the family members have received new nicknames: mommytard, sontard, princesstard, babytard and rocktard. On the ‘Shayloss’ channel Shay documented his weight loss and how he ran the LA marathon. Many of his subscribers followed him on his way to ‘get rid of that extra SHAY’ and were inspired to lose weight by his videos.

But why do people want to watch how others live their lives, particularly when they aren’t famous for something like acting or singing? VLOGs are kind of like reality TV, but better. In reality TV life is not portrayed as it actually happens. Often it seems like scenes with bad actors put together in a sequence. However, on these YouTube channels the audience gets to see real people doing real-life things. This insight into another person’s life is the appeal of public video diaries. YouTube recognized this potential and employed the ‘vloggers’ to work on videos full time.

I started to watch these video blogs out of interest in language and culture. For years this was my way of improving my English in my free time. I was also fascinated by the thought of seeing, almost in real time, what these people were doing on the other side of the world. Having grown up in Austria and not been to another country (except Germany), for me YouTube felt like a window to the rest of the world. The idea of going abroad started growing in the back of my mind at around that time and the VLOGs presented a firsthand observation of a different lifestyle. Later, the video diaries lost their appeal for me when I found other ways to get my daily dose of English language and culture. Still, these people sharing their life with the world via YouTube is a remarkable phenomenon. The interactivity of the Internet makes YouTube personalities more influential than any television stars, because their fans feel like a part of the life of these people that are just like you and me. For me the Internet has already killed television, since it offers far more possibilities than TV.

And finally a little treat I discovered recently: This guy is trying to ‘clean up’ the Internet by reading out amazingly bad comments.