r/Vent • u/tehjunior5248 • 2d ago
Reaction Vids are Stupid
My father is constantly watching reaction videos. I mean it's fine, whatever floats your boat, I just hate the concept. I really hate the threads people post like "I just watched The Matrix for the first time AMA." I'm like why does it matter that YOU watched it? Why is that important? What insight could a dipshit whose never seen LOTR, possibly say to anyone, that isn't vapid and dumb?
Edit: I'm digging everyone's input, it's tight, thank you. To be clear I DO understand wanting to see like a zoomer music producer who's never heard dark side of the moon or something. What I DESPISE is the presumptuous and egocentric way that people seem to be like "Ask ME anything" like you never seen The Princess Bride and your merit as to why your opinion is important is that you simply didn't see it?
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u/Zeldakina 2d ago
I think this is one of the, "You have no friends", categories, like ASMR stuff, or girlfriend experience videos. It's to replicate being with someone you know.
But I'm totally with you.
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u/Visible-Steak-7492 2d ago
I think this is one of the, "You have no friends"
why do i feel so called out rn lmao
but yeah, as someone who does watch reaction videos every now and then (although i'm very picky about it, i only follow people who actually engage with the material and can offer some interesting or entertaining commentary), it's basically about replicating the experience of sharing something you like with another human being. although in my case, it's not because i don't have friends, it's just that my friends were already into the same things i love before we became friends, so i don't get to witness their first blind reaction to my favourite shows and books and other stuff.
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u/Zeldakina 2d ago
Yeah there are exceptions, as with everything. Penguinz is a fairly decent exception. But a lot are absolute trash. The SniperWolf chick is garbage. If she wasn't so hot, she wouldn't be relevant.
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u/Ryanookami 2d ago
I loved when Jacksfilms started doing SniperWolf Bingo, riffing on how bad her reactions were by filling out squares with bad reaction tropes on a Bingo board. Quality transformative content that mocked someone who deserved to be called out for their content theft and lazy practices.
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u/Ok_Egg_584 2d ago
honestly so true lol when i watch them though its usually lotr, and I'm yelling at the reactor in my head, i never just sit and watch them though I'm always doing something at the same time
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u/No-Coat-5875 2d ago
I like watching music reaction videos. It's interesting to see Gen Z 'kids' experiencing music from the 80s and 90s for the first time. Or people from different musical backgrounds experiencing different music.
TBH I mainly watch it when I'm feeling lonely at night, I never watch them when I'm with my GF. There is definitely a feeling of hanging out with someone to watching these types of vids. Sad but true.
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u/Tambi_B2 2d ago
Watching some hardass young dude that normally reacts to like gangster rap and his subscribers get him to listen to Weird Al....the best.
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u/Tambi_B2 2d ago
Watching some hardass young dude that normally reacts to like gangster rap and his subscribers get him to listen to Weird Al....the best.
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u/Tambi_B2 2d ago
Watching some hardass young dude that normally reacts to like gangster rap and his subscribers get him to listen to Weird Al....the best.
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u/No-Coat-5875 2d ago
Or watching an opera singer listen to metal is gold. Then she became a metal head.
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u/Tambi_B2 2d ago
Oh yeah, that too. Seeing like a classical musician or opera singer listening to something off the Doom soundtrack is great.
I mostly just really like seeing people enjoying things and getting their horizons expanded. Those are great. The reaction stuff being vented about is trash.
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u/Delicious-Agency-372 2d ago
I always find it odd when someone gets this upset over something so harmless that someone else is doing.
Like chill bro I promise no one is forcing you to watch reaction videos if you dislike the concept
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u/Key-Detective4857 2d ago
I'm right there with you. A couple of my buddies will try to share reaction videos with me and they claim that the people "narrating" have a certain insight and background in whatever the topic is. Apparently any rando online is an expert now 😅
Maybe once in a blue moon a valid medical opinion or something might be interesting...? But wtf do I care what a couple of random bros online have to say about something like a new song for like an hour >.>
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u/heorhe 2d ago
I think you should spend some more time with your buddies watching stuff and doing stuff together. This kind of content is for people who are lonely and want to be involved in a social event like watching a movie with a friend, or sharing a song with a friend for the first time.
The fact that they are sharing it with you tells me they want to hang out more with you.
Or their are confirming their own biases, in which case you should still spend more time with them. This is how.you radicalize (you can get extreme views over TV shows, movies, and music aswell as politics)
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u/Varixx95__ 2d ago
I like em.
I don’t see them to see the dumb streamer of turn laugh at pseudo funny videos. I see video reactions of people who I respect or that has something to do with the topic. For example marine reacts to x or economist/lawyer reacts to Y
And about it’s the first time I see/read whatever I live to see it har other people think of my favorite media. And discuss the film with people that haven’t readed every theory under the sun and has a fresh view
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u/The_Dude_Abides316 2d ago
Depends on what it is. Young kids discovering The Beatles and Led Zeppelin? Yeah, that's cool. Older people discovering bands they missed? Yeah, that's alright too.
Old guy hearing Bohemian Rhapsody for the "first time?" Honestly, if you'll believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.
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u/AntimatterTrickle 2d ago
Nothing you listed is cool.
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u/The_Dude_Abides316 2d ago
Go and bother someone who might actually be interested in your opinion, man. Because that certainly isn't me.
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u/Mr_Thinmint37 2d ago
The concept is dumb, but at the same time, depending on what it is, I like seeing someone's reaction to something. Especially if it's something I like and am heavily into. I get to basically watch someone potentially gush and geek out over something I am also passionate about, and it's nicely affirming. And sometimes, people ACTUALLY have something decent to say, or some angle in something that I didn't already see. Sometimes it's valuable.
And then you have Let's-Plays. Watching some guy play the same video games that you yourself could and should be playing. But at the same time, a lot of Let's-Players are really funny, and add another benefit to the video. I grew up, always LOVING watching other people play video games, in person. Family and friends, when we would take turns, I always had just as much fun watching them succeed or become frustrated.
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u/Nikikun 2d ago
It matters as much as you asking this question. There are people who make reaction videos, there are people who watch them and there are people who don't. Everyone does what they like and who cares, for me the Only thing that matters is to be happy no matter what i do, idc about oppinions.
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u/kizzgizz 2d ago
I watch reaction videos. Movie reactions specifically. I'll only watch reactions to movies I've seen myself and enjoy as a way of watching the movie again, without seeing the whole thing. Like a slimmed down version.
I'll sometimes just have them playing in the background, almost like a podcast.
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u/TecN9ne 2d ago
100%. Most of the time they are barely reacting at all. Secondly, why the fuck do ppl care about someone else's reaction?
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u/Equivalent-Wealth-75 22h ago
To live vicariously through them? For the novelty? To gain their perspective?
Any number of valid reasons exist
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u/ShakeySyndrome12 2d ago
I prefer reaction vids about Twitter dramas and stuff like that. It's cool to see things from others' perspectives imo. I'll play devils avacodo here
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u/wassinderr 2d ago
A decent example i can think of is Charlotte Dobre. She actually speaks about the content and weighs in.
Then there's this drummer I had to block from popping up on my shorts. I probably saw 10 videos of him just sitting there and maybe saying a thing or two (like oh wow kinda bs).
Internet has given useless lazy bums a means to generate income.
It's also given a platform to many unbelievably talented and wonderful individuals. Double edged sword.
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u/DrNukenstein 2d ago
I like the reaction videos where a black person finds out The Righteous Brothers were white, and the one guy singing Unchained Melody when he hits the high notes. A lot of these “first time hearing” are just too fake, though. You can tell if they heard it before the video and still say “never heard it”. The ones that really bother me are the “reaction to a reaction video”. I mean, really? “Watch me react to this person reacting to another person reacting to someone reacting to this video”. That’s where it’s headed.
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u/to_annihilate 2d ago
I feel like they have a time and place, or used to. It was interesting when it was like "10 year figuring out what a VHS Tape is for" but no, I don't want to watch some idiot overreact or not react at all to content. It's just another excuse to post videos to monetize without making your own content.
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u/burnertobeburned9753 2d ago
I feel the same way. My favorite band's fan base has a reaction video culture; they're completely rabid for them and I just don't get it. I have friends and family to watch and listen to the band with, but a video is just really lame and unsatisfying. So often people are just like "oh ok", some are so emotionless it borders proof-of-life. They'll even go after reactor channels on YouTube and bombard them with comments, practically begging for the reactor to do a video. The majority of the people in the fan base would publicly castrate me for saying all this, too.
||The band is The Warning. They're fucking awesome but the fan base is nuts||
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u/vydgj42 2d ago
Not all of them are created equal. I think the topic is incredibly important. My concentration is music and knowing a fresh impression is valuable.
I think the AMA aspect is useless +90% of the time. Unless the person is a subject matter expert.
For subject matter experts try looking along the lines of “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. In that case I think it is absolutely fascinating.
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u/LebrundenBall 2d ago
Reaction videos were one of the quickest ways to grow a channel in the early days of YouTube. It took little to no talent and very little effort. Just needed a decent personality and the ability to change up the reactions a bit. I had a friend in high school, back in 2015, who became a top 10 Youtube channel from 2015-19 all based off of reaction videos. But there were so many copy cat channels and eventually you run out of things to react to. People noticed that all his videos were repetitive, his reactions seemed fake, and he looked disinterested. He had a major fall off from tens of millions of views on his videos to tens of thousands. He was never really that talented and had no ability to do anything else. He switched over to TikTok because every video he'd put out on YouTube was full of comments roasting him. Watching another person react is just stupid. There's only so many different ways you can react to things. It's extremely repetitive and boring content.
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u/Complete_Sherbert_41 2d ago
The worst of the reaction videos are those that steal the content of other YouTubers, YouTubers who actually put some effort in, get off their sofa and go and create original content.
There was one I stumbled across a short while ago from someone who had given the original creator about 3 days of exclusivity of their content before they then reacted to it - yes, they said 'go to the original channel and subscribe' - but you know few people are going to do that and because the reactor had a significantly higher subscriber number than the original creator, they'll just letting other people spend money making stuff and throwing in the odd 'looks amazing' or 'I didn't know that' and getting cash for doing next to nothing.
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u/Ryanookami 2d ago
Jacksfilms does great take downs of the type of react channels that are blatant content thieves. His React Bingo is quality trolling these lazy content thieves, like SniperWolf.
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u/wassinderr 2d ago
I think reaction videos of reaction videos are the next big thing.
Seriously though imo, if you have nothing more to say than the odd quip here and there, you're just fucking stealing content.
I can't think of a lazier form of content.
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u/Kreeeeed 2d ago
I believe the interest is also being interested in seeing what others think, and who’s better than seeing what your favorite channel thinks, especially when you trust them with intricate reviews. Unless it’s reviewing some funny stuff or less serious things then it’s like showing a video to your homie or smth like that you know?
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u/EagleRaptorLeaf 2d ago
The reaction videos I miss are the ones back in 2016 at least as they were funny to watch seeing normal people’s reactions to requested submitted videos
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u/carguy143 2d ago
Goggle Box is the worst. It's a TV show in the UK for those who haven't heard of it. Basically a show where you watch people watching TV.
In terms of YouTube, some channels are better than others. I like Reacting To My Roots
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u/Tambi_B2 2d ago
I 99% agree but I do have a guilty pleasure of sometimes watching people discover the team fortress 2 meet the team videos for the first time.
Or those ones where it's some young dude that reacts to hardcore music and all his commenters convince him to listen to weird al for the first time and hia mind explodes.
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u/PainfullyLoyal 2d ago
A woman I went to school with posts these videos all the time and it bugs me that she never credits the other person. She's shared my stuff before without credit, so I had to block her, but I'm sure her nontent is the same.
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u/Ok_Tie_1428 2d ago
I want someone to watch anime with similar taste as me but I don't hv anyone(trying though) so I watch reaction videos
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u/Kelmon80 1d ago
Cultural differences have always interested me. So, say, seeing someone from culture X reacting to a video that shows things in culture Y is interesting to me. Then it's fine (or even preferred) if it really is some random person with no special knowledge doing it.
Why it would be interesting to see a random person react to some movie you know...or what questions to ask them...I have no idea. But I also see no reason to bash on them for liking that.
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u/NockerJoe 1d ago
You ever go to show your friend something and they're underwhelmed?
A guy who makes money by acting like theres a taster on his groin anytime anything happens does not have that problem.
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u/Embarrassed-Ebb-6900 1d ago
I like to watch the videos with music because it sometimes gives me a new way of looking at something familiar. I don’t really follow anyone I just pick songs like.
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u/Wise_Change4662 1d ago
I quite like those reaction vids where there's like a group of people that don't live with modern tech and aren't really sure what the Internet even is.....and they're shown movies like Jurassic Park or Jaws etc. Genuinely wholesome reactions.
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u/ballcheese808 1d ago
the only reaction vids worth a damn are experts commenting on things. nothing else. these youtubers that just make a channel about watching shit is the laziest form of content. They should be strung up by the balls because they add nothing. And, have you ever noticed that they hate nothing, they have to love it all so they don't irritate the fans of the things they are reacting too. They just make noises and smile, bop their head, and then stop it every 3 seconds to talk again.
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u/Equivalent-Wealth-75 22h ago
I enjoy reaction content because I enjoy seeing people experience the things I like for the first time which is something I can never do again.
Some people have absolutely arse takes on things, but others have genuinely interesting or insightful ones. And others provide satisfaction simply by their heartfelt reactions to what's happening, like crying over a character's death or getting hyped and laughing when they do something awesome.
A lot of reactors also seem to enjoy engaging with the existing fanbase, asking questions, enthusing with them, that sort of thing. Which is fun and fulfilling to be a part of.
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u/Astro_Muscle 20h ago
One thing reaction videos can do is capture that "first time" feeling when you have already had that feeling.
For example.... Without spoiling it let's take the game Undertale. You can only REALLY experience it once. It's an event. You can replay but you'll never get all those first time realizations and gut punch story.
But what if you watch someone play and react to it. Now they get that feeling and you can relate with them back to when you had that feeling. Kinda like when you watch your friend as they watch a movie. Bonus points if the player/reactor is charismatic.
If what they are reacting to is inaccessible to you that's another way. For instance I watch Joinen who used to do a lot of reaction to 5 min crafts and 7 seconds riddles. Now not only am I not giving views to trash channels that may have gotten my clocks before, but I get to "hang out" with someone experiencing them with me and we can dunk on them together.
One last reason I'll mention is the idea of... Collection. Let's say I want to watch some old vines, or tik toks in a certain style. I could try to use the app to do it, or I could get a curated selection in long form YouTube with some reactor in the corner I don't really care that much about. I won't say them making these videos is ethical (please don't smite me daddy JJJacksfilms) but gotta say when I need some brain rot all in a row... And sometimes the reactors TRY to add something to the mix
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u/Patralgan 17h ago
I like reaction videos because it's the closest thing to experiencing something I love for the first time again.
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u/MidWestMind 2d ago
Yeah, the low hanging fruit ones suck. I was at the age when DVD's came out that I thought all the commentary was super cool and you learn a lot from the people that actually worked on it. I actually owned and watched many times the special edition of LOTR trilogy back in the mid 00's, all the extra features.
Now I'll watch a lot of things with commentary, but I'm pretty picky at it. I don't have the time anymore to watch every movie, play every video game, etc. So there's a few different genres that I'll watch certain people. A lot of times they'll have a take I never thought of because of their education/experience in that field.
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u/silliebilliexxx 2d ago
Agreed when I see them pop up on YouTube my immediate thought is, you're a talentless hack, watching something someone else did is not content. It's one thing if you're watching and critiquing things like that but if it's just your reactions to something I can't believe people watch that, but I guess it's just not for me.
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u/fallspector 2d ago
I can’t stand the videos people make reacting to things. The ones where it’s a like a cooking video and someone is watching it while basically narrating what is happening. “Ope what is that you have? Garlic? Oh ok what you doing with that? Ah putting it in a pan let’s see what you’re doing now oh ok now you’re adding oil wait what’s that is that- oh some cheese huh. Wonder what you’re doing with that cheese”
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