My Favorite Videos of 2017

Hello all! I'm Kelsie and these are my thoughts.

Now as I'm sure you all know, 2017 was a bit of a wild year for the Tube. Between the adpocalypse which saw pretty much every single YouTuber and their grandpa lose money in some form or another, the rise of Viners (some deservedly so, others not so much) and more, there was barely a day that went by without some form of YouTube news. Granted, some YouTubers had a wonderful 2017 like Rhett and Link who enjoyed one of their most productive years to date between season 2 of their YouTube Red show Buddy System (aka one of the ONLY reasons to get YT Red IMO), the revamped GMM and both their Book and Tour of Mythicality. 2017 sure was a great year to be a Mythical Beast.

Unfortunately for other YouTubers, 2017 was not so kind to them as most saw their viewership plummet. But drama aside, this is not a post to rag on YouTube. This is a post to celebrate some of my favorite videos from the previous 365 days. And two more things, I'm limiting myself to only three videos per YouTuber (or else this post would be pretty much nothing but Spectrum Pulse and Thomas Sanders videos) and finally, this list is in no particular order.

So...let's get this party started shall we?

I discovered quite a few YouTubers this year and one of them was a guy by the name of UrinatingTree. He makes sports videos highlighting teams and their suckatude but his best videos are the Legacies of Failure, where he highlights one team known for either choking, ineptitude and/or just never getting past the hump but all of these teams have one thing in common: none of them have championships. This one on the Washington Capitals was the first one and still the best. The lines "Congratulations, your team still can't make it past the second round of the playoffs" and "The fucking Penguins!" have become memes in his community. I'd also recommend the Legacy of Failure on the Texas Rangers as well.

Another YouTuber I found this year was a reactor by the name of Ashley Ippolito. While I understand why people hate reaction videos, Ashley's are extremely entertaining as long as you adjust your volume accordingly. My first video of hers was her reaction the latest album Glory Days by British girl group Little Mix and I fell in love with her energy. Again, if you can handle the loudness, Ash is one of the better reactors out there. She also has a side channel where she talks about other stuff if that's more your thing.

So back in 2016, a girl named Dani Venen decided to show the world her editing talents by turning Rhett and Link videos into a fictional horror movie trailer called The Missing Link. And the world was better for it as since then as Editing is Everything, Dani has taken other YouTubers and movies and made out of context trailers for them. Now in October (because what else would one do on Halloween month?) she took her love for horror and made four incredible trailers: Jack of All Trades with Antisepticeye (jacksepticeye's evil side), Anxiety with Thomas Sanders, Who Killed Markiplier with Markiplier and this one called Clickbait with David Dobrik's "Vlog Squad." This is easily the best example of Dani's work and since David's videos are perfect for found footage films, this was a match made in heaven.

Oh Rhett and Link. They had quite a few slam dunks in terms of videos in 2017 but this is the one I think I'll go with. In this episode of the 11th season of Good Mythical Morning, the boys decide to see who has the better chicken sandwich knowledge while blindfolded and ate sandwiches from Chick Fil A, McDonald's, Burger King, Hardees/Carl's Jr and Wendy's. Spoiler alert: Link got them all right, including the bonus round and swept. His joy at getting the sweep is borderline infectious.

Spoiler alert: this will not be the last appearance of Mark Grondin on this list. In this video, Mark teams up with fellow music YouTubers ARTV and Infinity on Hannah to sing some pop-punk songs while driving around. From well known songs like The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" and Panic At The Disco's "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" to lesser known songs like Creeper's "Black Rain" and Waterparks' "Stupid For You", the trio have a great time rocking out and even showcase their acting chops.

2017 was the year of Dear Evan Hansen and this cover of "Waving Through A Window" by Dodie Clark, Ben J Pierce and Thomas Sanders is the shining example of why. Their harmonies are to die for, the build-up was great and the final chorus sends chills down my spine everytime. Sidenote, you might want to adjust your volume after they finish though. Easily the best cover of 2017.

Told you Mark would have multiple appearances. Now if you follow him on Twitter (which you should BTW @SpectrumPulse), you already know how iconic this review is. You see, prior to this video, Mark had said on Twitter that New York based trio AJR's sophomore album The Click was the worst album of the decade so far. And coming from the guy who gave albums like Sremmlife by Rae Sremmurd and Illuminate by Shawn Mendes pretty scathing reviews, that's saying a hell of a lot. This 21 minute castration worth the price of admission. The fiery rage is glorious. It's Mark's most viewed review of 2017 for a reason. Also, if you want to watch it at work, you might want to put on a pair of headphones first just in case because this gets pretty NSFW.

These two videos are part of Thomas Sanders' Sanders Sides series in which the different aspects of his personality Logan (Logic), Patton (Morality), Roman (Creativity) and Virgil (Anxiety) come together to help him solve a problem in his life. In this mini series, Thomas has been struggling with the weight of a break up on his shoulders and the sides try to help him come to grips with the relationship's end. Even though I have never been in a relationship, I can understand how hard it must be to come to grips with it ending.

Now for all you fashion lovers, here's a great lookbook for Halloween. Last year, the adorable Alexa Poletti created a video full of awesome looks for you to rock during the season of scares. My personal favorite outfit is the Killstar dress with the purple wig. Its such a badass look! One of the best lookbooks from 2017.

Okay. I think that's all for now. If I remember anymore awesome 2017 videos, I'll update this post. But in the meantime, thank you so much for reading! More thoughts coming soon.