Every year, YouTube will do a Rewind video that recaps the major goings-on of the last year. Of course, that video hardly gives you the whole picture of what’s happened.
Sure, some fresh-faced YouTubers you’ve vaguely heard of probably did an awkward dance at some point and we can usually recognize a meme or two. But all that aside, we already know YouTube has another side they like to pretend doesn’t exist. Over the last couple of years, that side has been harder and harder to ignore.
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It’s hard to tell what’s going to be in this year’s Rewind (besides Fortnite dancing), but it probably won’t involve any of these unsavory moments.
1. Fergie’s unfortunate rendition of the national anthem.
A lot of 2018’s more unsavory moments make YouTube look bad, but I think they’d leave this one out just to do her a favor.
She may have been singing a lot of notes that weren’t there, but we definitely can’t say she didn’t try.
2. Logan Paul’s ill-advised trip through a Japanese forest.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Paul brothers ended up in this year’s Rewind, but it’s a safe bet that he won’t be wearing that hat.
YouTube definitely isn’t trying to remind viewers as to why they kicked him off YouTube Red…especially because they let him back on, according to The Verge .
3. When Laura Lee’s old racial tweets blew up in her face.
Just by looking at a list of controversial beauty vloggers by The Washington Post , hers is only one of the scandals that involve beauty vloggers making offensive comments in the past, but it led to an apology video that obviously didn’t work for this crafty subtitler.
It would definitely be more savage than average if YouTube made those subtitles official, but that ain’t happening.
4. The Tide Pod Challenge
None of us are keen to remember those dark days when people were actually trying to eat Tide Pods, but nobody would like to forget that mess more than YouTube. Well, besides Tide themselves.
According to The Washington Post , representatives from YouTube pledged at the time to remove flagged videos where this was going on, and it’s doubtful that they’d consider it any less embarrassing now.
5. All of the underwhelming diss tracks.
It seems that whenever big YouTubers get mad at each other, there’s about a 50% chance that they’ll try to express their issues through song. Usually, this translates to stumbling through a rap very quickly to make it seem more impressive than it is.
YouTube always packs their Rewinds with half-hearted, insincere positivity. Maybe some half-hearted, slightly more sincere negativity is the balance we need?
Nah…
6. The “Tanacon” fiasco.
This whole mess started because vlogger Tana Mongeau was disappointed that she wasn’t a “featured creator” at YouTube’s biggest convention, VidCon.
She intended to start a rival convention with big YouTubers, NY Mag reports, with gift bags and fun activities, but most of these promises didn’t materialize and most people didn’t even get in before the event was shut down due to overcrowding.
Basically, everyone involved would like to forget it.
7. A rash of promoted videos that enticed viewers toward “Fortnite” scams.
YouTube is unlikely to ignore Fortnite ‘s popularity this year, but they’re way less likely to make any mention of the scams they unintentionally promoted when people paid to have them featured prominently on the site, Wired reports.
The game is free to play, but it also has in-game currency (V-Bucks) that cost real money. The scams usually duped people into paying for false V-Bucks.
8. When HowToBasic revealed his face.
OK, fine, he didn’t actually reveal his face, but he revealed a face. It wouldn’t do any harm for YouTube to keep up the charade that HowToBasic was really Michael from VSauce all along, but that would involve doing something more interesting and funny than those Rewinds tend to be.
Some things are just too pure for this world , I guess.
9. That scary few hours when YouTube went down.
As easy and fun as it is to complain about YouTube, many of us realized how much we’d rather have it than not on that bleak October day.
Still, I wouldn’t hold out much hope that they’ll psyche us out with a phony playback error for a few seconds when they recap the year. Alas.
10. The still-lingering aftermath of the Ad-pocalypse.
Yeah, it’s getting pretty hard to pretend that YouTube’s monetization restrictions aren’t a big deal for many channels (especially the smaller ones), and even harder to pretend that the company’s higher-ups aren’t petrified of losing advertisers.
You can bet that they’ll do their level best to try and pretend when the year is up, though.
11. The fact that our favorite YouTubers have a lot more bleeps than they used to.
That is, they do if they’re used to cursing but also have any interest in making money off their videos.
Sadly, a segment in the Rewind where two people have an engaging conversation that keeps getting interrupted with annoying beeps probably isn’t in the cards.
12. The fact that it’s pretty easy for YouTubers to lose monetization or their entire channels nowadays.
Even if a channel manages to avoid copyright strikes due to wonky Content ID claims, whoever runs it better make sure their content is considered advertiser-friendly enough if they’re actually trying to do this as a job.
It’s gonna be a not-very-fun game to see which creators from this year’s Rewind are still around by next year.
13. The fact that a video is about as likely to end with the word “Patreon” as “like and subscribe” nowadays.
It probably wouldn’t reflect all that well on YouTube if their Rewind had a bunch of cutesy donor names scrolling down the screen as it wrapped up, but it would probably be more accurate than what they actually have in mind.
Besides, creators getting actual support? That’s way too wild of a concept.
14. Pewdiepie’s “bridge incident.”
For those who don’t remember, this refers to that time Pewdiepie said a racial slur while he was streaming PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds .
It’s kind of an odd situation when YouTube’s largest channel isn’t featured in its Rewinds, but moments like this do a lot to explain why.
15. Pewdiepie’s rivalry with T-Series.
Apparently, according to CNN , a record label based in India could take Pewdiepie’s spot as the most-subscribed YouTube channel, which has whipped his fans into a frenzy to maintain his lead.
Another YouTuber named MrBeast had a large role in this campaign and even bought billboards like this one in support.
Even if YouTube wasn’t allergic to admitting Pewdiepie exists, explaining all of this would definitely kill the momentum of a Rewind.
16. When the call came to change the channel on the Nostalgia Critic.
After a document from former employees of Channel Awesome, which owns the Nostalgia Critic character, emerged alleging unethical business practices, all but two of the website’s contributors ended up leaving.
In April, YouTube was awash with videos of people reacting to this document, but most of the details aren’t really YouTube’s problem, so there’s no point in them recapping it.
17. The bizarre rabbit hole of channels where Spider-Man and Elsa do increasingly messed-up things.
I’ve complained a lot about YouTube today, but whatever’s going on in these supposed kids’ channels is something even YouTube wants nothing to do with.
Fortunately, this kind of content isn’t as prominent as it used to be, so the best move is probably just to let it die in obscurity.
18. The rise of disturbing animated kids’ songs.
The days of having to worry about seeing a pregnant Elsa may be numbered, but that nonsense looks like it’ll just end up being replaced by repetitive songs with unnerving visuals like this.
Since YouTube’s response to its bizarre kids’ content is usually quiet embarrassment, I wouldn’t expect to see this face in a Rewind. So we have that going for us.
19. When this unfortunate man had all of his Legos stolen.
That may not sound like a big deal, but we’re talking about $18,000 worth (according to Mashable ) because YouTuber WhosYourDaddy’s passion is collecting and building them.
Fortunately, his fans and others who heard about his misfortune are helping to rebuild his collection, so it’s actually a pretty touching story. But since he has only about 12,000 subscribers, nobody who pulls the strings at YouTube is likely to pay him much attention.
20. The end of Filthy Frank.
OK, so that technically happened last year, but George Miller’s decision to retire Filthy Frank was a big enough story in the YouTube world and on Billboard that it probably bears some mention.
However, his content was about as far from advertiser-friendly as you could get, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for an official send-off from the platform.
21. The increasing frequency of multi-part ads.
Oddly enough, this might be the only thing on this list that will actually be featured in YouTube’s Rewind this year.
Not because they’ll actually address this ad hike for those who don’t have YouTube Red, but it’ll definitely have its time to shine if the video has two-part ads on it.
22. The fact that DaddyOFive was ever a popular channel.
Again, it’s been about a year since this channel’s heyday, but it’s pretty hard to imagine anyone at YouTube feeling all that proud about a family whose “pranks,” according to The Huffington Post , seemed enough like child abuse that the parents faced criminal charges for them.
23. When Smosh’s parent company went bust and left them high and dry.
Defy Media was Smosh’s parent company until last week, when they suddenly closed their doors and left them and hundreds of other employees hanging without any notice, The Verge reports..
Again, there’s a lot more ugliness going on in the background — all of which YouTube likely wants nothing to do with.
