There’s a lot to talk about today, so I’ll get started now.
OK, YouTube. I’ve never been a big fan of YouTube, I’ve mainly used it to “watch” music – music videos, concert recordings and stuff like that. Maybe a few clips from movies and TV shows too.
But recently, the algorithm finally took a look at me and suggested a few things for me to watch, and I have to say, they won me over. Based on the music I was watching, YouTube suggested what they call “reaction channels,” which are – and I’m not kidding – people who film themselves listening to music they’ve never heard before and comment on the music in the same way they would on sports.
It may not sound like it, but I have to say it’s pretty awesome. Especially when the people reacting to the music are teenagers but listen to classic rock, R&B, country, soul, blues or even bluegrass. The joy on their faces is wonderful. By the way, the song I’ve reacted to the most so far is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and I don’t think I’ve been disappointed so far.
As always, one thing leads to another – and then I suddenly started watching other reaction videos. The funniest ones were the ones where non-Americans reacted to American culture. For example, I don’t know how many times I watched non-Americans try American food. By the way, non-Americans just can’t comprehend the idea of putting sausage gravy on biscuits. They think it’s gross… until they eat it.
The best ones I’ve seen so far have more to do with American culture in general. My three favorites are Christ Reacts (a young man from Germany), Lost in the Pond (a man born in the UK but now living in the US), and Your New Zealand Family (which is pretty self-explanatory).
The problem is: these (and other) sites often choose videos to react to, and the videos they choose are not always… shall we say… “reliable.” There is one video that two of them reacted to, about the origin of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” that is just wrong. Thoroughly, historically wrong. People usually correct the errors in the comments section, but there is no follow-up video.
When YouTube found out that I like reaction videos, it remembered that I also like movies. And that’s where my favorite channel comes in: Rob Squad Reactions. It’s about a young couple from Oklahoma City named “J” and Amber who react to movies they’ve never seen. In researching this column, I found out that “J” is Jordan. Jordan and Amber Robinson are young teachers – in their early 30s – and they make reaction videos about both movies and music.
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Their reactions to the film are priceless. The first one I saw was The Sixth Sense, the 1999 film known for its surprise ending. At one point, while watching J and Amber, I realized that they didn’t know what was going to happen. Suddenly, I realized that, in a strange way, I was watching the film again for the first time myself.
This is truly a masterpiece of a film, by the way. I always thought that the 1990s were Hollywood’s second golden age.
Anyway, then I saw J and Amber watching “Field of Dreams” from 1989 – that’s close enough to the 90s to count. And… “If you build it…” meant something to me again.
Then, “A League of Their Own,” the 1992 film about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s and 1950s. The only thing that disappointed me about this film is that they didn’t say anything about the “There’s no crying in baseball!” scene.
By this point, J and Amber had already done a lot of these reaction videos to movies and started to recognize the actors. That’s right! There were many times when they didn’t recognize movie stars from the 1990s. I was shocked, shocked when I found this out.
And speaking of recognising actors, I was watching J and Amber watching Casablanca, the 1942 masterpiece by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Just before the film started, they were watching the opening credits and J realised that he didn’t recognise a single actor in the film. I contain my anger: he didn’t know Bogart, Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Dooley Wilson, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre? No, neither he nor Amber had ever seen them.
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That’s when the magic started. A lot of people think Casablanca is the best movie ever made. Watching J and Amber do it convinced me that… it really is the best movie ever made. Even scenes they didn’t fully understand – they had no idea what singing “La Marseillaise” meant, for example – they obviously understood it emotionally. That beautiful final scene hit J and Amber exactly as she intended.
When I first saw Casablanca, I already knew what was going to happen. A few nights ago, I was able to watch the film without “knowing” what was going to happen. It was wonderful!
And… Ghostbusters is fantastic, as is Die Hard. And no, it’s not a Christmas movie.
I think I’m going to watch Jurassic Park again tonight. Wait! They did Pulp Fiction on a different day. Dinosaurs.
David Murdock is an English teacher at Gadsden State Community College. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are his own. David Murdock is an English teacher at Gadsden State Community College. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are his own.
