On Max Headroom: The Most Misunderstood Joke on TV

[@annabeljankel126]

Thank you for understanding. Excellent observation. Bullseye.

[@SpaceFeather]

I have confirmed with her privately that this is the actual Annabel Jankel. Ms. Jankel is one of Max's creators, as shown in the video, and a hero of mine. It means a lot that she has watched this and commented to let me know she enjoyed it. Thanks for all the other kind comments, but for obvious reasons, this is my favorite.

[@jaychill372]

@@SpaceFeather thats awesome

[@Kwitzats]

She just doesn't get it either. This may seem insane but sometimes a ip grows beyond the way you want it to be. MH is A characture who is supposed to be the robotic corporate shill but somehow retains humanity.

[@snowballeffect7812]

@@jiijijjijiijiij is this like an algorithm thing, or did someone retweet this video? Also why is self-awareness and self-improvement always perceived as self-hatred? do you think dudes who work out hate their bodies and that's why they intentionally shred their musculoskeletal systems up?

[@snowballeffect7812]

@@jiijijjijiijiij "A lot of gym addicts do keep hating their bodies no matter how fit they get, so I'm not sure you're helping your point there" unless you're claiming the majority of people who work out are like this, I'm pretty sure my point is fully-supported. I understand there's the concept of the death of the author, but the intent and obvious satire of early MH was pretty obvious. It's just sad that criticism is never taken constructively, but that's just human psychology, I guess.

[@DeadlyPlatypus]

Matt Frewer is a criminally underrated actor.

[@lordeverybody872]

Wasn't he on northern exposure?

[@JAHamilton77]

I thought that was animated, crazy

[@kyozoku1]

He's still awesome!!

[@HobGungan]

He was the neighbor dad in Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Panic in Hercules, Moloch the Mystic in Watchmen, and a board member who was attacked by the Crimson Permanent Assurance (Monty Python's Meaning of Life). Among many many more

[@AKaveman]

Absolutely one of the best "That guy" actors ever.

[@MissionZer0]

You said 54 years and my heart dropped wondering if I'm so old I'd lost time. Then you put up the math reminding me it's 2039 and I felt old for an entirely different reason.

[@godessesque]

Wait wtf when did it become 2039

[@MissionZer0]

@@godessesque Space Feather puts a little banner across thumbnails noting different years the videos "take place" in. This one (and a lot of the review style ones) takes place in 2039.

[@I_Only_Harley]

@@godessesque since New Years 2039, get with the times.

[@TheSunshineVault]

It’s also the big date on screen at 0:24 and mentioned a few times through the video. There are some lines that make way more sense from 2039.

[@GeorgeBonez]

I had the same reaction but I didn’t even know it was 2039? How did that happen?

[@inthegrass11]

I am very surprised that Max Headroom hasn't become bigger in the Vaporwave aesthetic scene. he is the VERY CONCEPT of vaporwave

[@ScubaSteveM45]

I occasionally think about this too. I believe I picked up vaporwave quite rapidly as it was already evocative of that glossy high tech future the 80s and 90s promised would show up any day now that vaporwave mocks and commemorates in equal measure.

[@nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj9457]

Probably, because they made him fade in obscurity before he got too popular in media to remembered by Vaporwave people.

[@ryankelly369]

He is also the VERY CONCEPT of what we call the "deep fake."

[@JAG214]

Snythwave picked up Max Headroom for a time in the early days of Snythwave Mitch Murder - In the News kzbin.info/www/bejne/mquao35petCmatU

[@grindhouseradio1418]

It's quite fitting since one of the defining symbols of Vaporwave is a bust of Alexander the Great. A head with no body.

[@katashley1031]

The Ray Bans were a practical solution. Matt found the contacts to be very painful, he didn't want to wear them anymore. So they gave him sunglasses.

[@kctechie]

I was in my 20's when Max Headroom was on MTV and everyone I knew was aware that Max was a person playing a computer generated character and most of us appreciated the effort and the humor.

[@raymondneal6835]

This. I've never met anyone who thought he was computer generated. We knew he was an actor playing a computer generated character.

[@revoltrebeldestroy]

Also, there is a 5th joke in Max's name that you left out. "Headroom" refers to the space a cameraman leaves over the head of the person in the frame. So that makes his name also a reference to the broadcasting format he is making fun of.

[@jettwilson3666]

Media students unite!

[@lochlanhanham8308]

There's a 6th one too: Max is a Head in a Room

[@revoltrebeldestroy]

@@lochlanhanham8308 🤣

[@lorifiedler13]

I thought his entire name was derived from the hanging sign in a parking ramp that the human reporter smacked into.

[@bryanst.martin7134]

@@lochlanhanham8308 Also the limit of. Seems most people have downsized theirs quite a bit...

[@angelsinger4574]

It should also be said that at least one guy in America got the joke: the infamous Max Headroom Incident, in which a man dressed as Max Headroom (but with a full body) hijacked a tv station. Whang does a really good video on what happened, who probably did it, and why.

[@audiotactix]

i always loved the corrugated metal background, to simulate the Max Headroom background. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJvIhqiXoK2mgtk

[@time2fly2124]

i'm surprised this wasn't mentioned, even in passing, but i guess when you have an already 38 minute video, some things have to get cut if they aren't terribly important to the story.

[@wpgspecb]

I love me some Whang

[@tomyabo5606]

There is no joke to "get"

[@daelinblack6681]

That is the only max headroom o was aware of until now

[@adacskipper]

Max Headroom definitely feels like something ahead of its time. We need him more than ever now, in the age of cult personalities and social media; its like our modern world was designed for him to flourish.

[@mushroommandrake7157]

Max was 20 minutes into the future, as his tagline says. It just saddened me that in the second season of the show it harkened 20 years into the past and resorted to a Batman-style recollection of who the badguys were and what they did, in one episode. :)

[@ScubaSteveM45]

I watched all the TV show episodes on Tubi for the first time since seeing some of them on TV as a 7 year old in 1987 and I've been amazed how unwittingly prescient the show and character was of the future world we live in today.

[@michaelknight4041]

So it was the future of the past? .....Doc!!!

[@auntiehollyd6395]

​@@ScubaSteveM45 I'm old too

[@Chadderboxhobby]

It's like his words went unheard and everything he was warning us of has come to fruition and it's almost too late

[@zorantaylor3190]

It's genuinely eerie how the ongoing back-and-forth between "glitches" and ironic commentary EXACTLY matches the rhythm and overall aesthetic of youtube poops...

[@pwnmeisterage]

It's a formula refined and embedded by generations of children's programming. Habitual behaviour. The children who grew up on it became the parents of today's adults, there's no more escape from the vapid performances. Until people go into the real world, anyhow. Other cultures, other countries. Places where it's more important to pay attention, focus, think, and plan intelligently than it is to be desensitized vs childish distractions.

[@018FLP]

Really Well observed! So, Max is the first poop, huh?

[@theseandowney]

I couldn't agree more. I think Skooks completely embodies this point. Especially when deciphering where the border lies between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

[@lazerblade2]

The hypothetical Max reboot actually sounds fantastic. I'm sure they'd half-ass it and get it wrong if they actually tried it, but what you described would be amazing.

[@jimjam4082]

Imagine if someone uploaded a "lost footage" video of Max Headroom on youtube, then that channel becomes "hacked" and changes to MH's channel as an origin story for getting onto youtube. Then Max would crash different youtubers videos (basically a collab played off as a hack) which would be an easter egg you had to find and add to the others so you can decipher some message and the message would be like the biggest gotcha in recent events. Uh... I mean, I never really thought about it...

[@BrightBlueJim]

We live in the time of deep fakes. Max Headroom could only live in the 1980s and early 90s. It's silly to imagine him being relevant now.

[@quoudten]

@@BrightBlueJim did you read the comment before yours? It could get revived in so many ways and work... And of course he'd probably be turned into the ultimate hero, scapegoat, and villain all the same.

[@BrightBlueJim]

@@quoudten No. I did not. I was responding to lazerblade2's original comment. But reading it now, I still stand behind my comment. Max Headroom may have some nostalgia value for people who survived the 1980s, but he is severely dated, today. Nobody under the age of 50 would have a clue what he's supposed to be.

[@quoudten]

@@BrightBlueJim well, i was born in the 80's and only have a vague memory of the character but the impression the character left was enough that I'd be interested in seeing either an update, revival, or re-memeification of the character. I think he'd fit right into our current dystopia.

[@EricJacobusOfficial]

Thanks for the exhaustive dork research on Max. Really enjoyed it.

[@markmurphy4667]

Nice One...Nnnnnnice One..one one...or is it two?...l think that was two...or maybe just one.....twice.....

[@emiliogarcia5343]

Just some random snowflake here....just wanted to say .....dude what you are doing for independent action movie/ comedy projects is awesome. You have respectable influences and are an amazing stunt guy......just the fact that you wached this video makes you a cool/nerd guy 😎....stay intelligent and humble

[@PeterGrenader]

Most of the context in this was taken from a previous video which was published a couple of years before this one was produced. Just sayin'

[@TheSunshineVault]

@@PeterGrenader there’s nothing on KZbin even slightly as broad in scope as this video, what are you talking about?

[@PeterGrenader]

@@TheSunshineVault kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfGg4qFnb2gnpY

[@drphosferrous]

As a 50 year old,i feel like there's some things modern audiences miss about this well loved character. 80s and genX nihilism doesn't just come from the constant existential that of the cold War. It comes from a consumer culture where everything is depressingly devoid of meaning or value. Anything meaningful will be co-opted by commercial interests and recreated as something completely missing the point with the meaningless qualities emphasized. Max is a parody of all that. It's ok that he sold out. It works that consumer demand created stupid parodies that make no sense. Our society is so stupid that we should love new coke. None of it matters unless it's kind of funny. If phillip k. Dick had written buster friendly in the 80s,it would have been max headroom.

[@Fuzz-Ra]

I'm a few years younger and saw the bulk of the content as repeats, though I was aware of the character being aggressively marketed as the subject of controversy over whether or not he was real. I certainly don't remember any real schoolyard discussion of him being like Gibson's Idoru. My husk-like gen-x view of Max wasn't that he was a machine sellout, he was subversive by hamming up the mask slipping off corporate consumerism and laying it bare.

[@TonyWhite22351]

This comment highlights the need to proofread prior to posting ! If you missed it the use of the word that in lieu of the word threat completely destroys the author’s serious comment by distracting the reader enough to go off into formulating a response like this instead of following the author’s train of thought . Just saying !

[@drphosferrous]

@@TonyWhite22351 *threat, not that. Omfg I do it all the thyme

[@RicardoMartinez-oh9sq]

Good analysis. A German political philosopher, Marcuse, called what you describe the one-dimensional society, this is a society where conflict is repressed to make it look like everyone gets along nicely. But conflict is inherent in human life: Without it interpersonal relationships are shallow, lacking in depth.

[@drphosferrous]

@@RicardoMartinez-oh9sq i think thats a different thing. the internal conflict that max headroom pokes fun at has more to do with the world being obviously fake and meaningless. we can see it easily but don't want to stop enjoying it. i thought our society would keep getting more garish and embarrassing but that progression hasn't been linear or predictable and lots of people are still taken in and super excited about that new product coming out and the ads

[@davypi2]

6:10 - "Imagine a heartless Robin Williams". There is a small irony in this statement you may not be aware of. The Star Trek episode "A Matter of Time" was written specifically for Robin Williams as he had said several times that he wanted to be on the show and was working to make that happen. However, due to scheduling issues, he was never able to make the time to shoot the episode. The actor who they hired to replace him in his part was Matt Frewer.

[@Doomzdayxx]

I remember that episode. Williams would have been an interesting choice, but Matt Frewer was perfect for that role.

[@heathb4319]

That is some mega-meta level, crossover, coincidence, connecting right there sir... When you realize the forces at play that connect this video comment to your comment to a random episode in ST that blew my mind and put a "No Way!?!" smile on my face on Christmas Eve...I feel blessed. :)) Now I'm off to go watch that episode.

[@Gregorydaerr1971]

I soooo miss R Williams. I really wish he had done that episode....

[@teruin2]

@@Gregorydaerr1971 Robin Williams would have needed to be at the core of a season long plot line. Hopefully some parallel universe has a season of Star Trek that opens with Q begging Picard for help to hide from Mork. :)

[@Gregorydaerr1971]

@@teruin2 even better then. Many believe a long stint on a remote set triggered a relapse in williams..... that I can understand......but imagine if he had been involved in a season long arc of ST shows..... maybe I Would still be laughing and we'd have a season of Mork from [insert temporal anomaly here].....and he would maybe do impressions of the ST characters ..... imagine episode starting him with RW back facing Picard then he turns slowly with a sharpie goatee claiming to be from an alt universe. Or pretending to be mangled in a transport accident or attempting to mimic data and putting kick me stickers on wharfs back. Or humping Q's leg. Or showing up in a storm trooper suit next to Lucas. I dunno. It would have been cool.

[@MikeLaRock88]

"Life is pain, anyone who says differently is selling something" Timeless quote

[@jasonswiatkowski9127]

Princess Bride

[@BobPagani]

Yes, they're selling some form of pain reliever.

[@dananorth895]

You can dream about pleasure, but if you dream about pain your instantly awake!

[@MyName-tb9oz]

It's funny that people don't really understand exactly how true that is and that it applies to them in absolute perfection. It's only the people who have really experienced some real pain in life who get it, I think. Not getting the exact color of phone that you wanted isn't real pain, kids. It's really not.

[@MyName-tb9oz]

@@cultofdis, that's hilarious. In the most Irish way possible. (That's a reference. To something a politician said, in fact. it's pretty obscure, though.) You clearly don't understand suffering, The Buddha, enlightenment, or the path. If you think life is anything other than pain _you_ haven't experienced enough life yet. Or maybe you're living the life of the Buddha before he started seeing life as it really is. Fsck. Even the plants kill each other. Did you know? I hope God gets a good laugh out of my life. I hope everyone else gets a good laugh out of it, too. I'm not sure I'm quite detached enough that I'll be able to laugh at God's punchline for me.

[@swampdonkey4919]

Max was waaaaay ahead of his time: Skype, blipverts, wi-fi, drones, cloning, body banks, GPS tracking, wikileaks, "resurrecting" dead actors via CGI, virtual reality, etc...

[@williamchamberlain2263]

It's like the writers had been reading sci-fi stories or something

[@swampdonkey4919]

@@williamchamberlain2263 🤣🤣🤣

[@ohcrap3263]

Max was blazing a trail

[@billkeithchannel]

The technical advisor to the show was a futurist research author. Today we would call him deep state, darpa, black ops, illuminati etc. Info on him is in the commentary extras on the DVD Box Set.

[@swampdonkey4919]

@@billkeithchannel cool! I'll have to watch again.

[@Teapot-Dave]

I love Max Headroom and used to record his shows on video-tape so I could watch them later. I loved his sarcasm and the music, and when he said to Sting "What do you do when you play in a country where they don't understand English, off the top of my head - America?" Just pure brilliance!

[@_synthicyde]

Holy shit. The Spiderverse ad joke was hysterical. Absolutely flawless execution.

[@nicholasmullins3693]

Oh shit that wasn't an actual ad?

[@pwnmeisterage]

I did wonder, for a brief half-moment, how an ad slipped through my blockers, then instantly realized it was just part of the video. But reading through the comment section, I see that my successful rejection of forced advertisement has deprived me from truly appreciating the impact of Max Headroom's message.

[@inranglhood60]

That was the first ad I've seen in years. Life has been amazing!

[@cattysplat]

@@pwnmeisterage If you watch without adblocker, or worse on mobile, you will be bombarded by these 5 second ads all the time. I worry for the young who've become normalised to this "shock therapy" style of advertising.

[@deathdoor]

It worked and I hate it!

[@CoNoLmts]

As someone who lived through all of that, and ate it all up, I am glad someone else sees the need for Max to come back.

[@mikepettengill2706]

President, I am telling you.

[@Fernoll]

>Clicks the link to this video >See it's 40 mins long >Ain't no way in hell I'm sitting through 40 mins of this >2 minutes in >Ok. I can sit through 40 mins of this

[@SmugOne30]

+ there were at least 20 min that weren't even necessary, but I ain't mad at it; not a second was wasted.

[@herauthon]

is it a boy or girl ?

[@jorgemakesmusic]

I literally clicked this, just to leave the tab open to watch later... and yet here I am, having finished the dang thing.

[@cjvaye99]

I thought this was about the max headroom incident. Once I realized it wasn't I left.

[@Lord9Genesis]

Watch at 2x and it is only 19 mins.

[@mattierenton701]

Seriously clever with the three second advert thing, next level genius...

[@nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj9457]

Are you referring to this video or the Max Headroom movie?

[@followingtheroe1952]

I angrily tapped my phone

[@louisduarte8763]

@@followingtheroe1952 I put my mouse over the rectangle saying "Skip Ad", saw it did nothing and thought "wait..."

[@davidjones8043]

​@@louisduarte8763I have Premium and it still got me

[@KingfisherTalkingPictures]

You missed one piece of Max Headroom that defined him for me. The song “Paranormia” by The Art of Noise, an incredibly popular group at the time, featured a vocal story of Max Headroom unable to sleep until another voice offers him comfort. Following his origin story, Max was a semi-sentient being uploaded, a “ghost in the machine.” He was a spirit half insane, bashing around computer networks, remembering sleep, but unable to access that comfort. Max was the insanity of our always-on society, on the brink of becoming something new as the internet started to metastasize. He was an insane AI, willing to do the bidding of his programmers, but feeling some shadow of his humanity when the programmers went away. And somewhere some other voice of mercy was leaking through into the machine to give him comfort. I also owned the Max Headroom Guide to Life, which was a total piece of shit.

[@pleasegoawaydude]

The second you mentioned that song, it got stuck in my head again. Damnit.

[@ohioshaman5313]

My kids call me a boomer too.

[@koDaffi]

I must have a star on my door!

[@Meilk27]

@@ohioshaman5313 well that's just a stupid phrase used to denigrate people who still have plenty of value in society and basically built everything that they enjoy. Thanks Boomers. Now could you please put your money into cryptocurrency

[@kyrauniversal]

@@Meilk27 When you look at cost inflation and housing, I think you'll see that you, like everyone on the planet, has bad and good moments. Sure, you made more electric types of entertainment, but now that comes with subscriptions for several different media companies who all are basically playing Monopoly at this point. Basically. The ones who are most ignorant, cut down the trees for their cabin, but never replant the seeds anywhere. Create, and destroy.

[@cardigansrule]

The British tv pilot is probably the best thing to watch as an introduction for someone who's never seen Max Headroom.

[@TheCatBilbo]

I remember it well! Amanda Pays was one reason, but it was a great 1985 cyberpunk film in itself. 'Max Headroom' as a name makes sense if people watch it!

[@LJ-wo1wf]

This video's creator made it sound like the advertising, talk shows, and whatnot preceded the pilot and subsequent series. What I remember was the series came first (here in the USA, we didn't know about the British pilot show) and then the character got used across everything else after its success.

[@saminakhan4921]

Loved Max, he introduced me to Sensoria from Cabaret Voltaire..the first dance music group

[@dalethelander3781]

And that video was recreated almost shot-for-shot as the pilot episode for the American sci-fi series.

[@yaddahaysmarmalite4059]

I would actually buy a compilation dvd of that pilot if it were available. back in the 80s wehn I learned of the pilot, I was so upset that I missed it. I missed most of the american stuff too since I wasn't living in that country either.

[@Xanthus179]

I certainly wasn’t expecting to watch a 40min video today but as a child of the 80s I couldn’t resist. That was an incredibly enjoyable deep dive into the character plus so much more.

[@billkeithchannel]

It is interesting but annoying at times to hear a Gen Z analyze something from my generation. I was 19 in 1985.

[@chrisduesing8407]

Same same from another Chris D.

[@davidbillings6359]

This was an incredibly interesting breakdown of the Max Headroom character, keep up the great work like this!

[@skonenblades]

Outstanding video. I grew up with Max Headroom and I've never been able to articulate the lost opportunity I feel happened there or why exactly he felt much more deep than just a shallow joke. This was great to watch.

[@Nbdyspr]

Satire and lasting criticism is what make people more careful and cautious about the bad side of the media industry to push it to become better

[@tracyroweauthor]

Matt Frewer's wife was a good friend of mine in the 90s. I met Matt a few times. He's a very nice man, very quiet and introspective, extremely intelligent and very dryly funny.

[@MichaelHonsinger]

@Tracy Rowe I can't imagine anyone doing anywhere near as good a job as him! Truly amazing!

[@jaygoins1157]

@@MichaelHonsinger you m

[@eaytc6968]

My mother was a producer on the Max Headroom show. -It was awesome to hang out on the set and watch them film. I was young but remember how important and cool everyone who worked on that show thought it was. I was able to meet Matt Frewer and he was extremely nice. Still wish I had my Valatera Max Headroom skateboard with the hot pink wheels. Thanks for the great video and perspectives.

[@FrankCosbyNo-Relation]

I don't believe you

[@SaneAsylum]

@@FrankCosbyNo-Relation I don't believe you.

[@FrankCosbyNo-Relation]

@@SaneAsylum I don't believe your mom

[@SaneAsylum]

@@FrankCosbyNo-Relation You totally shouldn't. She lies!

[@eshbena]

I believe you and Matt Frewer is still a really nice guy.

[@anitahamlin2411]

So much of his appeal was the time itself. You had to have lived in the 80's to really get it. Young people today just don't understand just how powerful MTV was in the day. Max was all that in a blunt and often rude digitized talking head in a time when talking heads were almost always polite. Those were some wild and crazy times. Glad to have survived the ride!

[@kupsyza]

They also don't understand that cable tv had commercials in between shows, not during the show, and we paid each premium network channel for innovative content. Cable (aka "regular") tv is now considered a waste of money and we need to pay each premium streaming service for innovative content... as if things are really different.

[@Mogwai06]

absolutely on point. we didnt yet have shit like beavis and butthead or south park. shows that were purposefully "vulgar" (not that id call it that anymore comparatively speaking) didnt really start popping off til around the end of or late 90s. at least it seemed to me. thats why shows like beavis and butthead and south park were even watched to begin with, they were unbelievably offensive at the time and tv just was never "allowed" to be like that. but after BnB was out a while, then you started to see a little more of the purposefully offensive type shit leaking into even the primetime major network slots because it was the new bandwagon to grab some bucks off of. turned out, that some changes just happen to stick, and actually alter the landscape to where the river takes an entirely different path from then on, and thus you get the grand canyon in like ohio, or whatever... wait... what the hell was i talking about anyway....?? ....shit.

[@lemsip207]

He was also on ITV or Channel Four in 1985.

[@FilthyFils.musicgroup]

@@lemsip207 not 54 years ago

[@FilthyFils.musicgroup]

54 years ago not quite correct is it ?? 1984 to 2022

[@arthurdaly3497]

I never saw Max as a villain. We have a thing in the UK called 'taking the piss', and Max was the ultimate piss taker. The closest real life persona to Max is probably Russell Brand

[@ScubaSteveM45]

He was a villain to the corporate mass media in the show.

[@BiffChunksteak]

The British, and therefor much more sophisticated, answer to Patrick Bateman is what comes to my mind.

[@doctorlolchicken7478]

This is correct. He wasn’t some Aryan Nazi representation of annoying talk show hosts. He was just a jerk who tells it how it is.

[@edwardzieba7887]

Ooooh boy, this comment has not aged well. Or, has aged perfectly to prove a point.

[@Brendan-Black]

​@@edwardzieba7887 Lol. Exactly my first thought. 💣

[@cerabond7650]

Honestly, I want Max Headroom to come back! And with his status as a villain and all, I really do think he has the potential to top villains like Handsome Jack or Bill Cipher. And of course with the infamous Max Headroom Incident, that whole mess of a TV hijacking would just cement his villain status even more.

[@neilhosler9001]

He'd have a pretty well viewed KZbin channel if he came back. Tons of topics to satire these days.

[@calicojo3536]

you mentioned bill cipher and that made me immediately think about how max headroom could be some sort of tumblr sexyman. oh my god. i want it to happen for the only reason that it would be terrible and not good at all.

[@louisduarte8763]

@@calicojo3536 Max Headroom Rule 34?

[@prostwest]

The danger in analyzing satire is in forgetting that the funhouse mirror is just as aptly turned on ourselves as it is on, say, Talk Show hosts.

[@nathanielnicholson559]

There is no satire without our refection.

[@prostwest]

@@nathanielnicholson559 Bingo.

[@osareafallire]

That's only a danger if you respect authenticity less than you respect yourself. I thought that was one of the functions of analyzing satire. For example, am I saying this to make a point or am I saying it to feel smarter than you? Regardless of my answer, I could be wrong.

[@susanfritzel4055]

re·fec·tion noun refreshment by food or drink.

[@gavinyeet5821]

The problem with saying that's a danger is the fact that none of us have any influence in the world, but talk show hosts, at this point it would be social media influencers and whatnot, had (have) an enormous influence on millions of people. It's not a controversial statement to say that most people are easily corrupted and would be the same or worse when put in the same position, but that's just it, they are not in the same position.

[@beatzbyreefah]

I genuinely enjoyed this video. Max headroom was from a time that people born in the 90s and later will never really be able to grasp. And you broke him down perfectly as well as the night show hosts. I was one of those people who thought that Max headroom was a computer program I was genuinely convinced that goes to show you how good people are at their damn jobs

[@a8lg6p]

I'm 3 years older than Max, and... So he's a parody of late night talk show hosts... Ok, that makes sense... I still don't think I get it.

[@Mecharnie_Dobbs]

I only saw the film, and the TV series with the journalist. I thought Max was CGI. And so expensive that he could only be in a few minutes per episode. That sold it to me.

[@cheesuscrust4964]

Max Would be hugely popular today. Bitterness is much more accepted these days.

[@mattlewandowski73]

Some of us do not have to remember... Max is like an old friend we have not seen since school... Some of us even miss the guy. Thank you for the mini-documentary.

[@calessel3139]

Being around back when Max Headroom was first released, I can attest that I believed that he was actually computer generated (well at least at first viewing). This may sound silly by today's standards but you have to remember we basically had no experience viewing anything CGI other than a few short clips in Star Wars films and a Dire Straits video, so we had nothing to make comparisons. Also, TV resolution back then was horrible, certainly much less than 640 X 480 dpi, so you really couldn't make out details that would give away practical effects.

[@brians1793]

TBH watching this in 2021 I thought he was CGI at first, in the very beginning of this. I thought this was going to be about that hacking where a guy with a Max Headroom mask that was mostly laughing was broadcasted, that's really the only reason I'm familiar but I've never looked into it beyond that. I'm sure it must come up in this at some point.

[@Minxyminx68]

@@brians1793 that's the only thing I thought this whole thing was, was about that hack or whatever, which I've only seen glimpses and never got the full story on that either....I still dont get this video tho, lol

[@DumbledoreMcCracken]

​@@Minxyminx68 you have to have lived in the 1980s as a teen or older. That was a time where "straight laced", but cokedup, people who didn't know anything, but talked a lot, were the role models for WASPy hyper consumers. Max was about destroying everything in the pursuit of a truer purpose, but instead we are now a society of ultraconsumers with switched-off brains.

[@ZigUncut]

Yeah Max is A.I.

[@ZigUncut]

The actor was put in a rubber mask because CG just wasn't practical.

[@JacksonKillroy]

holy shit the blipverts spiderverse joke oh my god. Amazing.

[@nukemwargods]

That was so beautiful

[@TheMsLourdes]

I honestly tried to skip it thinking it was real and then had a mad case of ahh' I see what you did there' then promptly got real quiet as the shiver ran up my spine that we have had blipverts for years and I didn't even see it for what it was. Yikes...

[@scaper8]

@@TheMsLourdes Fucking same! Goddamn brilliant critique.

[@TheSunshineVault]

Here’s another layer to that: Rocky Morton, one of Headroom’s three creators, primarily works in advertising now and talks about making blipverts for large corporations, who don’t even realize he is the one who coined the term.

[@8bitwiz_]

Back in the day when I recorded the ABC episodes on VCR, I would sit there with my finger on the pause button during commercials. Using the pause button while recording ensured clean transitions each time. I'm pretty sure I unpaused at the end of almost every commercial just in case. So the tapes I made literally have blipverts between the scenes. And I appreciated that as I was doing it.

[@Lord_Pyyr]

I watched this stoned and tapped the “skip ad” button you put there at the moment you resumed the explanation of max headroom’s origin, so I genuinely thought I was getting ads on YT premium 😂😂

[@ShootAUT]

That was just brilliant! Thank you for making this. And finally someone else who also wants to see Max back on the screens, acknowledges his relevancy and realizes his potential. I've been talking about this for years, but mostly to myself, I admit.

[@rococoblue]

😎.

[@jessicaumlor7979]

I always imagined that Max was programmed to be the bad guy and that a tiny bit of his former human self slipped in to warn humanity. I would so love to see more of him and I wondered who felt the same.

[@clearballistictorso3154]

Yes

[@draelyc]

@@jessicaumlor7979 Fwiw, that's how I always read him (child of the '80s here, in case it isn't showing! ;) ).

[@pintdinkler7521]

@@draelyc oh it would be great if he came back!!stfu your not seeing the big picture i dont think ? Every think that most of the people you know and love on tv are max headroom ??? Wake up ffs

[@smappdooda]

"Because of course we did" should be the epitaph on humanities tombstone. In other news: I think Matt Frewer is an underrated character actor.

[@wes9451]

He is just an underrated actor in general.

[@lingux_yt]

and he was in Orphan Black, that's also underrated! I love that show so much

[@edengaming5021]

@Grayson Owens Dont forget, as the neighbors dad, in Honey, I shrunk the kids..

[@andypickle1584]

Matt played an exec in the opening skit of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. The Crimson Tide Assurance. Also the Dad turned zombie in the Dawn of the Dead remake.

[@SabbaticusRex]

Garbage Can Man in The Stand . . " MY LIFE FOR YOUUUU!@! "

[@MateusDrake]

I was watching this thinking "how haven't I heard about this guy before?", thinking the channel had 500k subscribers. You have under one thousand. This channel is criminally underrated, based on the quality of this video.

[@Timelord2001]

Not just one, but lots of misunderstood or not-quite-understood jokes. That's why rewatching -- and talking about it, like in this video -- is key. Also, I have to admit, I just really like the music video (and extended song version) of "Paranormia."

[@AaranC]

As an Australian who grew up in the 80's but without having seen many of the late night talk shows but knowing of them. We loved Max. He was a cynical, satirical, allegory of everything we thought embodied mainstream commercial television and America. This excellent online video essay by Cameron Byerly reminds me of what we loved about Max. All style, no substance but in reality a clever commentary on the world of celebrity before it was a thing. Max was before his time and yes whoever owns the rights to him now they need to dust him off. Let him live again. But would they allow this to happen? Is it a crime that it hasn't happened? Does the world need a "Max Headroom' now more than ever? It's a crazy mixed up world. Max could be the cure.

[@TripleAlfafa]

A modern Max Headroom would have to be modeled after the cliche "I'm a youtube celeb" format. Casual clothes, always looks vaguely 19 regardless of actual age and always with some stupid "viral" campaign thing.

[@AshSimmonds]

Yep, I remember in early 90's when they started airing Letterman in Oz we were like "hey this is a ripoff of that Steve Vizard show".

[@zakofrx]

A modern Max would be banned straight away or would be partisan and constantly pushing the agreed celeb narrative..

[@themaggattack]

@@zakofrx You have Max Headroom, the British satire on America, confused with the hijacker who wore a Max Headroom mask and b*tched about liberals. Two different things.

[@conMiericonstructs]

@@TripleAlfafa I mean… maybe? There have been plenty of imitators in the meanwhile that I believe have captured that spirit that max headroom once occupied, whether it was intentional or no. See; space ghost coast to coast, the Eric Andre show, poppy, Sacha Baron Cohen, IamSophie, etc. to bring the character himself back… perhaps. I will say that by rebooting him (heh, irony) for our modern age, there is potential. Especially if it were a narrative project. But it has to be done SUPER carefully with the amount of unsubtle messaging in today’s modern traditional media, as @Mark Wilko warned.

[@johndough8116]

Max is the villain we need in these troubling times.

[@wes9451]

Seriously a new Cobert like AI especially now would actually work. Just need to be willing to go to a very dark place.

[@LAkadian]

I volunteer as tribute if you make it hahaha happen for me.

[@ColinPaddock]

@@wes9451 Medium good chance if Max Headroom had still been active in 2016, he’d’ve been elected to something.

[@Kwitzats]

Max is not a villain...no matter how much you want him to be or use modern sjw sensibilities toward a 80's character

[@hotdrippyglass]

@@wes9451 The trouble is that Max would be embraced whole heartedly by the very people he would be mocking. My step father thought Arch Bunker was absolutely right and used the character racism to justify his own horrendous actions on those he looked down on. Steven Colbert's character would be leading Qanon on the steps of the Capital Building today, 11 months after the attempted over throw of the US government.

[@DonDunno]

"I got a 96% completion rate in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror" alright you've won me over.

[@andylewis7360]

A truly thought provoking critique. Well done! There are one or two more details worthy of exploration. Firstly, Max Headroom was originally broadcast on Britain's FOURTH television channel - Not just a small channel but the first new channel in 20 years and, at the time, only 3 years old. At that time, Britain had very limited exposure to American TV programming and even then, only complete series - Certainly not live shows, such as talk shows. David Letterman etc were more or less completely unknown in the UK at the time. British culture as portrayed on British TV was significantly distinct from American culture and the subject matter of US talk shows would have been of no interest to UK audiences - American TV at the time focused mainly on what happened within the USA and late night on the West Coast would have been very early morning in the UK. While the UK did have a few talk shows the formats were different and the hosts considerably more sincere. To that extent, Max Headroom was a British satirical critique of the insincerity of American Television in general, and quite possibly a warning of what British TV could turn into. I think there's some similarity between Max Headroom and Max Quordlepleen, the host at Milliways - The Restaurant at the End of The Universe in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers' Guide to The Galaxy and in fact, some of the graphics in "20 minutes into the future" are reminiscent of those in the original BBC Hitchhikers' Guide TV series. I'm not sure there was ever any intention of broadcasting Max Headroom in the USA so it's hardly surprising the American TV audience didn't get the joke. :-D

[@zenkim6709]

We in the States got Max Headroom in 2 forms -- the HBO Max Headroom interview series, which seems to most closely resemble how audiences in the UK received the glitchy "computer generated" talk show host, & The Max Headroom Show -- a prime time -friendly cyberpunk TV series in which Matt Frewer portrayed both Max Headroom (in this case a rogue AI program) & a reality TV journalist of the future who lugged around his own (now hilariously overweight) video camera while investigating stories & conducting interviews.

[@marquisofcarrabass]

Back in the 80s, when I still had a physical body and there were only 4 television channels in the UK (I know, one of those facts seems unbelievable, right?) I loved Max Headroom. I was 15, exactly the right target audience to appreciate the satire. The books (especially "Max Headroom's Guide to Life") were much more on the nose about how vicious the satire really was.

[@chindleymuffin]

I think I was too young at the time (I was 11 in 1986) to appreciate the humour, I did watch it at the time (also from the UK here) and only understood half of the jokes. Watching the episodes back here on KZbin, he was way ahead of his time, it is funny how you can hear the people behind the camera laughing at him and they left it in. Matt Frewer improvised half of his lines apparently too, even though there was a script of sorts. I vaguely remember the Talk Show, but I don't think I watched the original 20 Minutes In The Future movie.

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

@@chindleymuffin I was 18 in 1986 and still didn't get it

[@captainblood9616]

100% I was there too mate

[@rjonboy7608]

So, if I may be so bold, what kind of body do you have now? Enquiring minds want to know.

[@miab-p6874]

What do you mean by "When I still had a physical body"?

[@rayganrambles]

The blipvert thing is frighteningly on point

[@bwc1976]

"The only people that inactive [to be killed by blipverts] are pensioners, the sick or the unemployed... I mean, who really cares?" Sort of a form of eugenics then, killing off those who they feel contribute the least to society.

[@JamesandLuke-be4xo]

As he said 3 second ad, a 5 second KZbin ad started, I still don't know of it was planned that way

[@benjaminrobinson251]

@@JamesandLuke-be4xo You're probably the only one that saw the Spiderman ad.

[@phattjohnson]

TikTok and KZbin shorts make people stupider!

[@estudiordl]

10:47 OMFG that was just genius, I tried the skip button and all... 😅🤣👌

[@seanvalentinus]

A criminally low number of views on this one. Excellent video, enjoyed every second.

[@rosonowski]

Right? I got 20 minutes in before noticing this dude only has 366 subs. The hell, youtube.

[@turnkit]

@@rosonowski gimme a break. The channel alienates half its audience.

[@Stoic_grimace]

Max was a streamer decades before it was a thing. I'm glad I got to actually experience the whole of Max Headroom at the time. Matt Frewer's improv was a key part in being able to pull it off live, but the writing was brilliant. Great vid, at the time in UK we didn't really have those talk shows so I was never aware of the connection, though the satire was still obvious.

[@johnosullivan1480]

I think it’s perfect that max never had a defining moment and that he just disappeared...he had an influence...he was like a subtle subconscious suggestion...a fleeting sense of a thought...a prophecy of sorts...

[@flaetsbnort]

an intellectual property, except not a property and not intellectual at all

[@TheGaminPowerhouse]

I like how “I’d rather tap dance.” is highlighted at the beginning and that in and of itself is a joke I didn’t get until after watching through the video and hearing that Max, in his origin story, doesn’t have feet. Great video, all around

[@rickgallo4323]

Original "Max Headroom" fan here, and someone who believes he understood the joke. I loved your historic, organized, researched, and connected analysis. Great work in giving me a lot to think about; as I view the last few decades, and where we find ourselves today.

[@nco_gets_it]

Except, of course, for the entire completely wrong part, yes. The joke is on him. Max Headroom is not making fun of politicians, talking heads, or even critics--although he is an accurate portrayal of media personalities. No, Max is making fun of YOU. The mere act of paying to watch media productions and therefore subsidizing your own mental slavery is the joke here. Get it yet?

[@alanmartiniii8101]

I have vague memories of Max Headroom from when I was a small child and this video explains him, and the 1980s, perfectly. Thanks for doing all the exhaustive nerd research!

[@kenny7593]

"Yeah I can read. I read the whole book for that one line." And an accurate take on the book. The whole review/analysis was very good. Thanks.

[@artisanrox]

As someone who liked Max Headroom in real time while he was still around, this video really made me examine *why* I liked him. He was rude and blunt, unlike polite society, he was the antithesis of "good ol friends" rural culture, he was sort of like a prototype of Johnny Bravo....something you INTENSELY disliked, but when you bother tuning into him, he's funny....then you promptly forget about him again. You had to. It was almost expectation to never, ever dwell much on anything he said. He reminds me of the modern gas stations, which were always silent, but now BLARE with advertising noise. He is an embodiment of advertising, and you mention that in relation to talk show hosts...but I imagine it one step further...he IS advertising. Rude, unapologetic, misogynistic, amoral, blatant, polished to an eerie spit-shine, and also very much, as I agree with the video, NOT your friend. I was young, but somehow this was definitely in my soul...even though I didn't have the words or world experience yet when I watched him. Thank you for your dork research!

[@ChicoTunda]

This does have strong “the medium is the message” vibes to it.

[@funx24X7]

For real though fuck those noisy gas pump ads

[@baalzebubble]

"prototype Johnny Bravo" win.

[@lelandthomosoniii4743]

His dark thoughts LIGHTENED MY DAY. SOMETIMES When Think UR Right ....................................... UR not His Point. Remember, They had no $... But wanted 2 have Free music. What a Christian ✝️ Though! ThankZ Max ********* Tesla9

[@charmygreen665]

I really like your overall take, but i disagree with the Johnny bravo comparison. I see the things Johnny says as a big part of him as a whole. What he says and does is usually ridiculous and rude, but its because hes oblivious. I think what he says is suppose to be thought about, it just doesnt take very much thinking on it to understand him. So you end up not dwelling on it as you said, but i dont think that was the intent. I think with johnny they didnt have as much to say, they made a pretty straight forward character. Hes egotistical as a way to deal with his insecurities, then his ego makes him oblivious to how he treats people and oblivious to how he gets in his own way.

[@phdtobe]

Matt Freyer also did a great job as a guest star on an episode of Star Trek:TNG as an opportunistic hack inventor who time traveled from the past who tried to trick the Enterprise crew into believing he was a historian from the future in order to identify and steal important technologies from the 24th century in order to bring them back to his own time.

[@ShadowWingTronix]

He also did some good voice work, often in villain roles. His take on The Leader in UPN's version of the Hulk was magnificent.

[@jonmyers8046]

"We're going to a place called New Jersey" 🤣

[@MichaelHonsinger]

@@ShadowWingTronix Like Orphan Black, the pointy eared ex-villain in The Watchmen, or even the annoying neighbor in Honey I shrunk the kids and annoying Game Hunter in that sci-fi series about the town with all the scientists I can't remember the name of....

[@chucktangy]

Yes and every time I watch that episode I can't help saying "Hey, look kids, it's Max Headroom"! The kids are unimpressed. Wife says "Ohhh yea. Do we have to watch this?"

[@marksemple297]

@@MichaelHonsinger A town called Eureka

[@Chadderboxhobby]

The problem with current relevance for Max is...the satirical dialogue of media control and influence is no longer a secret, it's not punk, it's so blatant and disturbing and inevitable that we meme about it constantly. We've hit dystopian already but can't admit it even though we all know. We meme about a mass pedo/sex trafficker being "suicided" because humor is how we cope with the inevitable reality that our world is run by horrible horrible people who view human lives as the smallest unit of measurement possible. Max was a cautionary tale that no one understand and it's far too late for his message now

[@chadnine3432]

Thank you. I was struggling to put that idea into words.

[@lasseminet3195]

i have never heard about max before, but this is beautiful, thank you so much for taking the time to create this video

[@Supergrover1969]

Thoroughly researched, thought provoking, couldn't have been better content... You have set a high standard to follow there!... new subscriber :)

[@kooringagnd]

Thoroughly? So why show the Trump interview? Actual proof of Hollywood's leftwing bias and explained the plot of Max Headroom. Should he not have shown the Clinton and Obama interviews where the truth of their corruption was hidden and buried? Series was cancelled because it is against Hollywood's narrative. Couldn't be made today. Look at Hollywood's and the Media's acceptence of the attrocities committed by CCP/CPC.

[@MudballDon]

02:48 The narrator claims that 1985 was 54 years ago....

[@TheSunshineVault]

@@MudballDon 0:24 the video’s ‘date’ is shown on screen for the first time, and mentioned quite a few times after that, it’s not a mistake.

[@MudballDon]

@@TheSunshineVault ah, the conceit is that this video we’re watching was produced in the future? I didn’t catch that.

[@johnnyswatts]

You know, the late night talk show was a product of the BROADCAST age rather than the cable age, and it persists today in this putatively post-cable age (even though, where I am, we still have broadcast, cable, and streaming).

[@EvanSTallas]

This is a criminally good breakdown. Thank you.

[@swaftbelic]

dude, the natural comedic timing in your commentary is so good. I'm so conditioned to KZbin vids being voiced by annoying, cringey and awkwardly tropey amateurs, so listening to someone who's not any of that is a breath of fresh fucking air!

[@9dravah9]

He HAS to make a comeback. There's too much material out there that just not being used. Nobody can justify that kind of waste .....

[@billynomates920]

to be honest, i never thought a lot about twitch bots but then in the eighties i was too busy saving up for a fourth battery to put in my walkman.

[@DeflatorMouse]

I was too young to remember Max, but I do remember Matt Frewer being in a little bit of everything back in the day. After watching this documentary, I get the feeling Jim Carrey may have modeled all of his characters on Matt. They even have identical voices.

[@vocavox9275]

"Americans would always worship Celebrity, even if it was made of this, acted like this and looked like this..." Just.... Yikes....

[@alarin612]

Interesting critique coming from subjects of the queen.

[@badnewswade]

@@alarin612 And yet, we don't get murdered by police officers in our thousands...

[@alarin612]

@@badnewswade Yeah I guess you only do that in your colonies.

[@garchompenthusiast]

@@alarin612 Don't worry mate, most of us don't really give a shit about the queen It's only really the middle and old aged who do

[@matthewtanner5127]

@@alarin612 FORMER colonies, another sore spot for the folks clinging to nationalism and lamenting the end of pax brittanica. to be fair though the brits were great at putting locals in positions of power and incentivizing THEM to do the dirty work

[@chrislarsen79]

Incredible production of this piece. Its almost jaw dropping in the concept speed required to keep pace. This is a torrent of information and retrospective on what ideologies and concepts were circulating and fought over in 80's America, and the world. Cameron- the articulation of concepts is really a firehose. Thank you so much for the diligence of consideration over this, and the depth of thought. You have helped clarify a long standing misunderstanding of this caricature. Keep being remarkable.

[@violinchicklet]

Cameron Is a genius

[@grumblycurmudgeon]

A firehose pointed at teacups. An apt metaphor indeed.

[@SamJones1337]

i literally cant believe this guy only has 2k subs. this is one of the best productions ive seen on YT in a long long time

[@BruceHurley]

Absolutely stellar piece! From the research to the narration to the amazing production elements, this is an epic college thesis in a 38-minute video! I truly don't understand why this video doesn't have millions of views. Even people who never heard of Max Headroom would be entertained and informed by this. Thank you for the time and energy you invested in this fun project. It is appreciated!

[@spiritzweispirit1st638]

Your Words Are Perfectly Ensconced in what 'Should Be Our Awestruck Realization' of How Accountably Poynient and Truly Worthy' Your Obviously Experiential and Educated Words Are! _ Thank You' Exactly👍

[@scothammond5736]

I like how someone who probably doesn't actually remember any of this thinks that no one who watched it actually got and 30+ years later he has to explain it to them

[@scothammond5736]

Also none of the "Late Night Talk" shows you showed were on cable TV and not all of the host were white or even men.

[@jesussaddle]

​@@scothammond5736 ​ @Scot Hammond Yup. Seeing thru one's preconceived ideas. I think of Max Headroom as art. He was created to have the personality of many class clowns in 1980's high school that were neither jocks or total stoners. It was considered cool to kind of play off both groups, even though the art professor and football coach seemed at total odds.

[@jsikes2143]

I never saw Max as a villain, more of a trickster. Max is chaos. If your thinking green, he will say red. Max would be the perfect face for a hacker group who was going against an evil corporation.

[@SomeFreakingCactus]

A disruptor.

[@qwertyasdf66]

"a hacker group who was going against an evil corporation" kind of like how that hacker used the character when he did that tv channel hijacking...

[@robert2690]

“Corporation bad boo hoo”

[@SpiderMan-gf1lc]

@@robert2690 yes

[@ApesAmongUs]

Yea, that's where this analysis kinda lost me. Max became Jack Sparrow.

[@webells]

Mara Wilson recommended I watch this. So good. I hope you’ve spent the time since actually writing the next Max Headroom show. Seems like you’re the man for this job.

[@bagofnails6692]

Nobody at the time thought that it was genuine cgi. Just take a look at the limit that contemporary cgi had reached. Money for nothing by Dire Straits was filmed in the same year and it was absolutely state of the art for the time.

[@bagofnails6692]

@Janitor Queen Children automatically think that any time before they were born is ancient history. Children are naturally arrogant. Children tend to assume that they are the most intelligent beings out there.

[@anon2427]

@Janitor Queen modern man always looks down on those who came before. Like bringing up cavemen as if they were less intelligent. They had the same brains as us

[@lucarossi8442]

Amen!

[@relo999]

You vastly overestimate the technical knowledge of the average person in the 80's.

[@DonnDeVoreMusic]

New coke failed because tasted horrible. Not because of the marketing.

[@sikliztailbunch]

Max was like the first meme in history. He disappeared and was misunderstood, because he was just 40 years ahead of the curve

[@jotr.9786]

Not really the first meme, and then there also was kill roy.

[@foxopossum]

You are so right!

[@phattjohnson]

We had a word for "memes" before meme.. we called them 'jokes'.

[@aaronmicalowe]

Jesus was a meme. A character invented and propaganda pulled over a random man.

[@gigipeedee]

technically memes have existed since the beginning of humanity

[@KidFresh71]

Max Headroom was so cool when I was a junior high school kid in the early 80's. He epitomized everything great about MTV: edgy, a little confusing, a bit dangerous, anti-establishment, hip, sarcastic, cocky, technology-driven and funny.

[@brian_castro]

This video makes me realize how Max Headroom was so ahead of its time. That small bit you mention at 10:35 about the blipverts, sadly shows how that shows fictional future has indeed come to pass. Anyone noticed how KZbin has been inserting non-skip-able blipverts over the past year? These have become so common, I actually pressed the skip button a few times not realizing that short spider-man blipvert was actually part of the video!

[@timosalo5003]

A head of its time, in every way!

[@MichaelHonsinger]

In other words a talking head of his time? Lol.. How did I miss that pun before?

[@halfvader8015]

Nope. It/subconscious programming/ads was a big concept in 1950s sci-fi. People also give big props to They Live for the same thing, which came out three years later than Max. But They Live is ostensibly the same film as Halloween 3 in that sense, which beat them both. But again, this is three decades after the whole idea came up in the paranoid red scare years of the fifties. And non-skippable ads are the polar opposite of the idea of blipverts. Cheers.

[@XenonOrion]

@@halfvader8015 yep subliminal advertising and the blipvertisment has been around as long as motion picture

[@ek1578]

If Halloween 3 had Roddy Piper and less of that annoying jingle,, I would have liked it better.

[@TheSatsumaman]

So basically, the British made a joke and the Americans didn't get it. What's new?

[@nathanj2439]

It's so strange and surreal hearing a KZbinr having to describe and explain something from my childhood Wich doesn't seem that long ago like hearing a guy from the 60s explain his childhood.

[@seandavidson3602]

As a kid during this period, I can tell you that max headroom was representative of cool. The MTV generation LOVED him. He was the opposite of a bad guy to us

[@BRado]

This guy doesn’t like him because he has blonde hair and blue eyes though, he’s a “bigot”

[@Daniel-Strain]

Me too, but I distinctly remember that the reason we thought he was cool and liked him was because he was a smart-ass farce of the 'powers that be'.

[@DanJuega]

@@BRado Lol imagine missing the point by that much.

[@DanJuega]

Yeah... that is what he said in the video that people missed the joke.

[@bretolson8484]

One of my favourite things of the eighties. I even learned a few things here, thanks for your exhaustive research and insights. And yes Matt Frewer’s characterization is a sharp tack in an all-too comfy recliner. Much needed today.

[@Fektthis]

Wait. As a child of the 80's I gotta say, nobody believed he was real cgi. Or very very few and only the oldest and dumbest. He was very clearly an actor.

[@sheriffbrackett]

True enough. I was about eight and I recall knowing his name was Matt Frewer. When Stephen King's The Stand premiered, I recall saying something to the effect of "Hey, that's Max Headroom!"

[@pearhams2]

Child of the 80s as well. This is tr-tr-tr-true.

[@sboinkthelegday3892]

Perfect satire. You believe it because you have plausible deniability to say you have it figured out. Also satire, because satire is at its base always a petty lie. An exaggeration, because without exaggeration the joke wouldn't actually land. Because the benign reality is NOT the overkill that the satire tries to present having happened, caling "you're just as bad, as the way I pretend you are worse than you actually are". Gets 'em every time. That's why REAL critique always defaults to reality, like not knowing an onion article for genuine news. That's why, if you're making pleasantries with a REAL racist Turk instaed of Borat, you get to call it "culturally relative" and ban everyone bigoted enough to call them out for it.

[@Jojoie]

Quintessential 80s next door dad

[@BrightBlueJim]

Nope. Nonsense. Yes, we all knew that Matt Frewer was the model for Max, because there had to be a model, and in the U.S. version, Emerson Carter was on the show with him. But if you believe what this guy says, that the technology for Max was out of reach in the 80s, then you weren't there. Now, my experience with Max was the U.S. edition, which was several years after the British original, and a year could make all the difference in the 80s, but by the time we saw it, it was completely plausible. Not the artificial intelligence aspect, and of course he spoke in Frewer's voice, so that was obviously the actor, but the animated talking head was something that was every bit as possible as the amount of make-up, paint, and prosthetic hair they actually used on Frewer. At the time, I was working in computer graphics, and this was the kind of stuff our late-80s hardware could DO. Not in real-time, mind you, but well enough for the minute or two per week of animation that was required for the show. I know this because that's what this hardware WAS being used for.

[@zzzzziiiiiiiizzzzz3515]

I don’t know who you are but this work of yours is masterful. Thank you so much for it!!!

[@zzzzziiiiiiiizzzzz3515]

I’m on my third viewing and there are so many layers here this could be submitted as a doctoral dissertation.

[@KarooKoel]

A mind-boggling masterpiece.

[@MrBlobbysLover]

My mum and her friend blagged their way backstage when he performed live - she said back in the day they really didn’t know if he was CGI or not, even though that tech wouldn’t have been feasible, but he was just a man and it kind of broke the illusion! I was always baffled by her copy of max headrooms guide to life on the bookshelf, and whenever I asked her to explain again who exactly he was, I didn’t get it. I do now, so thank you!

[@dm0065]

I thought he was computer generated too. We didn't know what was feasible, because so few of us owned or knew how to work computers.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

10:48 "Wait a second, did YT find a way to get past my adblo--ohh, I see what you did there..."

[@ThermionicScott]

I'll be darned. I had actually clicked on the "Skip Ad" button and assumed it worked. :^D

[@joeblough4605]

I was young when Max came out, ever since, whenever i hear Matt Frewers voice i instantly get flashbacks of Max Headroom and always craved more. Such great comedy and satire, true genius!! Thanks for your video.

[@pezz_pezzer]

Bravo sir! Great essay and video about the subject. Excellent points about the late night talk show thing.

[@4and20magpies]

Such a great explanation!! Thanks for the awesome time, research and edits you gave this.

[@davissteffens]

I have literally been waiting 35 years for someone, anyone to talk about Max Headroom. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that noticed him. He was ignored by a vast swath of the population. Which seems impossible since he was on MTV when it was the biggest channel in the world. Max was so odd and different. When I saw the actor that played Max in Watchmen I gasped and said "Max!!". Haha

[@superchuck3259]

Headroom today would be dodging jabs like a boxer!

[@TobiMcTobeface]

Huh. I've been waiting "54 years since 1985". Hasn't everyone?

[@DrummerJacob]

Born in 83, grew up before and with the internet and have never heard of this person.

[@TheSunshineVault]

@@TobiMcTobeface sure, in the year 2039 that we’re living in, shown on screen for the first time at 0:24

[@lukewarmwater6412]

I remember tripping on acid and ...... max headroom was an important entity in the late 80's

[@scrambldrabbit]

this has been sitting in my watch later for a couple weeks now, i assumed it was about the tv hijacking because that’s all i really knew about max headroom. i was so wrong. this was really interesting, im genuinely grateful you made this video :)

[@xxxviii007]

I have no clue anything I'm seeing. So lost yet, I simple love you voice and energy of narration. And the far away clisnof yelling are perfect.

[@halsinden]

as someone who grew up terrified of max, i really appreciate this. it was only doubled by how utterly evil matt frewer was as roger de carnac in 'robin of sherwood', my favourite ever TV series.

[@littleredpony6868]

I guess I’m lucky that this is my first time that I remember hearing about him

[@Roady_TheWayward_Dragon]

This video? This analysis? Is perfection. What sells it for me is setting this essay two decades in the future and laughing at condescending comments from people who didn't get the memo. This isn't just a commentary, this is a full-blown social experiment and I love it. Beautiful work, dude.

[@erict.watson2460]

@@ladyrose7793 00:23 - did you watch the start?

[@jacoblipkestudios7621]

No, it was stupid and confusing. You can’t just show a future date on the screen in a COMMENTARY VIDEO and expect me to know that the damn commentary video is supposed to be some fictional bullshit that “takes place in the future” just from seeing a future date. If they explained it in the beginning like “imagine this takes place in 2039” then it would work, but thinking that the people who missed that are “dumb” is really pretentious. No, it was not perfectly made or else that wouldn’t have been so confusing to so many people. Commentary videos shouldn’t “take place” in any time period besides the present, or else I wouldn’t even consider it a commentary video. Due to the fact that there’s so much more speculation involved in a “future” commentary video than a regular one, it’s basically fiction in comparison. What a dumb video, and what a dumb comment trying to defend it. This is an example of someone trying to be so creative or innovative that it just takes away from the original intent of the video, to analyze Max freakin Headroom.

[@evild00r30]

@@jacoblipkestudios7621 you inserted the "people who missed that are stupid" part on your own, pal

[@TikiShades]

"If I'm going, too fast, pause, the video." Superb delivery, that's the kind of thing I need to see in a video essay.

[@ataaah]

OMFG I'm generally so uncomfortable with talk shows and could never explain why. You've hit the nail on the head: polypolitical. They are selling personality. this is brilliant stuff.

[@FureyinHD]

This video is amazing. Sometimes I feel like the only one who remembers Max! I obsessively watched as much of him as I could find. I was young (born '81) so some of it went over my head. I knew he was an extremely cool take on the times, and futuristic in outlook, but I very much understood how subversive he was. I knew he was saying things that were not supposed to have light shone of them. A loose cannon. I did feel like he was an ally in that regard. And he was justifiably frustrated for being trapped in a TV. One bit of silly media he's in that you didn't mention was the single 'insomnia' that I had on vinyl and replayed constantly :)

[@deborahhanna9126]

"Trust me... Trust me... Trust me..."

[@frybodelgado1482]

A almost 100% perfect video! Loved the style, the depth, the theme, the edits... the only thing I critique is that he left out the infamous "Max Headroom Incident" from November 22, 1987. It was one of the most fascinating hijacking of a public proadcasting station ever and it wasn`t a coincidence that whoever were the perpetrators used Max Headroom as their format. So... 97% perfect ;)

[@billkeithchannel]

"An almost" NOT 'A' almost

[@ArtOfficialKreations]

@@billkeithchannel so…. wouldnt that just make the comment 97% meta?

[@penangtv6108]

Was looking for this comment. So ironic as a video of this tv hijacking incident was the first time I'd heard of Max Headroom.

[@frybodelgado1482]

@@penangtv6108 Me too actually! Not being from the US I had no idea what this figure was supposed to be - I actually had no idea until I saw THIS video to be precise...

[@frybodelgado1482]

@@ArtOfficialKreations I have literally no idea what your comment is supposed to mean...

[@clayz1]

Everything I ever wanted to know about Max Headroom and forgot to ask. This was entertaining television.

[@BOB-wo2nb]

I remember Max Headroom as a kid and not understanding him at all. Kids are oblivious to satire and get very bored very quickly, especially when it's a "computer generation" in the '80s. I'd really love to see him now that I'm jaded by life.