The Lost $60 Million Film About Internet Memes

[@georgyfadeyev7551]

This movie is The Avengers for people who say "awesomesauce" IRL

[@saintdane05]

....so me in high school?

[@benburke3015]

So basically this would have been Martyn Littlewood's favourite movie.

[@weregretohio7728]

I was thinking anyone who could stand Nostalgia Critic movies around the same time period as this was conceived.

[@NotoriousLightning]

I say "awesomesauce" in real life. This movie is not for me.

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

I remember when Nickelodeon used to do things with awesome sauce

[@PopMalt]

Hey Emily (and subs), honestly, this was a pretty fair and well thought out critique of the project. It’s so far off my radar now due to the conclusion that you also came to (10 years ago really being the sweet spot for meme content) that I didn’t realize people were still THIS interested in it. Aside from a decent amount of bloopers, multiple takes, and a few days of off and on BTS footage, you are correct when you assumed that the extent of the footage available was included in the trailer. I sometimes thought about doing a doc style video that dives into the story behind the project but honestly my feeling has been that in doing that, it would just awaken all the “just release the movie already” replies that had flooded the comments sections for years. Trust me when I said that we wanted to. If people were truly interested in hearing more from a “this is why it didn’t work but here’s some more footage of the journey” perspective, then sure, maybe it would make sense to produce that. But I also think that maybe it’s best left as what it was, which I’m still happy about when it’s all said and done. Anyway, great work on this video!

[@pablogarcia6188]

That's nice dude

[@Mctoran2]

I'd love to see a doc about the production!

[@eroticbearvideos]

dork

[@Nagchampa765]

Lmao

[@lucasite]

Memes are famously the best thing to make movies about

[@pepi7404]

The second best thing after Emojis.

[@stapler942]

@@llewelynshingler2173 Back in my day we called them emoticons/smileys!

[@craigtheduck]

@@llewelynshingler2173 When are we getting a films about all the other Unicode blocks?

[@CthonicWisdom]

Comment for algorithm so that one day Sarah Z can be YOUR co-writer and editor

[@SarahZ]

NEVER

[@zainmudassir2964]

@@SarahZ i hope so😊

[@unfortunatewitnessX]

@@SarahZ (Sigh.) Too late.

[@btarczy5067]

This is the Thea and Nicole Hallmark arc all over again… Long live the Queen!

[@sofiagolpe2224]

+

[@JeraWizard]

If I recall correctly, the Potter Puppet Pals were borrowed to be in this trailer. They were temporarily lost in transit while trying to return them, causing Neil Cicierega much anxiety. At least I believe it was this project

[@emmamaki5862]

Come to think of it, Neil could have been a useful person to enlist in a project like this, especially if they'd gone the much more manageable route of making it an independent low-budget short film like the kind Neil and his friends have plenty of experience with

[@stapler942]

I think the most egregious thing here is that despite the title they didn't even get Rick Astley for the trailer or the project. Like, was he meant to be a secret reveal at the end?

[@AAAAAAAA-ss6gn]

That's where the $60M were going

[@Iris-oh9zx]

The trouble with Rich Astley is he's actually just a regular celebrity before an internet one. Dude's too busy touring to get involved with something like this.

[@kevinramsey417]

@@llewelynshingler2173 Double rickroll? WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

[@Mario_Angel_Medina]

@@llewelynshingler2173 that sounds more like a reverse Rickroll

[@tylerramos7633]

Of course they couldn’t get him he’s a millionaire platinum recording artist

[@RBtheMad]

i remember as a kid watching this trailer when it came out, and excitedly telling my dad that i wanted to see it once it released. He thought it looked stupid, and told me "if this actually comes out, I'll buy you Gears of War 3" I still have not played Gears of War 3.

[@boopsnoot3142]

Imagine not knowing about Hide Yo Kids in the slightest and then hear about someone with the nickname "Bed Intruder" casually mentioned by Ellen. Like what are you meant to take from that?

[@nightshadetq2453]

new emily video with a horrifying title about something i've never seen before?? oh man i can't wait

[@crazykirsch]

32:10 This whole ending bit is a perfect summary of how online culture has changed. The commodification of the internet; while inevitable; is a depressing reality and(imo) an event-horizon that there's no returning from. Honestly I think Pork n' Beans still holds up because it feels like a sincere celebration of early YT rather than a product.

[@pepi7404]

Let's end capitalism and return to the old days.

[@thecynicalone7655]

I agree, execpt instead of returning to old days, let's build a new, better system

[@crazyduplicate]

We need a Communist Deep Web

[@wyattb9698]

this woman is putting out banger after banger and I am here for it

[@AB0BA_69]

Are you sure it's a woman? That voice is kind of sus... 😂

[@TheDirvish]

​@@AB0BA_69Trans

[@BlackThreath1234]

It's a man

[@ddd1234ify]

@AB0BA_69 @BlackThreath1234 lame comments 🥱

[@stapler942]

Oh god. It's like the unfunny reference humour fantasy plot of Suburban Knights with the marketing ambition of Food Fight.

[@PancakemonsterFO4]

Or every X - Movie in existance

[@thornbrain]

At the start of the video, I thought the movie was going to be a documentary on these old meme folks that brings them all together in one place to shoot the breeze on virality and internet fame, and I thought that could have been an interesting idea that understandably just didn't pan out. What it actually was going to be... feels like the opposite of a single guy's passion project. It feels like a joke pitch to parody money-grubbing film execs.

[@paolo2763]

Your idea sounds like a much pleasant and doable version of this. It would have worked nicely.

[@TheCinematicPackrat1]

I thought this was going to be a documentary, too. Was stunned to find out what it was actually aiming for.

[@JumboDS64]

I think there was a gag in a Johnny Test episode that amounted to the conceit of this movie.

[@garrettblack]

The sheer Aging Millennial Melancholy in those chapter titles... a fading memory of a more optimistic internet

[@Tesseract_King]

Weirdly I'd never heard of this, despite being a mid-milennial who was terminally online at the time. But seeing Daft Hands after not thinking about it for a decade hit me RIGHT in the nostalgia. Great video!

[@wasabij]

I remember being deeply fascinated by memes and when people "first" made them, so I was on a personal quest to archive and catalogue memes prior to that year (2008). I was always a little bit skeptical and critical of some sources, but stuff like the then-new Know Your Meme and the talented Internet Historian ended up doing publicly what I was trying to do as a personal study. The 2010s were full of amateurish productions that try to get "meme culture" into traditional media like film, like Nostalgia Critic, and my cynical take is most of these fell apart once you realize that "memes" are only funny when they're in their original formats, and do not carry enough interest or depth to support a cohesive or even engaging story. Even Ready Player One and Pixels did something like this for 80's nostalgia/memes and those were panned widely, even though they were made off established works or from "competent" regular filmmakers.

[@amelialonelyfart8848]

Same, sorta. i did end up hearing about it but very tangentially when someone on a message board I moderated at the time brought it up, made a thread about it, and we all just forgot about it a few minutes later.

[@natmorse-noland9133]

Same. I can't believe this is the first time I've ever heard of it.

[@Smelnick]

I was a mod on the forum this project was born from, the creator was the owner. it was around the time of this being dreamed up, that generalforum, now popmalt, was radically ruined by him trying to monetize them.

[@rgs8970]

You are such a compelling writer. I really tried to just click on this to put it in my history queue before my therapy appointment, but instead I watched half of it before therapy and the other half the instant after I got off the phone! Thank you, this was fascinating!

[@TalysAlankil]

honestly the cameo by peter coffin is perhaps the strangest thing about this whole video, and i say that as someone who had no idea any of this existed

[@nataliereed4238]

I'm just gonna pretend it's the Innkeeper from the second chapter of Moby Dick and not any other individuals who may or may not share that particular name.

[@icravedeath.1200]

​@@nataliereed4238why does nobody like talking about him? Did he do something wrong?

[@AB0BA_69]

Who the f*ck is Peter Coffin??

[@Nikkibuh]

@@icravedeath.1200 After looking at their breadtube wiki page... A lot of controversies. What stood out to me is that they repeatedly accused people of being funded by the US government and Bezos????

[@middaymeds]

​@@icravedeath.1200he's turned into a "patriotic socialist" which is a fancy way of saying literally national socialism

[@EmilyParagraph]

i really like that you look at these things from the angle of production rather than media analysis. it gives the video a different texture than a lot of other video essays, and i feel like i learn a lot from it.

[@nirman423]

I love that this makes the Channel Awesome movies and Suburbian Knights specifically even more unoriginal thenthey originally were.

[@Malkmusianful]

This movie is like what if an out-of-touch executive tried to create their own knockoff of They Might Be Giants by focusing ONLY on the inherent goofiness of their aesthetics (Linnell on accordion; Flans playing the odd '60s pawn shop guitars nobody bought; the old guy's head featured on their early stuff; Dial-A-Song; the heavy use of bass synth and drum machines) and not on any of the substance. In effect, taking out the art from the original product and treating it as an easily-replicable product.

[@nebufabu]

Even out-of-touch execs are rarely quite that out of their depth. It's more like Doug Walker with all the cluelessness but with some conscience still intact -- a bunch of late 00-early 10s internet famous ppl, who actually knew nothing about general storytelling (let alone about the more technical aspects of screenwriting and production) mistaking their luck for actually knowing what they're doing, and just repeating that lucky thing over, and over, and over... Or maybe like that guy at a party who got ALL his jokes from Monty Python and won't shut up honestly trying to build an epic blockbuster.

[@BusterCorp]

The thumbnail made me think of this "epic" grand adventure where Rick Astley is a knight and he leads all these characters on a wacky quest....the actual product discussed here wasn't nearly as "epic" as I thought....

[@katevgrady]

WOW. Wow. I found your channel when I was looking for a quality Doug Walker video, subbed immediately, and I completely missed that you're Emily of Sarah Z and Emily! GIRL. Amazing work, such a fan, and hopefully it's nice for you to know that your work is bringing people (and the algorithm) in on its own rather than just being linked from Sarah Z, even by people who also watch her.

[@michaelkenner3289]

I was wondering, because Sarah always mentioned working with an Emily and they have a similar style, but I kept thinking "what are the chances she's the same Emily?". That's awesome.

[@MrPooleish]

This sounds like Nostalgia Critic movie from a time before the Nostalgia Critic. Like a bad idea done too early.

[@PancakemonsterFO4]

*demo reel

[@paolo2763]

I feel bad for one trick ponies who try to make a career out of becoming a meme... For example, the owner of keyboard cat tried SO hard to make a profit out of it, and making more videos hopping it would get the same engagement, but is no use. Sometimes, people just want a see a silly 2 minutes~ video and leave. That doesn't mean this kind of thing isn't happening nowadays. There's a lot of people latching off their 15 seconds of fame. And they all soon will be forgotten... Maybe featured in a compilation about "hey remember this? Woah that joke died quickly".

[@doyleharken3477]

you make me remember the owners of grumpy cat. they leaned *hard* into building a franchise and merchandising. they had multiple comic series starring grumpy, branded beverages, etc.

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

@@doyleharken3477 what happened to the owners of that Grumpy Cat after the cat died?

[@doyleharken3477]

@@kittykittybangbang9367 i just checked. their site is still up and they're still selling merch. apparently the brand is still profitable?

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." - Andy Warhol

[@valletas]

Ive seen this happen many times over the years and it always ends in failure

[@kevinramsey417]

Anybody else think Antoine Dodson rocked that big top hat like a boss?

[@travdump209]

"Some person named Peter Coffin, I don't know" Exactly how we should be handling Coffin. Yuck.

[@alexmayzlakh8004]

Although, the sheer surprise of seeing their name in this context is hysterical

[@alexbennet4195]

Wait, what happened? I’ve seen a couple of their videos, years ago, but I thought they were pretty good??

[@somedude2748]

What happened with Peter Coffin?

[@kenkoopa7903]

@@alexbennet4195 They and Angie Speaks sort of hopped on the class-reductionist bandwagon and Coffin in particular started palling around with Caleb Maupin, the fucking Nazbol and "muh israel lobby" guy.

[@travdump209]

@@kenkoopa7903 in addition to this they think the best way to build leftism is via american patriotism which would be fine on its own if they weren't virulently against anything they think is "idpol" which is... a lot of things, apparently

[@EllieSpectacular]

I'm a dork and I pulled out my red/cyan glasses at 20:57 to see if the 3-D worked before seeing you test it out on your TV :P (The red/cyan DOES work btw!) I appreciate the thoughtful dive into this project. I had my eye on it since the trailer in 2011 and it still popped into my mind from time to time. I had assumed it had either fizzled out naturally or had secretly been a money-laundering thing. My interest went from unironic hope that it'd be good, to hoping it wouldn't ever come out, then back to hoping it WOULD come out and be so bad that we could all collectively laugh at how poorly the concept had aged. You know, As A Community.

[@Tesseract_King]

It's always great to see one of my favorite creators in the comments of another of my favorites!

[@stephenshaw532]

It was a forum admin's side project that never took off. I don't think it ever got funding.

[@Snips.Snails.Fairytales]

You know, despite everything, seeing the Numa Numa guy always brings a nostalgic smile to my face. That was the first KZbin video I ever saw.

[@Jabadamazo]

"How to stop getting legal threats from Homestuck" is a great joke you just threw in there to let us discover. Brilliant.

[@draculaschild6626]

Honestly I’m not surprised it’s lost. It’s literally a movie about memes. I wouldn’t be shocked to find out the reason it’s lost is because the makers burned every last copy themselves out of embarrassment.

[@diannaholtz]

Having known Andrew Fischer, I can say with almost 100 percent certainty that he is not the least bit embarrassed about this. We’re talking about a man who rented his forehead as billboard space to the highest bidder.

[@ZBott]

I was surprised on how much screen charisma a lot of the meme actors had. Leeroy Jenkins and Antoine Dodson could be solid co-stars in a B-film with buddy cop vibes and I'd watch.

[@carlcarlington7317]

For some reason I read “the lost film about memes” and I expected something entirely different. No idea what I expected though. It’s as if my mind refused to accept the reality of this idea, like some love crafting nightmare

[@maean7410]

love crafting

[@pikachucetthesecond4296]

​@@maean7410 Love Crafting could be a meme itself

[@ChannelyChannel]

Peter Coffin erasure? Dope. Continue with that please.

[@randomwerewolf1099]

What happened with Peter Coffin?

[@TwoBs]

@@randomwerewolf1099 last I heard, he had a kid with a woman that left him (I think), and now he whines all day long on social media about politics while belittling and berating everyone else for not doing and thinking the same as him or something. Basically, nothing much has really changed with the guy. Still clinging on to the small bit of e-relevancy he had 10+ years ago.

[@ilexdiapason]

@@randomwerewolf1099 i believe they're just kind of shitty about their politics and call a lot of their fellow breadtubers shills for not being leftist enough and stuff - not the kind of person you particularly want to promote, shortly. (they're not a he as the person above me's comment might suggest, though.)

[@dorianhinkle5595]

@@randomwerewolf1099 peter coffin is now a devotee of Caleb "friends with Alexander Dugin" Maupin and is flirting with a form of reactionary politics that dresses itself up as being communist while really just being nationalism with some red characteristics.

[@sholem_bond]

@@randomwerewolf1099 These days, they're a tankie who pals around with Caleb "Actual Sex Cult" Maupin, and literal TERFs (don't ask me how that works with them being nonbinary). And they were always shitting on other internet leftie content creators while being a shill themselves, so... yeah.

[@benburke3015]

Honestly, even comparing this to Epic Movie feels a bit generous. At best, this is a fractionally more competent version of those Channel Awesome Anniversary specials from the before times.

[@okawesome2746]

The title of this video combined with the thumbnail dealt me a massive psychic damage combo.

[@viziroth]

even without the trailer, a major studio would have a hard time picking something like this up, especially for the proposed budget. it's not a controllable brand, a few dozen internet celebrities in front of a camera is a lot of unknowns to keep track of and how do you maintain merch rights? it's already all out there, you don't have much case for trademark or copyright if the internet celebs themselves haven't worked to maintain those.

[@stephenshaw532]

I believe funding was the issue.

[@rruhland]

Watching these types of videos remind me that while I was on the internet in the late 00s, early 10s, I was never “ON THE INTERNET” at that time. I remember all these memes but I remember literally nothing of this trailer, that was apparently big enough to make it on fucking ELLEN.

[@edgyspaceunicorn7215]

Lady Emily has become the Queen of making hyper specific videos on subjects not a lot of people knows about but a lot of people should know about. Maybe people know these things exist but this may be the only deep dives into the subjects. Demo Reel, Save to Win and now this. Has made Emily one of the most unique video essayists to follow.

[@callumg3330]

The thumbnail looks like a nostalgia critic movie

[@TheHeroOfTomorrow]

And learning more about it only confirmed that vibe.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Speaking as someone who only recognized the meme being referred to in the title, even the little shown of the trailer in this video was utterly inexplicable to me. The only thing it did for me was make me feel young for once.

[@Rexdrinksredbull]

Peter Coffin unexpectedly popping up when talking about this damn Rick Roll movie threw me for a loop

[@selenaphobia]

watching this post-hwak-tuah girl is a surreal experience

[@LettaLeeJoy]

At 33:52 I got an ad for KZbin Red. Something about that just perfectly encapsulates exactly what you're saying here.

[@Linkily]

I legitimately was actually thinking about this movie a few days ago and wondering what the hell happened to it, because I remember hearing about this movie in high school because I was hyperfixated on memes as teenagers usually are. I'm probably one of 5 at most people who remembered this, really excited to watch! Thank you for making this video!

[@sneeb-ish]

Sure you were.

[@sneeb-ish]

@HyperWraithAL I can't reply bc KZbin has blocked me.

[@BobLogical]

If the creator did a really good job of this and left it all on the field, this probably would have been regarded as one of the best fake movie trailers of that era. With all the attention it got, I'd be kind of surprised if at least one person didn't contact him to write for a show or something. But he actually wanted to make a fake movie trailer into a real movie and wasted all of that time and money trying and failing to do it. It's a tragedy.

[@ehhhhrica]

LOVE THIS!! And I love your narration style, it's like a mix of how Sarah Koenig and Ira Glass talk almost (not like sound-wise but like rhythm-wise)?? But like for internet stuff, and it is So Good

[@Unquestionable]

Interesting look at how internet culture has shifted in such a way that you can really make a strong argument that this was a big sign of the turning point. Having been in high school during the pre KZbin days and the platform launching my first year in college (discounting the 3 years I spent dicking around after graduating public education) it really is something that strikes major nostalgia. I remember being engaged in so many online communities on a personal level only to see that kind of slowly fade and be replaced with an endless amount of content.

[@SmaMan]

My roommate made an animated short called "Meme-ception" which was pretty similar in concept, (I did some of the voices, along with one of my other roommates) except it was really all the memes happening in just a couple of scenes. It was only a minute long... because that's how long the gag could really work for. We ended up making another one but, that was it, really. Sometimes you need to know how long an idea's legs really are before investing into it seriously.

[@skebapplejefferiso308]

Is it cool if you could link me the video?

[@PrettyTranslatorSarahMoon]

oh dang, boxxy. 😅 I actually met her at a party a decade ago. I wasn't nearly as online back then, though, so she was just some random cute girl.

[@bjam89]

Random like normal random or random as in early youtube humor random

[@vurpo7080]

@@bjam89random as in "person I don't know", not related to her behavior

[@ludwigii9329]

I can almost assure you that 19:54 was leading to a Chuck Testa joke

[@TheAbigailDee]

Every time you post a new video, my new comfort video is found!!! Thank you for this! You awoke some memories of watching this trailer with my friends in middle school.

[@australianemily]

I just want you to know that the vid that introduced me to you was the Kitchen Nightmares video. And now I've accidentally binged all of your videos because I watched them thinking 'I'll just watch the ones that interest me' and it turns out its all of them. I hope you keep making more content, I'd be very grateful.

[@kikiash2425]

This just seems like it would have been the Channel Awesome anniversary movies with a budget

[@narfeyfjola]

The moment I heard the name Peter Coffin, the fibers of reality began tearing all around me. Unless this is some other Peter Coffin, he's a nazbol guy involved with Caleb Maupin and his *cult.* Like one step removed from Aleksandr Dugin, the og nazbol, but also made comedy video game raps a decade ago

[@Mario_Angel_Medina]

Why this movie wasn't made? Because they wanted to make a _Ready Player One_ blockbuster out of a concept that reallistically would only get an _Knights of Badassdom_ or _Airplane Mode_ budget in the best case scenario (most films made to cash-in "celebrity-of-the-week" fads are obnoxious and meanspiritied zero-budget attrocities). That said, a part of me wants to read the script, to see if they could had pulled the _Lego Movie_ thing of taking hyper-simplistic caricatures and using them as fundation to build compelling characters, or if just is an even cringier _Epic Movie_

[@HipsterShiningArmor]

19:59 oh god that was originally "nope its chuck testa" isnt it? i feel like that just unearthed some ancient evil in my brain

[@TwinRiver100]

9:15 thanks for clarifying that this was a concept trailer. That explains some of the reason why it looks like it does.

[@BinglesP]

Considering the 60M budget, I have a feeling it would've been another case of a movie spending just as(if not more) of its budget to pay for the licenses and actors as(/than) it did for the rest of the movie itself

[@golden_ranger_solaris]

I would just like to say real quick, one of the producers was one of my pastors and my middle school English teacher was in the trailer (the blond girl throughout the trailer). Also, great video, just wanted to show off one cool thing from my life.

[@eringrl101]

I remember looking EVERYWHERE for information on this in 2011 and being obsessed with the concept. I was 14/15 at the time and I think I first came across it on Tickld (which is now long gone and I feel super old ohmigod) and there was NOTHING. Absolutely no information was available anywhere except for those Facebook pages that weren't even pages it was those "like if you can't wait to see Chronicles of Rick Roll." Every word of this comment just makes me feel decrepit now...

[@RiteofWriters]

I unironically feel like your final farewell should become your signature send-off, a la Maggie Mae Fish’s “Save Martha”.

[@AdequateEmily]

ZOMG! I CAN HAZ EMILY VIDEO?! AWESOMESAUCE, I’M GOING TO LE ROFLCOPTER!

[@Giancarlo_SO]

This was a really great video as per usual!! It's got me thinking a lot about how with the commercialization of KZbin & the internet as a whole, it's lead to this grindset-style-belief of whatever it is you have passion for & produce (traditional/digital art, video editing, writing, etc) is going to waste if it isn't being used as another source of income, and can't exist solely for the sake of itself. The Chronicles of Rick Roll I feel is smack dab in the middle of that cultural transition from "I uploaded a silly little video and stumbled into to online prominence" to "Every piece of content© I create must be optimized to generate the most interactions possible" and your video did an excellent job outlining why there can't/won't be a moment like this again.

[@TheNumnutRandomness]

Was about to comment that I must've been too insulated from the internet to hear about half these memes... but then I remembered that was because I was deep into my TGWTG phase back then. So I can in no way make fun of people who'd be into adults in costumes making cringey, referential internet humor movies 🙈

[@Joshuaraymalan]

You have an amazing ability to make me care about things I otherwise wouldn't care about. Its a credit to the research and writing.

[@m.streicher8286]

I love it when you forget about a smaller gem and they upload, can't wait to watch this.

[@breadvelvet]

19:54 is almost certainly a Chuck Testa gag/reveal

[@Larweigan]

I haven't started watching yet, I just want to thank you for making this video. I think about this movie like twice a year and it feels like some sort of Mandela effect thing

[@Jabadamazo]

HOLY SHIT I THOUGHT I DREAMED THIS MOVIE. I remember seeing trailers and stuff and then out of nowhere it vanished off the internet.

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

“They call me the meme machine. I catch the memes, I spread the memes, I eat the memes, I shit the memes. Without memes, I will die. Inhale the memes, exhale the memes, inject the memes into my bloodstream. There are good memes, and there are bad memes. Why has God abandoned us?” -Pink Guy, “The Meme Machine”

[@samplebite]

Look, I'm not going to lie. I don't remember subscribing to you, but I'm glad I did

[@cynicismIncarnate]

Great video, Emily! Thanks for the watch!

[@TrippleNineSIXBandOfficial]

I got pushed this in my algorithm, hope that makes you happy to hear this being that it’s from 3 years ago. Great video! Interesting topics, and it’s very well made. Subscribed!

[@DefinitiveDubs]

I think the commodification of the internet is sad, but not necessarily something that should be blamed on the creators. Considering the economic realities of the 2010s that are only getting worse now in the 2020s, making it big from your bedroom is a very alluring prospect.

[@zawrator4457]

Commodification is the only way it could have ever ended: people liked creators making higher quality and well produced videos, and at some point you can only get that by the creator having a higher budget.

[@dukecaliblap]

I think the biggest issue with trying to make a feature length film about a crossover of memes is that since most of the people featured in it are only known for one or two lines from short videos that the writers would basically have to craft the characters from the ground up, meaning that they would pretty much be creating new characters for the movie . And if your crossover movies features characters that are effectively brand new, then that kind of defeats the whole point of a crossover in the first place

[@MaxMarriner]

This movie looks like a Channel Awesome production, except with a budget. So it looks nothing like a Channel Awesome production.

[@calebfromtherealworld]

Early viral stars/KZbin personalities trying to break into old media was such a prevalent and bizarre theme of the 2010s

[@themischief420]

you say that as if it's not happening still

[@ChookaaFindlebean]

21:45 the greatest human interaction of all time

[@furcrazy-m2k]

“I loved Avatar.” “Their making a second Avatar I heard.” “Really? Oh dynamite.”

[@Haysey_Draws]

It's so wild to me that all this happened before i even really used YT...well watched videos on it. I used to only use it to upload music from live shows and that was it for years until about 2012 when i found there was content on here, so this was a fascinating watch!

[@blapis-blazuli]

This is all I'm going to think about now when people joke about how the Emoji movie being a thing means that a movie about memes should also be a thing.

[@redwaytoo]

Really enjoyed this video, idk why the algorithm seems to bury it

[@katevgrady]

8:00 ironically seeing a girl with blonde, straightened hair wearing embroidered cowboy boots is the most nostalgic part of this. Entire sororities of identical girls all in country dresses and cowboy boots.

[@lindseyclair921]

I wish I had money, I would love to donate to her Patreon, her work is nonstop amazing.

[@rkkwc]

god dammit, the christian satire news site headline actually got me. fuck

[@Anon0nline]

For the record, the 3D interview videos also work on KZbin VR, which works with the Oculus/Meta Quest 2.

[@Jonasansu]

This almost feels like a Channel Awesome movie, wow.

[@deadralynx1288]

The funny thing is - i can measure a "meme" by how much i am not being involved by even the slightest exposure. Unless you were deep into stupid memes circles, you'd never even touched upon that stuff. I watched 13 year old videos of totally bad 2010 comedy that i never came close to in 20 years of internet. Apart from not being censored, the early times where super fun.

[@Freecell82]

That shot of the art gallery smacked me right in the face. It's weird to suddenly see somewhere you're super familiar with just show up when you're not expecting it lol

[@amereaardvark]

I appreciated the Cutthroat Kitchen reference, thank you very much Emily.

[@gentlerat]

Just watching this for the first time. A trip down a nostalgic memory lane though given everyone involved in this project, no matter how ill-conceived it was. Somehow I saw the footage from the trailer but misremembered it as one of those KZbin rewind specials. Hope you're well!

[@sholem_bond]

11:50 ("Peter Coffin/Breadtuber and tankie drama" flashbacks ensue)

[@TheGerkuman]

I find it funny that the end of part 4 basically said that they should've just made a 'Channel Awesome'-esque low budget crossover movie, given Emily's take on those films were so bad. But then, I guess it shows that the issue isn't the idea of low budget crossover movies, but with the execution.

[@la-uwu-rence]

“Oh look, quirky internet essay on something cringe, let me check it out!” “One side venture, NERV…” *P A N I C S*

[@rixx46]

Interesting well informed observations. I am a screen writer in ScreenWriting teacher and often put on one of these videos while I’m cooking cleaning the kitchen. I’ve noticed because I watched a few of them I wrote that the structure is always identical and the very nature of your essay is precisely what I was thinking about this afternoon. They had to create create a hero and create a villain and the third act always involves the restaurant attempting to follow through with Gordon‘s new plan and revised kitchen only to have it become overwhelmed and suddenly all things together at the last minute. That said I think when the show is at its best it really examines complicated relationships between people that have nothing to do with cooking. In particular wanna watch today involved a father who had [without his sons permission] taken $250,000 out of his trust fund [and inheritance from his grandfather] and made him an unwilling partner in his dubious burger restaurant in LA. It was like a Robert Altman movie.

[@davebooshty299]

3:23 Keyboard Cat looks disturbing that black and white way.

[@Fork1]

Man this is really a time-capsule for an early time of the Internet meme culture!

[@deadpandrew]

The Matrix's budget was $63 million

[@therealHLY]

seeing this brought back up memories I did not know I had, but as you brought things up I was like 'oh god I have seen this, and then they...'

[@MahDryBread]

Oh my god, I hadn't thought about so many of those old KZbin videos at the start in years. That Daft Punk hands one was awesome!