Specifically, reactions to consumable media like videos, games, or music. And it needs to be real, like, from some nobody with a webcam pointed at them in their bedroom, not that sterile reality TV tier content mill trash.
There is a dirth of really low quality trash in this genre. It has a well-earned abysmal reputation for being low effort, non-transformative, and all too often not even remotely entertaining. I'm never proud to go looking for it. Frankly I'm more embarrassed about my YouTube search history than my Gelbooru search history.
But even so, watching a recording of someone experiencing something I love for the first time... it's like, the closest thing you can ever get to experiencing it for the first time again yourself. It's a piss-poor substitute, but it's a substitute. If I'm lucky, sometimes they might even give me a new perspective on something due to the unique way they perceive it. If, of course, they bother to actually give insightful commentary at all, which is itself fleetingly rare.
Processing all this trash just to chase a phantom of that feeling, I feel like it's the YouTube version of huffing paint cans for a high or drinking antifreeze for the buzz.
Bluey. I know it's meant for kids, but some episodes have had me in tatters because the writing is very good, lmao. Their writing team also makes a number of sweet and even poignant episodes. It's worth a watch.
The one where Bandit yoinks Bluey back from the finish line when they are racing so she wouldn't beat him had me laughing so hard the wife came to check on me.
I watch bluey every night. We try to limit it two episodes at a time. Poignant is the perfect word to describe it! It feels weird to cry multiple times a week lol.
It's really funny and sweet! Episodes like the Camp made me cry a bit, though. So sweet and emotional, particularly for a children's show. The writing can be very tender.
If nothing is on the TV, I'm putting on a random episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. By far my favorite show. The parody of just the worst people imaginable is my kind of humor.
Franklin. I may be an adult who barely remembers ever watching that cartoon, if I ever actually did, but absolutely a guilty pleasure show for me. Especially since I had a Franklin edutainment game (which I've found online and played within the past year for nostalgia reasons) and the official Franklin dominoes set growing up.
I just wish, even though I have all the episodes on an external hard drive to ensure I can watch them when I want, that I could watch all the episodes on yt, but Treehouse Direct (Canadian channel) decided that the first couple wouldn't be region locked and then region locked the rest of the series.
I also wish I could find all the episodes to the 3D animated sequel(?) series Franklin and Friends because I actually really like that one as well. That one feels a lot harder to find all the episodes to, at least last time I checked. Especially when I don't use the normal streaming services everyone else does here in the States.
Edit:
Found an "officialfranklin" channel, but I guarantee it's a fake. Especially since they barely have any of the original Franklin show and only have season 1 of Franklin and Friends in the playlist and nothing else. Though, Wikipedia says otherwise about it being fake, I still don't think it's official.
We often leave it on as noise now, skip to the end of most of the competitions, and routinely ask each other "who the hell is that?" on the final show where they all come back, but my wife and I have been watching US Big Brother since something like Season 3 or 4. At this point, the formulas are clear and they mostly just re-theme the existing competitions. It does seem like they may have retired "The Racist One" as one of the casting mandates; even the MAGA-coded blonde girl who almost won this past season managed not to say anything to get herself kicked out, though this season ended before the election results made racism okay again.
For shows that I enjoy unironically but can't in good conscience recommend to anyone, my current favorite is the US remake of Ghosts. I am like a moth to flame when it comes to stupid high-concept stuff, but I bail if I don't like it. Despite the very sitcommy gags and plots, I find the cast charming and the out-of-time twist on the usual banter is fun. But yeah, it's still very much a zinger-based sitcom full of stock characters in some form of historical cosplay.
Finally, I giggle like a twelve year old with a fart machine through the opening segment of "Wipeout," where the only question is how hilariously giant foam-covered machinery will clobber people. The only competitive point is who failed the least, and the edit of the episode doesn't even pretend to frame that in any cohesive way, likely so they can rig it. I generally watch something else once they move to the next phase. I don't give a single shit who "wins" and the rest of it is just a traditional physical competition game show with a few pratfalls.
Yeah, I can't quite explain it, but it works for me, despite being sloppily plotted, historically absurd, and with a supposed lead who's the weakest performer on the show and little more than narrative connective tissue. Jay is fun though, and I was fond of Utkarsh Ambudkar dating back the The Mindy Project.
All of those people think they're not going to fall down, and then they do, with great pneumatic gusto. It's literal caveman humor, and I'm there for it as long as it's not trying to be anything more.
Those kooky alien/ufo/paranormal shows pretending to be documentaries. Ancient Aliens, Expedition X, Blind Frog Ranch, Oak Island, that sort of thing. They take themselves so seriously and yet they do the dumbest and weirdest things while “investigating”.
Along similar lines, we used to love watching Ghost Adventures (we call it Douche Adventures). We used to watch it without fail. Much less often nowadays, but we still enjoy it.
I don't really watch it per se, but my wife will be watching Real Housewives of Orange County and I'll find myself getting drawn in. Like, "Oh, what's that one woman mad about? OMG she did what? Oh damn I can't believe she did that..."
omg my wife just discovered this show and she's totally obsessed. she was shielded by all of these type of shows growing up... so it's blowing her mind lol
Definitely love is blind or any other shitty nick lachey reality dating show. You didn't have to pay attention, and practically everyone is trashy or nuts. It's great.
Try Love is Blind Habibi. They do it in Dubai, and the juxtaposition of a mostly American style dating show with international Muslim culture, all in a country that wants to politically have its cake and eat it too, it's a trip. Plus the one couple seems nice.
We watch Family Feud during dinner. Obligatory "It's up there, Steve!"
Other palate cleanser shows include What We Do In The Shadows, MXC, or one of Zane Lamprey's travel shows like Three Sheets. Used to enjoy watching Nitro Circus quite a bit and miss it.
Sometimes people win the buzzer thing and then pass. Why do they pass?!?!?!?!? The survey writing is so lazy and weird that there's always 2-3 reasonable answers and then a bunch of noise from the deeply disturbed or stupid "people" who supposedly provided the responses. Stealing almost never works because the garbage at the bottom of the list is completely unpredictable, and if you go first you get however many answers you uncover plus three more of your own idiotic notions.