Everything is Terrible
Website logo/title card as used at the end of most of the site's videos
|
|
|
Type of site
|
Video blog |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Slogan(s) | If everything is terrible, then nothing is. |
| Website | www |
| Alexa rank | 247,750 |
| Launched | 2007 |
Everything is Terrible! is a video blogging website from Los Angeles, CA that features unusual, dated, and campy clips of VHS tapes from the late 20th century. The project was founded in 2000 by a group of friends while at Ohio University. "Every weekend or free afternoon they get," according to NPR, they search at thrift stores, garage sales, and bargain bins for the worst and most outrageous VHS tapes to share with each other. The website was launched in 2007. The website has also been attempting to amass the largest collection of Jerry Maguire on VHS; according to member Ghoul Skool: "We always have noticed since the beginning that there seems to be nothing but just Jerry Maguire tapes filling our nation's thrift stores. I don't know why." Collective members keep a tally of tapes and a leaderboard of contributors on their website watch.everythingisterrible.com. Donations are accepted via mail to P.O. Box 50825, Los Angeles, CA 90050. As of June 27, 2016, the group has gathered 12,240 VHS tapes, but they are about 5,000 tapes shy of their goal of building a pyramid in the desert.
In addition to posting videos of old VHS tapes, the people behind Everything is Terrible have performed live shows where, while wearing cloaks and gold VHS tapes around their necks, they show their new VHS discoveries. In 2009, the website released a video titled Everything is Terrible! The Movie, which featured the same type of VHS clips that would be featured on their website. The A.V. Club called the video "a portal into a world halfway between showbiz and real life—a look at how the people who make entertainment for a living think the rest of us saps actually live", adding that it's "simultaneously enlightening, hilarious, and deeply sad".Paste magazine called the video "the best (worst?) clips from a range of categories and spin them together like a terrible salad".Wired has praised one of the site's more popular clips titled "Infomercial Hell" – a series of clips from different infomercials pasted together – calling it "depressing" as well as "terribly funny".
One of their more notable videos has been an instructional clip titled "So Your Cat Wants A Massage?" – a video that was designed to show people how to massage a cat; it has amassed over 4 million hits on YouTube. The video's creator, Maryjean Ballner, has since appeared as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman on December 9, 2009. According to Ghoul Skool, despite her feelings that "YouTube can be a very negative place", Ballner thanked Everything is Terrible for bringing back something which she had not seen in over 15 years.
...
Wikipedia