I don't know about you, but during the pandemic I found myself falling into YouTube rabbit holes regularly. Here are some that kept me sane.

Japanese fireworks and firework competitions:


The Kozoom channel's billiard archive:


I also did a bunch of woodworking in my basement hand-tools shop during the thing, and I remain indebted to the Paul Sellers channel.

But the most consistently rewarding watch has been the output of Jon Bois. He first got my attention with 17776, an absolute masterpiece, and continued with the characters and concept in a brilliant sequel, 20020. I'll admit that a lot of metafiction leaves me cold and I end up hating it and the writer for all the gimmicks, but these two, themselves an outgrowth of Bois's bizarre riff on Tim Tebow in the CFL, absolutely justify every odd little trick in the experience. That he did those while also knocking out terrific videos for Secret Base makes him easily the best sportswriter of the current era. There's a lot of it, so a typically good place to start is his series on the Mariners:



I've developed a kind of pavlovian response to hearing the signature smooth jazz Bois has settled on for his soundtracks, in that I find myself in a heightened state of alert the moment I hear a saxophone over a DX7 pad, anticipating a plot twist or emotional shudder.

Anyway, Jon Bois. He's good. Secret Base, good.

Didn't know there was a 17776 sequel. Cheers for that.

My lockdown comfort has been this Chinese lady, who cooks and has the best dog:

https://youtube.com/c/%E6%BB%87%E8%A5%B ... anxixiaoge

Plus watching episodes of Indoor League for amusement/bemusement:

Limmy’s improv stories. Always funny, always dark.



Buckin’ Billy Ray Smith - a guy who knows everything about bucking and chopping wood and everything that goes with it. The most positive, uplifting man in the world.



Slippy Limpets - Geordie lad who fishes. Canny like.

https://youtube.com/c/SlippyLimpets

Nico! Other FMs finally got me into Limmy last year, and I'm now fixated on him. I'll add this favourite (h/t FM Fiery Jack):



I like Jon Bois, though I've felt too ignorant of American sports to dive into most of his videos. His one on Larry Walters is my favourite. And '24' is rendered retrospectively almost worthwhile by how much his dissection of it has entertained me, me alone.

I don't know how I acquired the habit of watching videos about warships, but here I am.

Not much of a Reddit user, but the following horror subreddits served me well, especially when I would exhaust all of the streaming platforms which happened quite a bit.

Let's Not Meet
True stories

No Sleep
Original content

Horror in Small Doses
Short horror films

Not every one of their videos (there are a lot of them), but I've enjoyed watching Eater:

The other forum I am on has a guy on it who began questioning Earth's shape so I went down the flat earth rabbit hole, possibly again. This guy was fixated on a mechanical gyro's rigidity in space, and his own pictures of the Channel Islands taken from Santa Barbara, as proof Earth is flat. Fun times. And there were many YouTube videos that I did not watch.

This is one rabbit hole that I've gotten into recently. And which is only four videos deep. I'm talking about the Chill Fuel YouTube channel. It's about weird and cryptic puzzles on the internet.

The first one came out five months ago, and they've been coming out at a frequency of one per month. I'm looking forward to more.

Became pretty obsessed with Flat Earthers, who seem to have really made a name for themselves. There are a couple o another message board I am on, and I still interact with them. The provide a LOT of YouTube video to support their stances. I ask a lot fo questions they don't answer.

The latest rabbit hole was about artificial horizon gyroscopes (attitude indicators) and how their inner workings do not support a flat earth. Fun stuff.

I tried to live vicariously through camping, hiking, and outdoor survival channels. This inspired me to get geared up and spend some nights alone in the mountains. I think it delayed the disintegration of my sanity by a month or two tops.