The Best 'How To' Site Ever...

 

       Picture the following scenario:

       You want to try to prepare something new for dinner but you don't know what. Nothing too fancy mind, just basic recipe ideas with easy to follow instructions. Or you have some guests coming round for dinner and you want to impress by being flexible in the kitchen and able to whip up anything at a moments notice. But where to you look for such things?

       The internet is awash with thousands of websites, blogs and instructables on how to do anything and everything imaginable – but how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Isn’t there somewhere you can go to get loads of great ideas - all in one convenient place?

       Well folks, look no further than HowToBasic – the YouTube channel dedicated to concise, no frills and wordless video tutorials – nearly all of them involving an egg. Because, let’s face it, everything needs an egg…

       Try this classic for an example:

       Everyone knows what sushi is, but what’s the correct way to prepare it?

       So now you know.

       There are absolutely tons of other videos on this channel, ranging from How To Make Fried Chicken to the delightfully succinct How To Cook Eggs. There are loads of great recipes here, nearly always involving one hand, violence and … and egg.

       I challenge you to watch How To Make Wine without staring in disbelief…

       And we are not just confined to food either. There are plenty of other guides including How To Play The Keyboard or How To Make an iPhone App.

       Equally bonkers.

       Comic genius? Perhaps. I find some of these videos (but not all) to be irresistibly hilarious - as they touch upon some taboo combo of food/violence mixed with the unexpected.

       However, earlier videos on this guy’s channel seem to imply that he almost stumbled upon this by accident, as his earlier efforts are videos of literally what the say they do (albeit the tasks being of laughably simple things) such as How To Turn a Tap On, How To Rotate a Book or How to Click a Big Pen.)

       Over the course of time, they evolved into being these ‘trick’ videos (complete with simple titles, nicely photographed food in the thumbnails and authentic looking ‘about’ text) which many people will naturally come across when actually searching for that certain ‘how to’ video on YouTube. Not surprisingly, many of these video have up to and around a million hits.
        Some people, as expected, comment to express their feelings of confusion or disdain. Many others gamely play along with the joke.

       The throwing of an egg has become an effective punch line.

       Comic genius? Or pure insanity? Or both? You decide.

7 Feb 2013