So Five Minute Crafts has basically been the punching bag of commentary YouTube for the last two or three years. Jarvis Johnson, Drew Gooden, Cody Ko, and plenty more have done reactions and recreations of their crafts and life hacks.
The channels these commentators interact with (Five Minute Crafts, Troom Troom, and similar channels) have a pretty simple formula: pump out an absurd amount of content, use bright/catchy thumbnails (that usually don't have anything to do with the video,) and use a LOT of hot glue for useless hacks and crafts. These channel's success is easy to understand: they're aimed at kids. Usually they have videos with skits and crafts aimed at a young audience, and with the bright colors and fun activities the kids get into the content very quickly.
But that's not really what's important here. As it turns out, the reactions and recreations to these videos often trend extremely well with teen/young adult audiences. This is where I think this gets interesting; reactions to this absurdist content often get similar, if not greater traction than, the content itself.
Take for instance this video which hit the trending page of YouTube within an hour of upload, where Jenna Marbles recreates Five Minute Crafts' soap hand. Jenna does hit the trending tab somewhat often, but this one skyrocketed and stayed in it's position for quite a period of time. Similar things have happened to Drew Gooden and Danny Gonzalez, who have much smaller channels by comparison.
It seems this kind of content is, then, highly "spreadable." People share it, watch it, and get it trending extremely quickly. But why exactly is this kind of content so good at attracting attention? What are the creators doing and/or offering that attracts and keeps people's attention?
I think these videos do two things extremely well and they both lend themselves well to "spreadability:" humor and audience connection. These reaction videos tend to be made by very funny people; constantly using jokes and skits to entertain the audience (usually at the expense of the absurd things they see on screen and/or are making.) The creators also focus a lot of attention on a connective aspect that coincides with humor; they feel like genuine reactors and they bring us through their craft creation process.
These aspects function in similar ways to the standard reaction video; helping to fill a social need for an audience by allowing them to react in the same way as another person and build a connection with them. The humor and genuine reaction/connection help to build a sense of connection between the audience and creator, while also being genuinely entertaining to watch by their own merits.
Their "spreadability" taps into a sort of unified experience. These creators go to great lengths to make videos that can resonate with a large number of people. Laughing at the uselessness or just genuine stupidity of life hacks is something that a lot of people can relate to, especially if they've been on YouTube of Facebook where life hack videos are very common. Using humor creates a unified space for it's audience.
The format of the videos also allows for a great deal of (at least perceived) interactivity. Audience members laugh with the creators, experience their reactions, and get to follow along with the creator as they create the crafts and record their own wacky behaviors. The audience, by proxy, gets to interact with the very thing being laughed at with another person. This creates a new kind of connection that encourages sharing.
Finally, their style is very curated. It's not haphazard, but it still feels natural. The personality, sense of humor, and sense of creators being genuine is incredibly consistent not just in the video, but across their channels. Drew Gooden is a little absurdist with a sharp tongue, Jenna Marbles is a bit goofy but sweet and funny, and Cody Ko is sort of a lovable frat boy. They play into their audiences well by being consistent and genuine, which in turn makes them more popular and adaptable to a large audience.
Even with Cody Ko being erratic and clumsy, the audience loves him. These sorts of videos and creators give us a really good insight into what makes a video spread. They're not highly calculated things designed to go viral, but they tap into a fairly common ground and do so in a unique, funny way that connects with their audience. They don't spread because they were made so, they do because the work went into making them good, consistent, and filling needs of an audience and creator.
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