Genius or Crackpot?

I find these days there’s a whole new dimension of entertainment evolving on youtube. I watch a lot of how-to videos — everything from the elusive double-windsor knot, baby fart aerobics to my favourite, drum lessons. But for every bit of good advice out there, there is a whole lot of bad advice from people who aren’t qualified to give it. Some of it is really quite funny.

I think this new form of life mutated into existence amidst the hundreds of thousands of ‘how-to’ uploads provided by Expert Village — a web entity that gathers its content from masses of deluded wannabes who are willing to offer free advice on any subject. You see, I feel like such an insufferable prick when I say that. And I don’t want it to be that way because I genuinely enjoy watching this stuff. I like seeing people give something honest and revealing of themselves — it’s courageous in a way that I’m not.

Let me give you an example, I consider myself a bad dancer and as a consequence, I don’t dance…often. When someone can do sober what takes me an average of 17 ounces of rye whiskey to do, I think it’s…well…beautiful in a way. Naivety is innocence and innocence is like staring at a unicorn or some shit. It never gets old. It’s the only thing really worth fighting for.

Take Ryan Larson here for example. I’m not sure if he’s a comedy genius, a la Sacha Baron Cohen, or Spike Jonze’s Torrance Community Dance Group from Fatboy Slim’s Praise You video, or if he’s actually developmentally handicapped. Who says you need to know how to play the drums in order to offer an advanced drum lesson? You can fool 90 per cent of them out there with a few words that make you sound like you know what you’re talking about.

What do you think, genius or crackpot?
I say genius.

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Chris Marchand is a writer, photographer and musician in Dryden, Ontario, Canada (just north of nowhere)

Read his Blog: Hinterlands