CelebrityTube

Kickstarter seemed like a really good idea from its inception: a way of allowing ordinary people and average joes out there to raise funding for whatever projects they're working on bringing to the mass population - whether that project was a film to be produced, a book to be published, or even card games for charity - if the campaigns sounded promising, backers could donate however much amount they wanted to, and help those who launched said campaigns raise the funds they needed to make their projects a reality. Then guess what happened? Celebrities ruined it. The likes of Zach Braff, Kristen Bell, Spike Lee, and other celebrities began taking to Kickstarter for their newest projects, and people across the internet were not happy about it. Why? Simple: Kickstarter was launched for average joes needing funding for their projects, so of course well-known celebrities are going to earn more money for their Kickstarter campaigns, because potential backers know who they are, and are more likely to contribute to their campaigns than the unknown joes out there. Plus, celebrities like them already have more money than probably any ordinary person who launches Kickstarter campaigns even have in their bank accounts - they're at a point in their lives where they should be donating their money, not asking for more . . . or, at the very least, that's what the backlash over celebrities using Kickstarter is.

Now, we are experiencing a deja vu: more and more celebrities are beginning to flock to YouTube. You know what? This obviously isn't the first time I've written rants about YouTube on Scarblog before . . . in fact, I have quite a few of them, as you can see:

https://josephscarbrough.blogspot.com/2013/12/okay-this-time-i-really-am-offended.html

https://josephscarbrough.blogspot.com/2016/11/and-this-is-why-i-never-advertise-and.html

https://josephscarbrough.blogspot.com/2016/12/oh-rage-of-upper-class.html

All of this continues to be a problem for little guys on YouTube, for certain, but in addition to all of this, the fact that already-famous celebrities - some of them big-time A-listers at that - are now flocking to YouTube is making the problem even worse. Kevin Hart is one of the most prominent comedians of our time, he's had TV specials and movies . . . so why does he need to be making YouTube videos where he engages in sports with other celebrities like Anna Kendrick or Kourtney Kardashian? Will Smith has a decades-spanning career, from his humble beginnings as rapper-turned-TV-star Fresh Prince, to being one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood . . . so why does he need to be a YouTuber? Mayim Bialik is a huge television star thanks to being a regular cast member on one of the worst shows ever produced, THE BIG BANG THEORY . . . so why does she need to vlog about divorce or house cleaning? And those are just three specific examples of big-time celebrities now flocking to YouTube; even more have followed suit recently, such as Jeanette McCurdy, otherwise known as the Sam half of the failed Nickelodeon series SAM & CAT.

But like the Kickstarter fiasco, this is further ruining YouTube for the little guys who have been trying to use it as a platform to share their creativity and originality, and gain exposure for what they create, when they otherwise might go unnoticed . . . and with everything I've ever previously written about, now topped with this, the little guys are virtually going unnoticed on YouTube. The little guys are virtually non-existent on YouTube, and it's all because of this: people aren't seeking out originality or new things on YouTube, they're going to check out what these celebrities have to say, or what the big partner channels are vlogging about - things they're already familiar with.

YouTube as it was originally created is now virtually completely dead. There's pretty much absolutely no point for the little guys to even keep trying to express themselves and their creativity on YouTube anymore, because nobody is even going to see it. In all the eleven years I've been producing content for YouTube - whether it's Steve D'Monster's antics, MORON LEAGUE, or other specials or shorts - I have never had to struggle to find and maintain an audience until Google took over and allowed all of the above-mentioned things to happen; my best and most rewarding years were from my beginnings in the tail-end of 2007, up through 2009 - back when YouTube really was just that: YouTube; not BigPartnerTube, not CelebrityTube, YouTube.

This would be the equivalent of film festivals across the world deciding to start shooing out the indie filmmakers with their shoe-string budget shorts, and instead host Hollywood blockbusters with A-list casts.

STOP KILLING THE LITTLE GUYS!!

EDIT: Now Ryan Reynolds has jumped on board this gravy train. Look, I know he was once a little guy himself: he started out appearing in a bunch of indie and made-for-TV movies, and gradually had to work his way up into becoming the mainstream, A-lister he is now (DEADPOOL probably did more for him than anything) . . . but the fact is he's been a mainstream A-lister for a number of years now, and again, YouTube is not the place for such big-time celebrities: if you want to make videos about your work on DETECTIVE PIKACHU, save 'em for the DVD release as bonus features.

EDIT AGAIN: Add Brie Larson to the list now, too.