History WebVideo / FactFiend

Fact Fiend is a british Website best known for their accompanying Website/{{YouTube}} [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaR-e8ComPih10DqPi3sdWg channel]]. It is hosted by Karl Smallwood, with video editing courtesy of Brad Rawlinson, with other friends of theirs showing up on occasion. They essentially makes longer form videos of already existing articles found on [[http://www.factfiend.com/ their own website.]]

They also have a sister channel [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7WZBdzeJ_0CfdgBmREssFA "Fact Fiend - Behind the Facts"]], which they upload ''much'' longer versions of their main Fact Fiend topic videos but completely raw (as in, almost no editing and post-production, leaving in their HilariousOuttakes whenever they mess up).

* {{Kayfabe}}: Invoked by Karl when he dropped his UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS onto the ground, and pointed out to the audience that he dropped it in a specific way the first time as to not damage it, but the second drop wasn't planned at all. They replayed the moment in slow motion later in the video.

** Karl ''despises'' VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077, in large part due to the bugs, mass crunch periods, and controversy surrounding the game. They also point out that to those who claim it was never designed for the UsefulNotes/XboxOne and UsefulNotes/Playstation4 in mind, that it has been in active development since '''2013'''; the year those consoles came out (and you can't exactly do game development on hardware that literally does not exist yet!). To those who dislike the bugs, but think it's a good game regardless, Karl shuts this notion down in the comments by saying that [[https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood/status/1428023179461767174/photo/2 "this sandwich actually tastes fine if you eat around the neatly coiled turd in the middle of it"]] (The games' story and gameplay does not make up for the one massive problem; the games' bugginess, the game has).

* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: Karl bears [[CelebrityResemblance a great resemblance]] to Music/BoBurnham, and many commenters on the Fact Fiend videos remind him of this, and has brought it up several times as a behaviour of particularly bad comments.

+* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:

* FlairBartending: A minimal version. Karl sometimes flips a bottle or does other tricks while talking.

* StandardSnippet: The music used in the background and on the end screen is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUBfjXkTjGE "Two Finger Johnny" by, who else, Kevin Macleod.]]

* StylisticSuck: The entire show is built around having a more lackadaisical appearance compared to other fact shows, from the cheap greenscreen lazily taped to a wall with the corners showing on camera, to Karl wearing casual clothes and often holding a mug or bottle while presenting, to his looking at and talking to his editor instead of focusing on the camera, and of course going off-topic frequently. Karl deliberately maintains these aspects of the show; when Brad bought a better greenscreen, he refused to put it up. The show still gets constant negative comments by people insisting they're doing it "wrong", yet the channel has consistently grown in popularity. Plenty of fans will identify the "pub chat" feel as a selling point. Turned UpToEleven during the 2021 English quarantine, where the green screen is missing due to not being in the studio, and a sign saying "green screen" was added until Karl tapes green fabric to his wall.

They also have a sister channel [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7WZBdzeJ_0CfdgBmREssFA "Fact Fiend - Behind the Facts"]], which they upload longer versions of their main Fact Fiend topic videos but completely raw (as in, almost no editing and post-production, leaving in their HilariousOuttakes whenever they mess up).

* FormulaBreakingEpoisode: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZCOtoyRODE This video]] Karl uploaded called "Important Channel Update". To put it kindly, he condemned any person who voted for Trump in the 2020 election, and cracks open a beer while telling them to not watch their videos. The greenscreen is also missing, with it being replaced with a "The Green Screen" paper sign.

* {{Kayfabe}}: Invoked by Karl when he dropped his UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS onto the ground, and pointed out to the audience that he dropped it in a specific way the first time as to not damage it, but the second drop wasn't planned at all. They replayed the moment in slow motion later in the video.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZCOtoyRODE This video]] Karl uploaded called "Important Channel Update". To put it kindly, he condemned any person who voted for Trump in the 2020 election, and cracks open a beer while telling them to not watch their videos. The greenscreen is also missing, with it being replaced with a "The Green Screen" paper sign.

There are three formats of videos currently:
* Fact Fiend: The regular videos on a topic chosen from their site, or Karl has otherwise found funny.
* Wiki Weekends: Karl and company trawl through a random wiki page and read aloud some of it's best moments, such as oddly-specific details on character pages.
* Fact Fiend Focus: A more laid back look into a particular topic.

** Karl ''despises'' VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077, in large part due to the bugs, mass crunch periods, and controversy surrounding the game. They also point out that to those who claim it was never designed for the UsefulNotes/XboxOne and UsefulNotes/Playstation4 in mind, despite the game being in active development since '''2012'''. To those who dislike the bugs, but think it's a good game regardless, Karl notes in the comments that [[https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood/status/1428023179461767174/photo/2 "this sandwich actually tastes fine if you eat around the neatly coiled turd in the middle of it"]].

* TakeThat: Towards the History Channel in one video, as the topic was outright admonishing it in favor of talking about ''Series/HorribleHistories'', a show that Karl demonstrates to be significantly more accurate (the entire run only ever had 12 mistakes) to history.

* StylisticSuck: The entire show is built around having a more lackadaisical appearance compared to other fact shows, from the cheap greenscreen lazily taped to a wall with the corners showing on camera, to Karl wearing casual clothes and often holding a mug or bottle while presenting, to his looking at and talking to his editor instead of focusing on the camera, and of course going off-topic frequently. Karl deliberately maintains these aspects of the show; when Brad bought a better greenscreen, he refused to put it up. The show still gets constant negative comments by people insisting they're doing it "wrong", yet the channel has consistently grown in popularity. Plenty of fans will identify the "pub chat" feel as a selling point. Turned UpToEleven during the 2021 english quarantine, where the green screen is missing due to not being in the studio.

* {{Improv}}: The subject of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU8CJZIzK6A The Janitor On Scrubs Made Up His Own Lines]], which has Karl explain that Neil Flynn, the titular Janitor from ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' essentially improvised all his lines. This makes his characters CloudCuckooLander nature when talking to his colleagues make significantly more sense.

* LoopholeAbuse: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaL6lXrgP4w As noted here]], the editors; Luke, Brad, and Nisha, all have to find images that are royalty free for the video, or that would reasonably fall under fair use. Part of the issue is that some images need to be paid for, and while Karl doesn't take issue with this particular problem in most cases, he takes issue when Getty Images hosts pretty much all of the World War II archive images his editors could find, and cost several hundreds to use each. Brad at one point also had to draw Robert Johnson to bypass the crew not being able to use any actual images of him due to copyright concerns.

* FlairBartending: A minimal version, Karl sometimes flips a bottle or does other tricks while talking.

* TheJuggernaut: Discussed in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xz5B4tb62o Even The Juggernaut Can't Stop The Juggernaut]]'' Wiki Weekends video, that has Karl and Lucas runs down the powerset of the Juggernaut, and what make shim so hard to stop.

* StylisticSuck: The entire show is built around having a more lackadaisical appearance compared to other fact shows, from the cheap greenscreen lazily taped to a wall with the corners showing on camera, to Karl wearing casual clothes and often holding a mug or bottle while presenting, to his looking at and talking to his editor instead of focusing on the camera, and of course going off-topic frequently. Karl deliberately maintains these aspects of the show; when Brad bought a better greenscreen, he refused to put it up. The show still gets constant negative comments by people insisting they're doing it "wrong", yet the channel has consistently grown in popularity. Plenty of fans will identify the 'pub chat' feel as a selling point.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Discussed in the appropriately named [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPYf8rm94ec That Time Fox Killed Off Marvel's Unkillable Mutant]], where Karl points out that Darwin, a mutant who adapts to survive, and considered to be the most powerful non-deity person in the Marvel Canon, and yet, somehow; Fox not only performed a RaceLift on the character, but Darwin dies within the first five minutes of ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' by being force-fed an energy ball, which his body cannot seemingly adapt to (despite comics repeatedly showing that he can survive pretty much anything).

As with a lot of creators, the show was impacted by the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic, and the crew that often as questions to Karl (Lucas and Nisha) they were forced to call in from their homes to continue this role.

* StylisticSuck: The entire show is built around having a more lackadaisical appearance compared to other fact shows, from the cheap greenscreen lazily taped to a wall with the corners showing on camera, to Karl wearing casual clothes and often holding a mug or bottle while presenting, to his looking at and talking to his editor instead of focusing on the camera, and of course going off-topic frequently. Karl deliberately maintains these aspects of the show; when Brad bought a better greenscreen, he refused to put it up. The show still gets constant negative comments by people insisting they're doing it "wrong", yet the channel has consistently grown in popularity.

The videos tend to have Karl and the off-camera editors express opinions related to the subject at hand, which don't fit well on the articles on the site. This almost always [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny leads them onto a tangent or seven.]] As part of their videos, they often insert relevant pop-culture Film/ TV show clips to use with their discussions to give visual shorthand on whatever they talk about (or if they refer to a film or show directly.)

* GoodNameForARockBand: A RunningGag in Wiki Weekend videos. For example, while reading the Marvel wiki on ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer'', Karl comments that all of the Surfer's nicknames, power names, and associates sound like the names of rock bands.

* {{Catchphrase}}: Karl has a tendency to say "Big Dicked Hero" when describing someones heroic deed, normally in relation to people doing heroic things behind someone elses back.

* GoodNameForARockBand: While reading the marvel wiki on ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer'', Karl comments that all of the Surfer's nicknames, power names, and associates sound like the names of rock bands.

* TakeThat: Towards the History Channel in one video, as the topic was outright admonishing it in favor of talking about ''Series/HorribleHistories'', a show that Karl claims is significantly more accurate.