To conquer YouTube, you must become YouTube.
Becoming YouTube is a "weekly" "documentary" series about YouTubers. The series is hosted by Benjamin Cook, who wants to become "crazy internet famous." It features a mix of Sketch Comedy and Talking Heads segments, putting itself in a weird place between Documentary and Mockumentary.
Becoming YouTube also features interviews with popular YouTubers like Charlie McDonnell, TomSka, Alex Day, and (as of the seventh video) Emma Blackery and Hank Green of VlogBrothers fame.
The series can be found on Ben's channel
. After two years, the series reached its twelfth episode, as promised. On January 8, 2015, Ben released the trailer for Season 2.
Becoming YouTube contains examples of:
- Documentary: The entire series is a weird mix between this and a few Mockumentary segments.
- Left It In: When Ben goes into a rant about the whole series in "YouTube Vs. The World."
- Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: The interviewees discuss the
unfortunate Truth in Television of this in a roundabout way in "Girls on YouTube." - Mockumentary: Zig-Zagged throughout the series. The interviews are real, but the comedy segments are entirely fictional.
- Played straight with the "CheekTV" segment in "What YouTube Isn't."
- Nightmare Fuel: During the (fictional) "CheekTV" segment in "What YouTube Isn't."Crabstickz: "I just remember being really scared of the theme tune, when the theme tune came on I used to hide behind the sofa."
- Nonindicative Name: Becoming YouTube is a "weekly" series, but wait times have been anywhere between two weeks and two months. This fact is lampshaded relentlessly.Ben: Hello, and welcome to the fourth video of my weekly "Becoming YouTube" series. Except "weekly" apparently means once every seven days. Who knew?
- Old Media Playing Catch-Up: Discussed and Parodied, especially in "What YouTube Isn't."
- On the Next: Subverted with "YouTube Vs. The World." The "next episode" they teased was postponed due to "The War of the Word." They play the same On the Next clip at the end of "The War of the Word."
- Pretty Boy: Discussed, Exploited, Played for Laughs, and even Enforced. And that's just while talking about demographics.
- Given the interviewees, it also veers close to Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
- Public Service Announcement: Played with in "The War of the Word" with the crisis in Syria. It treats the crisis itself pretty seriously, but they also talk about how charity is handled in the modern world — both the good and bad. And, true to Becoming YouTube form, they throw in some comedy when they talk about celebrity fundraisers.
- Self-Deprecation: This, and Take That, Audience! below, are staples in Becoming YouTube.
- The first moments of the Season 2 trailer are practically dedicated to poking fun at Ben and how much of a jerk he (supposedly) is.
- The first moments of the Season 2 trailer
- Sequel Episode: "The War of the Word" can be seen as a sequel to "YouTube Vs. The World." It's even lampshaded early in the episode.
- Sequel Hook: "Becoming YouTube will return. Summer 2014."
- Sketch Comedy: The whole show is a blend of this, Mockumentary segments, or serious Talking Heads interviews.
- The Stinger: "Everything Changes" has three of them in a row.
- Take That, Audience!: Seen as early as the first video:Ben: Thanks for watching my first YouTube video. Next week's video is about you, the audience. You'll come back for that, won't you, you narcissist!
