Ordinary Things
is a YouTube channel where ordinary things are explained. Such topics range from eggs, to mass surveillance, to Hell itself. The channel also covers large corporations and industries. Occasionally, Ordinary Things would make more current videos, such as on the Gamestop short squeeze. Videos are performed with an informative yet comedic tone.
The person behind Ordinary Things is a British man who has chosen not to divulge his real name, partly in an experiment to see how long it can remain hidden. He sometimes goes by "the Ordinary Guy" when he needs to differentiate himself from his ongoing series. Ordinary Things is the co-host of the Sparkling Form podcast. He also voice acted and "played" Stede Bonnet in The Gentleman Pirate.
Ordinary Things contains examples of:
- Bathos: A staple of his videos. Highlights include:
- Conspiracy Theorist: A recurring caricature that appears in his videos, usually accompanied by a Tinfoil Hat. But it's no secret that big businesses can have some... secrets, to say the least.
- Downer Ending: "Humanity’s Losing the War on Litter" contains a Foregone Conclusion to no one’s surprise.
- Educational Song: If by "educational" you mean buck wild conspiracy theories. "Is the Moon Real?" features "The Moon-Spiracies Song", a parody of "Yakko's World" where Ordinary Things sings some of the world's craziest moon-related conspiracies.
- Foreshadowing: In "Ronald McDonald: A Life", “Then in 1978, children’s performer and serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, was found guilty of the murder of 33 men and boys. The media dubbed him 'the killer clown' because of his persona, Pogo the Clown. I don’t really know why I’m mentioning this. I’m sure it won’t be relevant later.”
- Killing Your Alternate Self:
- In "A Tight History of Neckties", Ordinary Things shoots and kills his other self for making a bad joke. The shooter then casually steals his necktie and continues narrating the video in his place.
- In "The Bizarre Business of Trading Cards" a second Ordinary Things comes along and beats the first Ordinary Things to death with a bat to steal his Meowth Pokémon card.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: In "The Dumpster Fire Downfall of HQ Trivia" there is a clip of HQ Drop where they attempted to sell off an HQ Trivia official pillow. The captions say “(THIS IS NOT A PARODY)”.
- Theme Naming: Quite common.
- "The Rise and Fall of X".
- "X: Crimes Against the Y".
- "The Evil Business of X".
- "The X of Y" in general is even more common.
- Most of the earliest episodes follow the pattern "The/A(n) X History of Y", where X is some kind of pun on Y.
- Tinfoil Hat: Ordinary Things literally puts on a tinfoil hat when discussing Moon and AirPod conspiracy theories.
- Your Mum: One of his frequently running jokes, highlights include:
- "In this BBC documentary from the 1960s, you can see that British streets were as filthy and overcrowded as your mum's bedroom."
- "Aah, Tinder, where your friends find girlfriends, you find bitcoin botscams, and I find your mum."
