Author's Note: Look, I can't predict the future, if I knew that Disney was gonna do something terrible, which frankly is as safe a bet as you can possibly make, then I would have decided to wait and write about that. The problem with weekly posts is, when you have something ready by the deadline, you can't really replace it, and when you have time to write about it, it's no longer at the height of relevancy. So, to begin this post, I'm gonna state, for the record, screw you Disney, and Trans Rights!
End Author's Note
When I was a kid, YouTube was an entirely different beast than it is now, it really was the type of place where anything was available, and most of us used it to watch pirated TV Shows and movies, but there was original content, and if you thought YouTube could get weird today, well where do you think it came from? On some level I guess I do miss "Weird YouTube", some would argue we still have it in places, but what do we really have today? Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared? That began in 2011, plus, the animations of David Firth are way weirder. The Amazing Digital Circus? That's not weird, that makes tons of sense compared to compared to stuff like There Is Nothing or Olivier de Sagazan, "Transfiguration" performance. You think any of the big name YouTube stars are doing weird things, explain to me what the Hell Shay Saint John was. I should probably clarify here, "Weird YouTube" wasn't just spooky and unnerving stuff, it mostly became that because weird and spooky go hand in hand, but "Weird YouTube" was an era of YouTube when literally any dumb idea could take off, case in point, I have a question to ask you; Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?
"Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?", hereafter referred to as The Microwave Show (yes I did use "hereafter" to be pretentious), was a show that originally aired on July 1, 2007 created by director Jonathan Paula and host Jory Caron. The basic concept of the show was that they stuck a bunch of random crap in a microwave and filmed what happened, if anything happened at all. Then they would decide whether or not it was a good idea to do so. I'm not sure if they ever took this idea seriously but after a while the term "Good idea" and "Bad Idea" were kind of just punchlines, like you never really were meant to take this show super seriously, maybe Season 1, but that's really it. The show lasted for 10 seasons, ending in July, 2011 and it aired a few bonus episodes until August 2015. The many countless microwaves, weird experiments and the hosts Jory, Jon and the sidekick Riley Mcllwain are forever etched in the history of YouTube.
The Microwave Show was my eye opening experience to the wonders and possibilities of YouTube, the reason I got a YouTube channel was to watch an episode that was "Flagged" and so you had to be over a certain age to watch it, shockingly it wasn't the episode where they microwaved a condom. You can imagine that this show has some sentimental value to me, and you would probably expect me to say that this show needs to come back, and while I would love to see a return of The Microwave Show, I also have to concede to the point that maybe it's a good idea to not bring the show back.
Of course the first thing people will say is "You're just saying that because the edgy humour hasn't aged well" and, I mean some of it hasn't sure, but that's not the reason. Jon, Jory and Riley weren't working off of any scripts, so everything they said was improvised and off-the-cuff, so if they came back to do another season, I do think we'd get some different kinds of jokes out of them. Of course, the chances of them coming back to do another season are slim considering Jon and Riley both have families and they might not want to do something like this anymore.
The next thing you might say is "Oh you're saying it shouldn't come back because kids will imitate it even though YouTube is not solely meant for kids", and I will admit, that is a part of the reason. That being said, the guys were aware of how bad some of the stuff they did was, putting "Don't Try This At Home" warnings on some of their more dangerous experiments before making it a common feature in Season 7. I also remember there was an imitation on YouTube that was being uploaded around the same time, "What Happens When You Microwave This?" which was more or less the same idea, but without the Good Idea/Bad Idea thing. I would also be remiss if I did not mention this, but there was another alleged imitator who was uploading his own microwave videos onto YouTube, and during one experiment, started a fire that killed his mother. Jon himself talked about this situation on his secondary channel.
So yes, this has happened before, but it does highlight exactly the real reason I think this show should not come back. To put it bluntly, YouTube has changed.
I'm not saying that YouTube has changed in that, this kind of content is no longer allowed on the platform, I mean, The Slow Mo Guys have done several videos with explosives, firearms and sharp blades, so YouTube would still allow this kind of stuff on their site. No, YouTube has changed in the sense that it no longer has become about having that unique and weird idea that gets all the attention, but it's become a giant, globally scaled rat race, a rat race where following trends and making content farms has become more profitable than having unique ideas.
To be absolutely fair, this is not new to YouTube, the previously mentioned imitation shows still existed, particularly "What Happens When You Microwave This?" with one of their most notable episode being when they microwaved ten of the worst video games ever made. I think this show is mostly lost media now. However, there is difference here, these guys weren't making it a content farm or making any indication that what they were doing was a good idea. Really, the rise of the content farm has made YouTube a far more dangerous place for kids than Television or Video Games, because these content farms with their bright cheery music, colourful visuals and usage of smiling emojis will make things that are irrefutably dangerous and make them seem, like doable and fun ideas.
I really have to wonder how everyone feels about the legacy of The Microwave Show, because it genuinely was one of the shows that shaped original YouTube, it defined a bygone era of YouTube that we may never see again, but at the same time, the YouTube landscape has changed to the point where a show like this is a massive risk. While they might put "Don't Try This at Home" warnings on everything and mark their content as "Not For Kids", the content farms that steal from them might not, and they might get someone killed, someone else killed.
If you want a good channel talking about the dangers of content farms like 5-Minute Crafts, Australian YouTuber and Food Scientist Ann Reardon of How to Cook That does a lot of videos debunking bad and dangerous baking hacks from content farms, and I highly recommend these videos.
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