Vsauce is a YouTube channel brand created by internet personality Michael Stevens. The channels feature videos on scientific, psychological, mathematical, and philosophical topics, as well as on gaming, technology, culture, and other general interest subjects.
Video Vsauce
History
On June 24, 2010, Michael Stevens launched the main Vsauce channel. Initially, the channel's programming focused on video games and featured a number of hosts. However, certain segments such as IMG! slowly took over, and Stevens became the sole host. The channel then became a mix of information and online activities, and solely educational segments popped up. The educational segments became more popular, and since September 9, 2012, only the educational segment (known as DOT.) has been presented. According to episode #18 of LÜT on the original Vsauce channel, the name "Vsauce" was generated using the fake website generator portion of a site called Fake Name Generator. After Stevens generated the fake website Vsauce.com, he registered it and began uploading videos.
In December 2010, the Vsauce2 (on December 7) and Vsauce3 (on December 24) channels were opened. On July 25, 2012, the WeSauce channel was opened.
Vsauce was one of the fastest growing channels during September 2012. During that month, the main Vsauce channel reached 1 million subscribers. In the same month, Bill Nye appeared in one of the main channel's videos, which focused on the joke, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
Stevens details in the video "A Defense of Comic Sans" that the text font Alsina was used by the Vsauce channels because of its close resemblance to the handwriting of Nik Guinta, the creator of the original Vsauce logo. A new branding scheme designed by Natasha Jen was adopted in December 2014 to bring a "grown-up" feel to the channels. It utilizes the DIN Next Rounded font and fluid designs to convey the idea of sauce that the name "Vsauce" implies.
Statistics
Channel statistics as of 13 January 2018. The numbers are rounded down to two significant digits.
Maps Vsauce
Channels
Vsauce1
The main Vsauce channel, also known as Vsauce1 to distinguish it from the brand as a whole and the other channels, is presented by the founder, Michael Stevens, and features videos about science, mathematics, anthropology, and philosophy facts. The primary series, DOT., features Stevens discussing a topic or question in a tangential manner, including various interpretations of the question and related facts and observations. Stevens has stated that he researches on Wikipedia and academic papers to find information for his videos.
Videos by Vsauce have been featured on online news publications, such as The Huffington Post, CBS, and Gizmodo.
Vsauce2
Vsauce2 is a channel that has eight recurring segments that cover unusual knowledge and technology: MindBlow, FAK, BiDiPi, Thought Glass, WAC, 54321, BOAT, and Weirdos of the Month. Vsauce2 also includes The Vsauce2 Leanback. The "leanback" is a playlist that includes a number of YouTube videos on the same topic. There are small clips by the leanback host introducing the viewer to the next video in the leanback. Kevin Lieber is the main host of the Vsauce2 channel.
MindBlow is a segment where Lieber showcases current inventions that are useful, are of significant value to society, or are simply humorous. FAK (Facts And Knowledge) is a segment about trivia with one main topic. BiDiPi (Build it, Draw it, Play it) is a segment on things that were built and drawn by people from around the world, including ones that Vsauce fans have submitted--the best ones are showcased on the show. 54321 is a segment where Kevin covers four topics, each having one, two, three, or four things related to each other according to order shown. He gives a short summary of each and ends with five-word problems or riddles. WAC (Weird Awesome Crazy) is a segment that focuses on people from around the world who participate in unusual activities. BOAT stands for Best of All Time, a segment in which Kevin presents lists of, as the segment name implies, the best word plays, best flash mobs, best pranks, etc. Weirdos of the Month displays people with habits Kevin finds weird, using the tagline "Everyone has a little weird in them."
Thought Glass is another recurring segment where several topics within a theme, such as school facts or ancient medical practices, are posted to a glass pane and discussed. In earlier episodes, assorted topics were posted to the pane and a final subject was revealed through a rebus. GRUB is a segment detailing strange and unusual foods.
Vsauce2 has created three April Fools joke segments. PAB (People Are Boring) was released in 2013. For these segments, Kevin treated normal everyday events like they were unusual. Noggin' Blow was uploaded in 2014, parodying the Mind Blow segment by showcasing items popularized in the 1940s and 1950s. In a parody of BiDiPi titled BiDiPiGiFiTiWiPiBiCiMiFiDiFiTi and released in 2015, Kevin shared a mixture of parodic nonsense and actual scientific studies and phenomena.
Vsauce3
This channel is hosted by Jake Roper. Vsauce3 is a channel that is dedicated to fictional worlds and video games. There are currently four recurring segments: HeadShot, Game LÜT, 9bit, and Fact Surgery.
HeadShot discusses video games, how they are connected to real life, and the game's science. Game LÜT displays game merchandise. App All Knight talks about new apps that can be bought on the iOS App Store or Google Play. App All Knight was moved to the DONG channel in January 2017. 9bit details facts about video games. Fact Surgery disassembles a video game system as trivia about the system is shown.
Vsauce3 has collaborated with well-known Youtubers, including Joe Hanson from It's Okay to be Smart and Vanessa Hill from BrainCraft. He has also presented videos with celebrity guest appearances from Bill Nye, Jack Black, Paul Rudd, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
On November 25, 2015, Jake revealed that he has sarcoma, a rare type of cancer. On December 19, Jake announced that he had begun treatment and a tumor on his lower leg had been successfully removed by surgery.
WeSauce
WeSauce is a channel that shows off works from the fans of the Vsauce channels. The channel features the segments Your BiDiPi, JAM, Music LeanBack!, Riddle Challenge, This World of Ours, and ITVS. WeSauce appears inactive and hasn't released a video since October 15, 2015.
DONG
DONG (Do Online Now Guys) is a spin-off channel by Vsauce that features pages, apps, and games from around the Internet. DONG was formerly featured on the main Vsauce channel and then on the Vsauce3 channel before its own channel was launched in 2015, with the first video uploaded on October 29, 2015. DONG also features LÜT, a segment formerly featured on the Vsauce2 channel about various products that can be purchased online, Game LÜT, which was also featured previously on Vsauce2, and App All Knight, which came from Vsauce 3.
Others
Michael has a personal channel, pooplicker888. He joined October 20, 2006. His first video, "Calvin Klein With Hot Dog Models", was uploaded on February 24, 2007. The description reads, "Since the models in Calvin Klein ads are usually stoically still and objectified, why not replace them with actual objects?" His second video, "Ferris The 13th", was the trailer for the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off edited to be a horror movie. It was uploaded on March 3, 2007. The description reads, "I'm doing this now: https://www.youtube.com/Vsauce" His final video was titled "LEGO UNIVERSE Gameplay at CES 2010", and it was uploaded on January 14, 2010.
Kevin and Jake also have their own personal YouTube channels: KevinLieber and OFFICIALjakeroper, respectively.
Music
Except for BiDiPi and some older Vsauce videos, the music is composed mostly by Jake Chudnow Since mid-2014, Vsauce also uses music from the public domain music site audionetwork.com. Since early 2015, Vsauce2 also uses music by Aiur, notably the song "FoxTrot".
Jake Chudnow
Jake Chudnow and Stevens are friends and have known each other from when they both worked at BarelyPolitical. Jake made much of the music in the earlier "The Key of Awesome" music videos. Because of this, Chudnow gives Vsauce exclusive rights to his music, and all Vsauce channels use his music in their videos. One of the most recognizable pieces of his music is "Moon Men", which is used in the original Vsauce channel and is often played whenever Stevens poses a mysterious question or makes a mysterious statement. Other pieces of music used by the channels include "145-(Poodles)", "Sunday", "It's Good to be D", "Hydrogen", "Darwin", "Carlin Dream", "Lions Tigers and Apes Part II", "Hanami", and "Shona". They are often played when the audience is encouraged to think. "Turquoise" is often used, usually when big, astonishing, or otherwise significant facts or ideas are mentioned. "Flan" is often used for sad or abstract facts. "Rainstorms and Rainbows (I Am the Hero)", "Going Down", and "Flan" are played at the end of videos. "192-1", "White", "For You", "Meet Men and Party (All Night)", "Banana", "Ducking", "Buildings and Bikes", "Shallow Anne", "Button", and "Muff Mittens" are also often used in Vsauce2 and Vsauce3.
In the video "The Moon Terminator Illusion", Chudnow's vinyl album Shona EP was the focus object against the wall when showing the visual effects of zooming and moving on nearby objects (a Vsauce mug) and distant ones (the album).
Notable collaborations and other appearances
Vsauce has collaborated with Henry Reich of MinutePhysics on two videos: "Guns in Space" and "What if the Earth were Hollow?". Vsauce has also collaborated with Periodic Videos and "Sixty Symbols", a chemistry- and physics-based website and videos created by the video journalist Brady Haran. Vanessa Hill of BrainCraft has appeared on the video, "Math Magic". Bill Nye appeared on a Vsauce video in September 2012. On February 28, 2013, Stevens appeared on James May's HeadSqueeze YouTube channel (now BBC Earth Lab). Stevens spoke about the main Vsauce channel during a TEDTalk at TEDActive 2013. Vsauce has also collaborated with Derek Muller of Veritasium.
Stevens has appeared on the YouTube channel Good Mythical Morning on their segments The Mythical Show and Ear Biscuits where he was asked random questions by Rhett and Link. He has appeared in Barely Political videos and is recognised as the Bearded Nun. Stevens made an appearance in Travel Channel's America Declassified for "The Quiet Zone" episode and on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Stevens also made an appearance on Filthy Frank's channel for the third and final video in his cake series. In the video, Michael is found homeless lying next to a dumpster, and Maxmoefoe pays him to spit in a cup.
In 2014, Jake of Vsauce3 had narrated two episodes of the series Did You Know Gaming? covering the Game Boy. Vsauce3 has collaborated with AsapSCIENCE on the video "Can You Genetically Enhance Yourself?" and with BrainCraft on "Is Mario Really Evil?" and with Matthew Santoro on "What if Quicksilver Ran Past You?" and has featured celebrities such as Paul Rudd, Jack Black, and the Muppets. Jake appeared on AsapSCIENCE in the video "Can We Genetically Improve Intelligence?"
Stevens took part in a collaboration with Chris Pratt on June 17, 2015, and also talked with David Attenborough in 2016.
Stevens released a YouTube Red exclusive show called Mind Field on his main Vsauce channel on 18 Jan 2017.
Stevens collaborated with the famed educator and television personality Adam Savage in 2017 for a show titled Brain Candy Live. They visited 40 cities in March 2017. Episodes of the show are scheduled until December 6, 2018.
On December 6, 2017, Stevens released a second season to his YouTube Red exclusive show Mind Field on his main Vsauce channel.
On March 24, 2018, Stevens was largely involved with a collaboration featured on HowToBasic's YouTube channel with Youtuber MaxMoeFoe, his friend Warrun, and several clips of different Youtubers screaming "I'm HowToBasic". The video was called Face Reveal for his 10 Million Subscriber Special, which was a video that led subscribers to believe that HowToBasic would reveal his identity in the video. Stevens was used as the first person to reveal himself as the person behind HowToBasic's channel, but then it was revealed to be a prank.
Awards
Vsauce won a 2014 Webby for People's Voice award for best news and information.
In 2014 and 2015, the channel won the Streamy Award for Best Science and Education Channel, Show, or Series.
References
External links
- Vsauce's channel on YouTube
Source of article : Wikipedia
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