how to: metal disk
November 24, 2013 3:10 PM Subscribe
Alan makes helpful Youtube tutorials for his Youtube channel, alantutorial. His latest is "disk tutorial."
A selection of his other videos, in chronological order:
how to make double barrel ww2 italian fighter plane origami paper art (featuring someone knocking loudly)
How To Escape a Dark Room and Find Light
Locked Out Of Room Tutorial (what to do)
Lost Survival Skills Tutorial: FIND WATER
AlanVideo.mp4 tutorial
how to change
DCIM_028.wmv
How To Do Spanish Hair Braid
DIY weatherize hole tutorial
A selection of his other videos, in chronological order:
how to make double barrel ww2 italian fighter plane origami paper art (featuring someone knocking loudly)
How To Escape a Dark Room and Find Light
Locked Out Of Room Tutorial (what to do)
Lost Survival Skills Tutorial: FIND WATER
AlanVideo.mp4 tutorial
how to change
DCIM_028.wmv
How To Do Spanish Hair Braid
DIY weatherize hole tutorial
Network Awesome featured an interview with alantutorial in June. You can also follow @alantutorial on Twitter.
posted by koeselitz at 3:15 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by koeselitz at 3:15 PM on November 24, 2013
so this is supposed to be what?
tutorial
posted by mullacc at 3:16 PM on November 24, 2013 [14 favorites]
tutorial
posted by mullacc at 3:16 PM on November 24, 2013 [14 favorites]
Watch and learn!
posted by carsonb at 3:19 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by carsonb at 3:19 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
These are both brilliant and unsettling. I think I *heart* them, but I am not sure. I perhaps need a tutorial.
posted by hippybear at 3:21 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by hippybear at 3:21 PM on November 24, 2013
disk tutorial: warning for gore
posted by lokta at 3:24 PM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by lokta at 3:24 PM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
Is this a Lars Von Trier film?
posted by oonh at 3:27 PM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by oonh at 3:27 PM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
Outtakes from The Kingdom, I think.
posted by hippybear at 3:29 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 3:29 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I found this really useful but I wish he'd talked a little more about the disk selection process.
posted by cortex at 3:43 PM on November 24, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by cortex at 3:43 PM on November 24, 2013 [5 favorites]
In the industry, that is called a drain cover. These videos are really irresponsible; only a professional should EVER handle a drain cover.
posted by Brocktoon at 4:01 PM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Brocktoon at 4:01 PM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
I actually think the most useful part of these videos is the bit in "Locked Out Of Room Tutorial" where he sobs for two minutes and whispers "help me!" and "tutorial" over and over again.
posted by koeselitz at 5:18 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by koeselitz at 5:18 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
mm..tastes good!
posted by wikipedia brown boy detective at 6:39 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by wikipedia brown boy detective at 6:39 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I wish that there was a clear and straightforward website where I can go and read about what the latest Funny or Weird Internet Thing is. Like, for this, the website would say: "A person makes fun of the internet's fascination with 'tutorial videos' by acting like a dirty man/child in increasingly more feral situations, often under the guise of teaching the viewer how to do a simple activity. Some humor is dependent on the viewer being slightly weirded out by the childish voice and simplistic vocabulary, along with humorous vocal ticks and hesitation. Recommended if you enjoy: horse_ebooks, Tim and Eric, weird twitter."
posted by RubixsQube at 6:55 PM on November 24, 2013 [20 favorites]
posted by RubixsQube at 6:55 PM on November 24, 2013 [20 favorites]
I'd seen one a few years ago where he tries to cover himself with a blanket (guess how that goes), and had been sort of inactively looking for them ever since. Thanks for the post.
posted by codacorolla at 6:55 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by codacorolla at 6:55 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
This one makes me want to believe there is a meaningful thread travelling through the videos:
if your chair is on the floor, here is how to get it back and pick up all the pieces of something broken and unfair.
It's probably just my imagination, though...
posted by menialjoy at 7:03 PM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
if your chair is on the floor, here is how to get it back and pick up all the pieces of something broken and unfair.
It's probably just my imagination, though...
posted by menialjoy at 7:03 PM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
It seems that this is a project of this guy. His actual twitter feed is not all that much more coherent.
posted by advil at 7:14 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by advil at 7:14 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
THANKS FORMYOU INPUT
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:36 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:36 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
"I'd seen one a few years ago where he tries to cover himself with a blanket (guess how that goes), and had been sort of inactively looking for them ever since. Thanks for the post."
Now I am worried the guy has been sitting under the blanket for years, just rocking slowly and waiting for you to come find him.
posted by idiopath at 7:43 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Now I am worried the guy has been sitting under the blanket for years, just rocking slowly and waiting for you to come find him.
posted by idiopath at 7:43 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: how to weatherize hole
posted by killdevil at 7:57 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by killdevil at 7:57 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Well his vines seem to shed some light on the subject, very informative
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:15 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:15 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
In the far future after most of humanity has been taken out of the picture by [pick your extinction event] this kid will be present in all of our remaining gene pool.
posted by sourwookie at 9:24 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by sourwookie at 9:24 PM on November 24, 2013
I wish that there was a clear and straightforward website where I can go and read about what the latest Funny or Weird Internet Thing is.
There is.
posted by euphorb at 9:28 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
There is.
posted by euphorb at 9:28 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh, man. This reminds me of when I lived in Baltimore so much.
Also, I am really imagining this as the kinds of adventures Booji Boy goes on when he grows up a little bit.
posted by Nomyte at 12:16 AM on November 25, 2013
Also, I am really imagining this as the kinds of adventures Booji Boy goes on when he grows up a little bit.
posted by Nomyte at 12:16 AM on November 25, 2013
This feels like You Suck at Photoshop meets Night Vale. I think part of it is that the "excited so as to cover up crippling fear" voice reminds me of Cecil.
posted by NoraReed at 2:49 AM on November 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by NoraReed at 2:49 AM on November 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
this kid will be present in all of our remaining gene pool
Not just be present; this guy is going to be the bottleneck the entire species passes through.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:23 AM on November 25, 2013
Not just be present; this guy is going to be the bottleneck the entire species passes through.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:23 AM on November 25, 2013
After looking at his Web site, it seems like this guy's whole schtick is acting like a disorganized-subtype schizophrenic.
posted by killdevil at 6:08 AM on November 25, 2013
posted by killdevil at 6:08 AM on November 25, 2013
It makes you log in to youtube to see this video. bugmenot.com does not have accounts for youtube or gmail. Getting a new gmail account requires a phone call. Any tips for seeing this video without selling my soul?
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 1:29 PM on November 25, 2013
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 1:29 PM on November 25, 2013
After seeing these videos last night, I kept randomly cracking up for hours and muttering tutorial! to myself. Dropped something? Tutorial! Tripped on something in the dark? Tutorial!
I definitely understand why folks who have to deal with mental illness would be sensitive to this kind of humor, but I hope to convince you that it's actually not completely objectionable.
And it would be strongly objectionable if it were all about the lulz and making fun of people with mental illness. If it was a similar act that wasn't crafted the same way, if it was just a naked guy running through the woods and repeating some catchphrase, it would have few redeeming qualities and would not be worth watching. It wouldn't be black comedy, it would just be crass.
I like to read William Burroughs and H. P. Lovecraft, and I'm also into Devo… stuff. For me, the Alan videos hit the same themes. His character is desperately trying to impose structure by authorial fiat on a world that is painful, alien, and frightening. Just consider the performative force of the word "tutorial." A big part of whether something is a tutorial is that you say it's one. In pretty much every video, Alan is asserting that the sequence of disorganized actions he's performing is actually the successful execution of a plan with a meaningful goal. He wants to believe, and wants you to believe, that actions have predictable consequences and the outside world can be controlled. It's an example of heroic pathos, and it makes Alan a fundamentally, achetypally human character.
He is a tragic, failed Prometheus in a world where fire is either impossible or incomprehensible. He is like a scientist, or an infant, who is faced with an impossible world and is just throwing spaghetti hypotheses at the wall, hoping with increasing desperation that something, anything will stick. Again, there is something fundamentally human and sympathetic that arises from the existential chaos Alan is thrown into.
In the disk video, he is literally trying to make sense. He is trying to isolate a meaningful part of his surroundings, because even that much would constitute progress. The fact that the disk exists and can be conceptualized and interacted with as a distinct object is the tutorial. That is the sense.
posted by Nomyte at 3:45 PM on November 25, 2013 [15 favorites]
I definitely understand why folks who have to deal with mental illness would be sensitive to this kind of humor, but I hope to convince you that it's actually not completely objectionable.
And it would be strongly objectionable if it were all about the lulz and making fun of people with mental illness. If it was a similar act that wasn't crafted the same way, if it was just a naked guy running through the woods and repeating some catchphrase, it would have few redeeming qualities and would not be worth watching. It wouldn't be black comedy, it would just be crass.
I like to read William Burroughs and H. P. Lovecraft, and I'm also into Devo… stuff. For me, the Alan videos hit the same themes. His character is desperately trying to impose structure by authorial fiat on a world that is painful, alien, and frightening. Just consider the performative force of the word "tutorial." A big part of whether something is a tutorial is that you say it's one. In pretty much every video, Alan is asserting that the sequence of disorganized actions he's performing is actually the successful execution of a plan with a meaningful goal. He wants to believe, and wants you to believe, that actions have predictable consequences and the outside world can be controlled. It's an example of heroic pathos, and it makes Alan a fundamentally, achetypally human character.
He is a tragic, failed Prometheus in a world where fire is either impossible or incomprehensible. He is like a scientist, or an infant, who is faced with an impossible world and is just throwing spaghetti hypotheses at the wall, hoping with increasing desperation that something, anything will stick. Again, there is something fundamentally human and sympathetic that arises from the existential chaos Alan is thrown into.
In the disk video, he is literally trying to make sense. He is trying to isolate a meaningful part of his surroundings, because even that much would constitute progress. The fact that the disk exists and can be conceptualized and interacted with as a distinct object is the tutorial. That is the sense.
posted by Nomyte at 3:45 PM on November 25, 2013 [15 favorites]
Alan's depiction reminds me of Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of a schizophrenic in David Cronenberg's Spider.
Cronenberg says in the DVD commentary that they explicitly chose not to have his performance come from reading clinical studies, but rather to look at it as an acting challenge like any other.
For example, early in the movie, the main character is led into a halfway house, and the matron moves his belongings (which are in a sock) up to his room. Instead of Fiennes approaching the scene by saying, "okay, schizophrenics are known for symptoms xyz", he approaches it more like, "I don't exactly know where I am or what I'm doing here, and now this friendly but mysterious and powerful woman has taken literally every single thing that I own. I guess I have no choice but to follow her..." The result is a haunting and powerful performance.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, HAHA, OKAY, GUESS THE GLASS DOESN'T BREAK
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:38 PM on November 25, 2013
Cronenberg says in the DVD commentary that they explicitly chose not to have his performance come from reading clinical studies, but rather to look at it as an acting challenge like any other.
For example, early in the movie, the main character is led into a halfway house, and the matron moves his belongings (which are in a sock) up to his room. Instead of Fiennes approaching the scene by saying, "okay, schizophrenics are known for symptoms xyz", he approaches it more like, "I don't exactly know where I am or what I'm doing here, and now this friendly but mysterious and powerful woman has taken literally every single thing that I own. I guess I have no choice but to follow her..." The result is a haunting and powerful performance.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, HAHA, OKAY, GUESS THE GLASS DOESN'T BREAK
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:38 PM on November 25, 2013
It makes you log in to youtube to see this video. bugmenot.com does not have accounts for youtube or gmail. Getting a new gmail account requires a phone call. Any tips for seeing this video without selling my soul?
Yes. Use the inline player of MetaFilter. It skips all that age verification stuff.
posted by hippybear at 6:01 PM on November 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
Yes. Use the inline player of MetaFilter. It skips all that age verification stuff.
posted by hippybear at 6:01 PM on November 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
new tutorials:
simple tape tutorial (easy)
battery tutorial :) :) :) :) :)
posted by koeselitz at 2:08 PM on December 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
simple tape tutorial (easy)
battery tutorial :) :) :) :) :)
posted by koeselitz at 2:08 PM on December 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
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