How-to Videos and Wikis

May 26, 2009 7:25 AM

Howcast shows engaging, useful how-to videos and wiki guides. A few examples include: How to Do Polyphasic Sleeping, How to Make a Fried Onion Blossom, or How to Do a Frontside 180 Ollie. Founded by veterans of Google and Youtube.
posted by netbros (7 comments total)

Hulu was recommending some of these to me the other day. One was called something like "How to pick out the right pair of panties." There was also one on how to wear a garter belt right next to it, and I think a sexily-thumbnailed leg shaving one. Does the Howcast specialize in a J.C. Penny catalog level of pornography, or does my Hulu account just think I'm a big ol' perv?
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 7:49 AM on May 26, 2009

I wish this had been around when I was thirteenish. I could never ollie. I learned an important lesson though: If you suck so badly at something that you're unable to even manage one of the most basic elements of it, you should really just move on with your life and find something else.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:04 AM on May 26, 2009

Uppity, no, that's basically their modus operandi.

http://www.howcast.com/videos/most_viewed/howcast_studios

Their top 10 most viewed videos are: How to have sex in a car, how to kiss like Angelina Jolie, How to perform a striptease, How to rev up your sex drive, How to have safe sex, How to fake an orgasm, How to get laid, How to find out a girl's name after you've slept with her, How to kiss with passion, and how to use Twitter (lol).

There are some really good videos throughout the site, but they each get like 400 views, whereas anything that has a sex thumbnail gets at least 100K.
posted by Damn That Television at 8:06 AM on May 26, 2009

It's going to have to work hard to distinguish itself from the millions of other similar sites. Also, the one I watched (cellphone wingman) was more creepily funny than actually informative.
posted by DU at 8:07 AM on May 26, 2009

Exclaiming "gnarly!" afterwards is totally optional.

That's a relief.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:23 AM on May 26, 2009

When I saw the video title 'How to Increase Your Odds of Surviving a Disaster', with a thumbnail of several people floating in a yellow raft near the still-floating wreck of an airplane, the thought, "Eat everyone," went through my mind. Should I be worried about that?

Should I maybe post this to AskMe...?
posted by Pecinpah at 1:41 PM on May 26, 2009

Basic Instructions is a more all-inclusive guide to a life well lived.
posted by memebake at 2:22 PM on May 26, 2009