51 Things

August 12, 2009 9:24 AM

51 Things is a YouTube vlogging meme. Here are a few of the more interesting videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
posted by rageagainsttherobots (36 comments total)

Yes, that is certainly some random ephemera there, yes sir.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:35 AM on August 12

I probably didn't own 51 things when I was the age of most of those kids... unless 'parts of a rust bike' count...
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 9:36 AM on August 12

I like #3 best.
posted by koeselitz at 9:45 AM on August 12

wow... I couldn't stand that....

Maybe... what...I'm too old? But, someone explain to me WHY I should spend my time watching that???
posted by HuronBob at 9:48 AM on August 12

This brings up two important concerns.

1) There is a significant contingent of young girls actively altering their appearance in order to look like anime girls. I'm not worried about where this is going for them. I feel slighted. I could have really used a teenage girl trying to look like Cheetara. Or Teela.

2) Does just anything count as entertainment now?

Oh, I really want to find that song in the fourth video. Cursory examination of the page has yielded zip.
posted by SinisterPurpose at 9:49 AM on August 12

...well, that and the pig-tailed german psychopath under #8.
posted by koeselitz at 9:49 AM on August 12

sinister purpose: Yelle's "Je Veux Te Voir"

Why do all the girls looks the same? Is it the same girl? I've only watched the first few
posted by neustile at 9:52 AM on August 12

It's like one of those MySpace surveys, only it requires hours and hours of more work.
posted by hermitosis at 9:53 AM on August 12

SinisterPurpose: Oh, I really want to find that song in the fourth video. Cursory examination of the page has yielded zip.

Well, then just curse some more. The very first comment (click on 'see all comments') named it: it's 'Je Veux Te Voir' by Yelle.
posted by koeselitz at 9:54 AM on August 12

I TOO HAVE STUFF lET ME SHOW YOU IT
posted by everichon at 9:57 AM on August 12 [2 favorites]

2) Does just anything count as entertainment now?

No, but unfortunately this does count as identity.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 10:01 AM on August 12 [2 favorites]

Scott Summit (#3) previously
posted by DU at 10:01 AM on August 12

I CAN HAZ STUFF?
posted by fistynuts at 10:03 AM on August 12

I felt that #3 embroadened my knowledge substantiatively.
posted by Magnakai at 10:03 AM on August 12

I didn't watch any of them all the way through, but the mix of styles was kind of interesting. I liked #8, as he had some... very interesting things. And #6, where the guy had his own rap-like thing in the background.
posted by gemmy at 10:09 AM on August 12

keep_evolving: Those girls are hot. That is all.

Man, I hate it when people pull out that tired old 'eponysterical' joke out, don't you? Of course, it probably annoys you a lot more than it annoys me; people must do it to you all the time.
posted by koeselitz at 10:13 AM on August 12 [1 favorite]

out out!
posted by koeselitz at 10:16 AM on August 12

"Interesting," how, exactly?
posted by SLC Mom at 10:20 AM on August 12

Makes one long for the days when the internet was about hot chicks farting on cakes.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 10:25 AM on August 12

SLC: interesting as a checkpoint in the history of conspicuous consumption, perhaps?
posted by honest knave at 10:27 AM on August 12

Gandhi's things could have been your things (for a cool $1.8 million USD).
posted by filthy light thief at 11:16 AM on August 12

51 Things I Found in My Room (48 of Which Will Probably Be Either Clothes or Toys)
posted by 23skidoo at 11:17 AM on August 12

Hmm..things. Mildly irritating, but now I'm tempted to make a "51 wtf things I found in my home that you would never want in yours" video.

vlogging? do people still say that? it's SO 2005.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 11:19 AM on August 12

I guess they were better than that "51 things people accidentally sat on" vlog my proctologist sent me.
posted by sanko at 11:46 AM on August 12

I guess they were better than that "51 things people accidentally sat on" vlog my proctologist sent me.

"One in a million chance, doc!"
posted by Burhanistan at 11:48 AM on August 12

I'm growing a deep affection for these list-based memes that float around youtube and facebook and livejournal and etc: ten things you don't know about me, twenty books I've read, 51 things I own, all of them.

Individually there's no reason they should be interesting to anyone who doesn't already personally know the person engaging in the meme -- and for the most part that's all who will see them, except on those rare occasions when some aggregator like MeFi chooses to dragnet a handful up into more public view.

But collectively they turn into more than just lists. They become these little formalized packets of identity. Structured ways for all these countless individuals to say "this is me. This is who I am."



Every once in a while I get overwhelmed by just how many humans there are.
posted by ook at 11:50 AM on August 12

"Interesting," how, exactly?

In defense of the poster: The links were advertised as the more interesting videos. A relative term. We can only assume that the other videos all consisted of grainy footage of 51 patches of different nuances of grey paint drying on a dimly lit wall ...in slow motion.
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 12:08 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

Vlogging meme!
posted by StopMakingSense at 12:22 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

These (and the whole constellation of related net ephemera) will be a gold mine for future historians, if they survive (these videos, not the historians, I mean). How many historians have bemoaned the fact that very few people document the seemingly irrelevant minutia of daily life in their time? Lots, that's how many.
posted by rusty at 12:25 PM on August 12 [1 favorite]

Rusty: How many historians have bemoaned the fact that very few people document the seemingly irrelevant minutia of daily life in their time? Lots, that's how many.

Back before he became an insufferable chickenhawk, I used to enjoy James Lilek's historical musings.

"So I dumped out the bins and sorted the dross from the gold, always wondering who had assembled this collection, and why. Well, we know why: to light things with. But why so many of the same? Why save the standard-issue King Edward Relaxor matches? I’m glad they did; people like me are ever grateful of those who saved the commonplace items, because they fill in the details you never would otherwise know. We know how presidents look and how popular TV show themes sounded. But what did gum taste like? Was there something different about the taste of hamburgers? What did soap smell like? What sound was ubiquitous on city streets in 1947, and forgotten completely ten years later? We'll be able to answer these questions for our time, I think. But the past has lost its flesh; the past is a dancing skeleton."

posted by unixrat at 1:18 PM on August 12

Exactly. James Lileks and many others whose names escape me at the moment.
posted by rusty at 2:04 PM on August 12

In college I once counted every object in my house (I still lived with my mother). In 25 years in that house we had accumulated more than 4,000 objects. I was surprised.

Not cheating, the first 51 I can see from my desk, left to right.

1. Zip tie.
2. Ammo box.
3. Bundle of wire.
4. Webcam.
5. Lithium batteries.
6. 21" Monitor from Craigslist.
7. Keyboard.
8. Computer mouse.
9. Mouse (running in his wheel).
10. Bike.
11. Another bike.
12. Bike parts.
13. Lithium grease.
14. Coffee mug.
15. Multimeter.
16. Soldering iron.
17. Half built USB volume knob.
18. Unpaid bills.
19. Japanese knife.
20. French knife.
21. Swedish knife.
22. Japanese water stones.
23. Aeropress.
24. Britta filter.
26. Old Thinkpad.
27. Box of cables.
28. Old Powerbook.
29. Crystal Red Shrimp 17 gallon tank (breeding like cute little swimming candy colored roaches).
30. Tiger shrimp 5 gallon tank (not breeding at all).
40. Bag of diatomaceous earth.
41. Pitcher plant.
42. Lithops plant.
43. Kuru Toga mechanical pencil.
44. Otoh Super Promecha mechanical pencil.
45. Picture of Rotring 600 mechanical pencil.
46. Garbage bag.
47. Microscope.
48. Precision scale.
49. Vortex filter.
50. Asolo hiking boots.
51. Celestial Pearl Danio 6 gallon tank (breeding like it's the end of the world)
posted by dirty lies at 3:02 PM on August 12

Uh oh. This thread may get very long.
posted by Burhanistan at 3:05 PM on August 12

I'm just impressed that you were able to go left to right, dirty lies; my desk depends heavily on the z dimension...
posted by ook at 3:43 PM on August 12

This is useless. But then, I'm over 16.
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 4:13 PM on August 12

Unbelievably, this is worse than the haul meme.
posted by doublesix at 5:23 PM on August 12