Comments on: how to: metal disk

how to: metal disk

koeselitz — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:10:21 -0800

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

By: shockingbluamp

shockingbluamp — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:15:19 -0800

so this is supposed to be what?

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:15:41 -0800

Network Awesome featured an interview with alantutorial in June. You can also follow @alantutorial on Twitter.

By: mullacc

mullacc — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:16:47 -0800

so this is supposed to be what? tutorial

By: carsonb

carsonb — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:19:33 -0800

Watch and learn!

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:21:13 -0800

These are both brilliant and unsettling. I think I *heart* them, but I am not sure. I perhaps need a tutorial.

By: lokta

lokta — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:24:15 -0800

disk tutorial: warning for gore

By: oonh

oonh — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:27:07 -0800

Is this a Lars Von Trier film?

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:29:36 -0800

Outtakes from The Kingdom, I think.

By: Valued Customer

Valued Customer — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:42:08 -0800

How to shave.

By: cortex

cortex — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:43:42 -0800

I found this really useful but I wish he'd talked a little more about the disk selection process.

By: Brocktoon

Brocktoon — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 16:01:23 -0800

In the industry, that is called a drain cover. These videos are really irresponsible; only a professional should EVER handle a drain cover.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 17:18:09 -0800

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.

By: wikipedia brown boy detective

wikipedia brown boy detective — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 18:39:13 -0800

mm..tastes good!

By: RubixsQube

RubixsQube — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 18:55:43 -0800

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."

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 18:55:52 -0800

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.

By: menialjoy

menialjoy — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:03:13 -0800

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...

By: advil

advil — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:14:30 -0800

It seems that this is a project of this guy. His actual twitter feed is not all that much more coherent.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:36:26 -0800

THANKS FORMYOU INPUT

By: idiopath

idiopath — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:43:58 -0800

"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.

By: killdevil

killdevil — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:57:40 -0800

MetaFilter: how to weatherize hole

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 20:15:39 -0800

Well his vines seem to shed some light on the subject, very informative

By: idiopath

idiopath — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 20:30:47 -0800

some of his other vines are good too

By: oceanjesse

oceanjesse — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 20:34:35 -0800

Same guy, the professional one.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 21:24:02 -0800

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.

By: euphorb

euphorb — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 21:28:34 -0800

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.

By: Nomyte

Nomyte — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:16:20 -0800

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.

By: NoraReed

NoraReed — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 02:49:43 -0800

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.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 04:23:54 -0800

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.

By: killdevil

killdevil — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 06:08:35 -0800

After looking at his Web site, it seems like this guy's whole schtick is acting like a disorganized-subtype schizophrenic.

By: Galaxor Nebulon

Galaxor Nebulon — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 13:29:16 -0800

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?

By: Nomyte

Nomyte — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 15:45:57 -0800

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.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:38:30 -0800

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

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:01:21 -0800

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 14:08:16 -0800

new tutorials: simple tape tutorial (easy) battery tutorial :) :) :) :) :)