Justin Kuritzkes

Submission 15,660

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About

Justin Kuritzkes is a YouTuber, author and musician, mainly known on the internet for his Photo Booth videos where he portrays characters for random stories imagined by himself. The Photo Booth effects are used to give each character a distorted yet distinctive facial structure, with sound mixing also being used to adjust the tone of each character. Kuritzkes is best known for his viral video "Potion Seller," which has been remixed into parodies, memes and songs online.

Online History

Justin Kuritzkes's initial YouTube^[1] video titled "Dolores" was released on September 2nd, 2011 (the same date his channel was launched), where he portrays a mourning husband expressing the hardships of daily living as a widower. The video has since received over 343,000 views, 12,000 likes and 720 comments in nine years (seen below).

Roughly three weeks after his debut, Kuritzkes posted Potion Seller to his YouTube^[2] channel on September 22nd, 2011, which became his most famous video. In nine years, the video has accumulated over 7.9 million views, 328,000 likes and 10,000 comments (shown below).

Since "Potion Seller" went viral, the clip has received numerous parodies, fan art depictions and memes revolved around the original. On February 19th, 2019, YouTuber^[3] Alex Plays Video Games uploaded once such parody turning the video into a movie trailer, receiving over 664,000 views, 37,000 likes and 860 comments in roughly a year and a half (seen below, left). On March 7th, 2019, YouTuber^[4] Gyazara uploaded another example remixing the song into a Guitar Hero track, receiving over 590,000 views, 34,000 likes and 800 comments in roughly a year and a half (seen below, right).

On November 4th, 2013, Kuritzkes uploaded a video titled "In a Perfect World" to his YouTube,^[5] which purely relies on experimentations with Photo Booth and audio mixing effects. In seven years, the video has accumulated over 2.6 million views, 115,000 likes and 2,400 comments (shown below).

Similar to his other viral videos, an excerpt from "In a Perfect World" was used by YouTuber^[6] SsethTzeentach for their review of the video games franchise STALKER on September 5th, 2018, receiving over 3.6 million views, 95,000 likes and 5,900 comments in two years (seen below).

On March 24th, 2020, Kuritzkes uploaded a video titled "Summoning" to his YouTube^[7] channel where a character performs a ritual to summon a god named "Jagos." In eight months, the clip accumulated over 394,000 views, 37,000 likes and 1,600 comments (shown below).

Fans then also created their own edits of the video, spreading the clip online. On March 28th, YouTuber^[8] American Goblin uploaded one such recreation, receiving over 8,500 views and 520 comments in eight months (seen below, left). On April 1st, YouTuber^[9] Fraud4Life uploaded another example, receiving over 11,100 views, 800 likes and 71 comments in roughly eight months (seen below, right).

Other Works

Songs About My Wife Music Album

In 2016, Kuritzkes released a pop music album titled Songs About My Wife on his official website^[10] (artwork shown below).

Music videos were made for some of the songs, using the same Photo Booth style as previous videos. Another song titled "Fuck Me So I Feel Alive" was released in 2017 accompanied by a music video (examples seen below).

Famous People Novel

On July 9th, 2019, a novel written by Kuritzkes titled Famous People was published.^[11]^[12] Kuritzkes then posted videos on his channel to advertise the release of the book and promote it (shown below).

Potion Seller

Potion Seller is a viral video in which Kuritzkes, playing with his computer's Photo Booth function, performs a dialogue between a knight about to head into battle and a potion seller who refuses to sell him potions because they're "too strong." After the video was posted, it inspired animations and tributes.

In a Perfect World

In a Perfect World is a viral video released by Kuritzkes in which he portrays various fictional characters created through visual and audio mixing effects on Photo Booth. In the clip, Kuritzkes repeats the line "In a perfect world, men like me wouldn’t exist, but this is not a perfect world" as he shifts the perspective to create new distortions of his face.

Jagos

Jagos refers to another viral video of Kuritzkes titled "Summoning" where a character he created through Photo Booth manipulations performs a ritual, summoning the fictional god "Jagos."