Video Essay

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Overview

A Video Essay is a genre of long-form video content that analyzes a specific topic, theme, person or thesis. The genre of a lengthy, in-depth video essay saw a rise in prevalence on YouTube in the early 2020s, leading to the format becoming a subject of memes and parodies in the following years.

History

A video essay is a long media format that provides an in-depth exploration of a specific topic, theme, person or thesis. The genre was born and has been influenced by essay firms, a genre of non-fiction cinema.^[1]

On YouTube, the genre of video essays first started gaining popularity in the mid-2010s, which was prompted by YouTube beginning to prioritize watch time over views in 2012. Lindsay Ellis, Wisecrack, Every Frame a Painting, and Innuendo Studio, among other channels, are widely regarded as the pioneers of the video essay genre on YouTube (example videos shown below).^[2]^[3]^[4]

In the early 2020s, the genre saw a massive rise in prominence on YouTube, reflected by multiple media reports and social media discussions about it.^[1]^[5]^[6]

Use in Memes

Starting in the late 2010s, video essays and the rising popularity of the format have been the subject of jokes and memes on social media, primarily on Twitter. For example, on June 26th, 2019, Twitter^[7] user posted a modified In This Essay I Will joke that received over 2,800 retweets and 12,700 likes in four years (shown below, left). On December 23rd, 2019, webcomic artist Shen Comix made a tweet^[8] about watching a three-hour-long speedrunning video essay instead of a film that received over 2,300 retweets and 17,500 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Video essays remained a prominent subject of jokes, memes and parodies through the early 2020s. For example, on November 4th, 2019, YouTube^[9] user School Zone posted a parody video titled "Every Shitty Video Essay Ever," with the upload accruing over 1.9 million views in four years. On June 7th, 2020, YouTube^[10] channel Ruppture posted a parody titled "Your Average Video Essay." The video earned over 129,000 views in three years (shown below, right).

On January 25th, 2020, Redditor Odaric posted a Yeah, I've Got Time meme about video essays that received over 44,700 upvotes in /r/dankmemes^[11] in three years (shown below, left).

The format also gained an association with predominantly white content makers and audiences. For example, in April 2022, a White Man Has Been Here meme about the genre went viral on social media (shown below, right).^[12]