It's a way of stealing someone else's content and for some reason YouTube allows it. I close that slop immediately.
this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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Not always. I've seen clips of reaction videos where people are shown older media that's typically unfamiliar to young people. In that case, it's a way to reassure older people of the continued appeal of the pop culture of their youth. Something like a modern high schooler listening to Led Zeppelin for the first time.
Same. I do the ‘show less of this shit’ also.
There’s a clause in most countries’ copyright laws that allow you to use material for the purposes of “commentary”.
Pretty sure pasting your face over it doesn't count though, surely? Otherwise I have a new piracy idea
Otherwise I have a new piracy idea
New in what sense? It's literally what they're already doing.
The problem from a legal standpoint is that the rules on what qualifies as commentary are fuzzy enough that you have to actually go to court for a decision, which nobody likes doing. Even the copyright holders are slightly wary of it, on account of the longer-term implications if they lose and set an unfortunate precedent.
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/reaction-videos-and-copyright-law-best-9687112/
Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc. A YouTube show used viral clips from Jukin Media's library while adding comedic commentary. The court found that some segments were transformative and fair use, while others were not. The decision emphasized that each clip must be analyzed individually based on its purpose and editing.
Well it seems like currently they are just pirating content from small creators that don't have legal teams to defend themselves. If its actually ok do it with Disney.
I get so irritated seeing that bottom panel of uselessness. And it’s always so exaggerated… first couple of times I thought it might be some commentary or a conversation. Now I wish there was a thumbs up, thumbs down, and punch in the face. I’d chose the later.
The stupid fucking finger point and tap. Hope these useless sacks of shit get decked in the face.
Ok. I'll throw myself on my sword and give a different take than what most people are.
I wasnt into reaction videos aka analysis vidoes at all until Kpop Demon Hunters came out. I really like this movie. I've even watched it several times, including once at the theater, which is very unusual for me.
I have a fairly isolated life. Not many friends and the few I do have I only see occasionally. So I don't have anyone I can gush about this movie to let alone rewatch it with or introduce it to.
Putting on a reaction video while walking the dogs lets me listen to someone else enjoying discovering the movie for the first time. Obviously I can't participate, but I've still shared their joy.
An alternate one is singers analyzing music videos. I watched someone going nut over a Beatbox video of Beatpella House, then saw their reaction video of VoicePlay covering Nothing Else Matters. Mindblowing rendition! I would never have found this without scrolling through their other videos. Sometimes being open to new things pays off.
Again- I’m not talking about analysis videos.
I’m talking about videos where a useless pile of flesh takes up half the screen, nodding along, or laughing while saying nothing at all.
I’m talking about videos where a useless pile of flesh takes up half the screen, nodding along, or laughing while saying nothing at all.
Such videos almost always consist of a watchful observer offering their opinion of the behavior going on in the video clip. Their opinions are what creates their fans.
Your talking about entirely different videos. The ones everyone is talking never have any actual commentary.
That's the ENTIRE point of them. They literally only point nod and stay silent.
Again…. I’m talking about idiots that nod along with/laugh at videos of people doing stupid shit.
NOT commentaries or analysis videos.
I think you described those comedy videos inaccurately. The fun of those vids is seeing someone use only their face to pass judgement on stupid behavior. And the behavior clips they're observing are mercifully short. Such videos aren't nearly as popular as you're implying them to be. The vast majority of reaction videos are enjoyed for their commentary.
I’ve long since removed myself from the mainstream (I.e enshittified) social media, but my spouse loves to show me cute, silly or funny animal videos and I genuinely love the habit.
However, the pst year or two, I keep finding myself asking “who is this? why are the there?” since the actual silly or just cute video is only half of it, then the other half is just a bloke watching the same video I guess, but for whatever reason (I.e content theft and number go up game) included in the damn video that is the actual content.
I keep thinking it’s relevant somehow, like maybe their dog jumps out and does something funny in response to them watching a cute dog video, but no. The entire thing is just them silently watching and often not even nodding or gesturing like others here illustrate. More often than not, they simply sit there silently with a very neutral non-expressive face, then the video ends and there was exactly zero point to that (other than pumping out content for the algorithm with minimal effort I guess?). It’s a real fucking thing. It boggles the mind. Who wants that?
I asked my spouse why on earth would they ever choose to watch those when they can just skip and look for other cute stuff. It makes no sense to me. The algorithm should simply not suggest or serve those to anyone since in my mind, nobody would bother watching them. It genuinely fucks with my mind.
However, I’ve since learnt that the modern way of consuming even things like instagram is click on whatever on front page, then simply scrolling up/down or left/right for next videos without any chance to evaluate whether one wants to watch it or not. It simply toots new ones infinitely and I guess the users just… watch whatever comes?
It’s fucking ridiculous. The only reason those trend like they do, even for us millennials, the modern boomers, is because somehow somebody watched it once, or it was paid/promoted or something, then the algorithm just decides similar people will watch that snd suddenly perfectly normal and sensible people like my spouse end up watching some random fucking people sit still with nothing to offer, in an abrupt video, day in day out. It’s simply ridiculous.
But while I don’t get it and actively loathe the practice (I.e content theft and gaming the platforms in ways clearly not intended (or exactly as intended…)) I guess that’s just the way of the world now. I feel boomer enough even though I’ve barely passed 30 because I don’t get all the brainrot stuff and don’t get exposed to those since I no longer use social media I can’t curate myself like non-proprietary link aggregators, and I keep getting these surreal experiences that seem so completely nonsense to me.
Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that this kind of content is not niche, the instagrams and tiktoks of the world keep pushing exactly that kind of senseless shit to even regular millenials like my spouse and by their proxy, me. The feed is otherwise just cute animal videos basically. The half that isn’t, is cute animal videos with some visibly tired and uninterested streamer-looking bloke taking half the screen for no actual reason other than capitalism-driven modern social media practices.
My friends who have entirely different interests also get them. Like tech-savvy guys too, content is mostly technical or nerdy stuff, but a percentage of that just comes with some weird person staring in the screen on the bottom part of the video. It’s so stupid. Musicians whose feed is similarly specialized and in no way gen alpha tier brainrot or suspectible for nonsensical streamer content or whatever, have a part of the feed just be absolutely out-of-place rgb-light-headset gamer looking dudes just silently fucking watching and very occasionally perhaps even react with a singular nod before the video ends.
It is a real trend that seems to even inflict itself to the kind of people I would absolutely think would not ever watch any content like that, are not just your average people mindlessly scrolling, rather very sensible and extremely specialized in their interests kinds of people.
I am genuinely surprised that you do not seem to have seen this. Count yourself lucky. I count myself as one too, although I still occasionally have to be exposed to that shit when a cute otter video is pushed on my face and for a second, each time, I almost laugh at the fucking bloke just sitting there, each time a different dude. What nonsense.
They are stealing content.
I think it’s one of the most lazy ways to make a video, and leeching off more popular content.
They are not transforming the content enough to be free use.
Reaction videos just feel like a cheap way to profit on other people's content without getting flagged.
Unpopular thing to say but... I just don't understand watching other people gaming.
Note that I did not say "people who watch twitch are idiots".
Just that I personally don't get it, never will. I'm fine with that too, people do loads of things that I don't find at all appealing.
When i was a kid me and my 4 siblings would often have to take it in turns to play single or 2 player games. In the mean time if you weren't playing you would watch the others play. It was exciting rooting for one player or another, it was great when something funny happened, or when someone did something amazing, whether on purpose or by accident whilst button mashing. Even single player adventure or rpg games were fun to watch. It was kind of like watching a movie. You were there for the fun bits, the exciting bits, the sad bits, the shocking bits. Even watching, you are part of it.
Admittedly, despite this, i initially didn't find this sort of content appealing as i thought there would be something different with me not being in the room and it not being my siblings. But after watching a streamer who makes other, non-game content do a few multiplayer games with other people that appear on his stream i found that they can be just as fun to watch. You still get a bit of that feeling and its still enjoyable. Especially if you are watching live and can take part in the chat. The rest of chat are substitutes for my siblings and the streamer and his buddies are all funny and the camaraderie is very familiar.
All in all i would say, you might be suprised if you gave it a go.
I've watched let's plays of strategy games that I want to be better at, in order to see people who don't fucking suck like I do. But after I get a better idea on how to suck less, I stop.
That's fair. I don't watch streamers as a rule, but let's plays can be enjoyable. I'll watch them if the commentators are funny, or if it's a game I'm interested in knowing about but not interested enough to play through myself, or if it's on a platform I don't have, The Metal Gear Solid series for example.
i watch it for the commentary. Its also kind of like pseudoshared experience. There are also bunch of games that are not necessarily bad but which i dont want to buy, so watching someone else play it is nice way to experience the game and also see if it would be worth getting afterall.
For the same reason people watch professional sports.
Fair enough. I don't watch ~~gambling ads~~ professional sports either.
I'm not into sports neither and when my father explained why he watches sports, I suggested you might just as well watch people playing video games.
I thought that was ridiculous at the time but it actually became a thing
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That's literally all Japanese shows. Sometimes they several reaction faces simultaneously.
oh I have seen that!! and wondered the same. For anyone confused, it's (what I assume to be) somebody else's recording, with a head superimposed on it that chuckles every 10s or so
Yeah I don't like them either.
You know that person reacting already watched it at least twice before putting on a show of exaggerated expressions.
It just seems dumb to me.
That's the "better" reaction channels. There are channels that record singer generic reactions (no commentary) and put them over hundreds of videos despite the reactions not making sense at all
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Its affirmation therapy for insecure people. "Somebody likes the thing I like!"
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Because if you show the original video, thats copyright infringement, and pirating of content.
Show the "reaction", and it falls within fair use. Even if the reactor doesn't DO anything.
This shit should be against ToS.
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Laughing is a social thing that people don't normally do by themselves (unless it's really funny), so I''m guessing that having a human face on screen to "enjoy the content with" ups the level of engagement. Similar to laugh tracks in shitty sitcoms.
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I agree it is generally pretty stupid and difficult to watch, however there are a few situations where it makes some sort of sense.
- It is sometimes used as a way to get around certain copyright issues (probably not legally, but it sometimes confounds the horribly stupid copyright bots that major platforms use with lazy impunity)
- Sometimes the person "reacting" is themselves entertaining to watch. These reaction videos are generally for pre-existing fans of that person, not for fans of the video being watched.
- Sometimes the person reacting is adding genuine value, for example they might be a legitimate expert (or at least a self-believed one) on the topic the video is discussing. This is in some sense sort of a video review, or a fact-check.
- It is pure algorithm-bait, not really intended for any actual human to deliberately enjoy, but it tricks the algorithm into showing it to people who are too low-effort to look up the real video and just watch it because it's in their "feed".
Usually it's some combination of the above.
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