By Nia Decaille / The Washington Post
Type “how to” anything in your browser, and it’s clear we might be suffering from a bit of life-hack mania.
How to cook a chicken. How to save more money. How to ask for a raise. We search the term “how to” hundreds of thousands of times a year, fueled in part by brands trying to sell us solutions and publications that know how often we search for it. In the age of Marie Kondo-style self help, living your best life feels attainable if you follow the right steps.
The pressure to improve can be overwhelming, which is why this selection of parodies is so refreshing. These mock “how to” videos are a break from DIY enlightenment and, even better, encourage us to laugh at our failures.
You Suck at Cooking is delightful, because watching the videos feels like you’re giving up the desire to do everything right. In each video, an unknown narrator walks you through how to make common recipes, such as an easy breakfast or ramen. The instructions are delivered in a dry, flat tone and are often nonsensical — like pouring boiled spaghetti over unpeeled lime to infuse it with vitamin C — and are interrupted by frequent comedic interludes. In this episode, you learn to make the ramen with a poached egg, but not without helpful tips such as taping your eggs to the roof on the inside of your fridge so your roommates can’t find them.
According to engineer-turned-YouTuber Jarvis Johnson, DIY self-help channels like 5-Minute Crafts and Troom Troom aren’t worth your time. His reviews of these channels — which focus on life hacks and crafts — share how these YouTubers profit from our endless search for self improvement.
In one video, Johnson pokes fun at the hypermasculine tropes 5-Minute Crafts Men uses to target its audience. He opens the video with a mock infomercial for the life-hack channel and introduces himself as “Testosterone Johnson.”
“These wimpy little crafts just aren’t for someone of my masculinity,” Johnson says. “I’d almost lost hope, but luckily, I found 5-Minute Crafts Men. The one-stop shop for big, burly men like myself.” He then mocks some of the more popular hacks, like adding a toothbrush attachment to a drill and how to prevent getting chip dust on your arms.
In between shots from the channels he’s mocking, Johnson acts out original skits parodying self-improvement techniques and gives a snarky rant pointing out everything wrong with a channel … and the people who like to watch it.
For two years, Rachel Ballinger posted a weekly video attempting to teach a random skill as part of her “Learning Sundays” series. She canceled the series in November, but you can still watch the 30-plus videos that highlight Ballinger’s knack for goofing off, including her struggle to shave her legs properly or fold a fitted bedsheet.
With news anchor-style narration, she gives tips such as “how to get rid of your hiccups” with the standard “I tried it so you don’t have to” style reactions. With more than 2.4 million subscribers, her channel is a testament to why laughing at being an adult, rather than being one, is always more fun.
Sometimes you don’t need a lifestyle guru. Sometimes you just need someone to affirm that the struggle to adulthood is real.
Enter: Evelyn from the Internets. The 28-year-old is your self-proclaimed #internetcousin: That person in your family who lives for pop culture and always has the best advice. Her self-help videos feature her sharing goofy stories — full of personal anecdotes, odd observations about society and reflections — to teach you how to embrace where you are in life. Want advice on how to get out a creative rut? Need a pep talk after feeling as if you’re behind your peers in everything? This YouTube channel’s true magic is reassuring young audiences that they aren’t alone in feeling overwhelmed by adulthood.
What makes Joana Ceddia such a viral hit? She understands what you think about Generation Z.
The 16-year-old YouTuber presents as the stereotypical teen: A natural at the latest internet challenges and trends, while trying to get through exam season without having a mental breakdown.
In each video, she nails this persona to the extent that you can’t tell if she’s acting or just mocking herself. Some of Ceddia’s most popular videos are transformations where she creates costumes or enters a challenge with minimal skill. For instance, Ceddia’s DIY wedding gown tutorial takes a stressful part of the wedding planning process and turns it into joke with play-by-play style commentary. Her DIY wedding gown video won’t teach you how to make anything “Say Yes To The Dress” worthy, but her attempt is a comedic retreat from the expectations of adult life.
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