There is something about a comments section that really brings viewers together. Whether they are bonding over a song that changed their life or giving one another tips for how to grow tomatoes in their garden without killing them, people of the internet love commenting. We see it on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, even right here on Bored Panda, and of course, Youtube. The comments section on Youtube is not particularly unique, as users can leave their own thoughts, reply to threads and like comments, but the culture is interesting.

I can’t remember the last time I watched a Youtube video without reading the comments. I know there will be something funny or informative down below, and I’m curious what other viewers have to say. A video typically conveys one perspective, but the comments may show a wide range of thoughts. Checking the replies is not a habit I have on all social media sites, though. Instagram is more about seeing what my friends are up to, so I’m not as concerned with what others have to say. There likely won't be many comments anyway. But on Youtube, engaging with other users makes audiences feel like a community, and as this list will show you, that community might have a future in comedy.

Everyone uses Youtube differently. Some people get their news from the platform, some use it to learn new skills like how to play guitar or how to dice an onion, and others are on there purely for entertainment. Youtube is a treasure trove of anything and everything you can imagine, and it’s quite impressive that the website has grown to this caliber in less than 20 years. Every month, more than 4 billion hours of Youtube videos are watched worldwide, and approximately 500 hours of content are published on the site each minute. It has even become a career for countless “Youtubers” who grow their platforms large enough to earn money from ads and sponsorships.

But let's take a step back to look at the beginnings of Youtube. It was launched on Valentine’s Day in 2005 as a site where users could upload whatever content they wished. It was a Silicon Valley startup that was originally housed in a garage, but the idea came from a dinner party in San Francisco a year prior.

According to one of the founders, Chad Hurley, “Video, we felt, really wasn’t being addressed on the Internet. People were collecting video clips on their cell phones … but there was no easy way to share [them].” By May 2005, the beta version of Youtube was up and running, and co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the first video. An 18 second clip of Jawed at the San Diego Zoo in front of the elephants, which has over 237 million views today, marked the beginning of an endless stream of uploads onto the site. By September 2005, Youtube had its first viral video that hit over 1 million views. The famous video was a short Nike ad of Brazilian soccer player Ronahldinho being gifted a pair of golden cleats. 

Youtube’s three founders, Chad Hurley, Steven Shih Chen and Jawed Karim all met while working at Paypal. Apparently, their initial idea was for the website to feature videos of users introducing themselves and sharing their interests, but when that idea did not seem to take off, they shifted to a general video-sharing platform. After receiving an $11.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital, the founders had the resources to launch the site out of its beta status by December 2005. Since then, the website has grown exponentially. In October of 2006, Google purchased Youtube for $1.65 billion and claims that the site is “the next step in the evolution of the internet”.   

By 2007, Youtube had expanded past sharing funny videos and homemade content. In July of 2007, the site collaborated with CNN to host its first presidential debate. Today, there are countless news sources utilizing Youtube, but this was unprecedented at the time. In 2009, the US Congress even launched their own Youtube channel, where citizens could for the first time see the inner workings of a day in the life of a Congressman or woman. Around this same time, the Vatican also launched a Youtube channel. Shortly after, in April 2009, the website was awarded a Peabody Award for its “outstanding achievements in electronic media” and launched VEVO, the music video streaming service. Thanks to VEVO and Usher, Justin Bieber was then introduced to the world.  

If we skip ahead a few years to 2012, this was the first year Youtube live-streamed the Olympic Games. The whole world could log onto the site and keep up with how their countries were doing in London. In October, ABC live-streamed their first presidential debate in collaboration with Youtube. Then something crazy happened in December of 2012: Gangnam Style hit the internet. This famous, or infamous, music video from Korean pop star PSY was the first Youtube video to ever hit 1 billion views. I still remember the madness that ensued when this video went viral. Middle schoolers and high schoolers could not be stopped from doing the trademark dance moves and singing along no matter how hard any parents and teachers tried to control them.

Unsurprisingly, Youtube has been extremely profitable. By June 2008, Forbes reported that the website was making around $200 million each year, mostly from advertisements. However, by the end of 2019, Alphabet was estimating that the site’s annual profits were around $10.7 billion. Those numbers have likely only grown in the past few years as well. Youtube is currently the second most popular social media site, only slightly behind Facebook, with over 2.56 billion monthly active users. It may not feel as social as Facebook if you’re not connecting with your real-life friends or “adding friends”, but I’m sure you have sent a Youtube video to a loved one or received one that “made someone think of you” before. Not to mention how heavily viewers are encouraged to post comments and "like" videos.      

It’s pretty refreshing to see all of these positive, wholesome and hilarious comments from Youtube because there was a time where the comments sections on videos were notorious for being toxic and hateful. While internet trolls were overwhelmed by their freedom and anonymity, bullying and hate ran rampant on the site several years ago. From rude remarks about a Youtuber’s appearance to insidious commentary spewing bigoted views, these comments made me hesitant to ever look below a video. Some people were just too mean. Thankfully, the site has taken action to reduce these types of offensive comments. In December 2020, Youtube launched a feature that would be triggered by potentially hateful comments and show a pop-up reminding the commenter to “keep comments respectful” and providing a link to the Community Guidelines.