As I write this, I am three hours deep into YouTuber Quinton Hoover’s first iCarly recap, which clocks in just under five hours. If you think that’s bizarre, it’s not as unusual as it seems. Uber-long YouTube videos like Hoover’s have risen in popularity over the past couple of years, and they’ve garnered a shockingly large audience (the video I’m watching now, for instance, has 3.5 million views). There is something fascinating about rewatching a show through another person’s eyes, especially when that person does the work of finding every obscure piece of information about the show they can possibly find. 

Fueled by nostalgia and novelty, hours-long dissections of late aughts and early 2010s children’s media appeal directly to Zillennials, who would have been the target demographic for these shows at the time. They are also favored by the YouTube algorithm, which prioritizes videos that promote longer watch time. Passionfruit contributor Steven Asarch spoke with Hoover and others about creating these long opuses to popular television—and why viewers are willing to watch them.

“Long video essays are successful with the audience because it’s the opposite of where a lot of the internet is going.”

By Steven Asarch, Passionfruit Reporter

A genius hack for symmetrical graphic eye makeup.