Videogum

Videogum was a daily Internet publication devoted to coverage of popular culture with a focus on movies, television, and trampoline accidents. Stereogum founder Scott Lapatine founded Videogum as a sister site to Stereogum in 2008, and enlisted editors Gabe Delahaye and Lindsay Robertson, who quickly gained a cult following for their humorous commentary on pop culture and the Internet. Videogum has spawned an online community known as the Monsters who continue to perpetuate a variety of internet memes through the site's commentary system, chat, their communal blog and via Twitter. The site has subsequently garnered several nominations and accolades, including a win at the 2010 ECNY Awards for "Best Website."^[1]

Recurring Features

• Why Don't You Caption It: Feature in which the site's commenters are encouraged to create their own caption for an absurd or funny photo selected by the editor. The comment with the most upvotes gets special placement in that week's Monsters' Ball.
• Teen Korner: A satirical commentary on teenage trends and interests written in slang.
• Monsters' Ball: The Week's Best Comments: This weekly feature compiles the 5 highest rated comments (rated by the Monsters themselves), the lowest rated comment, the Why Don't You Caption It winner, and an Editor's Choice comment.
• Taking One for the Team: This most recent addition features author and comedian Joe Mande participating in activities or attending events that would generally be mocked on Videogum. This feature has seen Joe performing many tasks, such as reading Glenn Beck's The Overton Window and attending a live taping of The Marriage Ref.
• Best New Party Game: A semi-regular feature in which Gabe establishes a contest generally themed around cinematic wordplay or parodies of popular film quotes. The site's commenters can vote for their favorites, and the winner is mentioned in the Monsters' Ball.
• Videogum Movie Club: On weeks which see the major theatrical release of a movie relevant to the site's interests, Gabe posts a short review and open discussion of the film is encouraged in the comments section.
• Duh Aficionado Magazine: Not an official site feature but a very common recurring theme. The title is usually given to posts which feature news that serves to reaffirm the generally held belief about the subject.
• Videogum Promise: Videogum has promised to diligently follow a select listing of celebrities and post any interesting interviews or news relating to them. Currently the promise has been made for the following celebrities: Tracy Morgan, Louis C.K., Zach Galifianakis.
• Videogum Archives: Includes, "The TWSS Archives" and "The Porno Switcheroo Archives." "The TWSS Archives" highlight typical That's What She Said moments in which someone makes an unintended sexual innuendo while "The Porno Switcheroo Archives" highlight instances where actual pornography is unintentionally shown in public.
• Top Chef Recaps: A weekly column where Gabe recaps that week’s episode of Top Chef.
• Mad Men Recaps: A weekly column recapping that week’s episode of Mad Men. This column is usually written by Benji Meyer, a 10-year-old who lives with his parents in Ohio. However, when Benji isn't forced to watch Mad Men and is allowed to go to bed early, Gabe writes the recap.
• The Petting Zoo: The Week's Top 10 Animal Videos: A weekly round-up of Kelly's favorite viral pet videos.
• Friendly Chat: Wednesday end of day chat conversation between Gabe and Kelly. They generally discuss a news point of the day and discuss their thoughts on the issue. Kelly is usually fired by the end of the chat.
• How Was Everyone's Day Today: Thursday end of day feature that utilizes the comments section as a forum for Monsters to talk about the latest events in their lives.

Former features

• You Can Make It Up: A weekly piece of celebrity fan fiction. Unlike most fan fiction, Delahaye's pieces parody the celebrity, incorporating some current embarrassing action or statement from that celebrity. For example, after former model and talk show host Tyra Banks pretended to have rabies on an episode of her show, Delahaye wrote a piece called "Tyra Banks Has Rabies in the Forest," which cast her as a blood-thirsty animal.
• The Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time: Videogum's longest running feature, in which Gabe attempts to watch as many reader-nominated films as he can in an attempt to find the worst. Often referred to simply as "The Hunt," the inspiration for this feature came from Gabe's feelings after watching the film Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon. There are many rules governing what films may be nominated including availability on Netflix, whether or not it is "intended" to be horrible, and inclusion of "A- or B-list" actors, among others.
• Double Dog: The predecessor to "Taking One for the Team," these posts featured either Gabe or Lindsay completing challenges presented to them by the other. Some examples include Gabe attending a taping of Today and Lindsay taking a TV Bus Tour of New York City while alone and wearing a "Just Jack" T-shirt.
• Friday Fights: A feature during Lindsay's tenure in which she and Gabe engaged in a debate formatted as an IM conversation. This feature was briefly revisited with Gabe and RichFourFour debating the merits of Inception for the Videogum Movie Club.
• Lost Recaps: Gabe recapped episodes of the popular ABC show Lost until its final episode in May, 2010.
• The Event Recaps: Gabe recapped episodes of the ABC show The_Event until Gabe realized the Event stinks and was not the new Lost.
• True Blood Recaps: A weekly column where Gabe reviews that week’s episode of True Blood which he lovingly refers to as The Worst Show On Television.
• What's Up With Topher Grace?: Perhaps Videogum's most well-known feature where the site periodically checks in to see what is up with actor Topher Grace and Grace's current career happenings. On September 22, 2010, Gabe stated that he was ending the feature, on the day of its one-year anniversary. Gabe explained his decision with "I think we’re done here. If even I am losing enthusiasm for this, then I believe I have made my point." He concluded the final column with "Best of luck to Topher Grace and all of the human beings trying to make it in this world."
• Glee Recaps: A weekly column where guest author Gabe Liedman (informally Soft Gabe) recapped the week’s episode of Glee.
• Movies For Dudes: A weekly feature in which Gabe Liedman takes on the genre of Dude Flicks, where guns, pecs, car crashes and glib one-liners delivered in front of a burning building with only half a t-shirt on and nothing left to lose reign supreme. Gabe Liedman loves those movies for so many reasons, all of which are that they turn him ON.

Monsters

Videogum's commenter community is embraced by the administrators. Senior editor, Gabe Delahaye attributes this to his participation as a regular commenter on pop culture sites.^[2] Famous "monsters" or commenters have included:

• Ken Jennings^[3][4]
• Ted Leo^[5]
• Jake Fogelnest^[6]

Videogum is also associated with the "Goof Troop" Internet group.^[7]

Recent

In 2009 Lindsay Robertson left the site, leaving Gabe Delahaye as the sole voice of the site.^[8]

Videogum has been mentioned in several prominent publications including the New York Times^[9] and inspired segments on TV shows, including Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.^[10]

In 2011 a new junior editor was hired. Her Name is Kelly Conaboy. Gabe Frequently makes fun of her dislike of the movie You Can Count On Me.^[11]

In 2012 a second associate editor was hired - Mary Miller.^[12]

Videogum was named one of the Best Blogs of 2011 by Time Magazine.^[13]

In 2013, Gabe Delahaye quit Videogum.^[14]

February 7, 2014 was the last day of normal operations for Videogum, at which time editor Scott Lapatine was "assessing options for keeping Videogum online in some form".^[15]

References

External links

• Videogum website
• Communal blog for Videogum commenters
• Videogum Twitter Feed
• Interview with Site Editor Gabe Delahaye
• Genesis of Jeff Dunham Flap
• Tumblr Site for Videogum's Official/Unofficial Monster Archivist, Werttrew
• Videogum's Origins
• Monsters on Last.FM