My Life, My YouTube Poop

by Waldfield

What is YouTube Poop? What started as a lo-fi video editing experiment in the early days of the internet has grown into a worldwide phenomenon. In 2020, Forbes magazine called it “The Strangest Slice Of Google’s $15B Video Business.” Now, for the first time, an entire book is dedicated to tracing not only the genre’s styles and evolution but the life of one of its earliest and most influential innovators, WALDFIELD. This part-autobiography, part-historical document, part-analysis is sure to entertain, educate, and even inspire. Featuring! • Exclusive links to 33 abandoned Waldfield creations. • A “very uncensored” look into Waldfield's entire catalogue, from inspiration to aftermath. • An overview of the pre-YTP art world, and the conditions and philosophies that gave rise to the genre. • Critical analysis of the most important figures in YTP’s early years. • An all-new series of vignettes in the signature “Waldfield's Corner” style. • More information than has ever been revealed about the author, a famously mysterious and elusive figure. Watch a young boy who struggles to understand basic social conventions grow up to eventually master and influence an entire art form.

198 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 28, 2021

Reviews

[Daddy Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem! I was expecting it to be informative about the genre's early years, and the life of one of its creators. It was. What I didn't expect was how funny and witty the writing would be. Even the prefatory materials had me laughing out loud multiple times. The darn copyright section sneaks jokes into it!! Which is to say nothing of all the riotous interstitials between chapters.

Really really just a great reading experience, and I recommend it highly. Why on earth has Waldfield written only one book? He clearly has a talent for it.

[Brumaire Bodbyl-Mast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waldfield was never a pooper I consciously watched during my unfortunate childhood habit of spending hours staring at computers and iPads taking in the golden age of YouTube poop (2006-2010). However, as soon as I heard of an autobiography written by an influential pooper from that age I knew I had to get a copy. This book is much more than just a discussion of some oldtimer’s thoughts on YouTube Poop, what it is, etc, in fact, it’s much more about him as a person, his musings on societal standards and a self confident sense of humor, which proves refreshing in a world filled with overly deprecatory humor (or at least, humor which is uncreatively self deprecatory). The YouTube Poop discussion is mixed between a catalogue of his poops and favorite poopers with interspersed commentary, discussion of his life and techniques and other observations. It’s also incredibly fascinating to read his perspectives on pedagogy- I wish the book had more of these aspects, quite funny to see the Batman-esque stint he has where his students form a YouTube poop club and show him one of his own poops. His old school stories are quite fun reads- offering insight into a time which some aspects don’t have a ton of discussion of in retrospective media (to some extent) that is to say, the early-to-mid 90s school life. I very slightly disagree with waldfield on some things but he’s got an oddly youthful voice for being nearly forty. Even if you don’t know what YouTube poop is, I can’t recommend this book enough as a fun, comedic light read.

[Marisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. It contextualizes the person behind the WLDFLD channel for those familiar with the videos, and also contextualizes the YTP world for those who know Waldfield from their other work. Highly entertaining writing as well! Recommended for anyone interested in Internet history. All the videos are available on internet archive when no longer listed on youtube.