The best part about pop culture, aside from the entertainment and joy we get from something as silly as a movie about a man who saves the world when the size of an insect, is the fandoms that come with them. For better or worse, everything has a fanbase. Brody Otway from Fandoms with Brody Otway can attest that it’s not just boy bands and TV shows, but also things like socks. Yes, we talked about all of that this week when he came through to talk about his show, as well as his crush on a type of crush that is pretty new as far as the world’s concerned, that’s because these types of crushes didn’t exist until 2005, and that’s a YouTube Crush.
In reality, YouTubers didn’t just appear overnight. The idea of influencers and content creators is newer than the video-sharing platform. Nonetheless, people who make a living off YouTube are just as big to some as celebrities and in recent years, have become the norm when it comes to crushing. Hell, even I’ve found myself enamored with some of those that do deep dives into movies, explaining to me what I clearly miss every single time as well as those who have found a way to make eating weird concoctions, music, and games with their best friend a career. If you haven’t figured it out yet, my YouTube crush is none other than Rhett McLaughlin from Good Mythical Morning.
YouTube wasn’t a site I spent a lot of time on before I met my guy. I’d go there for music videos or to look up something random every few weeks. Other than that, I was naive when it came to how huge YouTube had become since debuting my freshman year of college. Ugh, that makes me feel old. Because I am. Biological facts aside, I finally started to dive into YouTube and found my little corner of it. Now my algorithm is ‘Drag Race,’ movie explanations, TV for Dogs, and Good Mythical Morning for more than just my crush.
The crush started on Link but sometime during the pandemic some gears shifted and Rhett became the superior crush. I believe it has everything to do with his hair. I’m a sucker for a mane. Well, that’s not entirely true. I mean, I do love a lot of hair, but it’s not the only reason I started to lean his way. It also has a lot to do with the conversations he and Link have had on their podcast; Ear Biscuits. That’s the thing with YouTubers, influencers, and content creators. They “allow” fans to get closer to them, not just via the internet but with what they share. They make you believe you know them more than our parents likely knew their famous crushes back in the day.
It’s actually an interesting fandom evolution because while there have been fans in the past who’ve taken their infatuations too far before the internet opened things up, there is this new level of attachment fans feel today because of how “personally” they know these famous people from the content they share as themselves. Whether that’s the real them or not, fans believe it and fall for it.
Everyone famous has the ability to be a nightmare. They’re human. However, with people like Rhett, we fall a little deeper into the fanatic fantasy because the celeb in question has opened themselves up to us. Social media already tricks us into believing the wildest things, so it’s not too far-fetched to hypothesize that YouTube [and other internet] crushes carry more weight than they once did. Not by much, since I belong to the I WILL MARRY A BOY BAND MEMBER Generation, but a smidge more than my people.
However, I’m almost 40 and know in reality that I’ll likely never even exchange words with this YouTube crush, and that a lot of what I like about him is just based on what he’s presented to me as himself. The character he is on a random YouTube channel that happened to find its way to my algorithm one day. However, that doesn’t make me like him any less because I still have eyes.
Aside from his physical appearance and the personality that he’s chosen to share with the world, what I like most about Rhett happens to be the man who caught my attention first. I love and admire the friendship between Rhett and Link, and am forever jealous that he got to live his dream with his best buddy from childhood because, with each passing day that I’m away from the left coast, I’m alone when it comes to friends. So watching Rhett and Link stick it out together, fills a little hole in my heart daily. Again, physically Rhett has IT, and he makes me laugh but the foundation of this crush spawns from his relationship with his lifelong mate.
The physicality I know is real, for the most part, but everything else could just be a facade created to market a YouTube page. That’s kind of the risk we run when crushing on a content creator, but hey – there are bigger things to worry about so I’m going to go sit anxiously and do that now.
Crushgasm 
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