So during COVID lockdowns I developed this guilty pleasure of watching YouTubers having miserable times, in the best case vanlife YouTubers.
I’m feeling the old itch, can you help me? Do you know any videos of people on travel channels having really, really bad times?
I prefer vanlife people, followed by boatlife people. But I’m open to different modes of transport. The more privileged the people and the more miserable their travels, the better.
Edit: so I will give you guys something at least, can’t find any of the random small stuff I watched years ago atm. The channel vagrant holiday maybe doesn’t quite fulfill the criteria, because the guy is doing everything consciously, but it’s a fantastic channel, and there definitely is discomfort:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphDhroSqrPWi6RbljtGPnl8xr0pmzyb_
This might not be what you’re looking for, but this couple kind of hits that spot for me.
Truthfully, I find them very charming, but they often make huge mistakes or risky gambles that backfire. It’s always a bit dire when the things go wrong because it’s obvious they’re not wealthy.
One such example is when they left a property that they had spent years renovating only to move to Florida (a place they know nothing out) and bought a low-lying property that floods 2ft during the rainy season.
Here’s that video: https://youtu.be/c0QNHFE5LkI?feature=shared
I would say the Florida saga starts at this next video and continues on for a couple of years: https://youtu.be/lkkZDUp7fq4?feature=shared
The Documentary ‘Take Me To Pitcairn’ fits the bill, I think. It’s about a guy who really wants to visit a super remote island that’s difficult to get passage to. Some private boat captain plans to go there, and signs up a bunch of tourists to fund the trip, including the filmmaker.
The whole trip is a giant shitshow from start to finish, and it’s oddly compelling to watch.
Yeah, the only one of these I’ve seen has been removed from the net. It was a YouTube channel called pogobat, namely a time period called “Dan Brown 3.0”. He gave his life to the YouTube comment section and you could watch in real time as it ripped his life to shreds.
I assume you have heard of An idiot abroad?
It’s a comedy, I think a lot of the misery is acted, but fun nonetheless.
Yes, that might have been an early start into the genre for me! I fiercely love Karl Pilkington 🥲
I’m interested in this too now haha
I’m trying to find some of the old videos that I watched, but it’s really hard! I guess that kind of content disappears quickly beneath the thousands of similar videos.
One of my favorites back then was a dude on his expensive BMW motorcycle traveling India, and in the chaotic traffic there he had a small crash and it bent his fork, and he also got a hairline fracture on his ankle, I believe.
So, the x-ray machines in the hospital was too bad to image that fracture. So that went untreated and caused him a looot of discomfort. Also, almost nobody in India rides such expensive BMW bikes, so it took him aaages and crazy amounts of money to get a spare part for that bike shipped from Germany, and to find a tech that could install it. It was excellent suffering born from luxury. Can recommend.
You know you can view your history on YouTube don’t you?
Okay so I tried and I got a hard reality check, man. I watch way too much YouTube. Even when searching for key words I’m drowning in content or not finding anything. This is destabilizing.
Oh no. Sometimes YouTube just removes stuff you’ve watched.
When you watch it with an account, yes - and even then, I’m afraid to venture down into those depths 😬 I might try for you guys 😬
I know, right? I didn’t even know there was content like this but it sounds interesting. I watch travel vloggers now and then ,but never stumbled into something like that!
There was a lot of publicity a few weeks ago about “the year long cruise” that ended. I haven’t tuned in, but apparently quite a few people on the cruise vlogged their travels. There were apparent conflicts, and with both sides wanting to say their part I’m sure more misery was shared publicly than one would normally air. This might just border on reality TV though, I haven’t really looked into it.
I mean, a year long cruise sounds like hell, so I can see it being a breeding ground for conflict.
Funny, I ended up going down a similar rabbit hole with minor animal attacks on hikers. I imagine there’s a mental interstice between the two, but animal attacks/stalking certainly left them less enthusiastic for the remainder of their vids.
You have won my heart with “minor animal attacks on hikers”. Hello, friend!
Wild dogs and angry magpies are the only ones that usually seemed to be a consequence of misfortune, rather than fucking around and finding out. YouTube removes most that involve actual bloodshed so “animal attack hiking” offers plenty to chew on.
Schadenfreude is a genre, I guess
For me it’s a mixture of schadenfreude, having people receive their comeuppance (as another here said) and also sympathy. I have had some bad travel experiences, and just sort of go “Oooh boy, that’s bad, come on, you got this! … but you also deserved this!”, as I might have deserved some of mine.
Layered like tiramisu
I can imagine the appeal. Like watching insufferable influencers get their comeuppance
I am no help on this subject, but find it interesting. Are there any particular channels that you remember as especially ‘good’ that you could recommend?
I watched some random small travel channels, and videos titled like “Why Vanlife sucks”, which apparently has become its own genre by now. I can’t find any really good ones anymore right now, though :( maybe this topic needs a community! I will post any videos I do find here, though.
Thank you - I appreciate it!
