Anyone Can Be a Star

YouTube is G-d’s gift to 10-year-old girls who think they can dance, singing animals, laughing babies and news cast dubbings. Just about anyone can create a YouTube account if they know how to work a computer and in this day and age working a computer is just like riding a bike. But YouTube is not just a place for people to post funny videos of children falling off tables; it is also a place for people to actually get noticed. YouTube stars have become common household names in today’s times and some have even made a name for themselves in Hollywood.

Darren Criss, once a recent college graduate from Michigan had an idea to make a parody of the Harry Potter books in musical form. They had no financial backing of any kind; just a few graduated Theatre majors. Now, A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel have become a cultural phenomenon. Any self-respecting Harry Potter fan has heard of it and can rally off quotes with the drop of a hat. Not only are the musicals extremely popular, but also Darren Criss has made a name for himself. He just recently was featured on an episode of Glee.

Bo Burnham, a human giant living in upstate Massachusetts, was once a kid in his room with only a keyboard and a webcam. He began posting clever and slightly offensive self-written raps on YouTube and quickly gained a following. Now he is on tour and being featured on Comedy Central.

“Tweeny-boppers” around the country gathered to see the latest Nickelodeon movie, Fred: The Movie, this past September. But before Lucas Cruikshank had his own film, he was just your average YouTube star, making slightly obnoxious videos trying to get noticed.

Technology has made it extremely simple to get noticed in the eye of America. YouTube is paving the way for the actual consumers to choose what they find entertaining rather than the media telling us what true talent is. Personally, I’d take a baby monkey riding backwards on a pig than see Nicholas Cage act in a movie any day. So all you musicians just waiting for your big break, keep on posting videos, and all you parents catching your kids hurting themselves on tape, don’t lose that because one day you too could be a personal distraction for a college student in the library just looking for a little study break entertainment.