In July 2016, the Epic Gang was founded by three people at the zoo, where they each would be named after what their favourite animal was. In April 2005, 20 years ago to this day (it’s 23:58 where I am), Jawed Karim went to the zoo to talk about how cool the elephants were. This was the first video on YouTube, a video site also founded by three people, Karim included.
I think the parallels go beyond that, though. The Epic Gang YouTube channel was created one year later on 23 May 2017, shortly after I heard about the Epic Gang’s existence and their YouTube ambitions. YouTube videos had been around since before all of the founding members were born and we had no intention of doing anything more than what had come before us. So I think it’s fair to say that I was a latecomer to the Epic Gang as the Epic Gang was a latecomer to YouTube.
There has always been a strange disconnection between the channel and this blog. The channel was always Epic Hedgehog’s and the blog was always mine (despite my attempts to get other people to join in on it). I would not know in advance what videos were going up before they went up (even including the face reveal), I don’t think I even watched or understood what content the Epic Gang was making, and I am pretty sure indeed that Epic Hedgehog didn’t even know about the existence of this blog.
I don’t think I can truly celebrate YouTube at 20 and pretend I know what that means but that is the same for the Epic Gang. To me, the Epic Gang was always bigger than I was, with a legendary history. To my generation, YouTube must be the same. Sometimes it’s the latecomers who grow an organisation and sometimes it is its founders. In my case, I haven’t really cultivated anything with the blog or the channel but for what it’s worth I have always said I am one of the biggest parts of the Epic Gang. And this was along with Epic Hedgehog, an actual founder, so I suppose in our case it was both. Apparently Jawed Karim was not a big part of YouTube’s development if you were wondering.
Something I was always fervent in pointing out was that we were not named after Epic Games despite declining into a Fortnite channel (which for one was something I had no role in initiating). We came before Fortnite and all the Fortnite channels named “Epic Gang” were somehow more derivative and bland than an organisation “Epic Gang” would be otherwise. But, of course, just as they are products of their time, we were products of ours.
When you google “common children’s questions“, it is the Question that is the first question. Just because the question was thought up by whichever Epic member asked it (I actually don’t even know) doesn’t mean that it wasn’t common. I found it interesting that twice in my life – in two different schools – I’ve heard children debate which colour corresponded to which school subject, and apparently this is a common thing.
The Epic Gang never filled a hole that was missing anywhere. I made a worse tutorial from a better one and the most uninsightful predictions ever and Epic Hedgehog made item shop videos that I am sure many other people (and bots) also made in some way better. To me, the organisation existed for the sake of it and it was to me whatever I wanted it to be. Because, in truth, it was nothing. It was one of my 84 “companies” that didn’t have any function just to have a name and a logo, and many times this was all the substance that was in the Epic Gang.
This is the final parallel I want to make: YouTube has become a similar husk of an entity. An institution that we all accept to have a monopoly over online videos, but is universally known for doing a terrible job at it. From defending doxxers, removing dislikes and Community Contributions, and being incompetent even for creators to whatever else they did horrendously before my time, YouTube is a stone faced institution that has even left its own community. If having its birthday reminds you of its humble beginnings, it shouldn’t.
I have the liberty in not remembering.