#bfu primer

[wernerherzogs]

OK, so I've been meaning to watch the Buzzfeed Unsolved guys for yeeeears and just never have and I started to look into it the other day and got...so confused. I know they have their own thing now but I don't really know where to start. Specific videos? Compilations? The new show? WHAT DO I DO??

you're in LUCK bc i've been asked about this before

#i'm too lazy to type out a long answer again ajsjhfhd so i'm just gonna reblog my old bfu primers #HOPE THAT'S OK #i'm sure i still stand by what i'd said back then #however that was way before ghost files premiered #i guess you can probably start watching ghost files from scratch now and slowly catch up on the old content on the side? #i mean that's probably what i'd do 🤔 #checking out ghost files now when there's still not that much of it is probably a good way to check whether you even dig ryan and shane's #Thing/banter/everything at all you know? and then if it turns out you do #you can probably check out older stuff #the vibe of bfu WAS a bit different than ghost files' i guess but at its core it was still very much a Ryan&Shane show #the og #that's where it all started baby!!!!! #anyway. let me reblog the primers #thepagemistress #a response #bfu primer #ish

[wernerherzogs]

Previous anon here--thank you! I'm VERY into spooky stuff, even though I'm also a huge baby, lol.

okay!!! so when it comes to unsolved, i’d recommend just following my tips from that primer post i reblogged earlier. there’s been many episodes to date, but most of them are around 20 minutes long, so it’s like. definitely possible to slowly catch up on all of that content! it’s good stuff to watch over, idk, a dinner when you’re bored, or whenever you find yourself having some free time. supernatural eps tend to produce most meme-able shane content, but i think they can feel a bit repetitive? because even if you do believe in the supernatural like ryan (and i do) -- spoiler alert -- nothing ever happens whenever the boys investigate a location, akfjs. (the locations are pretty much always cool though!) so personally i usually prefer their true crime cases -- all of those Actually Happened, i hadn’t heard of a lot of them before (although they do cover some absolute classics, too), and it’s fun and interesting to speculate what might have gone down, etc.

out of non-unsolved buzzfeed content featuring the boys i’d recommend checking out their ladylike ep, their knott’s berry farm visit, and ryan and brent (ryan’s original bfu co-host) touring la’s best taco trucks.

if you like history, shane hosted a show called ruining history over at buzzfeed (with ryan and shane’s gf sara as regular panelists, and other buzzfeed’s employees as rotating guest panelists), and now hosts excellent puppet history over at watcher (with only two panelists now -- ryan and rotating guests). both of these basically cover messy/chaotic or just interesting moments/people/events of history, which is combined with HUMOUR. shane’s a huge history nerd, and an excellent narrator. puppet history also has titular PUPPETS, and MUSICAL INTERLUDES.

out of watcher entertainment content -- all of which is divided into neat playlists on their channel right here, my fave show might be top 5 beatdown which basically boils down to shane and ryan Knowing Each Other and Bantering with one another over various silly ratings. all eps have different guests (one per episode) who are experts on featured topics (from crisps to pixar movies!!!).

there’s also the Shane And Ryan Take Each Other Out On Dates genre!!! like, that’s Literally it. they just spend time together doing various silly things, AND IT’S THE BEST. so you’ve got the show called weird wonderful world (season two is my favourite atm), and also tourist trapped (this one had only one episode so far, sadly, because it’s also a favourite of mine).

too many spirits is a new thing, and A MUST WATCH if you’re a connoisseur of the boys’ BANTER. they read out short spooky (and VERY BAD, which makes them hysterical) stories submitted by fans while they get progressively drunker -- they filmed all four episodes on the same night. so it’s basically CHAOTIC DRUNKEN FRIENDSHIP, the best you can get with those two!!!

the rest under the cut so i don’t annoy all of my followers too much:

are you scared? is one of the shows that debuted in lockdown/quarantine times. ryan reads creepypastas in this one! i’ve enjoyed every episode, but in all honesty ryan and shane don’t get to comment that often on those stories, and also all of them are quite clearly made up, so i don’t think this one is a must watch. some of those stories were really good though, so like... you basically should decide for yourself whether you want more spooky content or not! if you do, go for it! the art featured in the eps SLAPS, it must be said.

watcher weekly is their weekly casual show where they tell us what they’ve been up to, discuss the projects that are currently on air and possible future ones, answer fan questions, and etc. if you’re only a casual fan you can probably skip it! i do watch it regularly though. they have more of that on their patreon, as well as other exclusives (i’m not a patron myself though).

other stuff they have on the channel that you can probably skip: spooky small talk is ryan’s talk show, and i think he’s GREAT with people, and should get to interview them as often as possible, but the noise was getting to me. he interviews guests in a haunted house, which is genuinely great in theory, but it tends to be overwhelming on the ears tbh (for me at least). i only watched selected episodes of this one (highlights: shane’s ep, and the one with ryan’s gf mari). haven’t watched their D&D show, too, but if you’re into D&D, you’ll probably enjoy that! they also filmed this one in lockdown.

if you’re into food, steven lim (watcher’s third founder) hosts homemade (SUPER wholesome, about family recipes vs what you can find in restaurants) and grocery run. they also do podcasts (available in most places where you can usually find podcasts, and also on their separate yt channel), but i’ve given up on keeping with those, akjjfa.

TO SUM IT UP: there is A Lot, sure, but don’t get discouraged!!! literally just pick whatever sounds interesting to you, and then HAVE FUN. do it for the FRIENDSHIP. chronological order isn’t important in any of these, i think. even if you miss out on the origin of one of their running jokes or sth, you’ll eventually have caught up on it somehow anyway, i think! they tend to mention their fave Bits a lot!

#watcher primer #bfu primer #watcher #shane madej #ryan bergara #anonymous #a response #the links might not work on mobile because tumblr's weird about them lately :') #long post #hope that helped somehow anon! #if you have more questions lmk

[wernerherzogs]

hi kasia! hope you're well! so. i have a question and i dont know who else to ask so i hope you can help me. ive been wanting to watch buzzfeed uns/sup and i have no idea where to start. there are so many videos that i get kinda overwhelmed and im not sure if theres like and Order or if i could just start anywhere and while i dont have the time to watch it all im afraid of losing some context or inside jokes etc. do you have ang suggestions for me? even if its just your fav videos of them. luv u

hello anon! okay so i wasn't sure how to help you, but i just googled and saw that BFU has a pretty well functioning fandom wiki? it has separate sections for true crime and supernatural, and also lists of bonus episodes and specials, and there are episode descriptions! maybe the best course of action for you would be just watching whatever sounds interesting for you? 🤔

the way i watched it was that i went for /user made/ playlists on YT instead of the official one; these are WAY better organised, lmao. (and you could pick a playlist with main episodes only, or also with their Q&A eps, which are called postmortem.) and i would just watch one season of either true crime or supernatural in bulk, and then go for the other, and so on. first season of true crime, then first season of supernatural, and then the second season of each, and repeat. (i'm not sure, but i think when the show was still new, they would release true crime and supernatural eps interchangeably within the same season, and not separately like today? so catching up on those earliest episodes may be the most confusing.) initially i just skipped over whatever sounded too scary, lmao, but in the end i have caught up on almost everything? besides the exorcism ep, elisa lam ep, and men in black ep, ajdjjf. (in retrospect i think the haunting of hannah williams ep was the one i found the most scary, and it's one of the newest ones. but whatever one finds scary is always personal, so you might have different experiences.)

i know the amount of eps may seem daunting, but i promise you that if you get into it, you'll probably catch up on everything eventually, too, ajsjjf. there's no rush! take your time!!! also usually it turns out that the scariest part of an ep is the music, because ryan and shane are such CLOWNS that most of the time you forget to be scared over the actual content!!! even ryan freaking out is FUNNY instead of making you scared, too.

fans on YT are also good at making various compilations. i think the main inside joke to date is ryan's alter ego persona ricky goldsworth. 🤔 turns out the bfu wiki has a section for the boys' aliases, so this should be super helpful for you! also someone recently uploaded the vid on evolution of ricky goldsworth on YT.

there's also shane's creation from the Q&A show called the hotdaga, and there are great user compilations for that, too! i used them to catch up before i was able to watch new eps in real time. the BFU fandom is divided into people who love it (me!) and the people who hate it, so you should definitely take a stance on that one day. 😎

#this got super long SORRY #but basically #fan lists on YT are your friend #and i'd suggest the approach similar to mine #just watch whatever you find interesting but try to do it chronologically #start with the first seasons of each spn and true crime and go from there #if you want i can try to list some fabourite eps but that'd have to be later #GOOD LUCK #they're so fun!!!!!!!! #SO GLAD YOU'RE WATCHING #anonymous #a response #bfu primer