The odd appeal of absurdly long YouTube videos that play nothing on purpose

The video’s title is, for as soon as on YouTube, fairly easy: “24 hours + of pure black display in HD!” Leaving apart the questions concerning the distinction between standard- and high-def pure black screens, the video does what it says on the tin. Hit play, and also you get greater than 24 hours — 24 hours, one minute, 27 seconds, to be actual — of black display and silence. It’s like turning off your pc, with out turning off your pc. 

This video has 40.2 million views.

The primary time I watched it, I assumed there was a joke or a Rick Roll or one thing in there someplace and watched an upsettingly very long time to seek out it. Nothing. So I figured it was a bit. Enjoyable meta-commentary concerning the drivel folks select to look at! Most commenters appeared to agree and had been goofing on the idea. “How is that this not in theaters?” commenter Orbital wrote. “The story, the characters, the performing is a masterpiece! particularly at 1:23:53, the place darkish acted because the void, is simply so stunning.” Uinthlees YT known as it “a whole masterpiece” with “many fantastic, heart-touching moments.” And Buzzcut Boy wrote that they watch it each night time earlier than they go to mattress: “i’ve watched this video a lot that i even see it when i shut my eyes like my eye lids are slightly display enjoying this grasp peice.”

However now, after spending too many hours watching too-long movies similar to “24 hours + of pure black display in HD!” I believe I’ve found their true function. Not solely are they not a joke however they’re additionally among the most helpful and user-friendly issues on YouTube.

The ultra-long video is a longtime staple of YouTube, after all. The primary one I keep in mind watching was 10 hours of goats bleating the refrain to Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Have been Hassle,” however I believe my all-time favourite is when Nathan Graham from the gaming channel Unspeakable uploaded a video known as “PLAYING MINECRAFT FOR 24 HOURS STRAIGHT!” which turned out to be a couple of minutes of gaming and about 23 hours of looped footage of Graham sleeping. The upshot: 14 million views. It’s joke.

There are extra helpful genres of mega-long YouTube, too. You will get 24 hours of a roaring fireplace, which is sweet background viewing within the winter. There’s an astonishing quantity of content material directed at canines, which principally quantities to 20-plus hours of soothing music and nature photographs. (The “most replayed” bit of 1 such video is a sweeping overhead shot of a lush island, right down to the seashore, and I like imagining my canines simply scrubbing again to that bit time and again to soak within the island vibes.) There’s additionally loads of super-long Cat TV, too, however that appears much less common. I discovered one which’s simply 20 hours of a seal spinning round within the water, titled “No should be Upset 20 HOURS LONG!!” It has 644,000 views, a number of of which are actually me.

Probably the most wise lengthy movies are the music ones. Twenty hours of spa music, 12 hours of jazz, 14 hours of loungey covers of common hits. I’ve come to love these even higher than the always-streaming channels like Lofi Lady as a result of they’re so predictable — I’ve performed a 24-hour video known as “Starbucks Jazz Music Assortment 2021 – 24 Hours Clean Jazz for Learning, Work, Calm down, Sleep” so many instances that my mind is aware of its ebbs and flows, and it barely even registers as I am going about my day.

And but, I nonetheless can’t clarify why “24 hours + of pure black display in HD!” is such an enormous hit. Its channel’s proprietor, a man named Noah who calls himself “Black Display Man,” has picked up 65,000 subscribers and greater than 150 million views on movies similar to it. The even longer “44 hours of pure black display in HD!” has 5.4 million views. Thirty-five hours, 2.2 million views. Thirty-two hours, 2.4 million. The channel’s most stunning success story? “24 hours of pure white display!” is strictly what it appears like and has 44 million views. Which is much more than the 7.2 million on “a purple display for twenty-four hours!”

On this case, it seems, the outrageous size is the entire enchantment. Throughout all these movies and plenty of different silent clean ones, each viewer appears to have their very own use case. The most typical, by far, is to make use of these movies as a option to merely preserve your gadget on. “I preserve this enjoying in a single day in order that my laptop computer doesn’t shutdown whereas downloading video games,” one commenter wrote. “I’ve to maintain this open on my cellphone as a result of it’s damaged and won’t flip again on if it turns off,” one other mentioned. 

There are additionally a surprisingly giant variety of instances when you may want your gadget on however the display off. “I exploit this so I can have music open on one other tab at night time and have this open so the display with the music on it wont shine so vibrant in my room,” one commenter wrote on a two-day-long video of a clean black display. “I exploit this each night time, placed on a podcast and q this to return on subsequent,” mentioned one other. “Unironically helpful for avoiding display burn in,” one other wrote. “Huge thanks <3.”

Within the description of 1 video, a 10-hour saga of pure black display, the Black Display Man himself urged much more potentialities. You need to use a black display to test your pc’s backlight or search for lifeless pixels; to trick your dad and mom into considering the pc’s off so you’ll be able to play video games with out having to reenter the password; to trace time by how lengthy the video’s been enjoying; to scrub your display with out turning off the pc; and a lot extra. A black display does wonders, apparently, particularly when it doesn’t contain turning something off.

My fast response to this was, properly, confusion. Simply flip off your display! You may change the settings on a Mac or a PC to show off your show with out placing your pc to sleep, and smartphones and tablets have loads of methods to play audio within the background even with the show off. 

However you realize what’s truly simpler than tweaking a bunch of settings, particularly for youthful customers accustomed to discovering every part they want on YouTube? Simply enjoying a video. One commenter on a blank-screen video known as it “the proper video to solid to your television while you’re too drained to rise up and switch it off,” which appears each ridiculous — in the event you can solid out of your cellphone to your TV, you’ll be able to in all probability use your cellphone to show off your TV! — and telling. A blank-screen video is each a silly resolution and a surprisingly elegant one.

In a means, I’ve come to see “24 hours + of pure black display in HD!” as an ideal microcosm of YouTube. YouTube is an element leisure platform, half data library… and half instruments repository. It will probably soundtrack your day, educate you tips on how to beat any recreation or remedy any downside, preserve your pets entertained whilst you’re gone, or transport you to only about anyplace on earth. A clean display video is a productiveness instrument, plain and easy.

I even perceive now why a seven-day-long video, which is only a timer counting down 168 hours, has 3.7 million views. One commenter summed it up thusly, “That is the timer you want when it’s essential keep energetic in your pc whereas working from house. Nobody will discover you had been gone as a result of this video retains enjoying.” So long as the pc’s awake, I may be wherever I need.