Alt text
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Barges into Youtube
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Uploads interesting videos weekly for a decade
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Refuses to elaborate further
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Heads off into the sunset
Image of Tom Scott flying under a helicopter in a harness
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at least hes still doing the lateral podcast for the time being.
There isn’t a single downvote in this post, yet. And it has already 1K up vote. It says something about Tom.
im gonna downvote to spite this comment
I don’t see a single downvote, or is it my client acting up.
Congrats, you’ve encouraged 4 downvotes
He’s never been the same since the xnopyt incident…
Which is…?
I’m not sure, the video doesn’t seem that controversial.
In case internet sarcasm is sneaking past, the entire thing is a joke centered on the fact that Tom yells out after saying xnopyt. In the original video this is just to say the second word but people typically make edits and jokes that somehow it’s some pain or fear caused by saying xnopyt.
I might have teared up during the montage.
It’s like the end of an age. But as he literally said it’s not.
I’ve almost never been this conflicted in my life.
For the past decade I’ve been waking up to a new Tom Scott video every Monday. The positivity and curiosity helped me start my week. I’m really going to miss it.
I remember someone telling a suuuuper dumb joke and then linking “two drums and a cymbal” several years after he made the video, and I’d see vids occasionally.
It wasn’t until “Danger: Humans” that I went through all his “things you might not know” he had at the time, and subscribed.
I’ll just have to binge the channel some more.
I love that two drums and a cymbal video. It’s amazing how perfect it turned out.
I had to turn it off when that started. Noped out of there and the nieces and nephews came in from outside asking me what’s wrong.
Gonna try again during a later, more private moment.
It feels like a bit of ‘old internet’ died with him, where he’s always been an internet optimist and someone who has lived through basically all of it. He stuck to his principles through all of it. And I guess that has become a rarified breed.
Him taking a step back feels like a bit of that old internet of the curiosity, community and creativity of the early days of the internet go with him. Mind you he’s not going anywhere except the people he cares about and I completely understand the choice he made, and I only wish the best for him, so this is just me attempting to explain why it feels so confronting and kind of sad. For me it goes beyond ‘oh there just won’t be anymore of those videos then’, which I can live with although it would be sad to see those go. It’s his personality that has, through the entire history of youtube and the many, many changes it went through, stuck to the principles of its first ever users. Be curious, be authentic, and generally just try shit out and see if it works.
I’m sure that core of the personality he showed on screen will never really go away, other people will carry that torch. But it’s ok to be a little sad to see someone wave off like this. It shows us all how much we enjoyed it all these years.
Also as a MINOR sidenote on the meme, he never refused to explain, you couldn’t stop this man from explaining if you tried lol
The old Internet and its ideals where great.
I actually felt at the time it was mankinds glorious future. Something worth dying for, people have died standing for less.
But it just wasn’t to be. Humanity isn’t worth saving because they refuse to save themselves.
Large corporations took over, and it was shit :(
only British person I respect
Map Men slander.
Dont forget Steve Mould
In case you have missed, there’s a second channel where he tried stuff, like stage fighting, with guests.
https://www.youtube.com/c/tomscottplus
Tom Scott has also done a lot of hilarious stuff with his mates.
https://www.youtube.com/@mattandtom
https://www.youtube.com/@techdif
Also Matt Gray (that face from that image from that video) has started doing a new series of trying cool stuff, like road painting.
https://www.youtube.com/@MattGrayYES
Also previously he bought a soft-serve ice cream machine for a while and tried what ingredients would work in it.
He’s also in a few Numberphile videos, I recommend them regardless if you like maths
More on the Computerphile side, especially the timezone one.
Legendary exit for a legendary creator
Godspeed, you magnificent bastard
Genuinely kinda upset.
Given how much of a shit show YouTube is, Tom’s always been a beacon of integrity on the platform.
Always strived to make the best possible video, putting quality before maximizing profit.
I’m honestly excited. He mentioned in the video how there will probably be some more experimental stuff, and I really like his experimental stuff. Money, for example, was really good. And there’s still Lateral for us to listen to while we wait.
I’d like him to do more, but maybe he’s done everything interesting enough to make it on to his channel. I’d rather be stop than start making lower quality (in terms of topics) videos.
Maybe he’s just embodying the quote: “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”.
I think that’s his thought process as well, and speaks to the way he’s run the channel.
I hope we see him do something like occasional mini series on the channel though. I think that could be a way for him to do projects at his own pace, rather than be stuck on a weekly schedule.
Saying that Tom Scott “refuses to elaborate further” may be the biggest stretch I’ve ever seen on the Internet.
I thought the guy was meh. Very much the middle of the road for big sci-comm Youtubers. Less annoying than some of the other really big ones. Him dropping the weekly cadence is only a bummer because I’d been tracking the passage of time by his receeding hairline, like counting rings on a tree stump.
Genuinely heartbroken but happy for him at the same time.
What’s he doing?
Literally flying off into the sunset. He will no longer make YouTube videos. He said he might make the occasional one from time to time, but he might not.
An absolute national treasure. People have been given MBEs or even OBEs for far lesser achievements.
I was thinking about this earlier. I’m not sure the OBE would consider his achievements to be noteworthy. If you look at other notable recipients, they all had careers spanning many decades, and the ones in entertainment all have backgrounds in more “classy” vocations (theater, film, music). I’m not sure they’d consider “some guy posting videos on the Internet” (from their perspective) to be of sufficient pedigree. That, and occasionally poking fun at the government and royalty probably hasn’t put him very high on the list.
However, i think that even if he was offered knighthood, he’d probably decline it, either because he thinks he doesn’t deserve it or because he would be too nervous or embarrassed to accept it.
Brady Haran (numberphile etc.) was made an OAM, the Australian equivalent of an OBE, largely for his YouTube work. So it’s not impossible.
I’d argue that isn’t quite the same thing.
For starters, OAM doesn’t confer the title of “Sir” or “Dame” for some reason despite the award still coming from the Monarch of Australia (i.e. the Monarch of the United Kingdom). It seems to me that this was a deliberate choice to not to “dilute” the title when they created the award, suggesting OAM doesn’t carry quite the same intended prestige as OBE.
Secondly, Brady Haran’s tenure on YouTube is 6 years longer than Tom’s (2008 vs 2014), if we’re talking about regularly posting videos vs just uploading random projects, and Brady’s videos directly promote higher education and academic research through his collaboration with the University of Nottingham. He also worked for the BBC as a journalist for six years before that. This isn’t to diminish Tom’s work, but I think objectively speaking he’s not quite as prolific.
Thirdly, I believe Australian citizens can still receive OBEs as citizens of a Commonwealth realm, so Brady may still receive one down the road, especially if he sticks with it. But if he hasn’t gotten one yet, I doubt that Tom would at this point in time.
All valid but OAMs and OBEs are exactly equivalent, both are the lowest honour and neither confer a title. Only much higher ranks from each honour system KBE/DBE or AK/AD make you a Knight/Dame
The Tim Traveler is another youtube channel with the same exploration of interesting places, but smaller and more European Centric.
Definitely going to miss Tom.
Legend.
Name every British person
On one side I’m partly sad that he’s stopping those, but on another respect, he earned it and more!
