YouTube is pretty big these days, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s a channel for every niche, uncommon interest, and preference for entertainment anyone could ever want. Rarely seen anymore, however, are channels that capture the true spirit of YouTube. Back in the day, creators had little more than a camera and some buddies, and while some of the content may not have aged well, the free-range creative attitude is timeless. There’s something to be said for these videos’ simplicity; with simple concepts come surprising and memorable results. While this form of video-making has largely died out, there’s one channel that not only exhibits this same attitude but has modified it for a contemporary audience. Â
Anthony Potero (his channel’s name is Anthpo) isn’t a YouTuber who was posting in those early days of YouTube, though I suspect he draws a lot of influence from that time period . He began posting videos in early 2019 at his high school. It was these formative videos that would become the most viral on his channel. His most popular video, netting him an impressive view count of just below fifteen million views (currently), is titled ‘Disturbing Students as Perry the Platypus.’ He spends the three-minute video running around his high school in a Perry the Platypus onesie goofing around with his classmates. His next most popular video is (in a similar vein) titled ‘Harassing people with fat yoshi’ in which he hangs up and hands out pictures of… fat Yoshi. Perhaps the most important things these videos accomplish for Anthpo’s channel is establishing Anthony’s personality and sense of humor. Anthony is established as someone who both isn’t afraid to put himself out there, nor someone who takes himself too seriously. He also has a distinctive Gen Z sense of humor through his use of pop culture references that appeal to a Gen Z demographic (in the aforementioned videos; Phineas and Ferb, video games, and memes). Most YouTubers who have surprise hits fail to capitalize on them and turn those viewers into subscribers. Whether he was trying to or not, Anthpo did this by taking the biggest risk possible.
He made several more videos in a similar style, running amuck at his high school. But by the time he began attending college, Anthpo took his content in a wildly different direction. He continued dressing up and goofing around on his college campus, but he also began making other types of videos. He began making commentary videos before a green screen, giving comedic takes on various topics. Notably, he also used his green screen to make short parodies of popular Gen Z properties like Avatar the Last Airbender, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, iCarly, Attack on Titan, and many more. Anthony himself often played all of the different characters in these parodies, but in others, he began incorporating more of his friends into the skits. Eventually, it would be not only Anthony but his College buddies that began to define the channel.
Anthony began using the college setting to his advantage by incorporating his friends and their personalities into his videos. Anthony is very talented in thinking up fun concepts for videos and implementing them seamlessly. Usually, the results are pretty funny, and I think this is largely due to the chemistry Anthony and his friends share on-screen. Often his silly videos have some genuinely organic, heartfelt moments rarely seen elsewhere on YouTube. Also, it’s important to draw attention to the impressive editing that has been steadily improving throughout Anthony’s journey. It really gives the videos a seamless flow and often manages to make a funny moment even funnier.
Overall, I think Anthpo is one of the best channels on YouTube right now. His recipe of taking something old, something new, and mixing some personality in there for flavour has yielded some of the best feel-good content I have ever seen. Nobody really knows what Anthony is going to move on to once his time at college is over. If there is one thing that’s certain, it is that if Anthpo decides to continue making videos, it will continue to be must-watch content.
