Life can be depressing at times. I don't care who you are or how good your life is, there is always the chance that something or someone can knock you off your happy pedestal and bring you down for a while. That's why we all need to laugh. Uproariously. On a daily basis. After all, laughter is the best medicine. With the possible exception of antibiotics.
With this in mind we all need to seek out sources of laughter each and every day. Whether it be funny friends, stand-up comedians, or original sketches. Thankfully the Web is packed full of funny content, whether it's in the form of spoof news websites, jokes on Twitter, or hilarious YouTube channels.
What follows are 10 of the best original YouTube comedy channels. If you cannot raise a laugh from any of the thousands of videos on these channels then you may need a sense of humor bypass. They do exist, apparently. Or I could merely be lying the prove a point.
College Humor
College Humor has its own dedicated site which includes funny videos, images, and articles. But the YouTube comedy channel is the best way to view the College Humor originals; comedy shorts that are written and produced by a professional team.
All genres are present, with animations butting up against pranks and movie spoofs. The video embedded above shows what happens when you forget to take your smartphone into the toilet with you at work. The boredom gets to be too much.
Annoying Orange
Annoying Orange is a YouTube comedy channel revealing the exploits of an anthropomorphic orange and his fruity friends. The characters are, well, very annoying, with whiny voices and bizarre dialog that means you'll either love or hate this Web series.
Those who love the show have an epic back catalog of videos to trawl through, and with new ones added every week you'll be glued to your computer. The video embedded above shows what happens when Annoying Orange infiltrates Pong, one of the classic Atari arcade games.
Reckless Tortuga
Reckless Tortuga is part of the Machinima Network, which itself provides plenty of laughs. This channel in particular always brings the funny, with one-off sketches and various different Web series sitting comfortably alongside each other.
The video embedded above is a one-off sketch showing what would happen if the worlds of Grand Theft Auto and Super Mario Bros. came together. It turns out the Nintendo character is a bit of a bad boy, a fact which never made it into the official history of Mario.
Smosh
Smosh is the YouTube comedy channel of Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, two 20-somethings who have managed to build an army of followers for their distinctive brand of humor. It has a young, slightly infantile bent, but that's not a bad thing when it comes to the InterWebs.
You'll likely either love or hate these guys. I suspect most of their fans are teenage girls and geeks who appreciate the gaming jokes. The video embedded above sees the two playing characters in a sketch about video game violence, which is funny whether you believe it's a bad thing or not.
The Nerdist
The Nerdist was once just one man, one nerd, one podcast. But it's now a many-headed beast made up of different shows, different media, different genres, and different contributors. Thankfully the bulk of the content is still awesome and very nerdy.
You may prefer to visit the Nerdist website, which contains a lot more than just videos. But the YouTube channel offers an unmuddied way of watching the original video content. The video embedded above shows Karen Gillan from Doctor Who doing a fake advert for zombies.
Ed Bassmaster
Ed Bassmaster is the YouTube channel belonging to, yep, you guessed it, one Ed Bassmaster. Though I'm not convinced that's his real name. He started making videos a few years ago as a hobby and now does so full-time as a YouTube Partner.
The videos Ed produces are mostly hilarious, though some of the characters he employs will likely annoy you. For this reason you'll have to filter out what you like from what you don't like. The video embedded above is a simple prank call with Ed pretending to be a movie trailer voice-over guy.
Barely Political
Barely Political is, thankfully, barely political, with politics playing only a very minor role in this youTube channel full of celebrity impersonations, song spoofs, and comedy sketches. All with lots of laughs and high production values (for YouTube, at least).
These are the same guys behind The Key Of Awesome! parodies, which have gained millions of views. The video embedded above features deleted celebrity endorsements of the iPhone 4S, with Siri taking a battering.
5 Second Films
5 Second Films is a YouTube channel featuring, well, films lasting five-seconds. Joel previously posted an article all about 5 Second Films, and picked his favorites from their catalog of ultra-short skits. So you'd be best reading that before continuing on with this article.
You'll notice that the videos are all actually nine-seconds long, but the actual sketches are no more than five-seconds. It's amazing how much these guys cram into such a short space of time. The video embedded above features a simple-yet-effective play on words... which is perfect for a grammar Nazi such as myself.
Just Kidding Films
Just Kidding Films foregoes short sketches for longer, sometimes epic, short films. They're all funny, though some are obviously more humorous than others. Founded by Joe Jo and Bart Kwan, the films feature a cast of friends and family.
The video embedded above is a simple idea but one that I've never seen explored quite so well before. While we may have gender equality in most areas of life, there are still times when we revert to type. So why not see what happens when things are reversed?
Improv Everywhere
Improv Everywhere has been around for several years, and their pranks will be familiar to anyone who has been on the Web for a while. The group specializes in large-scale pranks which require acting and improvisation skills, and they usually pull the stunts off with aplomb.
The video embedded above shows what happens when hundreds of people wearing shirts and pants similar to those worn by the employees walk into a Best Buy retail store... the security guards freak out and immediately think a scam is being pulled.
Conclusions
It's highly likely that one or two of the YouTube comedy channels listed above appeal to you more than the others. Which is fine. Humor is highly subjective, with different people finding different things funny. We would be interested to hear which you particularly enjoyed/didn't enjoy, so please leave a comment below.
Are there any other YouTube channels producing original comedy you think should have made the cut? Are you finding YouTube a good source for laughs? Or for other regular content? If so you may also be interested in YouTube channels dedicated to science and YouTube channels dedicated to technology.
Image Credit: Gavin Bobo