Well… it’s pretty safe to suggest that YouTube Rewind 2018 is controversial. The annual video published by the Google-owned service pays homage to the year that was and the moments that made it, all created by the internet’s biggest personalities.
This year’s theme was “everyone controls rewind” and, well, it had its highs and lows.
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For one, animation YouTubers Domics, JaidenAnimations and Illymation among others got their time in the spotlight.
Two South African-born creators/personalities also feature in Caspar Lee and Trevor Noah. But that’s where the joy seemingly ends.
On the face of it, the clip opens with Will Smith being Will Smith, features a shoehorned K-pop moment from BTS, a Fortnite homage, an ode to “In My Feelings”, and monologues focusing on 2018’s biggest political talking points.
But just two hours after the video’s debut, the eight minute clip has amassed more than 220 000 dislikes, and 184 000 likes.
(Almost) everyone hates YouTube Rewind 2018
YouTube commenters — some 112 000 of them — were among the first to voice their disdain.
“2017 is better even tho (sic) that one is bad as well,” read one comment.
“If i remember correctly Ninja Is A Twitch Guy not YouTube,” poked another.
“OK!! Am I the only one who doesn’t know half of them??” asked one user. And yeah, I was largely thinking the same thing.
Over on Twitter, the official YouTube account received some flack from the community for neglecting PewDiePie — the site’s most followed creator.
(His chair however receives some screen time thanks to Jaiden).
Where’s Pewdiepie?
— Jean Gregory (@Jeaansereano_) December 6, 2018
Where’s PewDiePie? He’s literally you’re biggest
— Bucky Vanderwall (@SheepxBuzzard) December 6, 2018
Others called it how they saw it.
“No demonitization, no Ali-a intro, no pewds vs t-series? Horrible YouTube rewind, not to mention there was absolutely no rhythm whatsoever,” tweeted one user.
No demonitization, no Ali-a intro, no pewds vs t-series? Horrible YouTube rewind, not to mention there was absolutely no rhythm whatsoever
— spurs for zion (@caleb_crites) December 6, 2018
That was the shittest rewind ever
— Kai prescod (@Kaiprescod1) December 6, 2018
While one user highlighted the irony of Ninja’s appearance.
Youtube 2018… linking to twitch streamers while banning youtubers for linking to twitch.
— Natural Healthy CBD (@CbdHealthy) December 6, 2018
On the r/YouTube subreddit, conversation was more measured.
The sentiment remained the same though.
“Definitely the worst rewind of all time,” wrote one Redditor.
“Alot of huge events weren’t addressed, alot of large content creators weren’t featured (sic). But the worst part is that they painted it as ‘our’ rewind, but didn’t include people the vast majority wanted.”
“Every second was worst than the last,” wrote another.
But one user in particular summed the video up rather succinctly: “Remember when youtube rewind was good?”
Feature image: screenshot, YouTube Rewind
