Monday, January 03, 2022

2011 - 2021

Ten years ago, 2011 marked the end of the beginning of J-Dubb's Theatre, and the transition into what would become the recognizable J-Dubb's Theatre format. First of all, this was the last year of the classic blog, as noted in a previous post. J-Dubb's Theatre began as a blog. A couple years into the blog, I expanded J-Dubb's Theatre into a YouTube channel. Eventually, the YouTube channel began to take precedence over the blog. 2010 was the last year of Superstar of the Week, and other weekly features. 

In 2011, written posts were sparse in between video posts. By the end of the year, I even ceased posting videos to the blog, and the YouTube channel became the central hub of J-Dubb's Theatre. In 2012, I wrote a post officially recognizing the end of the blog.

 Things changed after I got a retail job in 2011. Before 2011 was the"p-re-JoAnn's" years of J-Dubb'sTheatre, and everything from mid-2011 on marked the"JoAnn's Years". With the new job, and a schedule that changed every week, I found it more difficult to blog and film videos. 

In 2010, I developed the typical vlogging spot. The format of the majority of my videos, from then on, became cemented in 2011. Also, 2011 marked the beginning of my YouTube partnership, which would turn the future of J-Dubb's Theatre into a professional endeavor. At the end of the year, I upgraded from old-school cell phones, to my first iPhone.

The years following 2011 held many familiar traditions. From 2012 onward, I visited VidCon every year, and uploaded a video from the trip. I grew my hair out, and "J-Dubb" became recognizable as having long hair, whereas prior to 2012, I'd always had short hair, and even facial hair. Every Fall, I would make a video complaining about the beginning of the Fall. For Thanksgiving, I would upload a video of one of the J-Dubbles telling the Thanksgiving story in an eccentric manner. For the new year, I would upload a video which would repeat the footage from the 2010 New Year's video, confusing Floyd and Jim, and then go into a montage of the previous year's videos.

2011 was sort of in between the old and the new, where the old-school J-Dubb's Theatre faded away, but the recognizable modern format hadn't quite begun.

One notable thing that  made 2011 unique, was a phase in which I would begin the video in the middle of a skit, and then notice the camera and say "Oh, J-Dubb Here", and go into the video topic. for instance, in one video, I'm confronting my "Tyler Durden" alter ego, ala Fight Club. In another, I'm in the middle of singing along to the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme, setting a trap for the Easter bunny, or absentmindedly trying to unlock my front door with my key fob. I  began this series with a video in which my I'm trying to film a vlog, but my camera goes haywire, shutting off, and unpredictably turning back on unpredictably throughout my day. The implication was, that my camera would turn on in the middle of whatever I was doing, and I would have to film that day's vlog. After starting my retail job, I ceased this, because I decided it made the video too long. (This was before the infamous algorithm, which favors longer run times.)

Another notable thing from 2011, was the clown series. It began the previous year, when I made a video about hating clowns. YouTuber Happy Cabbie, then referred my video to several real-life clowns, who wrote angry comments. I found it funny that of all groups to offend, it would be clowns for me. I then made a Halloween video about scary clowns, and then made an apology to clowns. In 2011, I uploaded a three part series in which the clowns come after me, and I'm abducted. I then uploaded a video in which I've been converted into a clown, and am trying to proselytize being a clown, in parody of
Tom Cruiz's Scientology video. The series ends with Roach hiring a deprogrammer to convert me back, but not before I convert him first. Had the series continued, clowns would have turned out to be a part of a secret society who worship a clown god, and the clown god would turn out to be from a race of aliens. I did post a couple clown related videos in 2012, and one more in 2013.

And, most notable, was the viodeo, Tuesday, a parody of Rebecca Black's Friday, featuring Adam, Jon, and my sister. This was not only the most memorable video of the year, but one of my most memorable of all time.

As for 2021, there's not much to say that I didn't already say in last year's New Year's post. Most notably, we got past the year that we don't mention anymore, and Trump left the White House, while his fan base continued to insist that he remained the true president for half the year, if they aren't still doing it now. Also, I hit a new high in business, which has been pretty exciting.

So, typically, at the end of the New Year's post, I post a video which correlates to whatever video I had posted to the end of the New Year's post from 10 years prior. However, beginning with 2011, there are no more New Year's posts from ten years prior, (and none for 20 year's prior, yet). So, instead, I will post two videos to represent 2011.