Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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So...erf...digitising this perticular VHS started with excitement on seeing what the actual final broadcast TV recording we did before we got a DVD recorder had after nearly 20 years...and it ended with me feeling weirdly depressed. Even as someone who was a kid for the first half of the decade (though at this point, I had been 13 for less than 5 months), I have complicated feelings with the 2000's. It wasn't without moments of joy and fun in my life, of course, but...I mean, after That Point in 2001, things just...it was rough being raised with media and culture that was leaning towards stuff that was so positive and pro-empathy and then somehow two buildings fall down and people's ability to not be Monsterously Awful People suddenly just feel right the heck down.

And this is an interesting thing to have ended up being the last VHS tape we recorded off broadcast TV as our way of taking stuff that was on TV and preserving it for later turned out to proberbly be some of the worst-aged stuff we possibly could've recorded from that time period. This first part isn't as bad as the second, to which I had to actually put a disclaimer at the start (look forward to that, I guess??!), but there are definite points where the unnecessary crudeness and lame-at-best boisterous laddish were the domineering things rather than the exceptions. There are still people out there like this and there are still corners of media that're almost like nothing had changed, but I really don't miss it. Some of the stuff in these ad breaks are pretty bad, but what doesn't help is the show surrounding them neither. At best, it had some nice introductions to some legit good-looking sketch comedy shows but in the era of "Bo Selecta" and "Little Britain" ruling mainstream media to a putridly grotty fault...well, yeah...you don't need to watch the show btw, an ableist "Little Britain" sketch won the countdown. Screw this gross, brown soul-sludge that sent society back a decade or two...or three.

...oh, right right, contents:
00:00 Channel 4 ident
00:27 Nintendo DS Sponsership Bumper
00:43 "Britain's 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches"
01:13 Nintendo DS Sponsership Sting w/ "WarioWare: Touch"
01:19 Channel 4 ID sting / WKD ad (Alex Horne???!)
01:50 Tesco ad for "Real Eighties" Music Compilation
02:20 Tesco Life Insurance ad
02:40 Abbey ad
02:50 L'Oreal Double Expression Waterproof Mascara
03:10 Mars Delight ad
03:40 Kronenbourg 1664 ad
04:20 AA ad
04:52 Channel 4 ID sting / Promo for "Vanilla Sky"
05:14 Nintendo DS Sponsership Stings w/ "WarioWare: Touch"
05:28 Channel 4 ID sting / The One Account ad
06:09 The Sun ad
06:29 KFC ad w/ Ice Cream Bucket promotion
06:58 Wella Xtrovert ShockWaves ad
07:29 Mercedes-Benz A-Class ad
08:28 MSN Search ad
09:01 Channel 4 ID sting / Nintendo DS Sponsership Stings w/ "WarioWare: Touch"
09:17 Channel 4 ID sting / Citeron C4 ad
09:48 Vodafone Live! ad
10:18 TV ad for "The Album"(??!) Music Compilation
10:48 Skittles ad
11:18 Muller Vitality ad
11:48 John Smith Extra Smooth ad
12:18 AirMiles ad
12:50 Channel 4 ID / "The Impressionists: Revenge of the Nice?" Promo
13:12 Nintendo DS Sponsership Stings w/ "WarioWare: Touch"

Part 2: youtu.be/YLn3pFGptMU