Everything Is Terrible! is a video blogging website from Chicago, Illinois that features unusual, dated, and campy clips of VHS tapes from the late 20th century and early 21st century. The project was founded in 2000 by a group of friends while at Ohio University. "Every weekend or free afternoon they get", according to NPR, they search at thrift stores, garage sales, and bargain bins for the worst and most outrageous VHS tapes to share with each other. The website was launched in 2007. The website has also been attempting to amass the largest collection of Jerry Maguire on VHS; according to member Ghoul Skool: "We always have noticed since the beginning that there seems to be nothing but just Jerry Maguire tapes filling our nation's thrift stores. I don't know why". Collective members keep a tally of tapes and a leaderboard of contributors on their website watch.everythingisterrible.com. Donations are accepted via mail to P.O. Box 50825, Los Angeles, CA 90050. As of June 27, 2016, the group has gathered 12,240 VHS tapes, but they are about 5,000 tapes shy of their goal of building a pyramid in the desert. In addition to posting videos of old VHS tapes, the people behind Everything Is Terrible! have performed live shows where, while wearing cloaks and gold VHS tapes around their necks, they show their new VHS discoveries. In 2009, the website released a video titled Everything Is Terrible! The Movie, which featured the same type of VHS clips that would be featured on their website. The A.V. Club called the video "a portal into a world halfway between showbiz and real life—a look at how the people who make entertainment for a living think the rest of us saps actually live", adding that it's "simultaneously enlightening, hilarious, and deeply sad". Paste magazine called the video "the best clips from a range of categories and spin them together like a terrible salad". Wired has praised one of the site's more popular clips titled "Infomercial Hell" – a series of clips from different infomercials pasted together – calling it "depressing" as well as "terribly funny".
Notable videos
One of their more notable videos has been an instructional clip titled "So Your Cat Wants a Massage?" – a video that was designed to show people how to massage a cat; it has amassed over 4 million views on YouTube. The video's creator, Maryjean Ballner, has since appeared as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman on December 9, 2009. According to Ghoul Skool, despite her feelings that "YouTube can be a very negative place", Ballner thanked Everything Is Terrible! for bringing back something which she had not seen in over 15 years. Other notable videos have included an edutainment clip about a dinosaur named Yello Dyno who, while dressed in a leather jacket and sunglasses, teaches children to protect themselves from pedophiles. Videos from Everything Is Terrible! have also been featured on the comedy showTosh.0, in which the show's blog has posted the website's request for any available Jerry Maguire tape. Other videos have included a rejuvenating mask infomercial that featured Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful", a direct-to-video crime drama featuring Jay Leno, and a video that features babies singing "Ten Little Indians" that was followed by, according to The Huffington Post, "what can only be described as 'A Clockwork Orange' reel for toddlers".
Two of Everything Is Terrible! founders, Nicholas Maier and Dimitri Simakis, created and wrote a live-actiontelevision pilot starring Paul Reubens entitled Gigglefudge, USA!, which premiered in 11 April 2016 on Adult Swim. Reubens act as a TV host who introduce videos taken from Memory Hole.
