Name: 2016 Wasn't a Total Disaster
Uploaded: 2020-03-24T10:34:13.000Z
Duration: 14 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

(Chris, in the background): Hello everyone.

(C): You are the most amazing people in the world.

(C): You are better than sunshine and chocolate stuffed together.

(N): You are...bet...on...sunshine and chocolate together!

(C): We look forward to making lots more videos next year.

(N): We looks mostly next year... Together!

(C): Oof. (N): Move? (C): That felt wrong.

And I do hope you guys all had a fucking gulf Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's now officially 2017 and I've already begun drawing up my New Year's resolutions.

One new year's resolution I have at the top of my list is to be more grateful, more appreciative of the things around me.

Because as a British person I tend to always focus always on how shit everything is.

You know, a British person just looks at this

convenient portable multicolored thought-scribing tool and just sees a pen that isn't good enough.

And so before we plunge into 2017 I want to first look back and realize that

for this channel, 2016 was actually a pretty good year.

For many years now, lots of viewers have been asking me to make an end-of-year highlights video.

And, this year I have finally given into the peer pressure and decided to actually go ahead and do it.

Thousands of people took part in the questionnaire in December, sending in their favorite moments and highlights

And so here they are the top 10 bestest moments of  this channel in 2016 as voted for by you guys,

Fantastically tedious and arguably the crappiest video ever made by humans.

In January this year I went out and bought some McDonalds limited edition chocolate fries,

and filmed myself eating them for 2 and a half minutes.

Double choco sauce. Because one chocolate sauce simply isn't enough.

The next morning I awoke to find the video had got 400.000 views.

And such was its importance to the general public.

Choco fries had featured everywhere, from the Gaurdian newspaper to some over excited people in a room in America.

(Broadcaster): Chris Broad from the YouTube channel Abroadin Japan reviewed it.

(Chris): The salt on the fries doesn't overpower the chocolate.

(Broadcaster): Looks like Chris likes the concept, he does he gives it a 7/10.

Almost a year later I still don't know why people enjoyed this video and why people voted have it featured on this list.

And for a time, strangers on the streets of Tokyo would even approach me and refer to me as the "Chocolate Fries Guy".

And quite honestly, it's the only video that I've ever made where I genuinely felt bitter about its success.

(Chris' date): This is the worst date ever.

(Chris): Yeah, yeah, yeah, just hold the camera.

There are some places you shouldn't go on a date

and the Aokigahara forest, also known as the suicide forest, is probably one of them.

Passing through the area on the way back from Mount Fuji, I decided to take my date on an unplanned stroll through the forest.

And thus ensued an awkward few hours and a pretty unpleasant and creepy atmosphere.

(Chris): We went off the path a little bit and that's not a good idea given how dense it is.

I won't lie, I have always been annoyed by the way the forest has been exploited over the years.

And this video was kinda making a comment on that.

One visitor described the silence as "chasms of emptiness".

She added: "I cannot emphasize the absence of sound, my breath sounded like a roar".

Huh, someone just liked my picture on Instagram!

But as per usual, went completely over the heads of many viewers and I was branded a "wankpuffin".

For talking about Harry Potter and Earth Wind and Fire whilst in the forest.

Whenever I feel a bit uncomfortable or on-edge

I really want to play a song like... "September" by Earth Wind and Fire.

Because for some reason that's offensive.

And some people were equally disappointed that I wandered through the forest without trying to find a dead body or an abandoned tent.

Above all though, it really just was a tedious day in an over-commercialized forest.

It says here: "You may not be able to call for help, as the forest is rich with magnetic iron."

"But some believe this feature is proof of demons in the dark."

At number 8 is the Akihabara Ramen Challenge when Natsuki and I battled to the almost death, but didn't die.

To finish a mountain of ramen in 30 minutes.

For 10.000 yen at stake and our pride on the line, there was everything to play for.

I won't spoil who won, but suffice to say, one of us got completely destroyed.

And to top things off Natsuki also me gave a brand new nickname.

And one which I am not particularly enthusiastic about.

In a desperate bit to increase the number of subscribers to the channel,

I discovered the secret of success on YouTube is to stick an animal in your videos.

And to my delight, the animal didn't even have to be real.

A charming little stop-motion cat who walks around the apartment and knocks bread out of my hand.

Since his debut, Mister Snuggles has increased audience engagement on the channel

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2016 Wasn't a Total Disaster

mental

dedicate

atmosphere

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