For summer night owls who are staying up till five in the morning watching television, there has been buzz on the internet over new parody infomercials or videos airing on Adult Swim. This buzz was created by viewers of the late night Cartoon Network sending suspense, and mystery lovers on a hunt for answers. The creator behind these videos is Alan Resnick, a visual artist, filmmaker and comedian who in his own creative yet disturbing way brings to light, issues that affect many people. Issues such as mental illness or the surveillance of U.S. citizens, adding real websites that go along with his content. It was only time before people started searching for the meaning behind it all. Uploaded on YouTube channels Adult swim and Alan Resnick, videos such as Live Forever As You Are Now with Alan Resnick or Unedited Footage of a bear can be found, meant to look like comedic takes on regular T.V. programs we see daily suddenly take a unexpected dark form.

In Unedited Footage of a Bear, it stays true to its title until 33 seconds into the video cuts off to what looks like a YouTube Ad for a new allergy medicine. As the narrator continues to list the side affects of the allergy medicine his voice turns into a silent buzz. The character named Donna in the commercial comes across a crime scene in her neighborhood and the cardigan that she’s wearing in the middle of the street. Donna sees another version of herself that is aggressive and violent, and the other Donna brutally attacks her. There are several versions of Donna throughout the video. Representing the fight of Donna and her addiction to the medicine, there is much more to the video but this Parody advertisement is a visual twist on the effects anti-depressants has on the people it’s prescribed to. Resnick gives the audience a slap in the face to see the harsh realities that go unnoticed.

Another one of Alan Resnick’s complex creations is a YouTube series named AlanTutorial. Where viewers innocently thinking they’re clicking on a tutorial come to find it’s not as normal as they think. Resnick plays the role of an autistic man who has the mind of a child, and make tutorials for fun. As the videos continue the audience sees more and more of the characters personal life. The videos become more strange as the character ends up in unfamiliar places where he is being forced to make more videos. This elaborate story told through these YouTube videos is a representation of how YouTube almost forces it’s creators to put out more and more content with money and pressure.

The most recent work Resnick has that put viewers in a frenzy, was a video aired on Adult Swim called This House Has People in It. Which shows the life of a suburban family through the security cameras of their home. Each family member having their own personality and issues that contribute to the sketch, the sketch is followed with it’s own website. Which has more videos of the family and logs of the family’s calls, e-mails, etc. As the audience sees more and more of the life of this family, they begin to realize they are playing the role of a NSA agent monitoring the family, putting the viewer in the shoes of someone else and creating an entire universe to show us the major flaws of our own.

There are many details that go into Resnick’s work and each one has the purpose of causing the viewer to think beyond the picture and pay closer attention. Some may argue that this comes from theorists who make up the meaning of these details as they go. Yet there is always proof that bring these theories to life, opening the eyes of everyone who watches.

From what seems like senseless violence for the dark humored to laugh at, is actually a reflection of the cruel situations people refuse to believe exist.

Resnick is not the only creator turning heads, YouTube channels such as Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared and Ana Akana’s short films are opening the overlooked issues of human nature. The mental and emotional restrictions or pressure that society puts on it’s people and the restrictions people put on themselves.  So anyone who is curious to see for themselves is welcome to, but at their own risk because some videos are not for the faint-hearted.