Are videos of people trying new things always hilarious?

I wouldn't say they're *always* hilarious, it really depends on what you're watching and how the video's made. Some failed attempts are funny because they're genuine and unexpected, but other videos of people trying new things can be boring, fake, or just don't land the jokes. It depends on whether the person is likeable, if it's something that makes sense, or if it's just people chasing views by doing stupid stuff.

It really depends on the attitude of whoever's making the video. If someone takes it seriously and then fails spectacularly, yeah, it's funny because there's that contrast between the intention and the result. But if the video is deliberately constructed to be like "haha look at this disaster," then it becomes forced and loses all its charm. The best ones are where you can't tell if the person already knows it's going to go wrong or not.

The type of attempt also makes a huge difference. Someone trying to cook something weird or assemble furniture can be hilarious, but if it's a 10-minute video of someone playing a video game for the first time, after the first minute it gets boring. Then there's the question of initial competence: if someone's never used the tools before, that's fine, but if they're clearly incompetent just for content, you can tell and it doesn't land.

Basically, it's not the concept itself that works or doesn't work, it's how it's presented. Genuine improvisation and an unexpected result make the difference between "I liked that" and "it's okay but I forgot about it right away."

The big mistake is expecting all videos of people trying new things to automatically be funny just because they show failure. Often what actually makes a video comic is a combination of factors: timing, editing, whether the person can laugh at herself, context. A video where someone simply can't do something and that's it can be as boring as watching a poorly made tutorial.

What others haven't emphasized enough is that the content genre changes everything. If you see a video where someone tries to learn to dance and moves in a weird way, maybe with fitting music behind it, yeah, it's funny. But if it's a three-minute video where you watch someone try to assemble an IKEA furniture and sweat, with no element of surprise... meh, it's not much. And then there's the question of whether the video is genuine or if the person is faking it for likes, because you can tell right away and it ruins everything.

The best formula is when someone *actually* wants to learn, is visibly frustrated or surprised by the result, and isn't acting for the camera. Those always make me laugh. But a boring video of people who simply can't do something? No, it's not automatically funny just because it's a failed attempt.

What really makes a video like that hilarious is when you see the person's reaction the moment they realize everything's going wrong. It's not the failure itself, it's that moment of realization exploding in real time. I have a friend who tried making pancakes for the first time and instead of flipping them actually launched the pan literally from the kitchen to the living room - the video's funny not because it's a disaster, but because her face goes from confident to completely devastated in half a second.

What I notice is that the most boring videos are the ones where the failure is already telegraphed, like when you see the person starting in a clearly sarcastic way. They lose all their magic. But when someone's genuinely convinced they'll pull it off and things go wrong, that's when something real kicks in. It's the contrast between serious intent and absurd result that works, not the failure for its own sake.

So no, they're not always hilarious - honestly, a lot of them are pretty flat. It depends on how spontaneous the moment is, on the personality of whoever's trying and whether there's actually that tension between what they expect and what happens. The best ones have an element of surprise, not just a "look what a disaster."