I want to use laughter to cheer up peoples days. This involves doing some silly things. Such as "annoying types of people at th mall" videos.
Making comedy videos on youtube= red flag for med school?
- Thread starter JoyKim456
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Are you planning on using your real name or linking to your youtube channel in your AMCAS? If not, you really have nothing to worry about.
Just keep it semi-professional. Nothing racist, insensitive, inconsiderate, etc.
Just keep it semi-professional. Nothing racist, insensitive, inconsiderate, etc.
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If the material is not offensive it may actually even be a interesting thing to talk about during interviews.
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I think it all turns on whether your videos are actually good. Go to any comedy club on amateur night -- ninety percent of people who think they are funny/entertaining really aren't ( and that's even after a two drink minimum). If adcoms see it and consider it lame, it could hurt.
Ok. So how about a video like "Food throw challenge". In this video, two people ask each other general knowledge questions. Something like "what is the capital of Cuba" or something. If the person gets it wrong, then the asker dumps a certain type of food "like ketchup" on that persons head. It's really funny. Is that bad?
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I hope its funnier in its execution than the description above sounds.
As others have noted, as long as its not offensive or illegal then there should be no problem with med school applications.
As others have noted, as long as its not offensive or illegal then there should be no problem with med school applications.
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This sounds like a skit from a bad 90's sitcom.
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It's bad if you think it's really funny (sounds like 12 year old humor to me) and decide to share it with all of your interviewers. As long as it's not offensive then it's probably better left untalked about and unworried about.
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If it's a part of who you are, maybe frame it as a hobby. As long as the content is not offensive or illegal or something, I don't see any reason why you can't mention it.
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This. I can easily see adcom members questioning your maturity....ESPECIALLY if they just have the description to go off of. Making this a part of your application is likely to hurt more than help.
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Is there a reason that you want to include this in your application so badly?
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I like to nap in my free time. I can promise you I won't be putting that on my application. Adcoms don't want to know how every second of your day is spent, they want to know that you spend at least a little bit of time doing something productive, which other ECs and activities should show. I certainly wouldn't say that it's dishonest to not include something that you choose to do in your free time.
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There's nothing inherently wrong with it. But as others have stated, it may come across to some adcoms as immature at best and insensitive at worst, depending on the type of humor and how you approach it.
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Agreed. What you put out there matters. Professional schools like to fill with mature dedicated professional people. There's no rule against having something funny or clever on YouTube or Facebook, but let's not pretend that what you put out there won't reflect, either positively or negatively, on you any differently than the way you conduct yourself in person or at the interview or other parts of the application. It's part of the big picture. If an adcoms googles your stuff and it's lame or immature or distasteful, that becomes part of your battle. If it's amazing and clever, that can help. But make sure someone with a mature or austere sense of humor looks it over for you, because seeing you pour ketchup on someone doesn't scream "this is the guy I want to work with". There are some amazing funny and clever YouTube posts out there that reflect positively on the creators. But 99.9% don't. and most of the idiots you see being goofy on YouTube won't be going to med school -- this is their 15 minutes of fame.
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The activities section is for things you do that you want to tell med schools about. It most certainly is NOT a requirement to list everything you do and have done. There is nothing dishonest about leaving out something that you don't think will reflect positively on you, as long as it isn't something like a criminal record or institutional action which are explicitly requested. If you really want to include this, go ahead. Just do so knowing that the majority of advice from experienced members on here was to not include it on your application.
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That's not funny.
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On the other hand, clever humor of the Saturday Night Live type (it can be off color or outrageous but not racist or otherwise demeaning) is a great skill that is highly valued at schools that put on an annual comedy show. You tube is full of humorous videos made by medical students for the entertainment of their school community and at some schools live skits, video and musical numbers are a staple of an annual ritual that can be a roast of the faculty or a spoof of a popular film.
The only reason I want to do it is because when I was young this type of "immature humor" is the only thing that would cheer me up. I have met some of these you-tubers and they said they get emails from young teenagers every day saying how they were about to kill themselves but their day got better when they say their videos. I think that my point is that I agree it is immature and silly, but there is nothing wrong with that and it does not necessarily mean that I am immature and silly outside of YouTube. Maybe I am explain this in my personal statement and/or secondaries?
Maybe the specific type of video I said is maybe not the best. How about a video like "whisper challenge". In this game, two people play a game in which one person whispers pick up lines (non dirty, but funny) while the other person is listening to very loud music. And the person listening to the music has to guess what the pick up line is.
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That's gold, Jerry! Gold!
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When someone has to tell you something is funny, it usually isn't.
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Teen humor back in my day consisted of penis jokes.
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This, how you explained it here, sounds a lot better than what you described before. It is one thing to say "I make videos that are humorous to teenagers as an attempt to combat depression..." which is certainly a positive goal, and another to say "look at these funny videos I make!" when the humor is on a level a decade below your age. Hopefully you can see the problem with the latter, but the former is much more likely to be viewed positively.
To be honest, I don't think medical school are that narrow minded. They won't throw away all of my efforts (not only academic, research, and volunteering, but all what I choose to do with YouTube) on the basis of "immaturity" on Youtube Videos. I do it for many deeper reasons. To raise money for charity. To heal my emotional scars by making others laugh. To help heal their emotional scars, by helping them laugh. And, quite honestly, kids are very neglected and bullied these days, even by parents, teachers, and older siblings. Research shows that teens between the ages of 11-16 might be using technology to an unhealthy level because of bad family life and/or problems at school.
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Well, it sounds a lot better when you explain it this way rather than how you presented it before. Best of luck to you OP
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Like I said, everything you are describing here is laudable. What you made it sound like before, in your early posts in this thread, made it sound like you simply made videos you thought were funny, just for fun. There is nothing wrong with that either, but if you simply were trying to be a youtube comedian with a target audience including Adcoms, you would need to make very sure what you were doing wouldn't come across as immature, or it could hurt you. If your target audience is abused/depressed/etc. teens and children, obviously it wouldn't be "mature" humor, so those issues are not nearly as important.
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If your target is teenagers, teenage humor is appropriate.....
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I put the same thing on my app without links to videos or descriptions at all really. I focused on the comedy group, not the videos. If I'm asked to describe a video in an interview I will gladly do so in a non offensive manner. For me, it's on my app to show that I have leadership, I'm at least semi unique, and I have social skills. Not to prove that I'm funny at all.
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I give this troll thread 3/10
OP put it on your app, in the off chance that you get an interview I would be sure to mention it too. Also, bonus points if you make it the focal point of your personal statement. Extra bonus points if you post said personal statement on here.
OP put it on your app, in the off chance that you get an interview I would be sure to mention it too. Also, bonus points if you make it the focal point of your personal statement. Extra bonus points if you post said personal statement on here.
Do you have high view counts on any of your videos? If so, that may be something worth mentioning as well as evidence that your efforts are reaching your target audience and having an impact. It will make it a much stronger EC.
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Good luck selling that. In general, if something requires this much explanation to not be viewed negatively it's not something you want in your application. You are working way to hard to justify this.
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To me, your idea -- while well intentioned, sounds like you're pushing the comedic actions to make it work and calling them "funny". This sounds goofy or silly. What you'd find on Rowan & Martin's "Laugh-In" and obviously YouTube. I think you're better off explaining what you
do ("I like to finds ways to help teenage battle depression…") than actually showing it (or even describing it.)
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Nothing wrong with being, "funny." Use good judgement with the content.
IMO, the medical profession could use a greater number of upbeat people. (Regardless of the day's events, some people are naturally more upbeat than others.)
IMO, the medical profession could use a greater number of upbeat people. (Regardless of the day's events, some people are naturally more upbeat than others.)
I just want to do it. I don't care whether it is in my app or not. I want to help kids get out of depression. Therefore, what is the worst case scenario of me not putting this on my application but an ADCOM finding out if he or she googles my name?
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If you want to do it, do it. If you want to put your name on it, go for it. There's no pressure to talk about this hobby anywhere on your application, and you wouldn't be lying by merely omitting that info while applying. I don't think it's a "bad looking" hobby to have, and if an adcom were to watch your videos and not find them funny, I'm pretty sure that's not the end of the world
