The Shrek movies are a lot of things to a lot of people. To kids, they’re funny animated movies with fairytale creatures. To parents, it’s a welcome respite from bad kids movie. For animation fans, they were great examples of good animation. For movie buffs, they were a great combination of all of the above and more. If there is something about the Shrek movies that calls to you, but you ca’t put your finger on it, this video offers an excellent, in-depth analysis of the themes of the movies, those things that call to you at a subconscious level.

Disney World is in the Florida, and Florida is basically one big swamp. And swamps are giant mosquito breeding grounds. So the question is, why isn’t Disney World surrounded by mosquitoes, and why don’t visitors to Disney World leave looking like pincushions? This video explains the incredible lengths that Disney World goes to to ensure they don’t have a mosquito problem, including lots of spraying, lab tests, and an army of chicken guards. 

Shopping for office chairs is like walking a weird ergonomic gauntlet. Either you’re spending a ton of money, enough to break the bank, or you’re spending so little money that you just know that you are buying a lemon. So do you sacrifice some retirement or do you risk a broken coccyx? This video explains why the expensive chairs are so expensive and, spoiler alert, you get what you pay for so don’t pinch pennies. 

For those of you unaware of Blue Apron, it’s basically a simple concept. You sign up for a meal delivery, and they send you all the ingredients you need for the recipe––including spices and oils, even––and all the instructions you need to complete the recipe successfully. But of course there’s a catch. These recipes are far from simple, with some of them taking hours to complete, especially if you’re an amateur chef. This video pokes fun at everything wrong with Blue Apron. 

Michael Scott, the notoriously ne’er-do-well boss of Dunder Mifflin paper company, was once a master salesman. In The Office, we rarely get to see Michael Scott on his sales game, but the times that we do see it, it’s magical. This video looks at those few times that Michael Scott sells proverbial ketchup to the proverbial woman wearing white gloves and asks, what made him so successful? Through these clips, you’ll learn the importance of building personal relationships and more in doing sales––and in life.

China is among the three most influential and important countries on the planet, and yet Americans know very little about Chinese history, Chinese politics, and Chinese policies. This John Oliver segment seeks to rectify that with a deep dive into President Xi Jinping’s history and his policies. If that doesn’t get you interested in this Last Week Tonight segment, here’s a joke that might pique your interest: What do Xi Jinping and Winnie the Pooh have in common? Watch the clip to find out.

Many Americans are not familiar with the Japanese movie Battle Royale. Its plot is very similar to The Hunger Games, except Battle Royale came out before The Hunger Games. Basically, in dystopian Japan group of teenagers are dumped on an island and told that only one person can leave the island alive. The rest of the movie follows them as they try to survive––by killing their classmates. As gruesome as it sounds, the film is about friendship. Particularly, what does friendship mean under the ultimate stressors? 

Every summer, moviegoers are treated to a smorgasbord of big budget blockbuster hopefuls. Often those are parts of franchises, such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Terminator, or the massive variety of superhero movies from Fantastic Four to The Avengers. But for every blockbuster attempt that succeeds, it seems like there are a few that fail. What causes these failures? This video suggests that it has to do with rookie directors, lack of ingenuity, and more.

On Jan. 28, 1986, seven astronauts, including one school teacher named Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe and her crew mates never made it to space, sadly, because just over a minute into their takeoff the shuttle exploded. Everyone on board died. This New York Times piece does a deep dive into the Challenge disaster, explaining the history of the space program and what made the Challenger different from its predecessors and how the structural problems that caused the crash slipped through the cracks. 

Hank Azaria is the man of a thousand voices, and most of those voices appear on the same show. Simpsons fans will immediately recognize the characters he voices, even if they did not realize that the same man was behind them all:  Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Jonathan Frink, and Snake Jailbird. In this video, Azaria explains where he got the inspiration for the characters’ voices, as well as describes some of his early career. 

Peter Caine is an animal trainer. He has lots of experience with animals, and suffice to say the guy know what he’s talking about. So you should listen to him when he says not to get a raven as a pet, which apparently people really want to do. Even if you have no interest in having a raven as a pet (which, again, you shouldn’t), this video is an hilarious explanation of why it’s a terrible idea. Peter Caine is a funny guy, and he’s got quite the intense personality, so his stories are worth listening to.

You might think that watching someone perform mundane tasks using only primitive technology (sticks, homemade kilns, and hand-woven baskets, for example) would be boring. But Primitive Technology’s channel has a whopping eight million subscribers for a reason! In this video, he creates a small yam farm, grows the yams, and then cooks them over a roaring fire––which he started without tools, of course. Most likely you have no interest in doing this yourself, but that’s not the point of the video. Rather, it’s very relaxing to watch.