Tom Scott heads off into the sunset.

January 1, 2024 8:15 AM

After ten years, it's time to stop making videos.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker (36 comments total)

NOOOOOOO!!
posted by robbyrobs at 8:35 AM on January 1 [1 favorite]

tom scott will break your heart.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 8:42 AM on January 1 [2 favorites]

What a great run, and a great corpus of work. Congrats to Tom on his 10 year uploading streak and I wish him plenty of rest. He's earned it.
posted by tclark at 8:48 AM on January 1 [3 favorites]

Wow, I was expecting to be sad, but instead I have a tear in my eye while I’m so happy for him.
posted by meinvt at 8:48 AM on January 1

tom scott will break your heart.

I mean, if I found myself going out with a 4chan loser for some unfathomable reason, I'd take the first chance to throw myself at someone like Tom in a heartbeat.
posted by tigrrrlily at 9:02 AM on January 1 [9 favorites]

Off to the Western Lands, I guess.

There is something distinctly not quite merely human about him, and that montage at the end is making me think he must have preternatural luck just to have lived through the last ten years.
posted by jamjam at 9:10 AM on January 1 [1 favorite]

I've enjoyed his videos so much over the past few years. I'm happy that he has the ability to step away and focus on other projects.
posted by johnxlibris at 9:20 AM on January 1

Well played, that man.
posted by flabdablet at 9:46 AM on January 1 [1 favorite]

He says 10 years, but he's been contributing to comedy and science since at least 2009.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:03 AM on January 1 [10 favorites]

Also, the celebratory compilation: Tom Scott introducing places
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:09 AM on January 1 [8 favorites]

I liked that brief moment where he broke his presentation accent, where he momentarily sounded like someone from somewhere. I’m glad he finally got his chance to fly around hoisted by a helicopter.
posted by zenon at 10:12 AM on January 1 [3 favorites]

I've always enjoyed the strong Noakes energy in Tom Scott's videos (early quote from the linked video: "The Cresta is quite different from the bob run I crashed on last year").
posted by BCMagee at 10:52 AM on January 1 [4 favorites]

Yeah, he says ten years but also he mentions 1999, and I’d say that’s more in line with his era-spanning. I’m sure he will continue throwing stuff at the internet, though now I will imagine him doing so while hovering midair in a perpetual sunset.

A lot of people from the previous era of the internet are reaching this same point now, either massively increase business and difficulty and the people involved or retire and try to focus on things they hadn’t been able to do the past umpteen years. It’s good to see Tom choose the latter, hopefully he will be leading by example.
posted by Mizu at 11:01 AM on January 1 [1 favorite]

Purveyor of cartoon horror Meatcanyon is also heading off into the Youtube sunset. Or... well... like Tom Scott, he's actually mostly saying that he's not going to keep uploading on a strict schedule, but will instead upload whenever he feels like it, and there's also a continuing podcast that you can tune into...
posted by clawsoon at 11:26 AM on January 1 [1 favorite]

Never heard of this guy until right now, but “Do less and be happier” has always been my ambition in life.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:06 PM on January 1 [6 favorites]

Beautiful little self-tribute which he deserves. He navigated his youtube career well.

[cynically] He'll be back sooner than he thinks.
posted by fleacircus at 12:08 PM on January 1 [3 favorites]

I've heard him non-ironically described as the gen-x Stephen Fry or David Attenborough. However, I've always thought of him as being inspired by James Burke. That seems to be the most direct connection.
posted by bonehead at 1:03 PM on January 1 [29 favorites]

i see what you did there
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:05 PM on January 1 [12 favorites]

the gen-x Stephen Fry or David Attenborough
In his cutlass-distributing years he was more like a sort of offline Ryan North, a source/relayer of Cool Things to Do for the local student community.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 1:33 PM on January 1 [1 favorite]

My 20-something daughter was/is a fan and said hello in early 2022 when she found him sitting alone on a park bench in Cork . There was a bouncy reason for his presence there, then. The 10 years milestone is about producing content every Monday 520x on the trot with no misses. As pointed out, he had an on-line life before (and after). Retire early and retire often!
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:14 PM on January 1 [3 favorites]

Well, if you something to replace Tom's shorts, Joel Haver would like a word.

(a feature a week, seems like madness)
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:16 PM on January 1

I've heard him non-ironically described as the gen-x Stephen Fry or David Attenborough.

Millennial, surely (born 1984). Or elder millennial, if you must.
posted by ssg at 4:21 PM on January 1

I read all the comments. Who?

Someone notable enough to have a wikipedia page. Though honestly if you watch the linked video you'll likely get the gist pretty quickly.
posted by Aleyn at 4:39 PM on January 1 [2 favorites]

Other YouTube shuffles: sex educator Hannah Wilton is ending her primary channel.

But Emily Graslie has the Brain Scoop channel back!
posted by amk at 5:49 PM on January 1

I really don’t like that 2014 is ten years ago.
posted by rhymedirective at 7:03 PM on January 1 [7 favorites]

tom scott will break your heart.

Once upon a time ago here on MetaFilter I confessed my boy-crush on Tom. He's one of the like three guys I've thought "yeah, I'd crawl into bed with him". There are interesting stories about the other two, but well.... I never even ran into Tom somewhere.

Thanks The Pluto Gangsta for posting that link, it kept me from having to go dig it up myself. Once I saw a Tom video I did go back and watch every video. He did a lot of interesting things and was good at telling the stories.

I hope he still does some interesting things with others once in a while. There's been other stuff than his weekly video thing. IIRC he announced about a year ago that he was going to stop doing them.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:05 PM on January 1

The list of corrections to videos on Tom Scott's website is worth browsing - it illustrates the depth of research and the amount of care he put into every one of those 500+ videos.

His most thorough correction is a whole video itself.
posted by simonw at 10:26 AM on January 2

a feature a week, seems like madness

OK, make that a feature a month. Still, a lot. But mirroring the other creators in moving away from weekly uploads.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:04 AM on January 2

I've heard him non-ironically described as the gen-x Stephen Fry or David Attenborough. However, I've always thought of him as being inspired by James Burke. That seems to be the most direct connection.

oh, good call, yeah that's spot on. even the this is really interesting cadence is there
posted by Sebmojo at 11:25 AM on January 2

I'll miss his videos because they usually gave you a view on something interesting and not at all well known.

Useful sometimes when debating with people who think the government doesn't do anything useful. (See his recent video on the massive effort to control fruit flies in California
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:46 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

See his recent video on the massive effort to control fruit flies in California

I remember having a weird feeling watching that video. So in order to keep California fruit safe, other, poorer countries are kept as reservoirs of fruit-destroying flies? The video itself was interesting, but it felt like there was a gap where this little example of neo-imperialism could've been filled in by a visit to fruit growers in those poorer countries who were being made poorer by a process that made California richer.

Anyway, that's a nitpick.
posted by clawsoon at 2:52 PM on January 2

Basically a Tom Scott video
posted by tigrrrlily at 3:56 PM on January 2 [4 favorites]

Clawsoon, it looks like the US does work globally to fight the spread of the fruit fly. I think the problem is the sterile fly technique he featured in California doesn't work when the population is established and thus other controls are needed and are beyond the scope of the California program.

CA takes the med fly seriously. (He says after watching by a few fly collection stations today.)
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:14 PM on January 2

Basically a Tom Scott video

Not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed that it's not a Meatbomb video, a la Mr. Beast.
posted by clawsoon at 4:19 PM on January 2

imma be pretty excited if Meatbomb is also Meat Canyon
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:03 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

LOL, "anyone who tells you the're certain about how the wold works is either a mathematician or the're selleing something.". Laughed until I cried, that one went into the ~/quotes.txt file.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:41 AM on January 3