EMN Programming Guide - Miscellaneous
EMN File List - Interstitials/Ads File List - Bumpers File List
Angry Video Game Nerd
Year: 2006
Synopsis: A foul-mouthed basement-dwelling nerd gets really angry about old videogames, but it's funny because he yells about very petty things.
EMN Notes: Mandy and I are both such big fans of James Rolfe. For me, it came much later than it did for most people, because I wasn't a regular watcher during what would many consider his heyday. No, it took until Mandy would fall asleep in the living room watching entire seasons of this show for me to appreciate what makes AVGN work. A lot of it is juvenile humor, but James is a genuinely talented and knowledgable filmmaker with an actual background in film production, and that makes his content hit a perfect balance between low-tech and independent and intelligently produced. The character of the Nerd is actually really funny, even if it's just him getting mad about tiny annoyances in bad games, as his facial expressions and way he enunciates swear words cracks me up. It's almost a paradox, but I find AVGN and James's videos in general super relaxing, and I think a huge part of it is how tangible the joy is. James didn't make this show to hate video games, he made it because he loves filmmaking and he loves video games, and it shows.
Binging With Babish
Year: 2016
Synopsis: A man with a very calming voice creates tasty food as seen in TV shows and movies.
EMN Notes: I love how soothing and classy this show is. It's simple, it's to-the-point, and it's pleasantly low-key. Andrew keeps things light and funny with his deadpan voice, but never skimps on the actual cooking process, and it's so fun to see him tackle dishes from movies and TV shows and even some videogames based on how they look in the source material, official recipes, and more. This is a meditative show, and it contributes to that element of EMN, the unpredictability and potential calm that it engenders.
Game Sack 
Year: 2011
Synopsis: Joe Redifer and Dave White sit around and discuss video games, particularly lesser-loved topics like the Sega Saturn, Neo Geo, and arcades.
EMN Notes: I first heard of Joe Redifer from OverClocked ReMix. He made the Final Fantasy 7 and Mega Man 2 ROBOvoice remixes I used to love listening to growing up. The FF7 one was later turned into an animation by LegendaryFrog! If, you know, you wanted to know how old I am. Anyway, eventually I found out about Game Sack. I think Mandy discovered them first, and while it's gone on various hiatuses and currently runs as Joe solo, I still absolutely love it. It's on EMN because there's something so "public access" about it, like a significantly more competent George Wood show. Joe, if you ever read that sentence, I'm sorry. I hope you get what I mean. Anyway, it has that relaxed quality that makes it a perfect fit on this channel, and I love any show that can feel TV-quality despite being a web show.
Gaming In The Clinton Years
Year: 1990
Synopsis: Segments of public access show Flights of Fantasy featuring the most unhinged and nonsensical game reviewer ever, George Wood.
EMN Notes: The thing about George Wood and Flights of Fantasy is that nothing anyone can say about his reviews is funnier than the reviews themselves. This man wanted to be the Siskel & Ebert of video games so badly. The struggle is that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. I'm talking about playing games, media literacy, and production, this man knew nothing about any of it and he didn't let that stop him. What you ended up with is a constant barrage of genuinely outrageous statements from when these games were new loaded with misinformation and falsehoods, bizarre non-sequitur, strong declarative statements, jokes that fall flat on their faces, abrupt segment endings, the works. It's hard to put into words the sheer baffling aura this man emits. If there's one thing funnier than weird public access shows, it's weird public access shows about video games from 1991.
Homestar Runner
Year: 2000
Synopsis: Cartoony denizens of Free Country, USA, have whimsical and surreal adventures. Or sometimes they just check their email.
EMN Notes: Homestar Runner was my obsession in late-elementary and early-middle school. It was so fresh and so funny, better than almost any of the other Flash animations out there because it felt just a little more professional, a little more family-friendly, and more absurdist offbeat rather than shocking. It has influenced my vocabulary in so many small ways to the point that I'm pretty sure I sound ridiculous to anyone who hasn't watched a Strong Bad Email. I would check the site every week, sometimes in school, just to see the new cartoons. I had shirts (and still do have some of them) and introduced it to all my friends. I even owned the first 100 Strong Bad Emails on DVD. I still find these cartoons funny, maybe not as laugh-out-loud as I used to find them, but some shorts and toons are still immensely quotable, wonderful and interesting, and sometimes still pretty hilarious. My first Strong Bad Email, "invisible", still holds up.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Year: 1988
Synopsis: A young intern is shoved into space by his evil bosses, stuck on the Satellite of Love, and forced to watch B-movies with only his robot friends for company.
EMN Notes: We have MST3K episodes from all eras of the show, a selection of our favorites, and it's such a fun addition to the channel. MST3K is so fun because it allows for a twist on the horror host style with more than just horror or sci-fi, and it's always so funny to hear these guys and these robots comment on films that are either bad or Gamera. It's an immensely relaxing experience to drift into space for a bit and watch something easy, funny, and fun. It makes us both smile.
Polygon
Year: Various
Synopsis: Current and former Polygon staffers create unique, unusual shows based around game modding, character creators, and unraveling gaming's biggest mysteries.
EMN Notes: There was a stretch of time where Polygon had some of the best, most-interesting online gaming shows out there. Those days have passed, for many, many reasons, but I'll always be fond of their best stuff. We've put together a small selection of shows we enjoyed that have enough of a public-access-TV feel to work, and while we are very careful what gaming shows we allow on our channels, I think about Monster Factory and Unraveled too much to not want them here.
Real-Time Fandubs
Year: 2018
Synopsis: A group of voice-acting friends re-dub videogame cutscenes in real time with strange and humorous results.
EMN Notes: The most famous scene, depicted here, is Eggman's announcement. Don't get me wrong, this scene is absolutely hilarious, but looking deeper into RTF and SnapCube's work and we found a whole series of videos with moments that sent us. They're almost all Sonic-related, but there's also a Sly Cooper one that's super, super funny. Not only are they just genuinely hilarious videos with excellent voice acting (Penny's Sonic voice is spot-on), they also remind me a lot of weird turn-of-the-millennium experimental TV that would come on at 2AM before it was popularized by Adult Swim. Sometimes you'd check TV guide and find a strange dub of some show or movie you hadn't heard of, or someone had rented out a small block of local programming to play Doom speedkills. It was all very strange. Having these on EMN is like that rare treat.
The Dover Boys At Pimento University
Year: 1942
Synopsis: The villainous Dan Backslide can't STAND those Dover Boys, so he hatches a plan to get even.
EMN Notes: Honestly, this short just holds up. There's real charm to old Looney Tunes-era shorts, and I have good memories of watching Tom & Jerry every Sunday early in the morning. This is funny, it's fun to watch, and it's nice having something pleasantly old school and cartoony on, especially when it comes on at sunrise.
The Eric Andre Show
Year: 2012
Synopsis: The world's weirdest talk show host interviews baffled guests and goes into the streets to confuse people even further.
EMN Notes: Part of the fun of EMN for me is unpredictability and surrealism, and the Eric Andre show is all about that. It's purposely low-budget, strange, and isolated into interview clips and skits that play in between shows on EMN. It can be incredibly funny, yes, but it can also be incredibly, incredibly obtuse. I love that. I do not want this channel's vibes to be entirely pindownable and this helps. It helps a lot.
The Music of Video Games
Year: 2007
Synopsis: Video game music is a delightful artform, and this series celebrates it with ten-minute mixes set to lo-fi footage.
EMN Notes: Back in the day, Mandy found an early YouTube channel that has stuck with them to this day. This channel ended up being Garudoh's channel, The Music Of Video Games. Though the videos had vanished from the internet, the idea intrigued them so much to the point that we eventually made something similar with EMN Vibes, giving it our own twist. One day, in a fit of nostalgia, Mandy went digging and found that Garudoh had uploaded all of his Music of Video Games videos to an archival site for download just last year. It's honestly a miracle that these survived, and now that I've seen them for myself I completely understand why they loved them so much. They're soothing mixes and the video degradation due to being standard definition videos from 07 only makes them comfier. It's nice to have these on, and they serve as fun interludes between all the other programming on here.
The Y2K Crisis!
Year: 1999
Synopsis: The year 2000 is coming. Electronic systems will fail. Computers will crash. Civilization as we know it could end in an instant. Are YOU prepared?
EMN Notes: I love those bizarre scare-documentaries that were released on VHS. They're dated, they're ridiculous, and this one in particular is such a trip to experience because they somehow got the Unsolved Mysteries guy on it. Weird public access programming always has a place here.
Various Advertisements
Year: Various
Synopsis: Ads from the past, and some from the modern day, along with Toonami bumpers and similar.
EMN Notes: Part of the fun of all this is recontextualizing advertisements, some from our youth (like the Zoobooks ad!), some from more recent times, some that are truly bizarre, and some that are super strange for their celebrity cameos or general unhinged nature. It's fun because so many of these ads are removed from their power of actually shilling the products and have become fun space-fillers between movies and shows. Something to talk about. Something to experience.
Various Music Videos
Year: Various
Synopsis: Some of our favorite songs and music videos from all across the musical spectrum.
EMN Notes: Music videos are an essential part of the TV experience for me. My brother recorded Toonami's Midnight Run, and there was an edition that had Daft Punk and Gorillaz music videos. I watched that recording so many times and loved it, and I would grow up with VH1 and Pop-Up videos, and there are still so many great music videos being made. In high school, I would often spend my PE classes in the weight room doing physical therapy with only German MTV to keep me company. Music videos are an essential part of the experience to me, especially late at night.
Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions
Year: 2002
Synopsis: A small collection of stop-motion animations featuring Wallace and Gromit testing out new inventions.
EMN Notes: As I'm sure I've talked about before, I love Wallace and Gromit. They're such cute characters and so nostalgic for me, and these are some fun shorts that came with my collection of Wallace and Gromit features. A fun bit of variety.
Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention
Year: 2010
Synopsis: Wallace and Gromit spotlight different real-world inventors and inventions, mixed with some comical stop-motion segments.
EMN Notes: This is a really fun little piece that feels like a cross between a Wallace and Gromit short and How It's Made. It's simple and soothing, an inoffensive bit of television perfect for a Sunday evening. I really do love these two.
YouTube Poop & Funny Videos
Year: Various
Synopsis: A collection of surreal edits, funny sentence-mixing, memes, skits, and things to make you raise an eyebrow.
EMN Notes: When first designing EMN, Mandy and I agreed that one of our inspirations was these Synchtubes people used to hold. They were rooms full of themed videos and streaming content and every so often you'd get bizarre interludes and interstitials, and because in some anyone could add anything, sometimes a video break would be permeated with truly surreal videos including comedy videos. The energy of randomly running into something utterly weird is part of what makes EMN fun for me as I've said before, and it adds such great variety to the commercial breaks. Fun fact, the very first thing EMN ever played when we set it up for the first time was the American Dad WR Speedrun video, and it killed us with laughter. I think we knew we were onto something then.