YouTube Channel of the Week #27: FredsVoice

An ASMR channel with some very strange characters.

by Joe Bish

July 6, 2016, 11:25am

YouTube is probably the greatest anthropological project ever launched. It has managed to expose the multitudes of the human condition more than any other medium ever created, and allowed people to express themselves in more diverse ways than at any point in history. This weekly column is an outlet for me to share with you some undiscovered gems, as well some very well trodden gems, and discuss just what it is that makes the chosen accounts so intriguing.

WHO: FredsVoice
WHAT: An amateur actor who does ASMR stuff.
HOW MANY SUBSCRIBERS AT TIME OF WRITING: 80,044
WHY SHOULD I CARE: Doing ASMR videos on YouTube seems to be an incredibly easy and effortless way to get shitloads of subscribers. ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, which is essentially a tingly feeling you get from certain sounds, sometimes described as "euphoric". Basically, it's a bunch of people whispering into a camera and rattling their fingernails lightly on tin cans and the like. The most popular of these are, of course, done by conventionally attractive women, as creepy men enjoy being whispered to by them. Also, a lot of them simulate an intimate setting, like this one of a woman looming over you in a bed.

That's not the life for my man FredsVoice though, oh no. Fred mixes his bizarre whispering with little am dram performances. My favourite of these, and actually the first one I saw, was the above video, in which he pretends to do a drug deal whilst giving you ASMR chills. The result is ridiculous, and hilarious. I'm no expert on the machinations of a cocaine deal, but I'm almost certain it doesn't involve a man in a two-piece suit whispering nothings at you whilst repeatedly eating the cocaine. I also would imagine that they would try and keep the time to a minimum, so as not to attract any undue attention. At 18 minutes it's a lengthy deal. There is a thunderstorm outside wherever this is taking place, to add to the atmosphere, but it makes it feel more like you're buying gear off of Count Dracula.

I can't really work out where Fred is from. In some videos he sounds a bit Dutch, in others he sounds Australian. He's based in the UK, according to his page, and looks a little bit like Chris Hemsworth.

Another one of Fred's characters is the 'Rude Englishman'. In this guise, Fred, in a hushed tone, gives you that typical bad English service during a shirt-fitting, in a perfume shop, in a tea shop, in a library, and in a restaurant. Again, these are nearing (and sometimes greatly exceeding) 20 minutes in length. I wouldn't stand talking to a rude librarian for two minutes, let alone 20.

FredsVoice has elements of legit ASMR content (as legit as that sort of thing can be) but essentially the channel serves as an acting CV, as it does for a lot, if not all, of the people who do it. It's a weird phenomenon, in that I can't really see why you would need a hundred different people acting out a hundred different scenarios in these things. Surely once you've heard one ASMR vid, you've heard them all? It's the same sensation. If you love it so much just listen to someone dragging a screw across a cabasa, it's the same thing.

What I like about Fred's channel, though, is the plain strangeness of it. The odd outfits, the weird themes – semi-normal situations delivered in hushed whispers. Perhaps the most peculiar is the Candy Factory video. For reasons I'm sure you can gather all by yourself, creepy whispering and sweeties do not a good coupling make.

We need our oddballs, and if they're popular and people like what they do, all the better. While I use Fred's channel for the lulz, others undoubtedly use it for this ASMR thing, something I completely do not understand but, shit, I don't need to 'get' everything. Some things just aren't for me. I'll tell you what is for me, though: laughing my bollocks off at this guy whispering about Skittles.

@joe_bish

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