These Awkward Family Cookouts from the 90s Will Make You Want to Eat Outside

Welcome back to our food column, Hot Links, where Dan Meyer explores the neglected culinary stars of YouTube. Each week, Dan presents a selection of videos highlighting specific food themes, from amateur cooking to local restaurant commercials, elderly drinking buddies, kitchen disasters, to the infinite supply of odd YouTube wonders in the food category. We encourage you to fall into this culinary video k-hole, and include your own comments and contributions below.

My favorite time of year is slowly arriving—the time of year when I can cook outside with my friends on my roof. In commemoration of the arrival of weather pleasant enough to facilitate this activity, I have selected a handful of very intimate videos showcasing others doing the same thing. This theme allows for extreme voyeurism, and opens windows into otherwise completely unknown families and social groups across the USA.

Grandpa Wunrow's Backyard Cookout—1983

This video is almost entirely uneventful, which is why I think it does such a great job of capturing the essence of the lazy backyard cookout. It's a lot of sitting around and small talk. There is one person at the grill, meanwhile you busy yourself with talking about the weather, catching up, and slowly drinking beers. It's life at a snail's pace, and no wonder it's so popular.

Cook Out (Weiner Roast) at Mr. & Mrs. David & Dianna Wilson's backyard

Clocking in at 19 seconds, this is what I like to call a "Youtube American Gothic," a genre of short videos that perfectly encapsulate the contemporary American existence. Of course, we are blessed with a quote at the end of this video to send us off quite nicely, "You're gettin' ashes all over your hot dogs." Watch yourself.

Boomshard's Cookout 5.30.09

Songs and music videos about cookouts are somewhat rare. I was really pleased to find this, because now I have a great go-to track to play while I'm firing up the coals. At first, I was wondering if there would be one of those true "only on YouTube" moments here, and of course I didn't have to wait long before I found it. The Garbage Bag Apron—as donned by the unnamed chef—a true novelty and telling of great ingenuity.

MY BIRTHDAY COOKOUT !!! Oh I See you E

This video came up because the title has cookout in it, but it's really just a very short clip of four people looking quite faded in a dark room. The camera has exceptionally bad audio quality, but more than anything, it looks like "E" just got busted for giving his lady friend a little lap dance. I'd like to imagine that these folks had a wonderful day outside, and this is what happens after dusk falls when you've had one too many summer cocktails. I've been there. I'm going to be there.

Back Yard Cookout 97'

The music selection on this one gives it a very heavy "Ibiza" vibe, but this is what late summer in a middle class suburb in Anywhere, USA. However, the music does make for a very moody video that showcases a great selection of attire, and a quite perfect time capsule for 1997. Shout outs to the camera zoom-in to the three plates of food on the table that are completely indiscernible. Keep an eye out for the credits, so you can see the special thanks to Brent Tenpenny and Phillip Haynes.

Old Time Reunion and Cookout

Yet another entry into a stranger's home, we have this barn-burner. It begins with a very engaging roundtable discussion about what differentiates cherry juice from Grenadine, but that's when the english speaking stops and leaves the uni-lingual among us to guess what is being talked about.