h3h3Productions is run by married couple Ethan and Hila Klein who produce videos that satirize internet and general culture. They are probably so successful because they poke fun at every day things and current events that everyone has a basic understanding of with a relaxed and often immature tone. Their subjects are broad and there is generally nothing they won't tackle. 

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To begin with visual design, looking at the channel page on YouTube of h3h3Productions you can see the logo and banner as is the case with every other YouTube channel in existence. Their logo is simply h3 inside inside square brackets, like so [h3]. Behind this there is a purple zig zag  with pink dots in a blue circle. Visually this is striking because it places their simple channel symbol inside a colourful circle and contrasts the simple with the bright and vibrant colours. I would say this matches the personality of the married duo in the videos because it is warm, inviting and cheerful. Ethan and Hila are fun and outgoing, like older friends that I would like to hang out with and the channel logo reminds me of that. The use of bright glow stick type colours and the general aesthetic of their homepage reminds me of the look of people in photographs from the 80's and 90's. The retro feel is also shown through the intro that they have in many of the videos that feature VHS quality video footage of Ethan typing on a computer. Perhaps Ethan has a fondness for this aesthetic and uses it to draw in viewers with the bright warm colours and friendly feel. The channel banner itself encapsulates the relationship of Ethan and Hila and makes them look tough and mock-intimidating. Hila is wearing dark sunglasses and Ethan is posing in a way in which he is looking down on us. However, the tough vibe is immediately overlooked when the viewer notices the cute pink pillow that Ethan is holding. Pink, another bright colour that is not generally thought of as tough or masculine, is a great way for Ethan and Hila to laugh at themselves. When the viewer sees the banner, they see a couple that do not take themselves too seriously. They are essentially doing what they do to other people in their own videos, being satirical and mocking themselves and people who take the tough guy act seriously. A perfect example of visual design at work within a video itself would be 'VAPE NATION', Ethan Klein (2016). The video is a satirical take on the vaping phenomenon in recent years and still holds up with its biting commentary on the types of people who vape. First off we can see that the title is in all capitals, showing apparent enthusiasm regarding vaping. The character that Ethan portrays in the video is obviously so over the top that you can tell he does not really believe the things that he is saying, and this goes for the title too. With it's enthusiasm and energy shouting out at the viewer to watch, it's a title trying to be hip and exciting, just like the main character. Speaking of the main character, the way Ethan is dressed tells us that he tries too hard.

The aesthetic tells us that he is a loser. He wears a green bandanna, a pot leaf shirt with a caption saying 'GO GREEN' that is too small for him, baggy pants, socks and sandals, several hippy bracelets and glasses with a lens that he flips up and down for cringe-y effect on the train. Without opening his mouth and acting so over the top that you can tell he is joking, the general public can look at him and see an overweight man trying hard to be young and fit in, dressed like that, vaping and talking about 'ripping fat clouds bruh'. 

'VAPE NATION', by h3h3Productions (2016) is supposed to make the viewer laugh because of its satire and cringe factor. People like to laugh at others, it is human nature, and through the visual rhetoric of this loser figure dressed poorly and trying to look young and hip, Ethan Klein is both satirizing young vapers and getting the public to laugh at him. I would say this self deprecation is successful as Klein is becoming, in appearance, the very thing that he is critiquing. He has changed himself into the universal figure that he wants people to laugh at.

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A theory on satire I read was for the University of Rhode Island and was titled The Power of Ridicule: An Analysis of Satire written by Megan LeBouef. In the text, LeBouef (2007) explains that satire 'points out the deficiencies in human behaviors...in such a way that they become absurd, even hilarious.' Just based on h3h3Production's VAPE NATION (2016), the audience can see that Ethan Klein, visually, is presenting us with a character that is so over the top, so sloppily dressed, that it is both absurd and hilarious. Klein is showing us how some of these vapers can be a nuisance on a visual level at least, where their whole lives revolve around 'going green' and trying to be cooler than they really are. This, although over exaggerated as most satire tends to be, is true as everyone I personally know that vapes started because they said it looked cool. Unless they are trying to quit cigarettes, every vaper I know started due to a visual interest. Ethan Klein is mocking this, making it look the exact opposite of cool and making the over the top fashion and appearance into a 'deficiency in human behavior.' No one would really want to be around a vaper as portrayed by Ethan Klein because it is embarrassing. According to LeBouef (2007), 'Satire also has the ability to protect it's creator from culpability for criticism, because it is implied rather than overtly stated.' LeBouef is saying that the creator, in this case Ethan Klein, is exempt from personal criticism because he is not portraying himself as he usually does. Klein is portraying somebody else's life and visual aesthetic. If anything, a viewer will say 'that guy is an idiot.' However, the viewer isn't criticising Ethan Klein, they are criticising the character he is portraying and mocking what he looks like. Due to this, Ethan Klein has really succeeded. He wants people to think that the vaping character he is portraying is stupid. Dressing like he does, Klein is making himself into the character as bait for people to agree with his opinions on hardcore vapers. Ethan Klein is protected from criticism and taking responsibility for blame as he is portraying a character visually different from what he normally is in every other video.

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Having covered h3h3Productions and the theory of satire in visual design and rhetoric, I feel that there are many other youtubers that do the exact same thing as Ethan and Hila Klein. Another example of visual satire would have to be TVFilthyFrank, a now finished YouTube channel that has ties to h3h3Productions and even worked with them on various videos. While Ethan Klein was himself visually for most of his videos and occasionally portrayed characters, TVFilthyFranks titular character Filthy Frank is always playing a character. George Miller, who is better known as Joji, played a character known as Frank. Frank would critique internet culture and modern events in a similar way that h3h3Productions would, only more intense. While Ethan Klein visually came across as a loser trying to be cool, Filthy Frank is just a loser. His visual design tells us that he is a nerd. He wears a blue button down shirt, buttoned all the way to the top, often has a comb over hairstyle, small glasses or children's sunglasses, has acne and sometimes wheres aviator goggles and an aviator hat. George Miller is vastly different looking if you are to see him outside of his Frank persona. Visuals aside, Frank is intended to be unlikable according to Miller. Frank is always trying to push the limit of what can be on YouTube across his channels TVFilthyFrank and TooDamnFilthy. A lot of Millers content would be very inappropriate for an essay, such as his vile satire on cooking shows where he presents himself as a cliche french chef with a mustache.  However, a tamer example would be his video 'COTW - ANTI TEEN SMOKING ADS' published under his channel TooDamnFilthy in 2016. In COTW - ANTI TEEN SMOKIING ADS (2016), Filthy Frank is criticising internet meme culture in the form of an anti smoking ad. While the ad is good in nature in that it is persuading teens to not smoke, Frank finds fault with the embarrassing attempt to connect with teens via meme culture and finds that it feels like an advertisement made by old people who are out of touch and do not understand the youth of today. The satire here is of course how Frank presents himself. While having the audacity to criticise someone else, he of course is dressed in his usual shirt, aviator hat and now a pair of oversized glasses with empty frames and a plastic bow on the edge. He is essentially an embarrassing teen, much like the ones in the video that he is mocking. The very saying 'remove the plank/beam out of your own eye before removing the speck from your brothers eye' comes to mind here. Frank is the definition of imperfect, yet criticises others. He even pushes the boundary by both agreeing that smoking is harmful and then lighting a cigarette and smoking on camera, essentially disregarding what he just said. In my opinion this makes for good satire, not just on anti teen smoking ads in this case, but on youtubers who are self righteous and lack self awareness in their hypocrisy.

 

To sum up, both George Miller and Ethan Klein are fully self aware and want to criticise an aspect of internet or modern culture, but they choose to do this by portraying characters that lack self awareness, which we (the viewers) can see through their visual design and aesthetics. By going out of their way to be over the top and hypocritical, they are escaping criticism by hiding behind characters that do not represent their real every day life and circumstance. Using satire in visual design is a free pass to behave however you want because you are portraying a character while still giving a message. 

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References:

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Klein, E.(2016)VAPE NATION [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkm8Hteeh6M

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LeBoeuf, Megan, "The Power of Ridicule: An Analysis of Satire" (2007). Senior Honors Projects. Paper 63

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Miller, G. (2016) COTW - ANTI TEEN SMOKING ADS [Video] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHZXf5NdYf8