Five of the Best: Playing With Fire

It’s getting quite a bit colder out, so let’s warm up by featuring some fire… Lots of fire!

By now, we’ve all seen the occasional video of people setting things on fire pop up on our Suggested Videos feed. You may have also seen gamer Daniel Middleton receiving news coverage for his WHAT DID I DO TO HIM?!?! video, where he burnt one of those creepy Hatchimal toys that are all the rage. However, let’s be honest, they’re not as creepy as Furbys… Remember those?

In no way a new phenomenon, fire-themed videos have become sort of a trend on YouTube and have resulted in some of the hottest videos around. And while we’re not necessarily condoning the use of fire for amusement’s sake (“safety first” is our motto!), it seemed wrong to not highlight our fave videos featuring it! So here they are, in all their (blaze of) glory, Five Of The Best: Playing With Fire.

FIRE MAGIC! ft. Mandeville Sisters – Steven Bridges

Not so deep down, everyone loves a bit of magic – the tricks, the surprise, the hours we spend trying to figure out how that certain trick was done – and what better way to make magic better than to add a bit of fire?

What begins as a simple card trick for YouTube magician extraordinaire Steven Bridges quickly transports us to the world of “how on earth did he do that?!”, which is quickly followed by us staring at our computer screen in awe. We are totally with Amelia and Grace Mandeville on this one, applause is deserved all around.

Fire Man – TomSka

Before he was selected to take part in this year’s YouTube Creators Intensive programme at Sundance (which we are totally jealous of), Tom Ridgewell was once the underrated superhero Fire Man.

Through a combination of great editing, special effects, puns, and a rather dark ending, this video is great for those desperate to see superheroes in their everyday setting. However, be warned: it also features an appearance from Water Man himself, Sammy Paul. To be fair though, he’s clearly no match for the red-hot Tom… Sorry, Sammy, you know it’s true.

DAN IS ON FIRE – danisnotonfire

Does anyone remember the time when Dan Howell, the man who is well known for not being on fire, actually set himself on fire?

Filming a celebratory sexy music video for reaching one million subscribers, Dan decided that the best way to mark the occasion was to have BFF Phil Lester on standby with fire extinguishers whilst gyrating across our screen in a Captain America jumper holding proudly flaming torches in a series of dramatic poses.

It’s still one of our all-time favourite videos, and we still find ourselves watching in from time to time.

Box of Marvel Mystery Bags – ashens

Coming in fourth on our list of fire-related videos is this Marvel-lous unboxing by the one and only Stuart Ashen. What? No, of course we haven’t thrown you for a loop! This video features fire, we promise.

At first, it seems like a normal ashens unboxing: we see the awesomely cool toys (well, maybe not that awesome, but we are huge fans of the Marvel universe), we get to hear some witty commentary about the toys and then… Well, let’s just say the whole thing goes up in flames – literally.

Nerd³ and Emma Blackery Play the Sims! – OfficialNerdCubed

Remember the original Sims? Remember how easy it was to set things on fire because all the appliances you could afford were utter crap? So do we! Which is why we were feeling super nostalgic watching this video from Daniel Hardcastle and Emma Blackery.

Following the short (yet hilarious) lives of Yvonne and Albert Cummings as they try to stay alive in a world solely controlled by Dan and Emma, you’ll find yourself dying of laughter whilst also mourning the sad and untimely death of young Albert… He had so much to offer, yet those dastardly Sims flames cut his time in the game short.

RIP.

Words by Bebe Ashley and Clare Fitzgerald.