I get a huge kick out of the videos of the always-entertaining nerd whisperer Jenny Nicholson. If you haven’t seen her channel, check it out and watch as she sits on her bed, surrounded by sci-fi plushies, and shares her quirky, sometimes labyrinthine, and often convincing theories and opinions on sci-fi and fantasy films, comic books, novels, and other nerd media fodder.
In her latest video, she answers many requests she’s apparently had for doing ASMR videos by explaining ten reasons why her answer is no. But she delivers her ten reason AS an ASMR video, right down to tapping, scratching, and scrunching things as she talks. One of her ten reasons made me laugh out loud:
“I just don’t know how I’m supposed to take myself seriously when I’m crinkling bags for an hour.”
For those unfamiliar, ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is an intense tingling sensation some people claim they experience when they hear certain soft voices, pleasant repetitive sounds, or while watching someone doing a particularly mundane, repetitive activity.
I’m sure Jenny is going to get a lot of grief from ASMRtists for seemingly making fun of them, but I would hope they’d have a healthy sense of humor about it all. Several commenters who claim to experience ASMR said that they laughed at her reasons for not doing it. I do not have ASMR, but I do enjoy listening to some ASMR audio as I’m going to sleep and I’m fascinated by the whole phenomenon and the numerous, surreal, and just plain bizarre videos people are producing in the genre. An hour of nothing but crinkling bags? Andy Warhol would be so proud.