The video is more than three minutes long and mostly consists of a slideshow of photos of Brittany and Rob kissing and posing cheek-to-cheek for the camera. There are a few short clips interspersed between the images, including one of the two vigorously making out in bed. Also of note in the teenagers' YouTube posting, titled "Cute Couple Video; No hate!," are shots of love messages that they have written on each other’s bodies, including, "Run Away with me," "I want to be w/you foreva if you’ll let me," "Your beautiful and perfect!" All the while, Justin Bieber's "As Long as You Love Me" plays in the background.
The clip has more than 3.5 million views.
This is the world of "cute couple videos." Which, yes, is a thing. Teenagers are taking to YouTube to post clips of themselves performing their puppy love. There is cuddling and smooching, but mostly characteristically teenage foreplay: wrestling in leaves, blowing raspberries on bellies, doing the airplane in bed, tickling, pillow-fighting, giving each other wet willies in between kisses, eating a string of candy "Lady and the Tramp"-style and throwing snacks into each other's mouths.
Above: Brittany and Rob's video, "Cute Couple Video; No hate!"
These often prosaic videos can inspire huge fan bases that churn out compilation videos with titles like “The Best ♥ Couple ♥ i've Ever Seen.” These clips feature the greatest hits from a favorite YouTube couple with stock iMovie effects -- namely, the heart swipe transition -- and set to a Jason Mraz tune. These tributes don't stop when the teen couples break up, either. Take the case of YouTube's most famous "cute couple": Savannah and Jared, also known in celebrity-couple-parlance as Javannah. They long ago broke up and deleted their many, many videos, but they of course live on in perpetuity online. Fans continue to post compilation videos with titles like "Javannah Forever," "Still the Cutest Couple Ever ! #Part1," "WE MISS JAVANNAH." In posting one such video, lovemesomedegrassi wrote, "I know they arent together anymore but I know they will be eventually."
Savannah, who was featured in a recent Jezebel article, has moved on to posting cute couple photos with her new boyfriend. She currently has 326,000 Instagram followers and 522,000 Twitter followers. That should give you a good sense of just how big the demand is for these videos.
A fan video titled "Last Javannah Video :("
And, oh my, the comments sections. They are a veritable treasure trove of youthful angst. For the most part, these videos seem to tap into viewers' loneliness and desperation -- for example:
I'm all alone im gonna be alone for the rest of my life I'm never gonna find someone :'( and I'm in highschool :'(!!!
I always watch this kind of videos with my boy but now... I have to watch it alone.. Everything has an end but I hope you guys have and END TOGETHER<3
i'm nor sure why people do these "cute couple" videos. to show their love or just trying to make everybody yealous.. i personally get really miserable and cry my forever aloneliness after watching these :D
Hi I love y guys y guys are a cute couple I wish I had a Good looking sweet nice bf like Zac I love y guys
Why the fuck do I watch these at night do I wanna go to bed depressed cause these ppl are happier than me #4EverAlone
There is also plenty of typical teenage lust and aspiration and just generally uncontainable emotion on display:
HOLY FUCK HIS DIMPLE IN THE VERRRRYYY END
Soo cute PS I cryed
Holy shit. They're perfect
The videos, the comments -- all of them bring me right back to that teenage feeling of everything being forever, whether it's a relationship or a lack thereof. The thing is, there's little denying that these cute couples really are forever -- at least, as they exist online. There is a part of me that wants to admonish them for their lack of foresight: "Do you really want this existing online forevermore? What will college admissions think?!" But there is another, more optimistic side to this. So often, we hear that today’s teenagers are wild and out of control. The twerking! The sexting! The hookups! Miley Cyrus! But if you look closely enough, you find such heart-shattering sweetness and vulnerability. Which is to say: You find teenagers as they’ve alway been and, one can only hope, always will be.
Shares