Ze Frank is back. The influential creator, who has spent the past five years at the digital entertainment company BuzzFeed, has shared a video titled “True Facts: Frog Fish,” the first new upload on his YouTube channel since 2014.
Years ago, Frank’s True Facts videos, in which he revealed curious anecdotes about unusual fauna, was one of the most popular web series on the internet. An episode about angler fish has proven particularly popular, receiving close to 19 million views to date. For his latest guide to the animal kingdom, Frank has examined the deep-dwelling frog fish. And by “examined,” we mean “laughed at funny pictures of.”
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Frank’s online video career stretches back to the pre-YouTube days, when he found an audience by showing of his sweet dance skills and launching a program called the show. His status as a pioneer is so great that Hank Green once remarked, “Pretty much everything you watch on YouTube these days is either directly or indirectly influenced by Ze Frank.”
At BuzzFeed, Frank served as the President of BuzzFeed Entertainment Group. In that role, he played a huge role in building BuzzFeed into the massive online video operation it is today. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget how much of BuzzFeed’s content was in listicle form before Frank came around.
Recently, though, Frank transitioned to a different role at BuzzFeed, one that places him in a research-and-development role. If Frank’s new gig is going to give him more time to lay some true facts on us, then I’m all for it.