Unboxing: The Phenomenon
In the belief that reading the Heck Of A Guy blog is itself risky enough to ones social standing, DrHGuy herewith describes what unboxing is not in hopes of rescuing Heck Of A Guy viewers, most of whom appear to have processed far more information from ink and paper than cathode-ray tubes, from potential cyber-induced faux pas.
Unboxing is not:
The sequel to Boxing Helena
A movement favoring the dissolution of “the sweet science”
An alternative to Boxing Day
A derivative, back formation, or a format in any way associated with the word, “ox”1
On the other hand,
It sometimes but does not always involve a X-Box game system
Unboxing: It’s Hip, It’s Trendy, It’s Happening Now
We know this because The Wall Street Journal tells us so – on Page 1, no less.
Unboxing: Is That All There Is?
If, by “all there is,” one means, “Does the phenomenon of Unboxing, the subject of numerous articles in the popular press, the sole focus of several web sites, and the inspiration for videos being watched thousands of times, consist entirely of memorializing in a video or, less frequently, a slide show, the process of opening the box in which an item is packed and then removing the components of that item from said box, then the answer would be, “Yes.”2
To elaborate, were one purchase the Hot Shot SuperCool Dude Electronic Game Toy at Best Circuit Mart, tote it home in a box like this,
and then, while being videotaped, remove that Hot Shot SuperCool Dude Electronic Game Toy from that box, one would then be said to have unboxed.3
And, it’s not as though there’s a big surprise in the offing. The unboxing video viewer already knows what is being unboxed.
[Note: Maybe – although it seems hard to believe – DrHGuy is missing something. Is there perhaps an instructional aspect to this - is it a sort of remedial box-opening course? Is there an element of suspense DrHGuy has overlooked? Does 1 in every 100 boxes, for example, explode?]
What’s In The Box?
Typically, the item being unboxed is a video game console, a plasma TV, the newest mobile phone, or something else featuring electrons doing clever tricks. One can watch batches of these at sites such as - yep, there is a unboxing.com site. Endgadget.com also has a large number of electronic gear unboxings. And, of course, a search for “unboxing” at YouTube provides over 100 these to view (and viewed they are; “CheapyD Gets His PS3 – Unboxing” has been viewed, on Youtube alone, over 94,000 times.)
There are, rarely, other categories of boxed items subjected to unboxing. Today’s prize for most unanticipated unboxing goes to Smugmug, where one can watch an unboxing of the Avent Isis IQ Duo Breast Pump by its ultimate end-user.
DrHGuy’s Take On Unboxing
As Heck Of A Guy readers know by now, DrHGuy is all about ubergeeky trends. Yet, slipping back into first person to affect a confessional tone, I admit to being unambiguously unmoved and unusually ungratified by unboxing, which is unfortunate but hardly ununderstandable.
That DrHGuy is unimpressed with unboxing, however, does not mean he is unfamiliar with it. As evidence, I offer this photo of an early unboxing with a far more interesting target than a PS3.
DrHGuy: The Captain Kirk Of Unboxing
Perhaps the underlying problem is that those routine unboxings of video games, cell phones, and computers are too pedestrian for DrHGuy and the discriminating sort of viewer to be found among Heck Of A Guy readers.
Perhaps it’s time to boldly unbox what no man has unboxed before.
Yes, in a unprecedented effort to single-handedly expand the universe of unboxing, DrHGuy & Heck Of A Guy Productions present DrHGuy’s unboxing of — well, let’s just identify it for now as the Christmas present from DrHGuy’s Mom, so it ain’t no electronic gizmo. Suffice it to say that the Heck Of A Guy research team has found no official unboxing video featuring this category.
Check it out at
The DrHGuy Unboxing Premiere
Footnotes
- Nor, for that matter, does unboxing have anything to do with a real ox or real oxen, living or dead. ↩
- ”Yes, indeed,” “Yep,” “You betcha,” and “Apparently so” are also acceptable responses. ↩
- This is, admittedly, a strict constructionalist interpretation of unboxing; other commentators with more liberal and expansive views hold that a sine qua non of unboxing is releasing the video or photo documentation to a publicly accessible forum (e.g., Youtube or a site dedicated to unboxing) and some even maintain that unboxing has not taken place until that moment at which someone other than the originator of the video or photos views the graphic representation. This complex metaphysical issue reflects such fundamental intellectual and philosophical differences that it will doubtless be debated through the ages. ↩
