My teenager, who loves to show me her favorite Vines, was the first one to let me know that Twitter is shutting Vine down.
While some businesses used Vine in an attempt to reach their audiences, it was really a place for people to share six-second stories and short, funny skits. Like other social media channels, Vine made some of its best contributors famous — among them, Thomas Sanders. (You’ll notice that Sanders prominently displays the address of his YouTube channel next to his profile picture on Vine.)
There are plenty of talented, funny Viners, but one of the things that I particularly appreciate about Sanders is the mostly family-friendly nature of his Vines; I’ve seen many of them now, and they don’t seem to get any dirtier than the brief flash of the middle finger in this Vine. While I don’t cringe at the occasional profanity or sexual reference (otherwise, I wouldn’t listen to Bruce Cockburn), many Vines are things that I wouldn’t share with children or even with some of my friends. Sanders’ work is refreshing.
Many Viners do variations on a theme, such as Jus Reign’s “Gotta Be More Careful” series (including this Vine and this one), but Sanders specializes in them. Among his themes are “Narrating People’s Lives,” “Misleading Compliments,” and pranks on his friends inspired by either Disney or Pokemon. Some of the pranks are a little more than I could take if I were one of his friends, but I love his Peter Pan-inspired prank. He often plays a dad, a teacher, or a prince.
Occasionally, Sanders uses humor as social commentary. He’s covered platonic friendships between men and women, stress in schools, and strict dress codes for girls. But most of his Vines are just silly fun as he plays Ant-Man, an introvert at a party, a man who rescues a dog, a drama geek in a history class, and a cat… and those are only some of the Vines I wanted to link to in this post!
This week, take a break and indulge in some of Thomas Sanders’ Vines. Vine may be going away, but I have a feeling Sanders will do just fine without it.