The Key of Awesome , formerly known as Barely Political or Barely Productions, is a YouTube channel known for their parody videos, particularly the Key of Awesome. The channel stars Mark Douglas, Todd Womack, Bryan Olson and director Tom Small. The channels first real viral video was "I Got a Crush... On Obama", which starred Amber Lee Ettinger.
Barely Political has created numerous videos featuring many political aspects, including the military, news media, and also inviting some of the 2008 presidential candidates to be featured in a video, including former Senator Mike Gravel.
In October 2007 Barely Political was bought by Next New Networks, for an unknown amount, which in turn was acquired by YouTube in spring 2011. Herb Scannell, co-founder and CEO of Next New Networks, stated, "With BarelyPolitical, we've added a team that can grow our reach to a very important audience one that likes their politics with a healthy serving of humor timed perfectly with the upcoming 2008 election season."
Their videos have been viewed over 3 billion times as of 2017. They have also accumulated a subscriber count of over 5.3 million.
Series
In addition to its popular Barely Political sketches, the comedy group has multiple web series they post on their YouTube channel.
- The Key of Awesome
- Barely Guys
- Rated: Awesome
- The Anti-List
- Barely Ads
- Super Therapy
- Frank Ruins Movie Trailers
- K-Stew Explains
- Barely Air
- Obama Girl
- YouTube Complaints (annual)
- D*ck Maintenance
Trivia
- In 2014 the Barely Productions YouTube Channel was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #29.
- Mark Douglas appeared in the season 4 premiere of popular YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History appearing as Ray Stantz from the Ghostbusters rapping against The Mythbusters (Played by NicePeter & EpicLLOYD)
Watch Mojo's "TopX" Series
Top 10 YouTube Comedy Channels
They were ranked 2nd in this episode.
Top 10 YouTube Parody Channels
They were ranked 4th in this episode.
