In late fall and winter, as the weather turns cold and the Oscar bait drives all the decent action movies out of the multiplex, a young man's thoughts to staying indoors, watching idiots beat each up on homemade fight videos posted on YouTube. Carlo Rotella has the definitive connoisseur's guide to and meditation on this emerging art form. Rotella breaks down the sub-genres, offers helpful advice to aspiring filmmakers and battlers, and makes a heartfelt plea for better color commentary from those in the crowd: "'Damn, he just hit you,' a voice from the crowd will say as the opponents tear into each other. 'He just hit you again. He's beating your ass!' To whom is this commentary directed? Who benefits from it? Not the fighters. They already know who hit whom." His essay, liberally illustrated with clips, is also a fount of lessons that it would have done me some good to have learned before adolescence, such as this: "These guys likewise commit the double error of messing with the wrong opponent and being unready for a fast start. As a general rule, if you pick a fight with someone who immediately assumes a relaxed but erect shuffle-stepping stance with his hands up and his chin tucked and a blandly businesslike expression on his face, you have probably just answered the question of the day wrong. . ." — Phil Nugent
