>>36It's strange, but I think de facto comments elevate the video in a way. We live in a strangely empathetic cyberdystopia where people willingly watch other people consume media (film commentary, video game let's plays). Probably the greatest contribution to the Western canon America ever made was in the form of sitcom laughing tracks--"canned laughter". You probably know what I'm talking about. In a way, it's relieving, the canned laughter. Why? Because the audience laughs on your behalf. It let's you experience that piece of media passively as though you were actively involved; the interplay between audience and media is consummate. YouTube comments are just a logical continuation of that in which that aspect of American media is crowdsourced.
Don't follow? Think about it this way: you watch a video and you see something that you disagree with like a political opinion. You go into the comments and you give your own perspective. Don't you feel relieved afterwards? Doesn't it feel good. Most people are satisfied if someone else does it on their behalf--the key word there is some people. You think all those people writing duplicate comments don't see that their own opinion is echoed in one of the top comments? They do, but they need that relief. And other people will respond to that comment feigning ignorance because they themselves want to reenact the conversation and feel that same release. It's an unspoken but ever-present cycle of continued gratification.
What a strange society we live in.