Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2023: Week 15
BuzzFeed Unsolved is a YouTube series where Ryan Bergara and co-host Shane Madej investigated various mysteries, alternating between true crime and the supernatural. The pair's banter and skeptic-believer dynamic was the source the series' appeal, and led to the launch of BuzzFeed Unsolved Network in July 2018, which currently has over 5 million subscribers in 2023. It ran for seven seasons from 2016 to 2021, although a spiritual successor called Ghost Files is currently being produced by Watcher Entertainment.
It is the largest segment of the Buzzfeed fandom in terms of transformative engagement (The Try Guys are the biggest segment of the fandom in terms of watchers) at over five thousand works on AO3 and over a thousand on Wattpad. The show is notable for being the origin of several memes within fandom such as "I disrespect your bridge, Goatman!" and "I've connected the two dots." as well as the trope of the "buzzfeed unsolved au."