Andrew Callaghan became a YouTube celebrity in early 2020. On his now-abandoned channel “All Gas No Brakes,” Callaghan, along with a small group of friends, posted interviews he gave at strange events across the country, from a furry convention to the raid of Area 51 to Burning Man. While the videos’ virality could easily be chalked up to their providing a pedestal for some absurd voices to say funny things, it was clear from the beginning that the way Callaghan conducted his interviews brought out a certain honesty and comfortability rarely seen in similarly formatted man-on-the-street interviews. This ability would become crucial as Callaghan’s content shifted to be more politically centered—as would his dedication to showing the ridiculousness of every type of person, as opposed to just the well-documented extremists that the mainstream media often presents.

In mid-2021, after Andrew Callaghan’s second channel, “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan,” was born, he announced he would be releasing a documentary. The film, titled “This Place Rules,” loosely documents the rise of right-wing extremism and conspiracy theories that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection. It was released by HBO in late 2022. 

“This Place Rules” is on par with most of “Channel 5’s” content—by which I mean it is entertaining, strange, funny and informative. But it is also middle of the line ranked against the rest of Callaghan’s content. It lacks some of the usual randomnesses in favor of creating a cohesive story, and the emotional beats are covered quicker than in videos dedicated to more distressing topics. Basically, it was not as funny as his funniest videos nor as emotionally resonant as his saddest videos, though both the comedy and sadness come through. It is “Channel 5” through a different medium, so sacrifices were made in order to make a better-formatted movie that would appeal to a wider audience and provide a decisive narrative. 

This movie can be entirely separated from Callaghan’s YouTube videos. In fact, it might be more enjoyable not knowing quite what you’re getting into. “This Place Rules” is one of the first, and probably the most captivating, documentaries covering the Stop the Steal/QAnon movement during the period of time before and just after Jan. 6 (though not during). The film provides a glimpse into some members and mindsets from every side of the riots that occurred in 2020-2021: Q-conspirators, anarchists, anti-vaxxers, Proud Boys and one very passionate anti-circumcision activist. But it also shows a handful of more personal interviews. Callaghan talks to a young boy and his family who are avid followers of Q. He interviews a group of kids and young men living in a housing project in Atlanta. Callaghan also, multiple times, talks to a right-wing content creator that spends all his time making conspiracy videos that garner thousands of views each. The interviews in “This Place Rules” are one of a kind and incredibly eye-opening.

This documentary’s central story—that of the lead-up to Jan. 6—has been told many times, in many different ways. Anyone who vaguely followed the news in early 2021 knows who the major players were, saw dozens of videos of the various riots and understands the core ideologies of the people involved. What makes Andrew Callaghan’s videos and this movie so special is that they are never bleak and they never feel like propaganda. He talks to many cynical, angry and mean people yet this movie doesn’t make you sad. A commentary “This Place Rules” keeps returning to is one criticizing major media platforms for being just that: depressing and scary propaganda. 

Callaghan posits that channels like Fox, MSNBC, NBC, etc. are creating artificial panic to keep people watching. Since these channels run 24 hours a day they need to be saying something to someone, so they all say [insert villainized group here] is thinking about doing [insert evil thing here], and there is nothing we can do to stop them, so just keep watching. Callaghan does not want to scare his audience, or keep them up at night stressed about the opposing political party. All his videos and “This Place Rules” attempt to do is show the actual members of every villainized group, let them say their beliefs and show just how silly all of them are. He never says we should not be scared or worried or sad, Andrew Callaghan does his best to show his audience what is actually going on and allow them to take from it whatever they want.