Social news-sharing site Reddit has launched new original web video series called “Explain Like I’m Five,” based on the discussions of Reddit users in a “subreddit” by the same name.

Reddit dubs itself as “the front page of the Internet” and is often responsible for memes that spread throughout the web. The “Explain Like I’m Five” videos were funded by YouTube. Rather than Reddit trying to launch a lot of original programming, Reddit is using the series to push users to create their own videos.

“For us, it’s more about encouraging the Reddit community and bigger community of producers, filmmakers, and animators out there to create content, video, web series, shows … based on Reddit content,” Reddit general manager Erik Martin told the Hollywood Reporter.

Martin also said other subreddits might be made into videos as well.

The “Explain Like I’m Five” series has three videos, each tackling a different complicated topic and explaining it in a way that a 5 year old might understand. Topics include the crisis in Syria, the stock market, and existentialism. Two adults try to lay out the issues with a group of children that aren’t shy about responding. I’d be willing to bet the videos will be helpful for many adults out there.

Check out the three “Explain Like I’m Five” videos below.

Exactly how big is the universe? You can’t just take out a telescope and easily figure it out, but thankfully popular YouTube channel Minute Physics has just released a new video about the size of space.

The key to thinking about the size of the universe is first to break it down into two categories: 1) The observable universe (which is what we can see from Earth), and 2) the whole universe (which includes everything that has ever existed and will exist).

“The observable universe is stupendously big, but the whole universe, as far as we can tell, is a lot bigger,” the narrator says in the video. “Space is most likely infinite or least it doesn’t have an edge.”

The observable universe, which we calculate from Earth, is now 93 billion light years across and getting bigger as more light reaches us. But in the whole universe, space very well may be infinite.

Check out the great video in full above.

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Popular YouTube channel AsapSCIENCE has produced a great new video explaining how your brain works differently when you are in love — just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Surprisingly (or maybe not, depending on how deeply you’ve felt love), a brain in love looks a lot like a brain on cocaine.

“Cocaine acts on the pleasure centers in the brain by lowering the threshold at which they fire,” the video’s narrator says. “This means you feel really good a lot easier. We see the same thing in the brains of those in love. But it’s not just the cocaine or the love that makes you feel good, it’s the fact that anything you experience will now more easily set off pleasure centers and make you feel good.”

Check out the full video above for a deeper explanation.

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Much like its response to the public petition to build a Death Star, the latest video uploaded to the official White House YouTube channel once again proves that presidential administration is at least somewhat in tune (or perhaps in step?) with today’s popular culture.

Rather than release a string of boring press releases and interview spots on leading cable news channels, the White House released a dubstep video to get every one pumped for tonight’s State of the Union address. For those of you who don’t follow politics even a little bit, this is where the president of the United States talks about the current state of our nation and what we have planned in the year ahead.

But while the video is pure dubstep, its actually part of the administrations effort to make citizens aware of the new enhanced livestream available on the White House’s official Website and mobile apps, which will feature charts and graphs while the president gives his address tonight.

Check out the video (embedded above) and let us know what you think in the comment section.

Because everyone in the world should be privy to the pleasures of “Friday” (we gotta get down on Friday, after all), YouTube is making the prized machinations of its filmmakers more universally accessible by way of enhanced captions.

YouTube has been hard at a work on video caption features since 2006. Tuesday, the company expanded its collection of tools to encourage more creators, especially broadcasters, to add captions to their videos and to improve the overall caption-viewing experience for video watchers.

YouTube’s auto-captioning tool, capable of generating video captions from speech-to-text algorithms, now supports Japanese, Korean, and English languages. Viewers have also been given the ability to change the appearance of captions. Plus, should you be watching a YouTube video with a video caption file in a broadcast file format, captions will be better weaved into the video and your experience will more closely resemble what you’d normally see on TV.

The video site has also enabled support for more file formats (.SCC, .CAP, EBU-STL), meaning broadcasters and film creators can upload their existing caption files to add sophisticated subtitles to their YouTube movies.

Rebecca Black jokes aside, the addition of these new captioning conveniences will go long way in proving that YouTube can be a grown-up destination, especially when it comes to the big screen, for enjoying (and even paying for) premium video content.

In 2011, YouTube “was once again doing what YouTube does best: giving people a global stage,” said a company spokesperson in an email to VentureBeat.

From Karmin’s cover of Chris Brown’s Look at Me Now (a wild success receiving rave reviews — err, comments) to Rebecca Black’s disastrous troll of a music video (which nonetheless propelled the hapless girl into Internet stardom, a sympathy shout-out from Lady Gaga and a Katy Perry video), the past year wasn’t so much a break from the norm as it was a celebration of YouTube’s most interesting premise, that of giving a voice to any goober with a webcam.

We won’t bore you by embedding all the most-watched videos of the year — we think we’ll all be better off for not hearing “Friday” ever again — but here are some hand-picked favorites.

Third Most-Watched Video of 2011: Jack Sparrow, ft. Michael Bolton

Thanks to Andy Samberg, we now know that the aging crooner is a huge cineophile.

Most-Watched Political Video: Zack Wahls Speaks About Family

During a public forum in the Iowa House of Representatives, one young man made a simple statement that resounded around the world. Wahls, who was raised by two women, gave same-sex marriage advocates fodder for positive discussions in a heated political climate.

Tenth Most-Watched Music Video: Katy Perry, Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

This eighties movie-inspired clip features the adorkable Miss Perry and a slew of eighties period characters, from Kenny G to Debbie Gibson. Before the vid hit the ‘Tube, Perry tweeted, “I told someone about my new music video I just filmed & they responded with ‘Wow, that’s gonna break the Internet.’”

Most-Viewed Proposal Video: Greatest Marriage Proposal EVER!!!

Yeah, we’re losing our privacy megabyte by megabyte, but we’re also sharing heart-warming moments in one another’s lives. Here’s one man’s elaborate, “awww”-inspiring proposal to his bride-to-be.

Second Most-Watched Family Video: Telling my dad that I am gay – LIVE

As the military repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen all over the globe were at liberty to speak openly about their orientation. The 21-year-old Randy Phillips had been anonymously posting videos to YouTube for five months leading up to the repeal. On September 20, he finally revealed himself to the world — and his father.

Tenth Most-Watched Video of 2011: Cat mom hugs baby kitten

Finally, we conclude this list with the thing that makes YouTube truly great: freakin’ cat videos, man.

Sony has contacted VentureBeat to let us know that “SonyPicturesUK” account has been taken down as well as the full-length film. A representative from Sony wrote:

On Wednesday, August 24 reports surfaced alleging that Sony Pictures UK had posted a copy of The Godfather movie to a YouTube account “SonyPicturesUK.” The YouTube handle in question is, in fact, not a Sony Pictures account and is in violation of Sony Pictures’ rights. Upon discovering the existence of this fraudulent account, Sony Pictures Entertainment worked with YouTube and the account was deactivated. Sony Pictures is investigating the violation.

While we’re saddened that movie is down, perhaps movie studios should take note. The studios have been looking for ways to combat piracy of their films for several years now. Putting one of the most critically acclaimed films ever could be a gesture of goodwill toward movie lovers and a way to stem some piracy.

The Godfather full-length film was not available in HD on YouTube, but it was available in 480p. That’s acceptable for YouTube and probably decent enough for someone who was thinking of pirating the film. Plus, the YouTube version could have advertisements sold against it. Those looking to watch the film in HD would still have to rent or buy the film through legal means.

YouTube has been trying to expand its full-length movie offerings since May, when it launched an online rentals service. At the YouTube Movies channel, users can rent recent movies like Paul and Your Highness as well as classics like American Graffiti and National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Do you think studios should experiment with putting up full-length features for free on YouTube?