This is something I’ve really liked doing recently, where I download a funny video I’ve seen off YouTube to save to my device for offline viewing when traveling or out and about without a Wi-Fi connection. This could be funny pets/animals videos, comedy stuff, sitcom shows or whatever.
I’ve recently been loving reaction videos where Americans react to Brit comedies, and wanted to pull copies of them off of YouTube to watch whenever I like. But you can use the methods we’re going to cover to pull ANY funny (or not funny) videos off YouTube (download them to your own device), so you’ve got a copy you can watch offline and transfer to other devices like phones to watch whenever you want as well.
You might also be growing more and more irritated that YouTube keeps taking down any videos that might be even slightly racy or rude, or express views they don’t like, and want to download a copy of it to save for your own use before it gets deleted by this increasingly anti-free-speech platform. Or you might just be sick of the annoying amount of repetitive ads on the videos that keeps getting worse with each passing month.
Whatever the reason, we’ll show you a simple, easy, free process to pull copies of a funny video off YouTube to save for your own personal offline use. Let’s get started!
Note – Downloading videos for your own private use is fine, but make sure you have the copyright owner’s permission before uploading their videos elsewhere.
Step #1 – Copy The Video Link
Just load up the video and just go to the address bar at the top of the screen, where the URL or link to the video is displayed.
Click on it a few times until it highlights blue, then right click and select Copy (see here for mobile steps)
This saves the link to your clipboard, ready to paste it in for the next step.
Step #2 – Upload Video To GetVideo
This step is a bit tricky, since there’s load of supposed “YouTube video downloader/converter” tools online, but few of them ever last very long. Most of the ones I’ve linked to in the past are taken down or no longer work. And a lot of them you’ll find in search results don’t even work properly in the first place.
However, a free tool that’s been reliable for a while and still works is the getvideo.org video converter tool.
This site did used to have an English version, but it no longer works, so you’ll have to use the foreign version that does have a lot of Eastern European/Russian language on the menus. It doesn’t really matter though, as it’s easy to use – you don’t even need to know what the words mean, you can just follow the few steps we lay out below. It’s easy.
Just click on the long white box in the middle, then right click and select Paste. The video link you just copied in Step #1 should appear in the box. Then click the big blue button next to it:
This pastes the YouTube video link into the tool, and begins pulling a copy of it off the platform.
Step #3 – Select Video Download Quality
Once you’ve clicked the blue button, just scroll a bit further down the same page, and you’ll see a section the basic video details loads, plus a thumbnail, plus a choice of video quality options you can see with the numbers on the left (1280*720 = HD top quality; 640*360 is a basic quality SD version)
If you click on the bottom of the 3 green buttons, you’ll download a basic, 640*360 resolution copy of the video. If you want a higher resolution, click on the HD green button above, but it will take longer to download.
Step #4 – Download The Video To Your Device
After you’ve clicked on the green button for whatever video quality you want, wait a few seconds, and a new version of the video should load on a new page with a black background, and start playing. You might need to give it several seconds to fully load and start playing. Once it has, you know the GetVideo tool has successfully pulled the video off YouTube.
Just click on the 3 dots burger icon at the bottom right of the video, and then click Download. A copy of the video will start downloading to your device.
Depending on the length of the video, plus the resolution quality you selected on the previous screen, the video might take a while to download. I normally just go for the standard 640*360 versions, which don’t take too long (30-40 minute YouTube video usually takes around 20-30 minutes to download at SD on only a moderately fast connection). But you can pick 1280*720 if you want; just be ready to wait a bit longer.
However, once it has, you’ve got a full copy of that video on your own device, safe for offline viewing or uploading elsewhere.
It usually saves to your Downloads folder with a generic “videoplayback” file name, so you may need to rename and move it once it’s fully downloaded. Right click on the file and select Rename to do this.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully pulled (downloaded) a funny video off YouTube, so you can watch in whenever you want on your device without needing an internet connection.
