Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Spam Crackdown Threatens Koy4Goff's Penis Enlarger, Free iPod Industry
Spam Crackdown Threatens Koy4Goff's Penis Enlarger, Free iPod Industry
According to the Onion News Network, 90% of spam e-mail comes from the little known Eastern European country of Koy4Goff.
Posted February 23, 2009.
Suggested rating: R.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Bud Light: Opera
Another favorite commercial. This one's for Bud Light.
First aired in 2007.
Suggested rating: G.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Levi's 501 Jeans commercial: Lola
One of my all-time favorite commercials. I love commercials that tell a compelling mini-story in 30 seconds and this is a great example. Levi's used to make memorable ads. Not so much anymore. This ad features no dialogue, only Sarah Vaughan singing "Whatever Lola Wants."
I don't know when the ad ran, but it's featured on a 2001 compact disc called "As Seen on TV: Songs from Commercials."
Suggested rating: PG.
Update: YouTube video removed. But here's an active video as of Nov. 20, 2010. Click here.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Money Honey Bee
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| The Money Honey Bee | ||||
| ||||
Comedy Central's Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee investigates short-selling, the practice of betting on a share-price decline. For background, check out this March 17, 2009, story in the New York Times.
Broadcast on March 16, 2009.
Suggested rating: G
Friday, March 27, 2009
"Computer Friends (Stack the Memory)" by Sniper Twins featuring Rob Collier
Here’s a humorous music video about office cubicle workers rapping boastfully about their computer hardware. The track is “Stack the Memory” by Sniper Twins. The New York City rap duo got advertising support from hard disk drive maker Seagate for the project.
According to their Web site, Sniper Twins now are looking for a wireless carrier to partner with on their next single and video.
“Stack the Memory” was posted on YouTube on Nov. 25, 2008.
Suggested rating: PG.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?
In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?
More robot humor. This time from the Onion News Network.
Panelists discuss whether controversial decisions by the Robot Congress and President Executron indicate robots have too much control over our lives.
Posted January 9, 2008.
Suggested rating: G.
Saturday Night Live: Taco Town
A "Saturday Night Live" commercial for a restaurant called Taco Town. "Could tacos get any more kick-butt than this?"
Originally aired October 2005.
Suggested rating: G.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Kylie Minogue - 'Come Into My World' music video
Change of pace today. I’m posting one of my favorite music videos: Kylie Minogue’s “Come Into My World” music video (2002). It’s a great dance song and a “How did they do that?” video production.
This copy is hosted at AOL Music.
I checked out versions on Yahoo Music, MSN Music and elsewhere, but they had lower video resolution or suffered from streaming problems.
Suggested rating: G.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
McDonald's Filet-o-Fish TV ad
Advertisers dream about their videos going viral.
Instead of buying expensive air time on broadcast or cable TV, their ads get passed around on the Internet for free by people who find them entertaining. Such is the case with the new Filet-O-Fish spot from McDonald’s.
It features a mounted fish singing a techno-driven ditty “Give me back that Filet-O-Fish.” It’s pretty catchy and the reactions of the two men in the ad are amusing. See AdWeek story here.
Oddly it doesn’t appear that McDonald’s has posted the video online. Fans of the ad uploaded it to YouTube. Two versions of the ad I had bookmarked are no longer available on YouTube. But others have stepped in to fill the gap. These fan versions are done with camcorders recording the ad off their TV screens.
Posted in early March 2009.
Suggested rating: G.
As is often the case with these viral videos, people are now posting remixes and other riffs on the original ad.
Here’s one example. Someone took the original 28-second ad and turned it into a techno-rave lasting 2 minutes and 13 seconds.
Posted March 8, 2009.
Suggested rating: G.
Also, some enterprising DJ added the audio from the ad to a recent performance at club in Florida. An attendee captured the performance with a camcorder.
Posted March 18, 2009.
Suggested rating: G.
Saturday Night Live: Dateline
One of the funniest sketches on "Saturday Night Live" this season was a parody of NBC's creepy Dateline news correspondent Keith Morrison. The sketch perfectly captures Morrison's odd interview style and his overly dramatic intros.
Originally aired Nov. 22, 2008.
Suggested rating: PG
Of course, SNL can’t leave well enough alone and offered another Keith Morrison parody on March 14, 2009.
Suggested rating: PG
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Twitter in Plain English
This video by Common Craft does a great job of explaining the microblogging service Twitter.
Common Craft is a two person, husband and wife company based in Seattle. It produces short, simple videos designed to make complex ideas easy to understand. The company animates paper cutouts on a whiteboard for its distinctive videos.
Posted March 5, 2008.
Suggested rating: G
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Internet Party: When Google's parents leave town for the weekend
The Internet Party -- powered by Cracked.com
All this talk about Twitter being the "next big thing" on the Internet made me think of all the other Web sites and services that have had their time in the sun.
This video by Cracked.com portrays a host of Web sites as young people attending a party. It parodies 21 Web businesses in 4 minutes and 23 seconds. Targets include Google, Flickr, eBay, PayPal, Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace, Snopes and Urban Dictionary.
Posted in January 2008.
Suggested rating: R
Friday, March 20, 2009
Twitter Must Die
Continuing on the Twitter backlash theme, here's a YouTube video from someone who started a "Twitter Must Die" movement on Facebook. The video features Christian Grantham, a news and new media producer for a Nashville TV station. His movement hasn't been very successful (26 group members to date on Facebook). Maybe he started it too soon.
Posted Jan. 13, 2008.
Suggested rating: PG-13
The video is actually a parody of "Twin Peaks" director David Lynch's rant about watching movies on the iPhone. I've posted that original YouTube video below.
Posted Jan. 4, 2008.
Suggested rating: R
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Twouble with Twitters
An animated comedy bit about the absurdity of Twitter and the people who use it.
Posted to Current.com on March 16, 2009.
Suggested rating: PG.
Twitter Frenzy
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Twitter Frenzy | ||||
| ||||
Comedy Central's Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee reports on the Twitter craze among legislators and the media elite in this March 2, 2009, report.
Suggested rating: PG
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Saturday Night Live: Old Glory Insurance
Continuing on the theme of robot comedy, here's a funny fake ad from "Saturday Night Live" on Hulu.com. It features Sam Waterston selling policies from Old Glory Insurance to insure old people from attacks by robots.
First broadcast on Nov. 18, 1995.
Suggested rating: G.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Future Shock: Roombas of Doom
I got a kick out of this Comedy Central Daily Show feature on iRobot, maker of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner and military recon and bomb disposal robots. Maybe it's entertaining to me because I cover iRobot and robotics trends for IBD. Whatever. I think it's funny.
First broadcast on February 10, 2009.
Suggested rating: G.
Monday, March 16, 2009
10 Things I Hate About Commandments
An oldie (2006) but goodie. This is a terrific example of someone taking copyrighted material and having some fun with it. In this case, it's a video that takes scenes from Charlton Heston's classic "The Ten Commandments" and mixes it with humorous narration and pop music to create a coming attractions trailer for a cliched high school comedy in the mode of "10 Things I Hate About You."
Suggested rating: G.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
PG Porn: Nailing Your Wife
Spike.com is running a series of comedy videos called PG Porn. The pitch is that they're for people who like everything about porn except the sex. Based on the two videos I've seen, the humor is pretty R-rated. This one stars Nathan Fillion ("Firefly") and porn actress Aria Giovanni.
Release date: Oct. 8, 2008.
Suggested rating: R.
For comparison's sake, check out the first minute of "Who's Nailin' Paylin," the porn film that poked fun at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin when she was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.
Suggested rating: PG-13.
Are Video Games Adequately Preparing Kids for the Post-Apocalyptic Future?
Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?
A great example of the parody news talk segments produced by the Onion News Network. It first aired in Feb. 2009.
Suggested rating: PG.
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