Tag Archives: satire

Online Video

The Onion Reports Obama Pulls Out the Boxing Mittens

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This report by The Onion is a wonderful news satire of how careful Obama was to respect McCain during the debates, while McCain avoided all eye contact with him. This is one of the few Onion video clips that gets better as it progresses. If anyone knows someone at The Onion, please let ’em know I’d do a cameo for free. Heck I’d even pay for the crew’s lunch on the day of my shoot. Even if it involves feedbags.

I’ve often wondered how The Onion decides whether a topic warrants a news article, video, or satire on the popular radio show. For instance, I thought “Wealthy Teen Nearly Experiences Consequence” would make an excellent video.

Online Video

HBOLab’s “Hooking Up” Web Series Debuts Today. Satire Ensues.

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HBOLab’s “Hooking Up” series debuts today (see premier episode), and here’s a sneak preview of photos of the cast. There’s also a new YouTube channel with a trailer for the series at YouTube.com/hookingup. I don’t know much about the story because I only read my own short scenes with Michael Buckley. The plot revolves around relationships in a world where most of our communication is electronic. Of course I play a professor, and Buckley’s a junior professor. SxePhil and Jessica (LonelyGirl15) play a couple, and I have seen some sneak peeks of their e-mail and Facebook flirting.

It will be interesting to see how YouTubers receive this series, which involves higher production and scripted dialogue — which they don’t often associate with some of these popular YouTubers like KevJumba, Charles Trippy, and  MrSafety. Being a popular YouTuber involves a lot more than acting (writing, directing, promoting, connecting with crowd, remaining topical, etc.).

In this web series, however, the YouTube weblebrities have little more than their acting to rely on. I, for one, felt completely out of my element. I’ve done stage acting before, and most of my video stuff is improv with script points. So I didn’t find it easy to stick with a script of a character I didn’t invent — and I’m kinda bracing to groan when I see the clips.

At least we had a blast in LA. I didn’t see most of the people at the HBOLabs set (the mock Bask University) since my scene involved Buckley alone. But we did catch up later doing the Retarded Policeman, and then a brief dinner before a red eye back to the East Coast to… be a marketer.

One thing’s for sure. You’re gonna find out what a bunch of fat asses we are when we aren’t vlogging directly to the camera, and don’t have the privilege of editing out unflattering body shots. Especially that Jessica. She must weigh about 95 pounds.

P.S. If you’ve seen the Hooking Up Trailer, then you’ve got to watch FallofAutumnDistro‘s biting satire of it titled “Selling Out.”

book, Online Video

Readers Digest Saved Me from Video Drought

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Readers Digest and I have had a long history together…

  • We’ve spent many hours together (often on the loo, but that may be TMI).
  • I used to explain that I subscribed to the mini magazine because I wanted to monitor the pharmaceutical advertising (it’s my day job… I gotta know who’s advertising). The truth is I like the jokes and cartoons. Forbes and Managed Care magazine don’t exactly wake me up.
  • One year my mother-in-law got me a subscription! That’s love.
  • When my grandmother was alive, I sent her a large-print subscription. Years later after she died, Reader’s Digest sent a letter with the following on the direct-mail solicitation: “Granny Hanemann… we miss you.” My mom thought it was cute, because she missed her mom too. Decades later I still have it.
  • I attended a meeting at my day job a few months ago, and met one of the smartest direct-mail data analysts I’ve seen. He was from Reader’s Digest, but resigned a couple weeks ago and went to a competitor. Bummer.
  • I once sent a “life in a day” kinda story to the editors about my wife meeting Harry Connick, Jr. You see, Jo was a big fan, and when I saw Harry (a classmate of mine at Jesuit) outside a New Orleans diner, I asked if he’d pose in a picture with Jo as a surprise. He politely refused, and Jo overheard that and was indignant. “I can’t believe that man wouldn’t take our picture,” she said. I told her to look more closely at the guy, and explained that I was trying to take her picture with Harry Connick, Jr. Anyway, the Reader’s Digest editors called me and verified the story, but never ran it as far as I know… I could’ve used the cash too.

Well you can imagine how excited I was last month when I heard they wanted a Nalts video. Great timing since I’m on video 700, and “running shy of ideas” (hah). Readers Digest online is packed full of stories that make for good parody. We shot a few extras that didn’t make this cut, but they were a bit corny and made the video drag. I dig when a client sees value in brevity.

So here’s the video. I’m glad we got it launched while Sarah Palin and her lipstick pitbull gags are still topical. Ultimately it seems people were less interested in me riding a child’s bike, being terrified by a turtle, and trying to put makeup on the neigbors’ pit bull… and more interested with my wife and her freakishly perfect teeth. 🙂

A big thanks to those of you who have already made “Out of Video Ideas” the top #6 rated comedy of the day and #39th of the week on YouTube! That really helps assure advertisers that they can brand and still create fun content! I tried something new by launching it at night (I usually post in the morning), and it’s encouraging to see 7,000 people watched it as I slept).

Online Video

Best Sarah Palin Parodies, Spoofs and Satires

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spoofs of sarah palinI’ll admit. As much as I laughed at LisaNova’s recent parody of Sarah Palin (Republican John McCain’s vice-president running mate), I also beat myself up. My own Sarah Palin spoof was done in haste as we rushed to visit the inlaws for Labor Day. So that gave me time for just one take, and sloppy editing. And I was so focused on getting the Tootsie/Dustin Hoffman part right, I let myself slip into a Southern accent instead of the Minnesota accent I was trying for.

But I felt better in seeing that I was among 10 videos and online parodies identified by Telegraph (a UK paper) in this article.

If I cared more, I would have marketed my video to a few pro-Obama blogs and discussion groups, but it seems as if they’re already starting to find it on their own (see Democratic Underground).

advertising, book, Making Videos, Online Video, Video Advertising, Viral Video, YouTube

Apple MacBook Air is Obsessed With Thin

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Apple MacBook Air commercial parodyLast night I got an e-mail from Mac that showcased the new Apple MacBook Air. The product is interesting and the spot was simple with a contagious song called New Soul by Yael Naim. Although I was already well into my nightly Ambien, I felt I couldn’t pass on a quick parody. About 19 minutes later, I uploaded “Apple MacBook Air Thin Obsession,” which parodies the ad.

My work HP computer (I wouldn’t treat my own so poorly) is watching the ad, and goes on a binge & purge diet. Fortunately my wife had taped a recent episode of Oprah which featured a tearful discussion about weight loss, which lent itself well to the portrayal of sadness the HP feels watching the new models. The parody culminates with my HP bent over the toilet, vomiting its optical drive.

I didn’t monetize the clip on YouTube, because it contains the original song and clips from Oprah. But it’s topical and seems to be well received, although clearly not “PC.” It’s currently the fourth highest rated comedy of the day on YouTube (which usually doesn’t happen within 8 hours), and we’ll see if it viralinates or gets pulled…

I suppose the lesson here is that what this clip lacks in polished production in editing it perhaps makes up for in topicality, quirkiness, and speed. Given that it took less than 20 minutes to conceive, shoot, edit and upload. It shows that there are other variables to viral that are more important… Like making fun of a society obsessed with beauty and thin, and capitalizing on what I’m sure will be a fairly intense media blitz by Apple.