Tag Archives: spoof

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Samsung Calls Consumer Reports “Not Honorable”

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Samsung CEO Geesung Choi called Consumer Union, the non-profit product-testing organization behind Consumer Reports magazine, “not honorable.” Choi on Monday cited the October 2010 issue of the magazine, which gave Samsung low scores on high-definition and standard-definition video camcorders.

"Consumer Reporting not honorable," says Samsung CEO Geesung Choi

“American magazine making JVC and Sony best-buy awards is insult to my family and character,” said Choi at a press meeting yesterday. “Consumer Deport (sic) will caused me great suffering and humiliation,” the CEO shouted at a press meeting that is already being satired on such online-video sites as Revver and YouTube. AP News reporter David Scheyd asked Choi to identify if Consumer Reports has any conflicts of interest or missinformation, but Choi declined to speak about the unfavorable ratings of the Samsung HMX-H204 and SMX-C24.

“We people of Samsung find better reviews by cooperative publishers like Very Eager Product magazine,” said Choi. The publication, according to Washington Post writer Richard Winters, is edited by Choi’s niece, Xiuxiu Ch’eng. Ch’eng’s previous review magazines were the subject of a CNN “Bogus Review” article. “When you see merchandise or merchant ratings, or prices that look too good to be true, be cautious,” said Heather Dougherty, analyst with Nielsen/NetRatings. Very Eager Product’s September 2010 issue gave Samsung’s digital-camera line “5 eager stars” and reports Samsung’s recent camcorders are “strong to please and suiting whole family needs for easy utilization and bright leadership in electronic consumer portfolio.”

Consumer Union President Jim Guest e-mailed a statement claiming he is “not concerned about Samsung’s allegations.” “It’s quite common for a manufacturer to dispute the credibility of our publication when we review them unfavorably,” wrote Guest. “We do our best to maintain objective reviews using consistant processes, and surveys of millions of consumers regarding their experiences with products and services.” Guest found himself facing similar attacks just months ago when the magazine’s poor review of the iPhone prompted Steve Jobs to call the magazine: “Lying liars who lie.”

Consumer Reports October 2010 issue “capable camcorders” awarded CR Best Buys to JVC’s A5 and Sony’s A10, crediting such attributes as image quality, excellent battery life and autofocus. The article indicated that manufacturers have discontinued DVD and MiniDV tape models.

Samsung is opting to depart from the evolving industry-standard of flash media. Choi said Samsung’s 2011 video cameras will “pursue new waters of storage and finer horizons for image holding,” citing the Samsung CMX2’s Iomega Zip Drive camera available in February 2010. He cited Samsung’s ongoing commitment to “make better society and humans.”

Samsung to recycle Iomega Zip Drives for 2011 model

Sony USA CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, released a statement on Monday indicating that Consumer Reports maintains Sony’s respect. “We appreciate hard working Americans, and nothing says American like Consumer Reports.” Stringer asked that WillVideoForFood not use Stringer’s “Sir” title in reporting. JVC declined specific comment, but spokesperson Alice Preis acknowledged that the company was “f’ing stoked” about the magazine’s positive ratings on 5 of its JVC models.

Consumerist.com reported last week that “Samsung is not sure where Samsung apps will work,” and Technorati reported that Samsung has launched the highly anticipated Galaxy Tab claiming to be “just as good as the iPad.” Choi yesterday said the Galaxy Tab was “many appealing superiority” to the iPad, and projects 2010 sales to exceed the company’s adjusted forecast of 845 units.

Technorati reported in August that Samsung is overhauling its business model to remain competitive and innovative, and is diversifying its business. Samsung’s public list of affiliated companies, however, has no listing of what Technorati is calling Samsung’s new “Very Suspicious Supermarket” chain in the Bronx, NYC.

P.S. I’m kidding. Thanks, Slater, for pointing out this wonderful Samsung video promoting the, um, galaxy thing. Dang this is so wonderful! If you don’t smile watching this than you’re the Uncle Bus who appears in the video linked above. Appreciate the tip, Brett… I’m going to use this as a “best in class” of viral video marketing because it is.

Technorati claimed last week that Samsung is behind new chain of "Very Suspicious Supermarkets" in NYC
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Staten Island Girls (Katie Perry’s California Girls Parody)

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Thumbs up to these gals for their amateur but brilliant Katie Perry satire of California Girls. It’s “Staten Island Girls,” and deliciously skanky and humorous depiction of New Jersey.

Just 5 years ago these gals would have been able to share this with their friends, but now the whole world gets to giggle. Oh wait. Five years ago Katie Perry wasn’t a household name, and these girls were probably playing with Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

My favorite two moments? The gardner hiding his face (criminal record?) and the gas station guy getting caught staring at the booty.

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Best Parody of Oscar Trailers: Meet BritAnick

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This is so clever, and well executed. It’s a spoof of every moment of every trailer you’ve seen for Oscar-Award-Winning movie trailers. But it’s self aware. Thanks to George from YouTube for including it in his e-mail footer.

Folks it’s content like this that makes the viewer in me very excited, and the creator hope that my 15 minutes aren’t completely done.

BritAnick (pronounced to rhyme with Titanic) are not new to YouTube (see channel), and are Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, and they met in Atlanta and have a manager. But to be clear, they’re at this moment far, far less popular than me on YouTube. Okay?

The reality is that I like to see people like this zoom past me. It’s not great for my ego, but it’s inevitable and deserving. Let the shakedown continue. Or as one YouTube employee says, “the popularity race is representing a marathon, where the distance between the popularity grows as the race continues.”

Did I mention I’m a sprinter at best?

And, yo, Brian or Nick… ready for a collab so you’ll remember me when you get to the top? What? You haven’t heard of a collab’s ability to propel your popularity on YouTube? Oh you should read this crap.

Online Video

iPad Parodies (MadTV & Hitler)

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It was absolute torture to be spending 3 hours on my 1-hour commute (snow) and not having the time to parody the iPad. So many thoughts, and no time to make a video.

But I took solace in finding that MidnightBlade created this brilliant parody of Hitler’s response. The Hitler parodies are not new, and have not “jumped the shark” for me yet. If they’re well written, the joke gets funnier like wine ages.

After you watch that, check out the Feb 2007 MadTV skit below that predicted the name about 5 years ago…

Of course any tampon/pad gags should note that MadTV hit this in September 2007 (source Washington Post Comic Riffs). Even CNN found the MadTV gag newsworthy. See the video (after enduring a 30-second preroll). “I can hook my iPad to my peach.” So glad CNN alerted me to the fact that #iTampon was hot on Twitter, and that MadTV is making a come-back five years later. The writers and actors of the MadTV skit ask, “are there now women at Apple, or are they so nerdy they don’t menstruate?”

Doesn’t it feel like all these parodies are just helping Apple market? Indeed we’ll soon grow decensitized to the connotation, but we’ll remain dissappointed that the iPad didn’t give us all the things Web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis‘ prank claimed (see Gawker/Valleywag to learn about how his absurdly unbelievable prank claims drifted into real news reports).

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Copacabana Silicon Valley Parody

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From the folks that brought you “Here Comes Another Bubble,” enjoy The Richter Scales‘ Silicon Valley Copacabana parody, “In the Valley.” The camera work was apparently done by my deceased grandmother, but you’ll enjoy the live performance at the Crunchies (source: Mark Casey sending me SFWeekly article).

These guys aren’t lounge singers. They’re accomplished attorneys, engineers and technology executives from little schools like Princeton, Stanford and Yale (meet them). Their a cappella voices just happen to be the cherry on their intellectual banana split.

Parenthetically, my old boss knows these guys, and first brought them to my attention the bubble parody in December 2007 (I called it a seminal viral moment). The “Here Comes Another Bubble” spoof viralinated, but lost much of its traction when the creators had to pull the original video. Seems photographer Lane Hartwell bitched about her photo showing up in the bubble song for about .04 seconds. That sent me on a wild mission… challenging fellow video creators to exploit her work in video (see my Dec. 2007 video rant). There are nine videos pooping on Hartwell that still exist.

Some favorite lyrics of this new doozy:

  • “His name was Michael (Arington). He was the blog king. But deep inside he really felt he should be hardware king as well. He took a napkin, and drew a tablet. He called a group in Singapore to ship his Crunchpad out the door. But Singapore said “psyche.” They tore the napkin, Mike. Your old Crunchpad is now our JooJoo, so go take a hike.”
  • “His name was Eric (Schmidt). He wanted downloads. But Apple’s ruthless App Store Cops wouldn’t give his products props. They blocked his map app. And Google Voice too. At first we blamed AT&T but even fanboys came to see that their beloved Steve had something up his sleeve. They were locked in an iPhone prison and they could not leave…. open or closed either way you are hosed at the Valley.”
  • “His name was Rupert (Murdock). He was a mogul. But then the Internet arrived and Rupert saw/watched his profits dive. He claimed that Google was stealing content. The Googlers said that you’re so dexted just go and change your robot.txt… No we will never pay to search the WSJ. Cause the journal gets all its news from bloggers anyway (roar from crowd).

These are all clever spoofs of important moments in the technology evolution/war… little moments that point to major issues about the implications of open/closed technology, intellectual property theft, rights protection. Set to the tune of Copacabana by Barry Manilow, the parody takes on a number of super-geeky technology themes, including (1) Mike Arrington’s CrunchPad debacle, (2) the Apple vs. Google Voice conflict, and (3) the threat by News Corp to de-index itself from Google.

Sometimes I feel dangerously detached from the latest technology news, but I found myself getting most of these references, and watching my laptop dance on my chuckling-induced bouncing belly.

Online Video

MTV Cribz Satire Gives LisaNova Last Laugh on MadTV

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In a spoof of MTV Cribz, LisaNova takes you through her teen cribz with her “giant ugly bitch face” friend Jasmine (Kassemg with a remarkable ability to stay cross-eyed).

Lisa Donovan is showing MadTV (a show that had her for only four episodes) that she is having the last laugh.

This episode of the new “TheStation” also shows that high-production qualities can sometimes not get in the way of good comedy. See Ceciley Jenkins (a real actress!?) playing a slave, while the amateurs secure the key roles. A statement about the medium called YouTube?

This video doles out calculated repetition like Steve Martin’s classic sugar-pour, drops recurring gags in the style of Green Acres, and proves that even a 2-second cameo can have you steal the show.

TheStation chose to release outtakes on TheStation2 (a secondary channel that already has 140K plus subscribers- TheStation has 400K) before the release of this video… giving hard-core fans a bonus and “inside edge.”

Still not sure TheStation is a sustainable play, but I’ll be laughing until it folds or “jumps the shark,” and hoping it lasts as long as the latter. At the least, I think this will springboard LisaNova (and perhaps some of her accomplaces) into something bigger… and certainly give broadcasters a cause for curious concern.

Online Video

Video on How to Survive Swine Flu (parody)

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This helpful video gives you free advice on detecting symptoms of the “swine flu,” and gives you some survival tips for handling the pandemic. Naturally it’s one of my videos, and it’s meant as humor.

If the YouTube version doesn’t load, here it is on blip.tv. This video is public domain- use as you wish.

The swine flu, of course, isn’t funny. But the paranoia, hysteria and panick behavior is fair game.

In the next week, we’ll see non-stop media coverage of the pig virus, and every network will have cool graphics and visually-compelling stories. Then by Friday we’ll be sick of the news, and it will give way to humor (after all, “comedy is tragedy plus time”). I’m just getting a jump start, you see.

If you’re really concerned, visit the CDC.gov website.

lady performs lude act with pig
lady performs lude act with pig

…

Online Video

Parody of Billy Bob Thorton’s Radio Flip-Out

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I was making $16,000 a year for the Georgetown Courier, when our photographer got news that Pierce Brosnan was shooting Live Wire. The determined photographer convinced the doorman at the Watergate to ask Brosnan if he’d let her take his picture. Then she asked if I wanted to cover the story. What a break! Brosnan’s handlers told me NOT to ask about James Bond, however. At the time, Brosnan’s Remington Steele contract forbid him from being the next Bond, and that was a touchy subject.

How do you think I opened the interview? How can you NOT ask about something so important to him? I did it delicately by asking him why it was so important as to not be discussed. And then he spilled the beans.

I’m reminded of that story when I watched the Billy Bob Thorton video, where his handlers must have insisted to the show’s producers that the topic of Thorton’s film career not come up. How can it NOT come up? Really? Are you now a rock star only, Billy Bob, in your post Angelena days?

But really, should Billy Bob Thorton be blamed for flipping out on Canadian Interviewer (QVT/CBC Radio) Jian Ghomeshi?

No way. It’s the interviewer’s fault. Here’s my experience with the SAME guy (Ghomeshi) last year. He made me so mad I was fixin to kill him with this lawnmower blade. Hmmm.


Footage used with permission by QVT and CRC Radio (I called their media team on commute home and spent hours more than you might think on this stupid video. The tension builds up around 6 minutes in the actual clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJWS6q…