Category Archives: Videocracy

Low-Hanging Video Fruit, William Shatner Edition

Running on some low batteries this morning, folks. While I wait for inspiration to hit, enjoy this synth-filled remix of William Shatner talking about mountain climbing.

Thanks to bigplastichead for alerting me to this via tweet.

George Michael: The Universal Language

I find foreign languages funny. And I find them especially funny in song form. I have no idea why, I just do. I don’t question it. I might as well ask, “Why is the sky blue?” or “What is this lump and how long has it been there?”

One format that always kills me is traditional salsa. Again, I can’t truly express why. But traditional salsa groups (and even some non-traditional ones) do something that always makes me laugh: the horn section singing the chorus in unison.

Why does this crack me up? Again, no idea. Something about the timbre of the vocals, how they sound vaguely distant, like the singers are shouting through paper towel tubes. And how, no matter what group is playing, the Horn Player Chorus sounds exactly the same.

I find this so funny, in fact, that I often think of songs that could be done in a salsa style, just to imagine a fictional horn section singing the chorus. For instance, I can make myself laugh by just imagining the semi-obscure early 80s synth-pop hit “Poison Arrow” as a salsa song. Because in my head, I hear a horn players singing “shoot that poison arrow!”, intercut with the keyboard lick recreated by a five-piece brass section.

In that spirit, and knowing full well no one else may find this amusing, I present this clip of a band called La Palabra doing their rendition of “Careless Whisper” (retitled “Rumores” for no discernible reason). The Wife tells me this was a pretty big hit on Spanish radio back in the day, not too long after the Wham! original climbed the charts.

If forget how/why she discovered this, but I am oh so glad she did. Enjoy!

“A German Shepherd Is Coming Your Way”

Robert Popper–one of the geniuses behind Look Around You and Radio Spiritworld–posted this video to his webbed site. It is one of the funniest clips I’ve since The Winnebago Man. (It would be the funniest, had I not recently exposed to The Gathering of the Juggalos.) It actually has quite a bit in common with The Winnebago Man, since it manages to pack years of frustration, anger, and resentment into a few small minutes.
 

Why is this so funny? Let’s count the ways.

There’s the weird framing involved; either this psychic is a midget or the cameraman is 9 feet tall. I can think of no other reason why they chose to leave so much bluescreen above the man’s head.

There’s the completely childish, lowest-common-denominator insults launched at this psychic. And the psychic’s immediate retorts, many of which are just as crude as that taunts that prompted them.

But if I had to pick, I’d say my favorite moment is the psychic invoking the turn-the-other-cheek philosophy of Jesus Christ–seconds after he’s proclaimed that everyone who insulted him during this show will die over the weekend.

Public access cable: the gift that keeps on giving,