October 24, 2008

Friday YouTube Roundup: Silliest Political Videos of the Week

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Is it just me, or has a kind of eye-of-the-hurricane feeling descended over the presidential campaigns? While waves of economic chaos build around us, the competing teams at the center seem almost in a sort of stasis, with Obama holding his position and McCain unable to break out of his. Inside this calm oasis, the colorful flowers of ridiculous YouTube videos may flourish, and indeed, this week has seen quite a bloom.

Vlad and Friend Boris – “Song for Sarah”

If you’ve wondered what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the Palin Gaze from across the Bering Strait, well, a couple of Russians are here to tell us all about it, and it turns out they’re gazing right back. Longingly. Could this video be a Borat-style hoax? The Russian words in the title seem to be straight from a phrasebook: “Very nice. Excellent. And you? Not bad.” Plus the misspellings in the subtitles (“teliscop”?) are a bit farfetched, although I do remember the now-demolished Hotel Rossia on Red Square had a large permanent metal sign in English in its lobby that spelled “is” with a “z” in every instance, so who knows.

Oh so many more after the jump.

“Unbelievable McCain vs. Obama Dance-Off”

Yes, this is at the level of those Jib Jab eCard things you can send to your friends where you put your face on a breakdancer, or whatever, but it’s still pretty cute. Sure, seeing Obama get jiggy is pretty amusing, especially compared to his embarrassingly stiff shimmy on Ellen, but it’s McCain’s wide-eyed grimace pasted on some dancer guy that’s really funny.

Ron Howard’s Call to Action

The well-connected folks over at Funny or Die got Ron Howard to revisit his earlier days of television stardom in this cute video supporting Obama. Howard spends about 3/4 of the video trying to disavow the ridiculousness of what he’s doing, which is kind of annoying, but hey look: it’s the Fonz!!!

Sarah Palin Disney Trailer (watch at CollegeHumor.com)
This high-budget fake preview for a jokesy Disney movie that Sarah Palin could star in may have been inspired by a Matt Damon quote, but it seems all too real–you just know that when McCain called her up, there was a loud record scratch sound effect.

CNNBC’s “McCain Win is Your Fault” Video

One of my friends totally got me with this; she sent me a link with the note, “hey, you’re in this video,” and I, thinking myself to be marginally famous, fell for it. “Hmm,” I thought, “maybe footage of a DJ gig or that random interview I did last year turned up somewhere?” No, no it did not. It’s actually the video equivalent of that book my parents got me as a kid that had my name as the protagonist all the way through, except in this story, I forgot to vote and ruined America for everyone. Sorry!

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

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