The Cabbage Patch

Boun-cing-cats-boun… oh, I give up.

Hello World.

This is a contestant from the French equivalent of Australian Idol (French Idol, I suppose…).  He doesn’t sing, instead he shows his talent in the long-lost art of the human beatbox.  Yes, it would seem this kind of stupidity and desire to humiliate oneself in front of millions of slavering viewers by demonstrating a totally useless skill is an international phenomenon.

That being said, he’s actually really good.

I can’t seem to embed the video without it auto-playing, so just click the pic to watch.

– [via Top10Virals]

Hump de Bump, indeed

Hello World.

It would seem Alanis Morissette likes her “lovely lady lumps” as much as Fergie does, as she has done a very clever cover of The Black Eyed Peas’ My Humps (not at all new, but I haven’t been posting in a while so give me a break).

– [via Coverville]

The (De)Evolution of YouTube

Hello World.

Evolution of Dance is, as of this writing, the most watched video on YouTube.  It has been watched over 36 million times.

The reasons for this video’s success somewhat elude me.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s funny, it’s just not that funny.  New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan says that this video has gained such popularity because it has no English dialogue:

That’s its secret: It’s a silent movie. With a soundtrack… ‘Evolution’ plays in Asia. Remember Asia? Where 60% of the world’s population lives?

(quoted in the Wall Street Journal Online).

However this cannot be the only factor.  The songs in the video are all popular American “hits” from the last few decades, as are the dances that go along with them.  Many of the “jokes” would not necessarily translate into other cultures.

There is also the element of self-propelled popularity.  Many visitors to YouTube will go straight to the popular videos page and watch whatever comes up first.  Consequently, whichever video manages to get to the top spot will most likely stay there.

There is a lot of crap on YouTube, but there are also many videos that are arguably better than this one.  Unfortunately on the Internet, as in much of the popular entertainment industry, “popular” does not always translate to “best”.

Breaking my "No mime, no pop" rule… again.

Hello World.

A while back (in fact, over a year ago) I posted a video of comedian David Armand miming out the lyrics to Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn.

It turns out that there is a sort of sequel to that video, featuring the pocket-sized pop songstress herself, and I dare say it’s even better than the original.  This was performed at the 2006 Secret Policeman’s Ball for Amnesty International.

It’d have to be better than Matrix 3

Hello World.

Below is a “Remixed Trailer” for The Matrix.  Remixed / Recut Trailers are versions of film trailers recut to make a film appear to be something very different from what it really is, and they have popped up all over places like YouTube.

This one turns The Matrix into a romantic comedy.

A history of pop - in four chords

Hello World.

This is quite an amazing video of Benny Davis, a musician from Sydney University. He does a medley of pop tunes using only a single keyboard and four chords.

A useful skill to have, kinda

Hello World.

This is a segment from a Japanese TV show depicting a guy doing some very cool pool trick-shots.  I’ve seen this guy on some other trick-shot shows, and he’s bloody good.  I just can’t see a point to it, is all.  I will say this though, even though I can’t understand a word that is spoken in the video, it’s really very suspenseful.

Smells Like Orchestral Spirit

Hello World.

This is a cool video of a high-school orchestra playing Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.  It’s actually quite a nice song once you remove Kurt Cobain from the equation.

Tags: Cool

Beware - semi-legal TV streams may cause time deficiency

Hello World.

I’m starting this post with a disclaimer: I do not, in any way, support or promote any illegal activity of any kind.  I have no association with the following websites, and do not host or distribute any illegal or copyrighted content.

There, arse sufficiently covered.

TV links is a website of questionable legality which provides links to stream-able episodes of TV shows.  The episodes themselves are located all over the place (YouTube, Dailymotion, etc) but “TV links” aggregates them all into one place.

There are currently dozens of shows available, including Band of Brothers, Scrubs, Kenan and Kel (hell yeah!), Lost, Futurama and heaps more.  More episodes and series are added almost daily.

Now, piracy is piracy is piracy.  Most people agree that it is illegal, immoral and generally bad all over.  However, these are all television programs which were originally broadcast for free, and earned the advertising or subscription revenue they did upon their original airing.  I know this doesn’t make it right, but I personally feel that there is at least some argument for free distribution of television programs in such a manner as this.  You can make up your own mind.

Tags: TV

Sure beats zoom zoom

Hello World.

This is a new ad for the Honda Civic, and it is truly amazing (the ad, not the car).