And don’t talk back to Darth Vader!

Special Thanks to Maggie Birkel

At times like these, there’s little more comforting than looking back in time and reflecting upon the crises we’ve endured as a nation. Reliving the shock and impromptu unity in the days immediately following the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001 is an especially cathartic experience. In this time of partisanship and internal division, it can be difficult to remember that in times of crisis, we’ve always managed to pull our act together, unite, and endure.

On the eve of the Presidential Election, this all seems mushy and perhaps even overly-optimistic. But this is Netplay. I’m not here to do all the talking. So here’s a speech Jon Stewart gave on the September 20, 2001 episode of The Daily Show. It may not soothe all your worries, but it’s a moving testament to the humanity and level-headed American optimism that we can all use the day before the next chapter in history is written.

Given the difficult task of finding a popular Jewish Comedian, TheGreatSchlep.com decided to make shock-comic Sarah Silverman the poster girl for their campaign. In this video that launched last month, Silverman describes a hilarious voting initiative for the young Jews of America — flying down to Florida and convincing their Jewish grandparents to vote (for Obama).

The group’s 24,000 members are counting on swinging Eretz Florida toward the left.

http://www.thegreatschlep.com/

If you’re mad at me for subjecting you to four minutes (which is pretty damned long by internet standards) of politics, here is a more light-hearted approach to Baracking the vote, and what an excellent throwback it is.

But what about the McCain camp, you might ask. Well, here is the most popular video on the web that sports the red elephant somewhere in its hyperlink:

I apologize if you were expecting something funnier, but it looks like the internet humorists are a little one-sided this time around.

Further Reading:

http://lolbama2008.blogspot.com/

http://lolatmccain.com/

This year, the stage belongs to one particular politician, Sarah Palin. It all started when Jon Stewart compared Palin to Tina Fey on The Daily Show, an observation that the everyone in this world has since claimed as their own (yes, you’re all guilty). Naturally, it wasn’t long before Fey herself caught on and wrote herself into this Saturday Night Live skit.

Things heated up in the next few weeks on SNL, as Sarah Palin herself appeared on the show alongside Tina Fey:

On the same Daily Show, Stewart also likened Palin to the subject of a late-night Cinemax movie. The good folks at Hustler have made that a reality with their soon-to-be-released film, “Who’s Nailin’ Paylin? Adventures of a Hockey MILF.”

Nice. At first glance, the video is just another silly Palin spoof, but the Hustler watermark in the bottom right corner says it all.

Clips from the production have already popped up on the web, along with the full script*. Do indulge on this small sampling of “Nailin’ Paylin.” Trust me, it’s all safe for work (as in no nudity).

*Note: The original version I saw, which was a little longer and more hysterical, had a special ending. Here it is, for posterity’s sake.

Thanks to the footage from Carrie St. Michel, you can see where this site’s most prolific writer’s passions developed. He cringes at a cup of foul drink like he cringes at the sounds of Mika. In search of cute animals, he yells out for a doggy. His singing amounts to the experimental noise that One Click Wonders always pimps out. He starts reppin’ The Simpsons at age four. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any video evidence of the Mr. Lister he’d become, but he does gurgle something at his father that sounds vaguely like “Top ten food-centric music videos.”

NBN will miss you, Patrick, and we wish you a Happy Hanukkah.

The spot, featuring the modern-day philosophers otherwise known as the cast of Jackass, are intended to hype up a new Nike shoe, dubbed the Hyperdunk (they only cost $1,500!). Pretty cool, even if I have my doubts about its authenticity. Seriously, no NBA player, let alone one of the top three players in the league, is going to get permission from his team to pull off a nutty stunt like that. Same goes for the original ad in this series, featuring Kobe jumping over a car.

Again, cool but most likely fake. Neat idea though. Hope Kobe can jump out of this potential disaster. Bonus video of an Inside the NBA spoof of the car-jumping ad.

Cake (2007)

Little Brother (2006)

The Roots (2007)

Some random student on a fraternity roof (2006)

Ben Folds (2006)

And how about some footage of how the day ends…fireworks!

All you seniors can only hope Mr. Daley brings the same energy he brought to a press conference about wetlands, captured in a video below. The good stuff (okay, snoozefest) begins at the 3:30 mark.

Most importantly, the mayor doesn’t quit. Just watch the video below, where he battles a croaky voice to deliver a speech more thirlling than that chase scene from the latest Indiana Jones. And hey, those balloons are our school colors, this is almost a preview.

Hope those made you excited!

If you don’t recognize all of those, you seriously have failed at being Internet-concious in the past six years. Weezer roped in some of the acutal celebrities for this clip (Tay Zonday, Numa Numa guy, Kelly) while referencing a gagillion others. Points for the G.I. Joe shout-out, but big deductions for a creepy dramatic groundhog and references to “Shoes.”

My one question: no Rick Astley?

I can think of plenty of TV shows and movies influenced by Internet trends, but this is the first time I can remember a show has been created because of a YouTube videos popularity. This is a nice reminder of how prevalent YouTube has become in our world, bridging geographical gaps and now actually should be considered a player in the entertainment industry.

But does this show actually have any chance of thriving on network television? YouTube videos are short blasts of entertainment (every human tetris clip I’ve seen is just that, a clip. Not the entire show.) that can be viewed when the viewer wants to see it. I imagine most people outside Japan saw human tetris by either clicking a link on another website or having a friend tell them “get over here, you got to check this out.” The most important obstacle the show will have to overcome is getting old fast. I loved human tetris…for ten minutes. Then I fell in love with this. Human tetris is a great YouTube watch, but as a half-hour gameshow it could get really old, really fast, unless the show offers some sort of other game. Other countries, like Mexico and Denmark, have adapted the show, so it could work. But remember, “human tetris” is only one segment of a larger show in Japan - even the people who created this game can only take so much of a guy getting hit by a styrofoam wall.

But, hey, you should still try to get on the show.