Pork and Beans (Official Music Video) - Weezer

Weezer has compiled popular YouTube clips to create a music video for Pork and Beans, a song off their 2008 record The Red Album. The YouTube stars that have been chosen to be a part of the official music video for a wildly popular band are ordinary people. The video is just one example of the emerging category of celebrity: the YouTube celebrity. Thanks to the internet, everyone has the potential for fame by broadcasting themselves for millions to see.
The video makes audiences laugh when they recognize a clip that they have seen before—the humor is derived from the timing of the clips (they cut quickly from one to the next or jump back and forth) and from the “inside joke”-esque appeal between the viewer and Weezer. There is a bond of pop culture between the viewer and the famous music group that remind us that we all are connected by our humanity. The internet’s equalizing force on social status is exemplified when the YouTubers are all in the same room with Weezer in the final moments of the video.

“Pork and Beans (Official Music Video).” Perf. Weezer. Interscope Records, 2008. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_jGlyqoYoo>.

Bill Burr - Why Do I Do This?

Bill Burr is a stand-up comedian who often uses bawdy and black comedy.  This bit is from one of only two CD’s he’s ever released, “Why Do I Do This?”  In it, he discusses the effects of anonymity on the internet, political correctness on the internet, and sexuality and its relation to politics.  With this piece, he exposes the hypocrisy of many of the people on the internet.  However, he also uses his examples to show how similar we all are despite when we say we are different.  The audience for this piece is anyone who has ever had an argument over the internet and considers themselves intelligent.

 

Why Do I Do This?.  Dir. Michelle Caputo.  Perfs. Bill Burr.  Image Entertainment, 2008.  DVD.  2008.

Peet Guercio - Flirting on Myspace

Peet Guercio is a 24 year old comic who is most famous for being a prominent comedian on the website “Funny or Die”.  In this bit, he discusses courting rituals on myspace, the reality of who browses the internet, the ridiculousness of profile pictures, and an encounter he had with a homosexual man over the internet.  The purpose of this piece was to make fun of the different characters that one sees while browsing myspace.  Although it does have a subtle warning to stay away from these people, he brings in a comedic aspect to them so that we laugh at them instead.  The audience for this is anyone who has used the social networking site myspace.com.

 

Guercio, Peet.  “Flirting on Myspace”.  September 29, 2007.  Online video clip.  YouTube.  Accessed on March 31, 2009.  < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6tRFAxbh04>

Jared Sales - I got into a fight with an internet nerd

Jared Sales is a comedian and filmmaker who is known for his stand-up that utilizes power point presentations.  This video was taken at one of his stand-up performances but it does not specify where.  In this video, Jared reveals a conversation with an anonymous person on the internet to the audience, slide by slide.  After almost every response from the other person, he ridicules this anonymous person in some way.  This entire bit’s purpose is to correct the behavior of those who pick fights on the internet.  The intended audience is anyone who has ever had the experience of fighting another online.  For those who don’t have that experience, the bit works for them too because it is also the tale of a simple argument.  

Sales, Jared.  “I got into a fight with an internet nerd (powerpoint comedy)”.  21 September 2007.  Online video clip.  YouTube.  Accessed on March 31, 2009.  < v="Ff9gXNwSXiw">

Arj Barker

Comedy Central Presents	Friday 10pm / 9c
Arj Barker - The Internet
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

This video is of Arj Barker during his performance on Comedy Central Presents. This video was filmed at the Hudson Theater in New York City. Barker has appeared on Premium Blend, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Glass House. He has also appeared twice on Comedy Central Presents. He was born on August 12, 1974 in San Anselmo, California to an engineer father and artist mother. He has toured in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. He signed up for his first open mic when he was 19, playing to a room full of sailors at Holy City Zoo in San Francisco and began touring nationally by the age of 22. Barker has not produced any of his own CDs, however he is a part of the compilation album entitled “Pot’s Greatest Hits: A Stash of Standup Comedy”. In an interview with Wickedinfo.com, he said that he was “inspired by some British comedy when [he] was a kid” such as Monty Python, and the Two Ronnies. However, he claims no to watch much standup these days so as not to be influenced too much by what other comedians are doing. Barker’s comedy covers topics such as technology, holidays, banks and the news. In this video, Barker talks about office technology and the tedium that comes with purchasing and ordering items such as fax machines and printers. Later, he goes on to talk about Myspce and how he goes to the zoo with his Myspace friends. The point of this piece is to make the audience aware of the realities of having Myspace “friends”. In the beginning of the bit, he talks about buying a printer and in the end says that he believes that the internet is going to change the way that we do business. These parts seem to function primarily as entertainment and nothing more. However, the part about Myspace seems to be much more of a social criticism than the rest of the joke. The audience that this bit is meant for is the generation of people who are growing up with websites such as Myspace and Facebook who suffer from bleak social lives caused by dependency on online relationships. The audience would most likely be slightly offended by this exaggeration of someone going to the zoo and typing on their laptop “Look at the Giraffe.” But later, they will likely take into consideration that it is ridiculous to call people who you only know on the internet actual friends