[YouTube via David Seaman]

Dear god, it's — I mean at least the Ray-Ban video was pretty entertaining, the jeans jumping video a bit cool since it might be real. But "the perfect pour"? Is pouring beer from a height even impressive? I'm pretty sure any of my friends could practice for a few days and pour beer off a roof. Plus I instantly hate these guys for crashing that fictional party, and I'm pretty sure the cameraman does not know what "coup de grace" means.

In what I hope is not an authorized endorsement, sketch comedy group Wicked Awesome Films made a parody. The skit is wretched but I do admire the two-day turnaround:

So honestly, why is this the only format I've seen a in a YouTube stealth ad? Are the others just subtle enough that no one's exposed them?

After the first guy jumped into his jeans, I realized what the whole video would be: a shot-for-shot rehash of a viral ad for Ray-Ban. The two ads are so similar that the creators (unless they're phenomenally short-sighted) clearly wanted to be discovered. First, let's look at the two ads:

Levi's, 5 May 2008: Guys do backflips, swinging jumps, and other stunts and land in their pants.

Ray-Ban, 6 May 2007: A guy catches sunglasses on his face in increasingly impossible maneuvers: Off a house, off a bridge, in a moving car.

Similarities
The stories are the same: A simple trick to establish what we're watching. Then increasingly elaborate iterations, culminating in a stunt so dramatic that it requires a slow-motion replay.

The music is the same: A cool innocuous background beat loosely timed to the action.

The editing is the same: Quick pacing. Slick with dramatic angles, but calculatedly rugged with lingering shots on the guys congratulating each other.

The packaging is the same: Ray-Ban's ad was posted by "neverhidefilms," a YouTube user with no previous videos. The new Levi's ad comes from "unbuttonedfilms," another first-time user. The new ad is one day shy of coming a year after the old ad. The titles are analagous: "Guy catches glasses with face" versus "Guys backflip into jeans." No product is mentioned.

Background
While Ray-Ban's ad was launched anonymously, the creative team behind it soon came forward. Josh Warner, president of The Feed Company, explained how he promoted this viral video to Adweek. The team posted more videos, now more obviously advertising Ray-Ban though still without using a traditional ad format, to the YouTube account that hosted the original viral ad.

Extra evidence
Note the line at 0:36 of the Levi's ad: "At least there's no zipper." That's what clinched it for me: Levi's is the only jeans brand to actively advertise its zipperless buttoned jeans. The user name "unbuttonedfilms" corroborates this.

How well it's worked
Blogs like Laughing Squid and Neatorama posted the video with no guess about the creators (though political blog Hot Air guessed this might be a Levi's ad). Even G4TV's Attack Of The Show discussed the ad, crediting it to an unnamed group of gymnasts and making no mention of Levi's.

And of course even this debunking is giving them publicity. (Not that I mind as long as I'm getting some too.)

My Theory
Obviously the new ad has the same goals as the old: to market a product without actually naming it, by appealing to the public's love of Internet stunt videos. Most likely, The Feed Company made the new Levi's ad. If any other agency was ripping them off, they wouldn't release the ad a year later with the exact same techniques. And in a few days, The Feed Company will come out, because who can really deny themselves another round of publicity?

As with Arrested Development, Super Deluxe was a cult hit that just didn't get huge mainstream attention — like pretty much every video content site besides College Humor. But also like the show, it introduced some great talent who are going on to better deals. Well, at least one of them.

Brad Neely, creator of the classic "Washington, Washington" cartoon, got a TV deal for his two Super Deluxe series "Baby Cakes" and "Professor Brothers." Super Deluxe has a preview:

But if the site drops shows like Chasing Donovan and Derek and Simon (which already looks dead), I hope to god they get a deal somewhere else. Because I ain't watching "Tim and Eric" again.

Basically the whole show it was an orgiastic nightmare of discomfiting misogyny. Like most daytime TV!

Note: Janka clip moved to separate post not only to gin up views but also because our magic video thumbnailing machine doesn't seem to work when you put two clips in one post. Whee!

The timid little partridge (roommate: "Is she a little dim?") was feeling insecure about her friendships with Lauren and the devious Lo. And rightfully so. When she's not hermited away in her little guest cottage (the "Chateau," apparently), she's getting disinterested and cold looks from Lo. Lauren just dumbly plays along, either in the thrall of her wicked childhood friend or the wicked producers. Strangely, it's actually a bit sad to watch. At least Justin Bobby, on his best behavior for the cameras this time, is kind to her and listens and encourages some independence.

I can't believe the finale is next week! Thank God! It's an hour long, I believe. What will happen? Will Audrina move out? Will Spencer and Heidi stage their inevitable reunion? Will something actually happen? Puppy clip is above, with a great line from Lo: "His reactions are fantastic!" I often say the same thing about her!

The Eric-is-gay plot line was just as silly and expected and satisfying as one could hope. And the Asher tie-in was surprising and funny and full of teeth. ("Get this faggot out of my house!") The Lily and Serena comfort the 'mo stuff was a bit maudlin, but understandably necessary. It's sort of a bummer that the Eric/Asher relationship is kinda over before it started, but I'm sure there will be other twinky idiots on the horizon for our diminutive little friend.

Leighton Meester was in fine form (she's the best actress of the kids, I think) as Blair maneuvered all the gay rumors via Gossip Girl (great to see her heavily featured again!) and crushed little squawking Jenny Humphrey. The nice little button of sadness put at the end of their battle was warm and smart, and leads me to think they may not actually be "done' as Jenny so wearily declared.

This is all, of course, just preamble to the wham bang holy holy shit final scene, in which a devastated, weepy Serena, having had yet another scary "I'm gonna tellll" run in with Georgina, broke down at Blair's house. What was the secret, Blair and everyone else wanted to know. It involved video, so I assumed it was porn. But...um... no. "I killed someone," Serena moaned. And then that music! That thumping, scary scary music. I must admit I got up and did a little "WTF???" dance and then made my roommate rewind and replay the last scene. It was shocking and brilliant and just what this show needed to really get the soapy fantastic stuff going. I can't wait to see where they take this. Hopefully it won't fizzle and die too soon... LIKE THE MAN SERENA KILLED. Shocking clip is below.

Crazy! And, I should mention. This Friday, at 8pm at the People's Improv Theatre, Sara Benincasa, comedienne (and Gawker commenter!) is hosting a panel discussion on this here show. I will be one of the panel members, joining some fantastic funny folk, so if you're around you should definitely come. It's going to be silly (and boozy) and there is free GG-themed food. Info is here.

1. MythBusters
"What's the myth?" "We don't need a myth, it's Christmas."
Tools: Model train, Mentos and Coke, nutcracker, oven
Highlight: The flight of the cooked turkey

2. Pythagora Switch
In these clips from a Japanese TV show, a marble follows a route until it reveals the show title at the end. Then a chorus of kids sing "Pitagora Suitchi," or "Pythagora Switch."
Tools: Household objects
Highlight: The soundtrack

3. Voting Machine
A big political voting machine from the 2004 election. Its vote was later overturned by the courts.
Tools: Erector sets, mousetraps
Highlight: "Yeeargh!"

4. Japanese Contest
A televised competition with giant machines that use bowling balls, bedsheets, and an aquarium.
Tools: Toys
Highlight: Pouring hot water on ramen; chain of fire

5. Nintendo
A game-themed animated machine.
Tools: NES games
Highlight: Duck Hunt

6. Half-Life 2
A custom level of the video game that exploits its advanced physics engine. (An honorable mention uses a Rube Goldberg machine to kick a character in the ass).
Tools: Barrels, ramps, buckets and a watermelon
Highlight: A soldier shoots a standing character on sight; the victim becomes a domino in the machine.

7. Creme That Egg!
A household machine built to squish a Cadbury chocolate egg.
Tools: Paper towel rolls, sliding candle, mallet
Highlight: Tiny toy band with Klezmer music

8. Cog
Honda's famous ad for the Accord, using car parts to lower a ramp for the car.
Tools: Tools from the car; Garrison Keillor's voice (for better sound, view here)
Highlight: The water-sensitive windshield and crawling wipers — or the window mobile

9. Cog Parody
Same as above, with two dudes subbing for most of the machine. Advertised a British phone service.
Tools: Crazy exercisers
Highlight: Dance party

10. World's Most Amazing Trick Pool Shot
One shot drives dozens of billiard balls into holes.
Tools: Dominos, billiard balls
Highlight: French commentators

11. Tim Fort's Kinetic Art
A beautiful domino run with some surprises, built in an empty studio.
Tools: Dominos, matchsticks
Highlight: The unravelling paper roll

12. Chemical Reactions
An excerpt from a half-hour chain reaction, this clip uses loads of tricky geek science and wins "most preparation by someone who's not selling cars."
Tools: Lab equipment including sparklers, flames, oil and a folding ladder
Highlight: Flying ball of flame

13. Sticks And Stones
A natural Rube Goldberg machine built in the forest. I think at 0:47 I saw an Ewok.
Tools: Branches, ropes, stones and bell
Highlight: Spinning leaf whirligig

Fox & Friends anchor Steve Doocy used the made-up news peg of his son telling him about a new service from AT&T, a Fleishman client. "I started looking around for it and there was absolutely no publicity on it, no press," said Doocy. But in the course of his perfectly innocent investigation, he happened to discover that Fleishman was the PR agency behind it, which naturally led into a rehashing of some old criminal charges against the firm, and a chance to mock pictures of its CEO on air. Naturally! Let's just say we're going for both sides here. Your move, Fleishman. The very worthwhile video clip is below.

One of YouTube's selling points is the ability to embed its videos on other pages. This allows free discussion of those videos, just like excerpting an image or text. But the Church turned off embedding in their clips. In fact, you can't link to just one video by clicking from the Church's official channel. You have to search for their videos.

Then you can find this creepy clip of a ceremony celebrating the Church's "International Way To Happiness Foundation." A South African dignitary thanks the Church (or more precisely, a supposedly secular wing of the Church) for starting a program in his country's prisons. An Israeli publisher thanks the Church for healing the Middle East, as does a Palestinian education official.

In another video, a narrator explains how you are a thetan, not a body or mind. Another clip introduces the auditing process. In that clip, it sounds weirdly like the therapeutic process in the psychiatric field that Scientologists like Tom Cruise have publicly denounced.

But most of the clips are innocent slideshows with a narrator gently listing beliefs that would fit with mainstream Christianity. Every clip has a cheesy grocery-store soundtrack. The net effect is to make the Church look like another dull religion or self-help class and not, as some critics label it, a murderous cult.

Either way, because the Church disabled the option to embed their videos, I can't show you the clips here but can only link to them. I've downloaded some copies, but uploading them here might violate copyright law as long as there's another copy on the Church's channel.

The Church paid for its special channel. Anyone can disable embeds, but a specially formatted user page doesn't come free. YouTube helped the Church integrate its custom menu into the channel, though of course it didn't create any of the content. Nor did YouTube endorse the Church or give it control over other users' videos, and all such accusations I saw provided no evidence.

But I'm baffled why the Church, after putting together such a friendly little propaganda channel, not only disabled all comments (a reasonable way to avoid actually diving into two-way conversation) but disabled embedding and turned its channel into a tidy menu. That guarantees that hardly anyone will stumble onto the videos. I guess the rest of the world should be glad that the Church doesn't get the Internet.

What may piss off some viewers is that the Church is advertising their channel all over YouTube. This might explain the no-embed rule; the Church is specifically targeting YouTube users, not the Internet at large, though I see no reason to specifically hide from everyone outside of the video site. But one user was creeped out by Church ads appearing on popular channels like Smosh, Awkward Pictures, and Playboy, even though any creator can ask YouTube to keep certain advertisers off its page. Guess everyone just needed the money. At least I can still show you the anti-Church videos.

[College Humor]

Not the awkward disaster of Stephen Colbert's too-mean performance nor the intriguingly terrible anachronistic trainwreck of Rich Little's live death of last year. Ferguson's not a political comedian, or an attempted satirist, and he didn't do a political routine. He did, in a little reversal, spend most of his routine bashing the newsmedia. They eat that shit up.

Ferguson first mocked employees of the beleaguered LA Times, but he reserved his most stringent material for the New York Times, who this year decided, a number of years too late, that the schmoozy dinner looks a little improper to folks not in tune with the friendly DC scene, in which the media and the government largely consider themselves to be equals in importance and power. So the Times didn't buy a table. And Ferguson told them all to go to hell. And the crowd applauded.

(You can watch the entire dinner here if you're a masochist or just incredibly bored.)