Phone Sex Propoganda
by Graham Kolbeins

Awesome. Post a casting ad on Craigslist for all types of actors to deliver “edgy, balls-out” political messages, film the auditions, and post the results on YouTube. Starry-eyed hopefuls and seasoned nutjobs pouring their heart into x-rated political ad copy equals a rollicking Internet laugh riot!

The simplest, but most captivating entertainment of this decade has come from exploiting Hollywood’s down-and-out dreamers for comic value— in you need proof, just turn on VH1. Maybe it’s the Bush administration that makes us want to laugh at people failing. We project our anxieties and frustrations on Britney Spears and the losers who try out for “American Idol,” because it’s a lot easier to impeach them from the halls of pop culture (and the chambers of our hearts) than it is to affect any real political change. Bush could care less if we hate him, he’s the most annoying kind of asshole boyfriend— he never even stops being a jerk long enough to acknowledge our anger. But the bastards of pop culture crave our attention like needy sycophants, so it’s a lot easier to take out our rage on them. In this cultural moment, we’re the child-abused high school bully, pantsing the homos in Drama Club.

It’s exhaustingly self-destructive behavior, like Democrats fighting between themselves— we froth at the mouth for producers to roll the cameras in front of normal people, mainly so we can make snarky comments about them. We manifest our political rage in cultural self-hatred expressed through reality television. But it’s more complicated than that: we also want the illusion that conventionally undeserving people have a shot at the limelight, and that every once in a while (Sanjaya, Flavor Flav), they seemingly break through. We have a tenuous connection with our own cultural reflections, lampooning ourselves while quietly rooting for our allegedly undeserved success.

Does that matter? It doesn’t make these videos any less hilarious, does it? I think I lost my point here. The videos are from “Sunday Knight Productions,” a fake ad agency that promises “cutting-edge, paradigm-shifting, earth-shattering marketing solutions.” They put a lot of work into their satirical website, but the humor of b.s. corporate-speak was kinda played out even before Tim & Eric started doing it. Just check out the videos: it’s funny when people are sincere.

Musings | March 5, 2008