Comments on: I'm a magician, Spencer. A furious magician.

I'm a magician, Spencer. A furious magician.

zonem — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:45:42 -0800

Ben Bernanke - SLYT. (via (via))

By: zpousman

zpousman — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:55:53 -0800

uh?

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:58:44 -0800

What. The. Fuck? Man.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:02:11 -0800

I don't get it. Neither of those guys look like Rick Astley. There's no music. Everyone said there'd be music ... ?

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:02:54 -0800

It's been done. Better.

By: netbros

netbros — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:03:30 -0800

"I don't want to say the financial situation doesn't look good" testified Bernanke to Congress via satellite from the Cayman Islands.

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:03:47 -0800

I have been misled! All this time I thought Bernanke was 55! More fool I.

By: zennie

zennie — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:04:28 -0800

Music.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:05:18 -0800

I miss drama club.

By: nasreddin

nasreddin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:07:32 -0800

This is terrible.

By: Ryvar

Ryvar — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:08:59 -0800

"Dugg down"? Is that what the kids say?

By: Clay201

Clay201 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:09:19 -0800

I'm just gonna hang out and wait for someone to explain it.

By: nasreddin

nasreddin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:11:13 -0800

Music. That actually almost redeems it.

By: Token Meme

Token Meme — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:13:33 -0800

ATTICA!

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:14:15 -0800

I'm just gonna hang out and wait for someone to explain it. Tee-hee!

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:18:17 -0800

Oh, and... It's been done. Better. It has. Not.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:18:29 -0800

this made me laugh like a foppish dandy on ether.

By: thebigdeadwaltz

thebigdeadwaltz — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:19:36 -0800

Wait. What? Is there a punchline in there someplace?

By: Large Marge

Large Marge — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:19:46 -0800

I think metafilter just jumped the shark.

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:21:51 -0800

I was all excited, but then this happened...I want my 3:33 back, SPENCER!

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:22:27 -0800

Plus, "Avada Kedavra...to you, Spencer" is solid gold.

By: grobstein

grobstein — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:22:46 -0800

Whoa. ::sends to friends who are getting laid off from Lehman::

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:23:11 -0800

this made me laugh like a foppish dandy on ether. Yes! Yes!

By: mazola

mazola — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:23:54 -0800

I kept clicking 'watch in normal quality' but it never got normal.

By: phooky

phooky — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:24:48 -0800

I... I have no idea why I loved that. But I did. Furiously.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:25:10 -0800

I was entertained.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:27:56 -0800

By: Ms. Saint

Ms. Saint — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:29:09 -0800

Is this something I'd have to have even the slightest understanding of American economics to get? ....Spencer? If so, can those who got it explain it? Spencer?

By: motty

motty — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:52:01 -0800

What's so hard to get about this? It's a well acted (almost certainly student) latter day absurdist short probably intended to be mildly disturbing except for people called 'Spencer' or their close loved ones, who will find it somewhat more disturbing than that. It works. I was duly disturbed. Mildly. My name is not Spencer. I hope my friend Spencer does not see this video. Mind you I found the remix unbearable. But that was an attempt to recontextualise this homage to the past century of avant garde work as a contemporary anti-intellectual glorification of ahistorical nihilism, complete with the spoon to feed you with. Fuck that noise. It could have missed the point further but not by much further.

By: crunch buttsteak

crunch buttsteak — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:56:02 -0800

Weak and pointless. Disturbing? Not even close. Well, maybe if being completely underwhelmed and bored for 3 minutes is your idea of being disturbed.

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:56:47 -0800

It's a well acted (almost certainly student) latter day absurdist short probably intended to be mildly disturbing except for people called 'Spencer' or their close loved ones, who will find it somewhat more disturbing than that. It works. I was duly disturbed. Mildly. My name is not Spencer. Is that it? That's retarded, then. I thought there might have been some sort of point I was missing vis a vis the real Ben Bernanke, but if it was just, metaphorically, a couple of jack asses yelling "Hey lookit us we is weird!!1" as loud as they can, and using a famous person's name to garner additional attention for themselves, then fuck them.

By: infini

infini — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:12:37 -0800

where's the news about merril lynch and lehman?

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:12:44 -0800

I sez that's retardilated, I sez.

By: Korou

Korou — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:32:22 -0800

MetaFilter: A Furious Magician

By: knave

knave — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:05:24 -0800

[this is good]

By: sharpener

sharpener — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:21:18 -0800

nah, not really.

By: blendor

blendor — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:53:49 -0800

[this is good if you're a 14-year-old boy]

By: humannaire

humannaire — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 02:16:53 -0800

[Or you have been one. Or know one. Or can appreciate two young people doing something straight over-the-top just for the sake of doing it. Or like turtles.]

By: Catfry

Catfry — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:55:25 -0800

Spencer has no shoes on. This makes it for me.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:26:26 -0800

Hey, I didn't know they re-made Gothic ! I don't get the hate here. Have you never been 14? or high? or a drama geek? Sure it goes on too long and can't sustain the mood, but this is some delightful kitchen-sink absurdism. A high school version Bruce McCulloch's odd monologues. (waves around handkerchief, giggles madly.)

By: knave

knave — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:52:59 -0800

I don't get the hate here. I think that almost every time I visit a thread on the blue lately.

By: Benjy

Benjy — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:13:57 -0800

I understood very little of this, but I'll give it a pass for "I need your teeth... For the Federal Reserve."

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:46:11 -0800

[this is luscious]

By: adrober

adrober — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:12:09 -0800

I really loved it too, for what it's worth, Spencer.

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:18:08 -0800

I haven't even finished much but the Prokofiev is going to pull me through regardless of the quality of the rest.

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:20:02 -0800

Oh no it stops! Sporadically. Ok wait it's back. We're good.

By: elfgirl

elfgirl — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:43:36 -0800

[this is] [and it shouldn't be]

By: rusty

rusty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:50:05 -0800

Weak amateur drama is weak, amateur.

By: Catfry

Catfry — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:13:42 -0800

The thougth of Ben Bernanke telling the market, 'You've already got enough apple sauce, there's plenty on your plate!' gives me pleasure. Not that that's particularly realistic, Bernanke seems happy to supply all the applesauce the market wants.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:28:00 -0800

I didn't get it either. But that aside...I think I have to agree with Large Marge. If a single youtube post to this is "best of the web," I think we need to call metafilter a failed experiment.

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:37:13 -0800

You know, I would have been fine with it if it hadn't been named Ben Bernanke. But I clicked on a link that said Ben Bernanke which took me to a YT video called Ben Bernanke, so I feel like I was justified in expecting it to actually have something to do with Ben Bernanke. That said, it's just a YT link, so I should probably relax, and be glad that some people enjoyed it.

By: littlerobothead

littlerobothead — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:25:30 -0800

I think my browser is redirecting requests for metafilter to 4chan. Sucks.

By: knave

knave — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:46:03 -0800

Poor baby.

By: blurb

blurb — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:04:32 -0800

People. Tell me you are all non-theater nerds. Because high school theater nerds (like me) have become semi internet nerds now. And we EAT THIS SHIT UP.

By: motty

motty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:24:59 -0800

Goddammit how can a thing called 'Ben Bernanke' not have anything directly and obviously to do with 'Ben Bernanke'! Why it's almost as if these guys think they can do what they like and don't have to pander to the limited mainstream aesthetic like all the other serious creative professional people in music, film and literature understand they have to do these days. Amateurs indeed. As it happens, the text has a great deal to do with Ben Bernanke. Watch it again. Maybe a couple of times...

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:13:45 -0800

I was a high school theatre geek and now I'm a law school theatre geek, but yeah, I too was hoping it might have something to do with the actual Ben Bernanke. That said, the moment of repose followed by "I'm going to kiss you, Spencer" made me laugh. Well, that and the fact that the silent "Spencer" looks and acts almost exactly like a good friend of mine.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:19:59 -0800

There are other videos! Haunted House Stop Motion I was expecting this to be bad. I was wrong. I'm mostly impressed because I was the *head* of the High School "Media Club*" and we never did anything close to this odd or slick. *Playing around with cameras for credit. Thank god we didn't have You Tube or I would be forced to undergo painful cosmetic surgery and move to Peru.

By: zennie

zennie — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:59:31 -0800

The "Ben Bernanke" monologue was largely improvised. "Ben Bernanke" is fun to say.

By: motty

motty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:37:19 -0800

Surely the Bernanke connection is quite clear. Among other things, think 'interest rates'.

By: cmoj

cmoj — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:43:06 -0800

I don't think I can relate to this is a fashion that resembles that of any other mefites. Both of these guys look equally just like me, but in different ways, and I don't need the internet posting videos of me yelling absurdities at myself.

By: o2b

o2b — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:15:44 -0800

That was like the Vagina Monologues version of A Clockwork Orange. It was awesome.

By: zallen

zallen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:11:44 -0800

I just wanna brush that guy's teeth. Dude.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:22:58 -0800

My one friend who is a total drama geek would absolutely love this. I can totally see him making something just like this (and he probably has). I got a chuckle out of it in that I could relate to it in that aspect... But otherwise, just a bit too bizarro for my tastes.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:26:18 -0800

Also - Youtube has fucking popup ads ON TOP OF THE VIDEOS now??? I need to cock punch somebody in Youtube's ad division, right this very second.

By: fraying

fraying — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:11:03 -0800

I think she seems nice.

By: Good Girl Gone Blog

Good Girl Gone Blog — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:51:06 -0800

oh boy, do I love absurd humor. Favorite line: "There's plenty of applesauce on your plate"

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:35:03 -0800

Just dropping back by to report my having watched this video over 25 times now. [And it just keeps getting funnier and funnier!]

By: pwally

pwally — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:29:53 -0800

This video has changed my life, but I'm not sure how.