Comments on: Wassupdate

Wassupdate

william_boot — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:33:45 -0800

The Wassup boys have had a tough eight years, but things are looking up. (SLYT.)

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:39:42 -0800

Ok, damn funny. Sad I couldn't remember what the original was selling. Beer. Beer or Obama? Now there's a difficult choice.

By: therubettes

therubettes — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:42:47 -0800

Wow only 336 views of that clip. Metafilter really is ahead of the curve. Had a weird poignancy.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:44:42 -0800

It started funny and then it... it just hurt.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:45:14 -0800

I hate to say it, because even I'm getting tired of electionfilter and Obamamania, but that commercial both had me in hysterics and just about broke my heart.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:46:31 -0800

Except now it's more like 3300....

By: googly

googly — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:46:52 -0800

I don't really know why, but that clip more effectively portrayed the destruction wreaked on ordinary Americans - the ordinary Americans that McCain and Palin are so fond of claiming that they represent - in the past eight years than the thousands of words I have read on the subject. There's something in both the dogged resignation of the characters and the slight sly smile at the end that just captured what the country has been through. I am completely, unexpectedly, amazed.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:51:12 -0800

That was surprisingly effective, yeah.

By: namespan

namespan — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:53:06 -0800

Sad I couldn't remember what the original was selling. Beer. I actually think the subtext relating to what they're selling is pretty interesting. Eight years ago, why not sell whatever? Let's face it, in 2000 we were still at the end of a long party and we had the luxury of casually targeting whatever talents we had at any individually rewarding success. 2008? Things are different. It's a little easier to think about how we're connected because of the shared problems we've got to deal with. The ones that are the focus of the video especially. Putting whatever you've got behind the best bet toward solving these problems makes a lot of sense. And this is brilliant because it's exactly the kind of retro-reference that'll really take a lot of people back for just a moment, and think about the difference between now and then. Well done.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:59:30 -0800

See, this is how the Devil always plays it: I wished for all those things to happen to those guys. I wished it very, very hard, and many, many times. And my wish came true. But it happened to all of us, not just them. Be careful what you wish for. The Devil sucks.

By: william_boot

william_boot — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:07:27 -0800

Just for reference, here's the original.

By: SaintCynr

SaintCynr — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:07:32 -0800

Well played. Made me miss the days before things turned to crap, the Superfriends version, and how I still held hope that things might be on an uptick.

By: notmydesk

notmydesk — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:07:39 -0800

Excellent.

By: jim in austin

jim in austin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:10:38 -0800

Expect this to go viral...

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:13:35 -0800

This is fucking awesome.

By: oddman

oddman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:13:40 -0800

Nicely done gents. We forgive you for starting that shit in the first. It's all good now.

By: cashman

cashman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:23:27 -0800

Awesome.

By: roll truck roll

roll truck roll — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:26:12 -0800

Waitwaitwait, is it the same actors?

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:29:47 -0800

The Hurricane Katrina part took me completely by surprise and made me do one of those laughs where you just blast, "BAHAHAHA!"

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:31:07 -0800

Is your damn election over yet?

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:31:45 -0800

I think it is the same actors. The original was created by Charles Stone III, who also directed Drumline, and starred him and some of his childhood friends. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to get the same group together. Sure as hell looks like them, and that's definately Stone answering the phone.

By: bizwank

bizwank — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:32:11 -0800

Looks like the same guys to me...

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:34:31 -0800

Having some milk, watching the game.

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:34:46 -0800

OK, that was awesome. I'm with Astro Zombie. This totally caught me by surprise.

By: Zambrano

Zambrano — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:38:22 -0800

Is your damn election over yet? Almost. Right after the very special episode of "House" where people keep coming into the hospital with no health insurance.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:44:56 -0800

SHALOOOOM!

By: ericb

ericb — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:43:30 -0800

Oh the irony! Cindy McCain's family fortune was made by bottling/distributing Anheuser-Busch beers!

By: padraigin

padraigin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:56:45 -0800

I cannot BELIEVE those guys actually made me cry.

By: Shutter

Shutter — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:59:54 -0800

Shockingly true.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:13:47 -0800

true. true.

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:37:14 -0800

The Vet Who Didn't Vet

By: rdone

rdone — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:10:33 -0800

Brilliant.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:18:31 -0800

The Vet Who Didn't Vet That is frickin' awesome.

By: emjaybee

emjaybee — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:25:09 -0800

I have a Republican brother in law who LOVED the Wassup ads, but who has also suffered multiple layoffs, bankruptcy, and general pain during the Bush era...this was made for him. I sent it on, and am still giggling. The pay phone in the desert! The Katrina bit! Pure genius.

By: thrakintosh

thrakintosh — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:40:15 -0800

Wasn't there a Sopranos version of this back when? I couldn't find it on YooToob.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:51:04 -0800

Awesomely hilarious. Do we know who made this?

By: Kronos_to_Earth

Kronos_to_Earth — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:32:45 -0800

cjorgensen, It looks like you won't have to make a choice at all!

By: drezdn

drezdn — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:34:58 -0800

I'm not a forwarder, but I sent this along to my parents.

By: stagewhisper

stagewhisper — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:03:28 -0800

Charles Stone was my RA's best friend my freshman year of college, and we all tried to look sharp and not like we were smuggling in beer or kittens or anything when he was around, because at the time he seemed so dang mature compared to the rest of us. That is all. And this is very nicely played. Good on them.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:25:39 -0800

Drumline is an awesome movie, if only for the sheer percussion and brass involved.

By: Nonce

Nonce — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:47:54 -0800

Amazing. It's up-front with its commentary but manages to make its points in a way that comes across as understated. I haven't enjoyed many of the election posts, but this one more than makes up for the others.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:39:07 -0800

This is great.

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:03:33 -0800

Fantastic!

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:34:05 -0800

Expect this to go viral... No shit. I woke up an hour ago, and found a reference to this in 8 of the 22 rss feeds in my newsreader. couple of twitters, boingboing, daring fireball, jesus general, metafilter Or perhaps I need to diversify my newsfeeds a bit...

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:34:27 -0800

Oh crap, did I just admit having boingboing in my rss feeds?

By: sharpener

sharpener — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:01:25 -0800

Ha. Nicely played. Wasn't expecting that.

By: troy

troy — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:50:04 -0800

I caught this in a blog comment thread and came here to post, only to be defeated by the dupe filter.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:40:53 -0800

The Hurricane Katrina part took me completely by surprise and made me do one of those laughs where you just blast, "BAHAHAHA!" I don't know if it was deliberate, but the fact they save him for last, and the fact that you couldn't really totally blame THAT ONE on the politicians*. That made me laugh. *The aftermath, possibly, the actual storm, er, no. But he wasn't dealing with the aftermath at the time of the phone call. Over analysing? The first version I heard was the Superfriends one – it had me completely scratching my head and was duly forwarded. In fact it was a bit of a talking point for a few friends of mine, until an American buddy pointed out it was the audio of a real advert for beer. So quite a unique perspective I think, to discover the meme in that order. And not living there, I didn't grow to hate them like a lot a lot of US citizens. I'd imagine this would grate on you extremely quickly. Really enjoyed this post.

By: Bathtub Bobsled

Bathtub Bobsled — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:15:21 -0800

Being an American shouldn't hurt. Yet, it does.

By: desjardins

desjardins — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:33:37 -0800

EMRJKC'94, thank you.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:00:51 -0800

Wow - I was surprised by the ending. Well played, all-in-all. Though the message is that change can come, the end was just Vote. No out-right pointing of fingers, bringing up any one party as being to blame. Way to stay classy, little nostalgia-blip. I'm wondering if this was created after they saw the Aug 28th Daily Show (I'm behind in my Daily Show recordings, so I saw this one pretty recently).

By: djspicerack

djspicerack — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:22:06 -0800

I, too, was surprised at the number within that first few hours (and was psyched to be in the first few hundred, hah!), and it's now over 416k. Wouldn't surprise me if it cleared an easy million by end of day on Sunday, and if any broadcast picks it up, it'll fly. I thought I knew a lot about this scene / idea, but didn't realize that it wasn't an ad at first, it was just a short clip that was brought to A-B for use in the ad, or so the Internet lore says in a few places. What's great is that clearly the original idea was a winner, because just about everyone I have sent it to really digs it, just like the first time around.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:01:14 -0800

Man, I enjoyed that. And I hated the original Wassup? It's 533,923 views now on this vid. ColdChef, I loved the kids with the milk. aww. Reading Wikipedia Whassup?, I'd love to see the original 3 minute film by Charles Stone, True, on which the commercial Wassup was made and on which this is a waaayyy better take off. Anybody have a link to True?

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:12:36 -0800

That was excellent. Thanks, william_boot.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:37:19 -0800

On their own web site, you can find both the ORIGINAL film "True" (not the ad, the film they made) and their Wassup 08.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:45:25 -0800

Yeah, the video on their website is much higher quality than the youtube one, no surprise.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:13:05 -0800

Thanks EmpressCallipygos!

By: gwint

gwint — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:54:41 -0800

Wow, from 0 to 1M views in less than two days. It's almost like they hit a nerve or something...

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:34:36 -0800

Views: 1,279,717. Yup, they nailed that nerve.

By: Jakey

Jakey — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:25:56 -0800

A little bit more on the story behing the 2008 version.