I'm sorry, but I think this is in poor taste. If you're trying to be funny, the joke is lost on me. Or do you, like Charlie Sykes or Dick Morris, think we profs work only 3 hours per week?
This is YouTube, where things are said and never accomplished because there are ten copies of any video....the genius thing they did was not put the word "downfall" in the title so that YouTube will not consider it an "Downfall" video. Pretty much you have to make your own video on some topic somebody finds offensive for it to vanish totally; a good example is a recent video by the Angry Gay Pope where he went to a LA Delphi (Scientology) school and protested. The "Church" had him "arrested" even though he left before the cops arrived, and had the video yanked twice from YouTube and once from RuTube, the Russian knockoff and now that there will be a trial, the video is off the internet.
Oh dear Jebus, Froderick. Yes, I totally think that professors only work three days a week and in no way came across this video on any other academic blogs out there given that this thing is, as others have noted, a viral video. Yeah, I totally intended it as a serious indictment of college professors, because only someone who isn't an academic would join an academic blogging community. Totally. Yep. All the way.
It also would in no way make sense for me to post such a video at the end of one term while everyone is gearing up for the misery (that word is in the blog's name, right?) that is next term--schedules and all.
The list of related videos when I went to the link from the UD site actually included ones with titles like "Downfall with real subtitles," so I do think there has been some pushback against the people who keep adding in their own subtitles--like that one about the peer review process that RYS linked to a few months back. (The people who ran that site must have also thought professors didn't work as well.)
I'm sorry, is tracing this history in poor taste? Should I go to confession or something?
The video simply isn't clever enough. The map has nothing to do with the law school talk. A really creative editing job would have integrated the whole visual more completely into the joke text. I like a good Hitler joke, but this is pretty bland.
It's not funny to academics, it's just sad. Non-academics would probably think the video funny because that's the impression they have of us - they think we are lazy because our contact hours with students are nowhere near approaching 40 hours per week. *sigh*
I'm sorry, but I think this is in poor taste. If you're trying to be funny, the joke is lost on me. Or do you, like Charlie Sykes or Dick Morris, think we profs work only 3 hours per week?
ReplyDeleteSeconded.
ReplyDeleteI thought the owners of the copyright to Downfall had asked that all the parody videos be yanked.
But then, the Bret Favre videos are still up, too.
This is YouTube, where things are said and never accomplished because there are ten copies of any video....the genius thing they did was not put the word "downfall" in the title so that YouTube will not consider it an "Downfall" video. Pretty much you have to make your own video on some topic somebody finds offensive for it to vanish totally; a good example is a recent video by the Angry Gay Pope where he went to a LA Delphi (Scientology) school and protested. The "Church" had him "arrested" even though he left before the cops arrived, and had the video yanked twice from YouTube and once from RuTube, the Russian knockoff and now that there will be a trial, the video is off the internet.
ReplyDeleteActually, I found it by a search including the term "downfall".
ReplyDeleteWell, scratch that theory...
ReplyDeleteOh dear Jebus, Froderick. Yes, I totally think that professors only work three days a week and in no way came across this video on any other academic blogs out there given that this thing is, as others have noted, a viral video. Yeah, I totally intended it as a serious indictment of college professors, because only someone who isn't an academic would join an academic blogging community. Totally. Yep. All the way.
ReplyDeleteIt also would in no way make sense for me to post such a video at the end of one term while everyone is gearing up for the misery (that word is in the blog's name, right?) that is next term--schedules and all.
The list of related videos when I went to the link from the UD site actually included ones with titles like "Downfall with real subtitles," so I do think there has been some pushback against the people who keep adding in their own subtitles--like that one about the peer review process that RYS linked to a few months back. (The people who ran that site must have also thought professors didn't work as well.)
I'm sorry, is tracing this history in poor taste? Should I go to confession or something?
> Should I go to confession or something?
ReplyDeleteHow about explaining what you think is so funny about this at the local synagogue? I'm sure they'll think it's a real knee-slapper.
Because everybody in the synagogue is a college professor?
ReplyDeleteThe Hitler of "Der Untergang" is now just another pointless Internet meme, which means that unlike the real Hitler, you can avoid him.
I have to say that I find all those Hitler videos hysterical. Just hysterical. Some are better than others.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, I found Mel Brooks' "Springtime for Hitler" and "Hitler on Ice" hysterical too.
The video simply isn't clever enough. The map has nothing to do with the law school talk. A really creative editing job would have integrated the whole visual more completely into the joke text. I like a good Hitler joke, but this is pretty bland.
ReplyDeleteIt's not funny to academics, it's just sad. Non-academics would probably think the video funny because that's the impression they have of us - they think we are lazy because our contact hours with students are nowhere near approaching 40 hours per week. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteNo matter what the joke is, someone, somewhere, will find it offensive.
ReplyDelete