Sunday
Francis Stokes, creator of YouTube sensation God, Inc:
It's funny and kind of charming when things like this, the Sexual Harassment Policy Video, never evolve beyond their most primitive and mockable state. Being poster children for the post ironic post-post modern society we live in, it's hard to even imagine something so bleedingly achingly sincere. And yet totally insincere. A sincere video would flash across the bottom the screen the entire time, "PLEASE DON'T SUE US. WATCHING THIS MEANS YOU CAN'T SUE US. YOU PROMISED. YOU SIGNED A THING."But my point is, we live in a society that is keenly aware of irony. You'd think there'd be nothing left to mock. But thankfully, we have group think. A bunch of beaurocrats would never agree to allow the Sexual Harassment Policy Video to have any knowing hint of irony, even if they each individually hold the strong belief that personally they aren't stodgy humorless corporate drones, after all, they watch "The Simpsons". So group think will prevail where post modern can never go. You can't really have a funny Sexual Harassment Policy Video. And it's this commitment to non-humor that makes it so hilarious.
Read the whole thing to find out the answer to this post's title.
This immediately made me think of the sexual harassment skit Tom Brady did awhile back:
http://www.dailyhaha.com/_vids/sexual_harassment.htm
It's supposed to be funny, but it's actually pretty dead on true.
Posted by anemone at March 19, 2007 03:07 AM
It's funny because it is SO TRUE. (I guess that skit wouldn't have worked with Tom Brady in boxer briefs instead of vomitous Y-fronts, but that was a pretty disappointing development in the video.)
Posted by Jackie D at March 19, 2007 03:21 AM
In common and for a common reason. Which I submit is interesting. Porn producers want profits and know their buyers don't care much about production values, so they cut costs on everything but flesh. Producers of indoctrination materials of this sort (as opposed to competitive propaganda) know their buyers don't actually want the material at all, and don't care what it contains, the sole concentration therefore is on the didactic (and no other) qualities of the script. In the case where they don't care about costs, because they are spending other people's money rather than supplying a commercial product to a compelled customer, the latter group will likely be motivated by the desire to indoctrinate, and themselves oblivious to production values.
Posted by guy herbert at March 20, 2007 08:03 AM
