if you can't join 'em, whine

one of my bestest friends (i've 4 in total, i believe) recently had the powers that be at youtube pluck one of his videos, and plop it on the front page in their "featured" section.

this be it:




i find it hilarious.

it's fast and to the point: firefighters have a "cool" image about them, while cops are hardly ever thought of that way.

(that a chunk of them are ticket writing douchebags--officer west of eau claire and officer lee of los angeles, i'm looking at you useless cunts--ruins it for the hardworking detectives who bring murderers to justice)

is the video genius?

yes and no; my friend bryan took a look at what was getting the most views--generally crap like "watch my stupid kids sing off key"--and decided to make a whole series of silly shorts. plus, regarding this video, the added touches of "cop mustache" and "cool soul patch" are simply subtle beauty at its best.

within one day of being a featured video, it went from 1,000 to over 400,000 views, and what i found the most interesting about popularity is the immediate response of jealousy and people's interest in tearing others down.

as the view-rate exploded, so did the "comments" section.

remarks like "it sucked" or "meh" are simple enough; people have opinions and are allowed to express them (even if they are complaining about a video that contains, for the love of god, talking puppets).

as said, i don't agree with the negative comments, but more than that, i don't understand why people want to go out of their way to leave such words behind. i visit youtube every few days, watch some complete garbage, then leave. if i don't like something, i simply click away from it; i don't feel the need to stay and leave my thoughts on why i didn't like it. i'm actually much more likely to leave a comment of praise on a video i really liked over ridiculing one i didn't.

general, straightforward insults aside, my favorite comments on the video are those of insane jealousy or indifference.

"what a waste of 21 seconds" ripples throughout the comments. you think? and how much time did you spend watching videos and ripping on them?

"that was stupid. i could have done that" was a slight that caught my eye. i clicked on the profile, and found it interesting that the person had posted precisely zero videos of his own. so, he could have done something creative, yet in reality has done nothing, period. how cute.

"i should have a featured video, not this guy," is repeated many times among the remarks. i clicked on several of these and, my opinion only, but no, no you shouldn't. one whiner had a video of pictures he drew mimicking japanese comic book art. while it's great you can copy someone else's style, that doesn't exactly scream interesting. another person who wanted to be on the front page was a "fast and the furious" fella, his video a montage of his "REALLY COOL TRICKED OUT HONDA CIVIC!!!"

(ok, maybe it wasn't a civic, but it was still stupid)

(and it had neon on it)

(gay)

popularity is an interesting animal; ricky gervais did a great job examining it in his series "extras." fame is a drug, and even people without it can be addicted to searching it out on any level, from movie stardom to the silly idea of blog hits or, as in the case here, youtube fame.

bryan has a good head on his shoulders and is laughing it all off. he thinks it's neat having a popular video out there, but he's not jerking off to the "fame."

but if i were a rich man, I'd be tempted to toss a couple hundred grand his way, that he and i could go play "jay and silent bob strike back" among the weak and pathetic.

sure, it's pathetic in and of itself to be put off by something a stranger says over the internet, but seriously… who wouldn't want to punch a kid with neon all over his car?