Paper towel is a video that I saw at a friend’s house, which is how I see the majority of viral videos. We were originally on YouTube listening to music but began discussing videos we had or had not seen. The faked infomercial is a parody of the immensely popular Sham Wow product sold to us by Vince. Vince’s method of speaking is what made him popular and a target of being made fun of. His speech was dry and sarcastic and he gained popularity on our late night TV watching. Here we see Levy’s concept of collective intelligence, the public has been exposed to the Sham Wow infomercial regardless of having watched it on television by sharing it on the internet. When watching the video of Paper Towels, we know that they are referring to the Sham Wow product as well as Vince. Steve’s voice is exaggeratedly dry to further the humor and makes ridiculous claims about what paper towels can do or actually do, such as becoming completely soaked.
What has lead to the wide distribution of this video is the humorous, sarcastic parody. The Sham Wow infomercial has had plenty of parodies and editing done on it, but this is the one that I have been told about the most. The video was meant to be humorous and before I watched the content of the video, I knew I was going to have a laugh because of the environment I was in when it was being shared with me. Not only is the video making fun of the Sham Wow, but also how products are sold to us. It is not so much about the products, but the pitch and how they are sold.
Anabelle Hernandez
You should mention how the Sham wow and paper towel are similar or dissimilar. I find the video funny because the paper towel is so inferior to the Sham wow. Also you should mention that in order to understand the parody, the viewer must already know about the Sham wow and that if they haven't seen the Sham wow commercials, the jokes wouldn't be as funny.
ReplyDelete-Jeany Yang
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ReplyDeleteI like this video because it is a good run down of how youtube works. To start off it works well with the infrastructure. When the original shamwow commercials started airing I think most people were blown away by how creepy, awkward, and overall discomforting it is to even look at Vince, let alone her him speak. The infomercial was just begging to be remolded by the youtube community. Given the fact that it doesn't use to many special effects users were able to easily make their own versions. Next users could apply their snarky tone to the video (by replacing the shamwow with an everyday paper towel). Collective intelligence also tells us that the shamwow doesn't actually work as well as Vince makes us seem. The paper towel version could be playing at this fact. And finally there is the discourse: shock, sex, stupidity. Obviously this video falls under stupidity although it didn't have to try very hard to get their. It just goes to show that companies need to be careful when picking spokesmen or even designing their ads or else they will end up being thrown through the youtube machine. And youtube has proven that not all publicity is good publicity.
ReplyDelete-Victor Soto
I was waiting for someone to finally make fun of the Sham-Wow commercials. With the passing of Bob Vela (King of Infomercials), there is a buzz in the popularity of over-the-top ridiculous infomercials. This is a great satire clip and uses somewhat of a snarky tone to advertise its bland product. The clip is funny because of its generic idea and its snarky tone.
ReplyDeleteThis clip really catches viewers' attentions with its snarky tone. The parody is effectively used with its humorous tone. Youtube provides users with a wide array of videos and a lot of viral videos are humorous parodies of dull footage that really annoy viewers. By providing a video with a comical twist users definitely watch the video and enjoy the sarcasm. Youtube users really embrace videos that have been remixed with a funny twist, it feels like payback for all the times you were annoyed by running into the original advertisement. Since so many people have actually seen the original advertisement the video is able to accumulate views from different demographic, as opposed to one target audience.
ReplyDelete-Ara Nazarian
I think that this video is a good example of the snarky analyzation of media that users of youtube have. The videos of the ShamWow are funny not necessarily intentionally and to poke fun and make a parody is typical of a snarky audience. It also is showing off the ability of identity and the new capabilities of having a voice on the internet. The video takes a holier than thou approach to the Shamwow commercials and the fact that we can identify with their smarky remarks shows that we have grown as an audience with a better sense of awareness.
ReplyDelete-Jonathan Espinosa