[via kottke]

Keynes vs. Hayek, Round 2… new beat, new mustaches. This one is gonna be brutal!

For those who missed the first epic philosophical rap battle:
John Maynard Keynes is straightup gangsta

Mahna Mahna, also spelled Mah Nà Mah Nà, is a song by Italian composer Piero Umiliani. Since, like the Trololo song, it contains no words, it was ripe to become an international pop hit.

Most people know it from a performance on the original Muppet show…

The song continues to have a life of its own in pop culture, providing the beginning of the second season of the original Ricky Gervais The Office:

Here’s a dark revision of the song that’s been making the rounds lately…

“I’ll give you a brief history of pain with the back of my hand!”

This is a great series. The most popular one currently is Darth Vader vs. Hitler.

I will post one of these a week, America, until you beg for mercy.

What the hey, here’s next week’s a week early…

WHAT IS A REBECCA BLACK?
Catch up on this ‘Friday’ craze

It’s so rare to find a comedy video about dry economics issues. It’s even rarer to find a funny and well-produced one (although there are some). But this little number can be enjoyed simply as a parody of a classic 80′s video…

Since Ben Bernake has been in the news so much, I think he deserves a least a fraction of the spoofs that Charlie Sheen’s been getting. Bernake’s been “winning” since before Sheen grew out of his diapers (last Wednesday?). The Bernake’s job is ostensibly to “grow the American economy”, so maybe he deserves to be watched a little closer.

A little creepier. By this weird economics stalker dude.

Inexplicably popular in Germany, much like David Hasselhoff. According to this CNN report, it is getting standing ovations all over that nation, and shows Obama’s political rise, from a community organizer facing local gangsters and crime bosses, to the love story with Michelle, to the dance-off with Sarah Palin, to the rousing “Yes We Can” song as he wins the presidency. The actors are American, or at least the one playing Obama is.

I’m betting this next election cycle we’ll be seeing another rash of Obama-themed musical videos. Never fear – when it comes to finding and posting the best of them, Tastes Funny says: “Yes We Can!”

MORE LIKE THIS:
Obama does Gilbert & Sullivan
Obama is not a Pumpkin
Rootin’ Tootin’ Sarah Palin Song

Let’s start with the infamous “Bad Project” video…

Now, let’s see how pre-teens are selling microwaves these days…

This ‘literal’ version of “Telephone” is a total burn (‘P-p-p-p-product placement’)…

The same folks, Key of Awesome, also took on “Bad Romance”…

If I may intellectualize for a moment, from the videos we’ve seen so far, I’m wondering if we can start to formulate a theory of what is the essence of Gaga — what is the element that is consistently spoofed, the signifier of Gaganess?

Let us examine the evidence presented by the Foehr Kids and their rendition of “Poker Face”. This seems to be stripped down to essentials…

In the last few days clips of New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan at a debate have gone viral:

Remixes were inevitable. Here’s a popular one using footage from the movie, Up:

Auto-tune techniques are a natural:

You may be surprised that Jimmy McMillan was the first one to remix himself. Here’s a video that played on his website (before it was crashed by all the attention) which cast him as the incredible Hulk:

Even puppets are weighing in in support:

So Jeff has been totally kicking my butt with some great finds. I don’t think the Olsen twins pizza rap can or should be topped.

But if you’ve got a gloomy case of the Thursdays, here’s a little Queen cover to make you feel better:

Here’s some other top videos from the guy, Joe Penna aka MysteryGuitarMan… This one makes use of the sound-altering properties of fans.

Here’s another video on pretty much the same gimmick, but visually stimulating.

Go, go gadget! Well, that’s all I got right now. Oh, except a painting of Willem Dafoe with a chin that could destroy armies:

A very talented co-worker made this with stuff around the office. Kid’s got rhythm.

Day 177 / Office Instruments At Work from Charlie Visnic on Vimeo.

In case you’re wondering, that weird metal thing is a heat sink from inside a Mac Pro.

And if you’re wondering how this was done, well, it’s complicated. The music editing is done with this control surface called a Monome. Other technical details: Shot on a Canon 7D with retrofitted Zeiss lens; audio recorded on an M-Audio MicroTrack field recorder; video edited on Final Cut Pro. Read more about it and check out more of Charlie’s stuff on his One Creative Thing A Day blog.

Turn it up now, guaranteed to shake Satan.

[via bb]

These might be from the same show… I don’t read Cyrillic.

Bonus flashback version:

Man, looks like there was some sweet tv hidden behind the Iron Curtain.

Amazing song constructed entirely from sounds in Terminator 2.

The same YouTube user, the unfortunately named Fagottron (unless he’s a gay guy named Ron who’s taking the slur back), also has a similar video for Disney/PIXAR’s Up.

Somebody thought it would be a good idea to make a rather literal music video for the ska song “Fun with Pork”.

Well, at least I know two guys who would enjoy this.

Riddle me this: Why is a talking rabbit the spokes-animal for the other white meat?

The people at rathergood.com also have a less-catchy funk follow-up video called “Not a Nut”.

You can see why whether or not something or someone is a nut would be of concern to the makers of this type of entertainment.

I think the finest rathergood video may be the singing kittens, not yet available on YouTube, but to be found on the main site. It’s earth-shatteringly weird and kinda catchy in the same way is many an auto-tuned comedy video.