The YouTube Funnies

TJ and I spend a lot of time hunting down a certain kind of art and it's time we shared some of it with you guys, assuming you're not already familiar with it. YouTube has enabled some talented folks to distribute a new class of amateur video that, when done well, can really leave you breathless. And your sides aching. As I am wont to do, I'll try and fit these videos within a loose classification scheme. They tend to fall into one of three broad categories: Recuts, Overdubs, and Splices.

Recuts

Recuts reshape what's already there, crafting a new story out of the ingredients of the old one. The new story is itself likely to be pretty funny but often the true hilarity comes primarily from the contrast with the source material. I started writing this post a long time ago and inserted here the absolute, hands down best example in existence, a Jaws recut called "Nobody Cares About Quint" in which the Orca crew's indifferent reactions to Quint's violent death are on display. I think TJ will vouch for the fact that this video was simply amazing. I'm leaving the embed in here even though, as you can see, it's been taken down. Maybe someday it will come back.



In the meantime, you can see what I'm talking about with the Stars Wars sex scene, Tarkin not taking shit, and this terrible miscalculation by Han Solo. And yes, quite a bit of this new art form revolves around Star Wars (though, again, the Jaws series is was the greatest I've ever seen).

Overdubs

Overdubs leave the action of a movie scene unaltered but radically alter the character of it with some fun sound editing. These are a way of inserting another film into an existing scene without altering the action of the existing scene in any way (no recut necessary). The juxtaposition of old action with new dialogue can be great fun. Probably the best example around today is Dude Vader:



Other Vader overdubs, like Darth Schwarzenegger, also exist since he's an easy target, given that you can't see his lips moving. The classic HAL Pacino also falls into this category, as does Reservoir Turtles. And of course, the Ninja Lebowski series qualifies:



And a few more choice picks for you to peruse: Agent Sagan Smith almost breaking Morpheus, Han Solo vs. Greedo Quintana, and C-3PO Strikes Back.

Lastly, as a general rule, overdubs that use original dialogue (i.e. instead of just inserting sound from another movie) are usually not very good. The most notable exception is the overdubbed (and sometimes recut) series of G.I. Joe public service announcements, known for such classics as Porkchop Sandwiches!

Splices

Splices take two different (often radically so) movies and find a way to make them interact in a way that not only sort of makes sense but is hilarious. Exhibits A and B are two Back to the Future-themed splices:





Another favorite is the splice of Batman and Titanic.

Some splices use different movies from the same actor(s) to give them that feel of authenticity. You can see that in Han Solo's Blaster and in Batman's unlikely alliance with the Green Goblin.

Some intrepid souls even try to splice live action and cartoon, as in Speed vs. The Magic School Bus.

Cross-Cutting Categories

There are also a few sub-classes of YouTube Funnies. While these aren't anything we haven't covered, these don't easily fit under just one of the above three categories because they tend to wander between them (they choose not to respect my careful classification scheme). These include:

Alternate Endings

Alternate endings, of course, take the movies we love and resolve them in an entirely new way. Some alternate endings are recuts, like this one:



Other alternate endings are splices, like this Matrix-Crocodile Dundee scene:



There are probably hundreds of alternate movie endings on YouTube (although many of them aren't very good). Most notable is the series of Indiana Jones alternate endings (like this one) and the many, many Star Wars alternate endings (like this one), though again the quality varies. As a general (though not absolute) rule of thumb, if an alternate ending is longer than two or three minutes, the payoff probably isn't enough to warrant spending the time watching it.

Fake Trailers

These are exactly what the name suggests: trailers for movies that, tragically, don't exist.

They can be silly splices like A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead:



Or they can be recut overdubs like Must Love Jaws:



I'm probably killing the bandwidth so I'll stop there. I have to say, I'd really love to develop some video editing skills so I can start making some YouTube Funnies of my own. But we'll see.

If I've left out anything noteworthy or you've got more you want to share, put some links in the comments.