You've Got to Get Yourself Some Marble Columns!

Alternate video URL: http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=94844

This is a video from Saturday Night Live of a spoofed commercial for marble columns. I found this particularly interesting because it mocks the usual methods of persuasion in typical commercials.

First and foremost, this video ridicules and exaggerates the fact that people are so material-based. The video makes it seem as if anyone could simply own marble columns and feel that they are very superior. Scarlett Johansson portrays this fact with the line, "People are going to look at you and go, 'Who lives there? The Pope?' " The video also describes some very regular day-to-day events, like eating breakfast and sleeping, that could be enhanced simply with the presence of marble columns.

This is certainly very reminiscent of today's society. For some people, it seems as if the possession of certain "classy" items would make them more high-class. This is also why most commercials are successful: they like to play on the human desire for power, and thus persuade them to buy material products. An example of how this commercial portrays this is when Jason Sudeikis says "Nothing says I have money and power like marble columns". He even establishes authority for what he is saying: "How do I know this? Because I have been selling marble columns to rich people for over 10 years! I'm talking millionares!"

The video also makes fun of the fact that commercials always try to hard-wire concepts into your mind by repeating a line (or several lines) over and over again. Just like the "Head-On" commercial which keeps repeating "Head-On, apply directly to the forehead", this commercial keeps insistently repeating the line, "You've got to get yourself some marble columns!". This video amuses us by using an emotional appeal to the audience, since most of us would usually we usually agree that commercials like the one for Head-On are quite annoying and ridiculous.

We are entertained by how everything sounds stupid, and by the sarcasm employed through the cheesy examples of how marble columns could enhance any place. We are also implicitly informed that we should be wary of commercials that attempt to use bandwagon or other approaches in order to persuade you to buy material items.

What If The Internet Crashed?

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

People these days are so dependent on the Internet that they can hardly live without it. This video is interesting because demonstrates in a humorous way what would happen if the Internet crashed and all data was lost. This video makes great use of parody and sarcasm.

The mention of "Eric Tipton of Wallingford, Connecticut" as the suspect of causing the Internet crash with loads of windows, IM, etc. running pokes fun at the fact that people are such Internet addicts, while pointing out at the same time that the police are so paranoid they could attribute anything to anyone.

This news video also mentions that the government stated "they do not have a backup of the Internet, but had always meant to get around to making one. They are so mad at themselves." This is meant to ridicule the fact that it sometimes takes forever just to get anything done through the government. "They are so mad at themselves" implicitly suggests that the government will one day regret not taking proactive measures to solve a lot of today's common problems. This is one of the ways the author of this video tries to persuade the audience that the government is not very effective. Toward the end, we see that American organizations are providing aid by either playing more funny videos on TV, or handing out more celebrity gossip etc. In a sense, this is another satirical attack on the government, ie. some American organizations can do better than the government itself. This is also intended as a snapshot of people trying to rebuild life without the Internet, as mentioned at the end of the video about how a man was being "heroic" to rebuild his entire Flickr album. This "snapshot" further allows everyone to feel the impact that an Internet crash would have on everyday life.

The video points out that the blogging community was hit hard by this crisis, and lots of blog articles were lost. By pointing out these things, the author points out how much people are depending on the data on the Internet, and establishes the effect of losing all this data. Certainly, even this English 201 project depends on using the Internet for blogs. If the Internet crashed right now (oh gosh, please don't...), everything I am typing right now would be lost.

Welcome! Enjoy...