Google acquires YouTube, let the games begin!

Have heard the one about Mark Foley and the congressional pages?

Ok, truth is - there's more than one. There are tons of satire videos... and they're all on the web.

Thanks to the proliferation of high quality video camera and web access, there's growing community of political satirists that ply their trade entirely on the web.
I can't say i'm entirely surprised. Back in 1996 - when i created MTV UNfiltered - there were already ton's of people who wanted to record their personal, political, and often partisan opinions and get them on TV. At MTV partisan politics wasn't in the cards - but today with YouTube, Goolge, AOL, and Revver hosting and sharing sharp satire, there's an explosion in user-generated political satire.

And guess what, it's pretty darn funny.

Here's an example of a Mark Foley re-enactment that deadpan and brilliant.

In fact - there's a whole 'channel' of Mark Foley videos, and more growing every day.

It may be that the trend officially started back when the JibJab guys began to do their brilliant riffs on the 2004 political scene. But the fact is that amature satire is now growing like a weed. There's no shortage of George Bush bashing. But Hillary Clinton has her share of sharp elbowed home made videos. And Jon Stewart seems almost mild mannered if you listen to Ze Frank.

What's happening is that people are, for the first time, engaged in the process of making media. And there should be little surprise about what they want to talk about. They want to talk about their Country, their elected officials, things that make them want to jump out of their chair and say "I'm Mad As Hell and I'm not going to take it any More." (ok, i stole that, but it's such a good line).

Satire encompasses all of those things - oh, and yeah, it's funny too. But it also reflects a fundamental hunger on the part of makers to talk back to politics, to call folks like Mark Foley on the carpet for acting as if he's not accountable to anyone. Citizens having the power to speak out about those in power is a healthly, normal, and i would argue necessary thing.

And now, with the power of Google's search engine driving the discovery of videos published on YouTube, the era of self-service satire is here to stay.

A few more Foley videos (in case you want some more): here, here and here.