Our Secret YouTube Prank
A comedy article
by John Hargrave  128,123  71
12/11/2009 03:00 PM 5386 views
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Do you know what drives us insane? The ads on YouTube.
No question: free content has to be supported either by ads, or a side business selling crack to minors. But the little overlay ads that pop up, telling you to buy this MP3 from Amazon, or to click on the banner to make your own Zwinky, are driving us nuts. WHAT THE HELL IS A ZWINKY!?
I DON'T WANT TO TURN MYSELF INTO A CARTOON. I HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS IN REAL LIFE.
So we've got a new prank that we need your help to promote. It's top secret, linked only from our homepage, forum page, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. Just you, me, and a couple of million other people. But we can keep this a secret.
We've created a FAKE video with FAKE YouTube ads -- but the ads are permanently embedded into the video. Worse, they're totally inappropriate.
(Click to watch)
We took great care in making our home video as cheesy as possible, with ridiculous titles and goofy music -- just like a real YouTube video. And we were also careful to make the fake ads look exactly like those annoying YouTube popups.
The object of this "prank experiment" is to see how many people will a) fall for the fake video, and b) be outraged that YouTube would DARE put an adult ad over a children's video (while all of us fan the flames). Eventually, YouTube might even consider changing their ad policy ... if, of course, they don't pull down the video first, which will give us even more cause for righteous indignation.
Here's how you can help:
1) Comment on the YouTube video, using your best imitation of all the brain-damaged teenagers who leave comments on YouTube.
2) Post the YouTube video to your blog, along with a diatribe on YouTube's ads, and a call to overthrow the ad-driven, capitalist society.
3) Post the YouTube video to your Facebook page, along with a snarky comment like, "Not to be a wet noodle, but looks like THIS ad is inappropriate!"
4) Tweet the YouTube video along with a message like, "Please RT YouTube video OMG adult ads on kids video WTF? #comedy 10-4 good buddy http://bit.ly/5RBCrp"
5) Send the YouTube video to your cousin who writes for the Media & Advertising section of The New York Times.
SHHH! Be sure not to post THIS page, since it kind of spoils the surprise. POST THE YOUTUBE PAGE. This page is a secret!
Full disclaimer: the ad featured in the video is for www.121doc.co.uk, a ZUG advertiser, so indeed we are trying to beat the system by pranking the system. Still, we do want to see how many people will fall for the prank -- not to mention how YouTube will respond when they find their own lame ad format being used by somebody else.
Stay tuned for the results!
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Like This? Rate It!
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Side-splitting
9 votes
5.0
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Also Recommended on ZUG:
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Side-splitting
1 votes
5.0
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Brad Poynter 35,418  48
12/11/2009 03:12 PM
Comment added.
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Funny
3 votes
3.0
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Disco Bob 4,322 8
12/11/2009 03:28 PM
Do you know what drives us insane? The ads on YouTube
Hello Pot, this is the Kettle. Wanna play Evory?
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Hilarious
5 votes
4.2
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John Hargrave 128,123 71
12/11/2009 03:35 PM
I will say that due to the fine suggestions of some of our users, we turn off in-context ads for those who are logged in to ZUG.
Everyone still has to sit through the banners, though. As I said, content only wants to be free as long as there's someone willing to pay for it.
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0 votes
0.0
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CyberSanta 916 8
12/11/2009 04:29 PM
Sweet vid!
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0 votes
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Ali The ITS FUCKING XMAS Legend 840 7
12/11/2009 06:32 PM
You probably should've added some more legit keywords as opposed to simply 'viagra'.
Also, how are you supposed to differentiate between a brain-damaged teenager and someone imiTating a brain-damaged teenager?
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0 votes
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Barney S. Claus 2,122 17
12/11/2009 07:53 PM
Everyone still has to sit through the banners, though. As I said, content only wants to be free as long as there's someone willing to pay for it.
Some one pays for this?
Really???
Serious??
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Side-splitting
1 votes
5.0
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bloodyfish 111 7
12/11/2009 08:11 PM
I'm going to go ahead and mention that your info about the video makes the fact that the ads aren't real obvious. And all of your related videos seem to involve too much Viagra, not enough babies. The baby was cute though.
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0 votes
0.0
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Manmeat 478 4
12/12/2009 05:25 AM
Why is the name of the video like that? Instant giveaway that something is wrong, as are also the speech bubbles.
Someone's trying to debunk it allready.
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0 votes
0.0
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Alarm Clock the chubby Snow-bot 6,338 4
12/12/2009 11:20 AM
That's what I thought too, bloodyfish and Manmeat, and I figured it wouldn't take long before someone caught it or some jack ass from here went out of their way to ruin it. (Yes, we even have jack asses here.)
But then I thought it'd be funny when there were still some other "regular" (emphasis on the quotations) people that fell for it anyways. There-in is the beauty of stupid, fundamentalist people. They will see what they want and be blind to the rest. I think when you cast out to the web to give morons something to run with, you will succeed in getting a few real nice lunkers who run with it in a fashion that makes Jessie Owens look like Steven Hawkins.
Also, it doesn't help to give the guy who is trying to debunk thumbs downs. It just adds credence to his statement by showing that people are in on it when he has a chance to be right. He points it out and everyone hates him for it? Doesn't make sense. Just wait for the comments to add up and he'll get buried in the mass.
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0 votes
0.0
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The Mailman 174,473 52
12/12/2009 11:40 AM
I added the following comment to the video: "I luv the song, waht,s it called?"
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0 votes
0.0
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Example Not 2 3
12/12/2009 03:24 PM
Comment added as DragonzFern. :D
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Side-splitting
1 votes
5.0
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Rydash 5 3
12/12/2009 10:25 PM
Good News! I've added the video's link to my personal blog, Things That Need To Die.
Don't worry, I'm in full support of this. I'm just not willing to amputate my fingers to type like today's adolescents.
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Funny
1 votes
3.0
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TopHatSnake 3,138 10
12/13/2009 01:34 AM
I'm not sure what's funnier, the prank being pulled or the atrocious grammer of the comments. srsly, u gaiz, obveeus prank is obveeus
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0 votes
0.0
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levymetal 0 4
12/13/2009 08:34 AM
Just use firefox and adblock plus. Yes, it blocks youtube ads.
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0 votes
0.0
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CyberSanta 916 8
12/14/2009 03:56 PM
I see that I'm not the only one who uses the same screen name for every site I join, TopHatSnake.
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0 votes
0.0
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CyberSanta 916 8
12/14/2009 03:57 PM
Oh, and levymetal.
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0 votes
0.0
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TeddyWeddy 9 3
12/23/2009 11:28 PM
People already ruined the prank. Just look at the comics.
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0 votes
0.0
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Pramable Lectern 78,171 40
01/08/2010 12:02 AM
Hello Pot, this is the Kettle. Wanna play Evory?
It's actually called Evony.
heh...
*sings*
Evony, and Evory
live to together in perfect
harmony
kitty corner on my 'puter's
keyboard
oh Lord, why wiki?
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Side-splitting
1 votes
5.0
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jarboy 5 4
01/08/2010 03:47 AM
6) Vote for this entry on Fail Blog
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