99 bottles of beer on the wall 99 bottles of beer

— Drunk Diane Sawyer (@DrnkDianeSawyer) November 7, 2012

im not drunk u gusys r dunk — Drunk Diane Sawyer (@DrnkDianeSawyer) November 7, 2012

While tiredness rather than tippling likely caused Sawyer’s condition, the Twitter account provided a fun way to record a micro-meme that sprung up on election night. Sawyer wasn’t the only source of fun. Nate Silver, whose 538 blog overshadowed his employer The New York Times on election night, became a target too. Here’s how a satirist cleverly mocked the pollster’s portentousness and the public’s sudden fixation with data driven reporting:

Now is the nowcast of our forecasts, made glorious projection by this mean of polls.

— Nate Silver 2.0 (@fivethirtynate) November 6, 2012

I grasp from the beak of a silver dove a laurel wreath of finely-wrought permutations. The Signal has come at last.

— Nate Silver 2.0 (@fivethirtynate) November 7, 2012

Drunk Diane and fake Nate are fleeting by their nature — they cause a chuckle and then vanish in days or months. But one day they may also carry historical significance in the same way that newspaper cartoons serve as a vital tool for political scholars. Consider how well these spoof tweets sum up a central narrative of the 2012 election — the Republicans lost because they couldn’t broaden their demographic base:

We were going to retake the Senate, but Republicans have a way of shutting that whole process down. #Akin #Mourdock #election2012

— Willard Mitt Romney (@MlTTR0MNEY) November 7, 2012

Wait! Wait! Stop everything! We found the Whitey Tape!! #4moreyears

— Willard Mitt Romney (@MlTTR0MNEY) November 7, 2012

(Image by  jbor via Shutterstock)

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JibJab, which gained global fame for a presidential parody in 2004, makes satire videos and online greeting cards like “elf yourself” that let people put their faces on animated figures.

The company this week sued White Castle over a recent social media campaign called “Jib Jab Chicken Ring” in which the chain sought to promote a food that appears as no. 7 on the site Top 13′s list of “Gross Fast Food items”

Jib Jab claims that White Castle’s promotion featured a tweet “5 minutes of @JibJab #fame?” and Facebook ads with the word “Jib Jab.” The animation firm also claims White Castle’s promotion borrowed its own style of “old fashioned caricatures of mustachioed men, characters with disproportionately large heads and animated jaws.”

A spokesperson from White Castle said lawyers from the two companies have been in discussion but declined to offer further details.

The case raises interesting questions about what ideas can be used in social media. JibJab has sued others in the past, including Toyota for using a talking, tap-dancing George Washington in a President Day’s ad.

Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing has accused JibJab of hypocrisy for using the First Amendment to defend their unauthorized use of the tune to “This Land Is your Land,” but then turning around to sue others.

In the case of White Castle, which gained recent fame through a popular comedy and Beastie Boys songs, the chain may be on thin ice because of its use of the JibJab name. Under trademark law, the test is whether there is a “likelihood of confusion” among consumers.

White Castle appears to have hit on a clever social marketing idea (to the extent that promoting orb-shaped chicken is ever a good idea) by encouraging fans to engage with it online, but it hit a trip wire when it used the Jib Jab name.

White Castle has already removed the “Jib Jab Chicken Ring” campaign from its Facebook timeline, but Jib Jab may be pursuing the suit in an effort to extract dollars. Its complaint (posted below) asks for $2 million.

The burger chain has far from given up on social media altogether though. Witness how it is promoting “Wedding Wednesday” on its timeline:

Jib Jab v White Castle

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The ruling came after RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) asked the Trademark and Trial Appeal Board to refuse Crackberry’s request for a trademark covering clothes and internet services.

The administrative judges said it would be wrong to let another company own the word “Crackberry” because many people associated the word with RIM’s own product. They said customers could be confused because:

the public at large initially adopted the term “CrackBerry,” as a nickname for opposer’s goods, alluding to the widely-held view that users of BLACKBERRY wireless handheld devices often appear to be addicted to their device

the “CrackBerry” moniker for BLACKBERRY branded products had already achieved dictionary status as a slang term dating to the year 2000, and had then been selected “Word of the Year” (2006) by the
staff of Webster’s New World Dictionary.

The judge’s rejected Crackberry’s claim that it had a free speech right to trademark the word under the law of parody. Crackberry compared its situation to that of “Chewy Vuitton,” a dog toy company that won a lawsuit brought by a certain fashion house. But the judges in this case said that, unlike the dog toy scenario, a Crackberry trademark would reduce the value of Blackberry’s own brand.

The win may be a minor consolation prize for RIM which earlier this year lost a separate trademark case. In January, a judge said the BlackBerry maker could not call its new operating system “BBX” because the name belonged to another software maker.

Hat tip to The TTABlog.

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In a case filed in Florida federal court, the maker of a “Joustin Beaver” app wants the court to declare it has the free speech right to sell its beaver game in the iPhone store.

The game in question sells for 99 cents on iTunes and features a mop-topped beaver who navigates river obstacles. The critter in question has a similar name and vague physical likeness to the “Baby, Baby” singer:

Last week, reports surfaced that Justin Bieber’s managers were threatening to sue the app makers for using his likeness without permission. App maker RC3 appears to have sued first in an attempt to get the court to declare that its free speech rights trump Bieber’s trademark rights. Here are some excerpts from the suit:

The beaver knocks “Phot-Hogs” that are attempting to take his photograph into the river with his lance. The beaver also signs “Otter-Graphs.” The beaver must also dodge the “whirlpool of success” which will lead beaver out of control

…multiple conversations took place during February of 2012. [RC3] attempted to explain .. that the App was protected under the FIrst Amendment of the Constitution of the United States

Ordinarily, celebrities and famous brands can exercise strong control over how their names are used. But there is an exception in the case of an obvious parody where there is no risk that consumers will be confused. Facebook, for instance, sued a site called Lamebook but then quietly settled the case after Lamebook argued free speech.

These type of questions give rise to questions of whether the defendants are clever parody artists or simply people looking to make a quick buck when a celebrity conflict gives them a wave of publicity.

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) doesn’t say how times a given app has been downloaded, but the iPhone version “Joustin Beaver” had been rated 86 times as of Monday. The app is also available on the iPad.

As for Justin Bieber’s other legal troubles, those appear to have been cleared up after the troubled 20-year-old who claimed to have taken his virginity had her paternity suit thrown out of court.

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“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” began as an online comic strip in 2004 featuring the travails of a tormented middle-school kid named Greg Heffley. Its popularity led to the publication of a hardcover in 2007 and soon after sequels, merchandise and a movie.

According the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, the books have sold more than fifty-two millions copies and the wimpy kid become a full-fledged cultural icon with an appearance last year in the Macy’s Thanksgiving today parade.

The zombie kid arrived on the scene this August via a small publisher, Antarctic Press, which released the book in a similar color and cover design. But the protagonist of the new title, is not just wimpy:

Middle school is horrific enough for any 5th grader’s first day. But for Bill Dookes, it’s a festering, rotting, undead nightmare! Since Bill’s deadbeat dad got arrested trying to burn the house down for the insurance, Mom’s had to make ends meet by volunteering to various medical research companies for cash. This would be fine if she hadn’t brought home a mysterious zombie virus! Now Bill has to deal with skin problems and body chemistry changes that make puberty look like a walk in the park! And then there’s his ever-growing appetite for BRAINS!

Needless to say, lawyers for Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney are throwing the kitchen suit at the zombie, demanding a temporary injunction and a galaxy of copyright and trademark damages.

Antarctic Press could not immediately be reached for comment but, given the visual similarity of the two books, the publisher will no doubt try to avoid liability by asserting a fair use parody defense.

Parody cases like this one raise a dilemma for literary types. On one hand, parody is a vital part of free expression but, on the other, it can be a fig leaf for rascals and rip-offs. Recent parody efforts show this tension.

Few objected, for instance, when Little Brown decided to publish “Goodnight Bush“, which mimicked the beloved children’s classic to produce a bedtime story showing a clock stuck at 9:11 and “war profiteers giving three cheers.”

There was little such indulgence in 2009 when a Swedish man published “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye” that purported to be a satirical modern-day version of Holden Caulfield. A court granted the late JD Salinger an indefinite injunction banning the book

And then there is The Wind Done Gone, a historical novel that retold the classic southern tale from the perspective of an African-American. The estate of Margaret Mitchell sued but the parties soon settled after the former agreed to call the book a parody (even though it doesn’t really fit that definition).

This year, the grouchy publisher of the syrupy “Elf on the Shelf” sued the authors of a humorous version for parents called “Elf off the Shelf.”

As for the upstart Zombie Kid, a court will look at factors like the amount of originality in the new work and its potential effect on the original market. At first blush, the case seems borderline — the zombie book seems both a satirical original work but also seems less an inspired parody than a pretty blatant attempt to cash in on the popularity of the Wimpy Kid. Readers?

Wimpy Kid trademark complaint
var docstoc_docid=”109416143″;var docstoc_title=”Wimpy Kid trademark complaint”;var docstoc_urltitle=”Wimpy Kid trademark complaint”;

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It’s less than two minutes long; it’s cheeky; it’s tech-related; and it’s Friday, so go watch:

http://www.youtube.com/v/-gxrNYMMWmM?fs=1&hl=en_US

Google Instant, with its speedy type-ahead results and easy screencast capturability, is a pretty darn easy way to make a music video. Urlesque credits Whirled Creative for already using the concept for “Instant Elements,” and Google started it all by making an ad for Instant using Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” There was also a great CollegeHumor simulated screencast parody a while back called “We Didn’t Start the Flame War.”

Well, okay, the so-called “return” of Seinfeld is both parody and recreation seen through a very distorted prism. Created, written by and starring Dan Klein and Arthur Meyer (both of the NYC UCB comedy crowd), this comedy series frames itself as the continuation of the once-crazy-popular NBC sitcom — albeit a much, much shorter and much, much stranger version than the iconic series Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld created.

Episode 1: “Beans” from Jerry & George on Vimeo.

It’s easy to mock the style of a show that almost became a parody of itself toward the end, and there’s been no shortage of spoofs since the show went off the air — including a porn version. However, even last year’s self-referential return to the show by its cast and creator can’t keep Meyer and Klein’s take from feeling inspired.

Sure, the bald wig worn by Meyer to play George is atrocious, the green-screening used to place the actors into the Seinfeld set is poor. But somehow it works. For one thing, Klein, Meyer and director Adam Conover have perfectly captured the tone of the original show, spiced up with the occasional dance sequence, sermon about Christianity, or torrent of profanity. For another, using the premise (as stated on the web series’s official site) that after 21 years “coming up with ideas and writing the show is hard” proves to be a great springboard for the nonsensical nature of these installments, which deliberately replicate the thought process of the uninspired. For instance, an entire episode, only 21 seconds in length, is summarized as follows: “Jerry and George agree.”

Episode 4: “Yes and No” from Jerry & George on Vimeo.

And the performances are key to this success: Meyer’s approach to playing George is a bit goblin-esque (mostly because he has to hunch over in order to seem shorter), but still funny, and Klein may not be a dead ringer for Jerry Seinfeld in terms of looks, but the voice and delivery are almost scarily accurate.

So this new Seinfeld for the web video world, currently at six episodes and counting, is pretty great. It’s worth saying this, though: As funny as making fun of the show’s now stale style might be, the Meyer/Klein take doesn’t even touch what actually made the original show so iconic: The clever plotting, the random secondary characters, the inherent misanthropy. This makes it the best kind of parody — one that knows better than to mock stuff not worth mocking.

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NTV got in touch with Smith to discuss YouTube fame and how he managed to make “cut, copy, paste” into such a catchy lyric, so quickly.

NTV: Tell us about how you found your way to online video.

Smith: I was raised in a musical family; I grew up writing, singing and playing.  When I was about 12, I started making goofy videos with my friends. By the time I was 15 I was doing freelance video full-time.  (ed. note: Smith was homeschooled and balanced video work around his studies.)  In September (of 2008), in hopes of building an audience and working my way into feature films, I started a YouTube channel and began weekly comedy sketches.

NTV: One thing that’s notable is your high production values.  What sort of budget do you normally work with?

Smith: I spent years saving to buy cameras, lights, mics, etc.  A local restaurant caters all of my shoots for free, and most of the time I get free locations, too.  So the videos cost me literally nothing to create.

NTV: You launched your YouTube channel pretty ambitiously with Kidnapped! How did that come about, and how many subscribers did you gain?

Smith:  The Kidnapped! series was created while I was on a trip to Buffalo, N.Y. Chris Torchia (who plays Gabrielle) and I were tossing around the idea of filming a video before I went back home.  This quickly turned into a concept for an entire series. We filmed in six days (minus Bribe2Subscribe on the Street and Captive Music Video).  I was the only crew member and editor, and Chris works 9-5 as a scientist, which meant he couldn’t even film until 6:30 each night. So I would spend the day preparing the script for that night. We’d begin filming at 7:00 pm with the shots that we were in together, then film Chris’s close-ups.  Then, Chris would go home and I’d stay to set up and film my own close-ups. I’ve gained roughly 2,000 subscribers from the series.

NTV: Impressive turnaround time brings us to Got My Mac on with iPhone3GS.  You must’ve had to write much of the lyric after the phone’s release.  How’d you get this video up so quickly?

Smith: I wanted to be the first with a response to the iPhone3GS.  I started digging around online for rumors as to what new features we’d be seeing.  I had my first draft written by Sunday, June 7th.  I wanted the video online by Wednesday, so I needed to start filming immediately, but I knew the 3GS wouldn’t be announced until Monday, which meant there was no way to confirm that any of my lyrics were correct.  So we filmed the parts that weren’t specific to the lyrics (cutaways, iPhone close-ups).  While we were filming, we followed Apple’s keynote live and began reworking my lyrics as they confirmed and debunked the rumors.  We went into the studio, laid down the track, and the next morning, on a few hours of sleep, we filmed the performance shots. I went straight home and edited my tail off, and had my final cut uploaded by the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

NTV: That’s some serious commitment to being first! So what rumors didn’t pan out?

Smith: I had written about a couple things that ended up needing to be changed, such as: a thinner design, GPS/compass integration for advanced geo-tagging of pictures, front facing iSight…things like that. I was a little bummed, to be honest, because I thought the original lyric was much funnier than the one we ended up with. I got attached to it and so I was curious to see if people would still find the song funny or not. It’s hard to know what people will think of something at first impression when you’ve been staring at it for hours and hours.

NTV: 25 Things I Hate About Facebook was such a giant hit — nearly a million views, visits to the Facebook offices and the Tyra show, etc.  Why do you think Got My Mac on with iPhone3Gs has had comparatively modest success?

Smith: The video is getting the amount of exposure I anticipated it would. I’d love to see Apple pick it up, but that’s always a shot in the dark. Believe it or not, 25 Things I Hate About Facebook didn’t take off immediately — it was in its
third week online that it blew up. I think the iPhone3GS video still has some hits coming.

NTV:  Has online video become your full-time occupation?

Smith: I support myself via my YouTube sketches and sponsorships/endorsements, yes. I take freelance work when I need extra money; I outsource most of the work so that I can stay focused on my own projects. It’s hard not knowing when the next paycheck is coming, but if it came down to it, I’d rather live on the street in one of my pelican cases and have time to create than work 9-5.

NTV: What’s ahead for you?

Smith: For the past three months I’ve been in conversation with several networks, agencies, and production companies regarding the possibility for my own TV show.  I can’t give details yet, but I look forward to updating everyone when I can!

Julian Smith releases new video every Friday on YouTube and at JulianSmith.tv.

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And whether or not you’re a cycling nerd, you’re probably not immune to the excitement of the Tour de France, which kicked off on July 5th and will continue through July 27th. But how to watch the legendary cycling race without cable TV — or being fluent in French? We’ll help you out over at NewTeeVee Station.

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In segments stitched together with title cards accurately recalling the stop-start MTV aesthetic of the time, a beret-clad Mena addresses the camera with a series of complaints and celebrations. She’s mainly concerned with credibility –– she calls out a friend for being a Rocky Horror Picture Show poseur, she complains about jocks dancing to Green Day even though they haven’t “earned” it. This (mostly imagined) fight for street cred was the fundamental culture war of the mid-90s, and the war was mostly fought by Doc Marten-wearing teens and 20-somethings wandering suburban and college-town streets. Mena’s earnest obsession with the stratified authenticity of cool is pitch-perfect.

Still, if I think about it too hard, the verisimilitude of The Mena Show falls apart. In 1994, I discovered the Internet, at the age of 14, and began using it to shape and broadcast my identity. Instead of blogs, I communicated with strangers through message boards and listservs. For about six months, I had a photocopied zine, which I sold for a dollar a copy by advertising on the Weezer message boards on AOL. The idea of communicating with other people by talking into a video camera would have been completely foreign to me, and I don’t think I would have known how to do it; I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it with the easy confidence on display in The Mena Show, as if the camera was a portal to a loosely-defined audience of friends and friendly strangers. This is how we talk into cameras now, with the gaze of YouTube on our minds.

Trott positions The Mena Show as an application of today’s technology to yesterday’s cultural discourse, but that seems slightly off. The Mena Show doesn’t play as though Mena circa 1994 somehow got her hands on the gadgets available to Mena circa 2008. It plays as though Mena circa 2008 is casting a post-YouTube style of address on the concerns of Mena circa 1994. On those terms, it works.

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