The buxom Obama cheerleaders are back, this time in a Beat It-style showdown with Giuliani’s G.O.P hussies (embedded below). Brought to us by Ben Relles and Leah Kauffman of Barely Political and Box in a Box fame, the political video striptease seems to be the meme of the month.
Is this the “Happy Birthday Mr. President” of the YouTube era? The ladies of Barely Political owe quite a bit to the imitable Marilyn Monroe. Or is this more the Jib Jab of the 2008 election, whose This Land traveled in very much the same media circles back on ’04?
More videos after the jump, including some girl-on-girl action with Hott4Hillary.
Having been splashed across CNN, The View, and even The Economist (sort of), I wonder how much is actual political media commentary and how much is bored, sexually frustrated male editors looking to grab the eyeballs of bored, sexually frustrated male readers. As a member of the coveted male 18- to 35-year-old demographic, I will freely admit that it wasn’t until the second (or perhaps sixth) viewing of the latest video that I heard the political pokes (which are far from jabs) in the lyrics.
“The pillow fight is a metaphor for the type of cheap attacks that go on during the political campaign,” Relles told The Daily Reel. Riiiight. And the high heels, torn fishnets, and halter tops are an allegory for the social security dilemma? These videos are not hard hitting socio-political commentary. They are fluffy foils of an overproduced, media-saturated age proving that a style-to-substance ratio is what makes something sticky.
Still, this newly born genre has already gotten meta with an ex-American Idol contestant making a Hillary-philic parody video of Obama Girl’s original video. Taryn Southern has a refreshingly level head about the entire process, documented matter-of-factly on her blog, and the final result (embedded below) is another facet of this growing meme.
So, will Barely Political work its way up to political punditry levels of Stewart/Colbert? Likely not, but it’s broken new ground with the powers of viral videos, coming out with multiple iterations of a successful formula. I’d like to think that my vote won’t be influenced by Hooters girls chanting political candidates names, but like I said before, I am a member of an easily swayed demographic. So, while maybe not the most cerebral of political commentaries, Obama girl very well might be the most primal.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2007\/07\/16\/girls-girls-girls-oh-and-politics\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_9ede9a437fcfb8d4538b572500af142c","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}