Clever little shit
January 31, 2007 12:31 PM Subscribe
Last Friday a YouTuber by the name of "Mark Erickson" posted a video claiming to reveal an easter egg in Gmail that unlocked an invite to a yet to be announced Google beta service called Google TV. Using some relatively fancy spoofing, he showed a screencast of how logging in and out of Gmail over and over again would eventually unlock the invite. Many greasy Google fanboys (like me) followed his instructions, logging in and out dozens, and dozens and dozens of times. Eventually, we realized it was a hoax. In fact, this is what "Erickson" does, post fake technology demo videos on YouTube which lead you on wild goose chases. Also see his production company and some of their YouTube work (especially the alternative intros to "Designing Women" and "Golden Girls"). Clever little shit.
My God. Those TV intros are brilliant. "Happy Days" and "Dynasty" are particularly great.
posted by billysumday at 12:56 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by billysumday at 12:56 PM on January 31, 2007
Devilishly brilliant.
Perhaps this is the new way to deal with the teaming hoards of idiots on YouTube, hoax the hell out of them?
posted by hugsnkisses at 12:59 PM on January 31, 2007
Perhaps this is the new way to deal with the teaming hoards of idiots on YouTube, hoax the hell out of them?
posted by hugsnkisses at 12:59 PM on January 31, 2007
This is funny as hell...buy only because I didn't spend hours trying to make GoogleTV work (which I most certainly would have, if I'd have heard about this.)
posted by ColdChef at 1:01 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by ColdChef at 1:01 PM on January 31, 2007
LOVE the theme music to his show. Reminds me of so many 80s instructional videos, of course, but in an amazingly realistic way... The whole thing is brilliantly executed.
posted by Ricky_gr10 at 1:02 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by Ricky_gr10 at 1:02 PM on January 31, 2007
It's so brilliant I am going to freakin' kill him.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:06 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:06 PM on January 31, 2007
Wow; the execution is so spot-on. What a great piece of work.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:23 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by mr_roboto at 1:23 PM on January 31, 2007
I love the Doogie Howser one. Also, I am not jealous of his success and ingenuity and have no desire to kill him.
posted by frecklefaerie at 1:26 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by frecklefaerie at 1:26 PM on January 31, 2007
WHAT DOES ARCHIVE THE LETTER MEEN?
YouTube comedy gold.
posted by chrismear at 1:27 PM on January 31, 2007
YouTube comedy gold.
posted by chrismear at 1:27 PM on January 31, 2007
Golden Girls is amazing, Designing Women a close second, the others are slightly less so.
posted by Brainy at 1:27 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by Brainy at 1:27 PM on January 31, 2007
oh god that designing women intro is awesome. MAAAAAA!
posted by Pastabagel at 1:43 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by Pastabagel at 1:43 PM on January 31, 2007
I really liked Home Improvement, but I can't quite say why. It was totally surreal, but just on the edge of being cringe-inducing.
But, yeah, Golden Girls rocks.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:44 PM on January 31, 2007
But, yeah, Golden Girls rocks.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:44 PM on January 31, 2007
The great thing about the Google hoax is that he tells you to keep logging out and logging in because the TV rollover icon will randomly appear. I can just imagine some poor fuck logging in over and over and over and cursing the random number generator.
posted by eyeballkid at 1:47 PM on January 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by eyeballkid at 1:47 PM on January 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
Many greasy Google fanboys (like me) followed his instructions, logging in and out dozens, and dozens and dozens of times.
You mean the google/os spoof wasn't enough to make you wary of these things? This sounds like the BOFH telling callers to turn their monitor on and off 50 times fast to clear up an error. Here, hold this wire for me.....
posted by IronLizard at 1:50 PM on January 31, 2007
You mean the google/os spoof wasn't enough to make you wary of these things? This sounds like the BOFH telling callers to turn their monitor on and off 50 times fast to clear up an error. Here, hold this wire for me.....
posted by IronLizard at 1:50 PM on January 31, 2007
And I just realized I didn't read all of the post, just clicked on the links. Sorry for calling you a "poor fuck" JPowers ;)
posted by eyeballkid at 1:56 PM on January 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by eyeballkid at 1:56 PM on January 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
I'm sort of disappointed that you didn't just post a link to the video, and call it Google TV Beta Easter Egg. I would have liked to watch that unfold on Metafilter.
I've tried 1000 times.
This is a hoax.
It's not a hoax.
His registrar is this.
His long and lat are this.
Here's a sattelite image of his house.
It would have been great.
posted by gummo at 2:15 PM on January 31, 2007 [5 favorites]
I've tried 1000 times.
This is a hoax.
It's not a hoax.
His registrar is this.
His long and lat are this.
Here's a sattelite image of his house.
It would have been great.
posted by gummo at 2:15 PM on January 31, 2007 [5 favorites]
Re: the Designing Women intro, I just wanted to say Occular Shenanigans again...
That is all.
posted by opsin at 2:37 PM on January 31, 2007
That is all.
posted by opsin at 2:37 PM on January 31, 2007
I thought the Wi-Fi one was brilliant. Love to see somebody doing that out in public. The iTunes one looks like it has the potential to munge data, though, which would be seriously cruel.
Once I found out about the intros, though, I was left a bit baffled. What's the point here (besides showing off some basic CGI)?
posted by dhartung at 4:59 PM on January 31, 2007
Once I found out about the intros, though, I was left a bit baffled. What's the point here (besides showing off some basic CGI)?
posted by dhartung at 4:59 PM on January 31, 2007
Notice the ethernet cable-wrapped cell phone in the "This is not a hoax" video? Really funny stuff.
posted by malaprohibita at 5:42 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by malaprohibita at 5:42 PM on January 31, 2007
I was totally suckered by the Google TV thing, and not only that, I assumed the d00dz at Google screwed me by having failed yet again to support Safari in their initial rollout of a new product. Because that blimfangled crotch-sniffin' rollover never showed up, and I logged in and out like twenty-five times, too. </Google+Mac fanboy>
posted by cgc373 at 6:26 PM on January 31, 2007
posted by cgc373 at 6:26 PM on January 31, 2007
Man, if only!
I'm so glad you didn't post this as real.
posted by graventy at 7:35 PM on January 31, 2007
I'm so glad you didn't post this as real.
posted by graventy at 7:35 PM on January 31, 2007
Best. Post. Ever.
I had to wait till I got off work to come back to it, and now I've watched every video by Fatal and Infinite. His shit eating grin at the end of each "techtatorial" (his comedic elocution, not mine) is just priceless.
I've got to go compose a straightfaced Myspace bulletin now.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:22 PM on January 31, 2007
I had to wait till I got off work to come back to it, and now I've watched every video by Fatal and Infinite. His shit eating grin at the end of each "techtatorial" (his comedic elocution, not mine) is just priceless.
I've got to go compose a straightfaced Myspace bulletin now.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:22 PM on January 31, 2007
I wonder if this is the reason that gmail and google reader have been flackey the last few days.
posted by srboisvert at 2:53 AM on February 1, 2007
posted by srboisvert at 2:53 AM on February 1, 2007
Once I found out about the intros, though, I was left a bit baffled. What's the point here (besides showing off some basic CGI)?
absurd juxtaposition = funny
posted by gigawhat? at 7:38 AM on February 1, 2007
absurd juxtaposition = funny
posted by gigawhat? at 7:38 AM on February 1, 2007
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posted by parmanparman at 12:56 PM on January 31, 2007