It's a snap!

February 17, 2012 10:50 AM

This is apparently a real advertisement [gore warning] for the Central Institute of Technology in Australia. Mind blown. TV in America sucks.
posted by Cool Papa Bell (121 comments total)

I am SCREAMING with laughter right now!!!! omg....
posted by supermedusa at 10:53 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

2012 ENROLMENTS NOW OPEN
posted by narcoleptic at 10:54 AM on February 17, 2012

oh man.... I know where I don't want to go to school
posted by rebent at 10:54 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

This... This... Wonderful THING!
posted by WinnipegDragon at 10:54 AM on February 17, 2012

Uh, I would have appreciated a gore warning.
posted by jocelmeow at 10:55 AM on February 17, 2012 [6 favorites]

Holy crap, no kidding on the gore. That turned from funny to NOT OK pretty fast.
posted by DU at 10:57 AM on February 17, 2012 [6 favorites]

Warning: comedy, gore, Australian accents.
posted by Curious Artificer at 10:57 AM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

That's a much better advertisement than this sign for an establishment close to my apartment. Look how much hopelessness and dejection the designer managed to cram into that simple illustration!
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:57 AM on February 17, 2012 [12 favorites]

man, I wish I'd seen all of the gore warnings before...uh, gore.

Otherwise, very funny.
posted by Elly Vortex at 10:59 AM on February 17, 2012

I hear that school has a good comp sci program but a really shitty teleportation studies department.

Well, yeah. That's why the school's in Perth.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:59 AM on February 17, 2012 [11 favorites]

Man nightcrawler's son is a douche
posted by The Whelk at 10:59 AM on February 17, 2012 [8 favorites]

I suspect his bad teleportation coordinates can somehow be blamed on the metric system.

Tool of the devil, I say.
posted by Dark Messiah at 11:00 AM on February 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

That was fucking hilarious.
posted by Think_Long at 11:01 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Turned from funny to very funny pretty fast.
posted by found missing at 11:02 AM on February 17, 2012 [30 favorites]

Well that quickly turned sad and gruesome.

If it makes you feel any better, that really was his real-life, on-screen death.
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:03 AM on February 17, 2012 [76 favorites]

I hear that school has a good comp sci program but a really shitty teleportation studies department.
posted by griphus at 11:05 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Are they affiliated with the South Harmon Institute of Technology?
posted by blaneyphoto at 11:05 AM on February 17, 2012

I can even fathom pitching an ad like this to my school. I wanted to do a bit about being quiet in the library based on these Panda Cheese commercials to be aired over the school's internal network (replace the panda with our ram mascot, befuddled shopper/eaters with noisy students) and was shot down superquick.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:05 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

I teleported home one night with Ron, Sid and Meg...
Ronald stole Megan's Heart away... ... and I got Sidney's leg! Oi!

(With apologies to Douglas Adams)
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:07 AM on February 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

It's like that one Star Trek where the ship like partially dematerialized and somebody ended up dead stuck inside the floor!
posted by anazgnos at 11:10 AM on February 17, 2012

It lost me when the 2nd guy threw up. Then, transporting form coffee shop to pub... yeah, I see the kind of students this educational institution was trying to attract. And what school WAS that again? Even before the gore it was like the car ads that make you say "oooh, that's so cool... uh, what kind of car IS that?"

But kind of a funny ad, if way too far over-the-top, but pathetically ineffective at selling anything, or giving a good reason to even inquire.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:10 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

That turned from funny to NOT OK pretty fast.

It's ok guys. I think this video is fake.
posted by cmoj at 11:12 AM on February 17, 2012 [22 favorites]

yeah, like only 1% of Australians can teleport after all.
posted by The Whelk at 11:14 AM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Is it even physically possible to wear wool caps in Australia?
posted by KokuRyu at 11:14 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

well teleportation uses a lot of internal and ambient energy, guy's probably chilly most of the time.
posted by The Whelk at 11:15 AM on February 17, 2012

oneswellfoop: "pathetically ineffective at selling anything"

people all over the world, including ourselves, are suddenly aware this place even exists
posted by idiopath at 11:16 AM on February 17, 2012 [23 favorites]

I know some of you seem to be legitimately bothered by the gore (for reasons beyond me), but I would like to say that a gore warning would have made that much less effective. Two thumbs up. Super great.
posted by neuromodulator at 11:17 AM on February 17, 2012 [13 favorites]

I thought this was awesome. I think the reasoning for all the special effects is that they likely teach courses on how to make this sort of stuff.
posted by utsutsu at 11:18 AM on February 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

Oh my god. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Thank you.
posted by The otter lady at 11:18 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

See, even the otter lady finds it funny. Y'all are babies.
posted by neuromodulator at 11:19 AM on February 17, 2012 [13 favorites]

Cryingly funny. The death at the end was literally the icing on the cake.
posted by djrock3k at 11:19 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

My first reaction (besides a delighted "wow") was..

just another reminder of the humorless hegemony still paralyzing the U.S.?

...but I don't know. (some) prime time comedy is sort of pretty great these days [ok, mainly 30 Rock], and the superbowl commercial phenom is turning out lots of self-aware stuff & helping progress the norm.

hmm ok-- there's all the data comprising my obvioius ambivalence.

Thanks for the beautiful surprises here, though.
posted by herbplarfegan at 11:20 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I know different people have different tastes, triggers, perceptions, etc., and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but a reasonable person can only conclude that this is the greatest commercial of all time.
posted by brain_drain at 11:20 AM on February 17, 2012 [28 favorites]

good stuff!

the pen & teller water tank trick was pretty great too :P
posted by kliuless at 11:22 AM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

I hate those silly baggy back-of-the-head hats.
posted by entropone at 11:22 AM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Shannen Doherty for Education Connection.
posted by hermitosis at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh my god, that is hilarious.
posted by brundlefly at 11:26 AM on February 17, 2012

For those of us killjoys who work in a cube farm and don't want to click on random videos - can I have a rundown of what happens? Does someone get stabbed by some spinifex while singing along to Midnight Oil during Karaoke Hour or something?
posted by spinifex23 at 11:30 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Shannen Doherty for Education Connection.

Begone! There can only be one, true Education Connection girl!
posted by Thorzdad at 11:32 AM on February 17, 2012

Haven't you been paying attention? Comedy. Gore. Australian accents.
posted by Curious Artificer at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2012

If I might dissect the humor for those not getting it: you've presumably seen many commercials over the course of your life where a person selling a product magically flashes from one location to another in order to maximally extoll the virtues of whatever, it's a trivially common commercial trope. This commercial uses the same device, but works through all possible real-world implications of actually doing such a thing, such as the nausea and disorientation one would feel. The only possible way it can end, if they are to be true to their premise, is with a guy having merged, gorily, with his environment, and with a full accounting of the terrible suffering he endures. However disturbing that image is, if they failed to follow the premise all the way you would be even more unsatisfied at the lack of honesty and comedic truthfulness.
posted by anazgnos at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2012 [16 favorites]

As someone who's had his fair share of trouble with teleportation, this plays more like observational comedy to me.
posted by brundlefly at 11:35 AM on February 17, 2012 [19 favorites]

I like how all the women in the video are either serving drinks or wearing short skirts.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:36 AM on February 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

can I have a rundown of what happens?

It takes a sudden dark and emotional turn with a very graphic imagination of what would happen if you teleported into a solid object.
posted by polecat at 11:37 AM on February 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

Aaron McCann is my name
And Perth is my nation
The dorms are my dwelling place
The stairs my destination
posted by griphus at 11:38 AM on February 17, 2012 [17 favorites]

I like how all the women in the video are either serving drinks or wearing short skirts.

Hey, there were some studying fashion design as well.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:39 AM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

dissecting humor: because if you don't find it funny now, treating it with gloves and forceps will surely teach you the error of your ways
posted by danny the boy at 11:40 AM on February 17, 2012 [6 favorites]

hey guys I found the croak
posted by The Whelk at 11:42 AM on February 17, 2012

Mod note: Added a warning, carry on.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 11:44 AM on February 17, 2012

Serious question: Was Henry played by the same actor that plays Badger in Breaking Bad?
posted by Daddy-O at 11:48 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Kinda glad I saw it without the [Gore] warning. The twist at the end is that much more enjoyable owing to the fact that the commercial plays, mostly, as, well... a commercial.
posted by coolxcool=rad at 11:49 AM on February 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

TV in America sucks.

That may still be true from what I've experienced of it, but I doubt this ad was made for TV - at 1:58 it's four times the standard length. Even the public service announcements about which deadly snakes & spiders are in plague proportions this season don't go past 30 sec.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:50 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Does someone get stabbed by some spinifex while singing along to Midnight Oil during Karaoke Hour or something?

Wow, got it in one!
posted by davejay at 11:51 AM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

So, I did not see this until after the [Gore] warning was added, and I swear to god I thought that meant that Al Gore would make an appearance in the ad, which was very puzzling to me on several levels.

Personal favorite moment: the Robot snap. On account of robots make everything better.
posted by fikri at 11:52 AM on February 17, 2012 [6 favorites]

dissecting humor: because if you don't find it funny now, treating it with gloves and forceps will surely teach you the error of your ways

I'll check the body for semen.
posted by Dark Messiah at 11:53 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

TV in America sucks.

This is a surefire way to tell when someone has never turned on a television outside of America. Most TV everywhere is abysmal.
posted by roger ackroyd at 11:54 AM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

The death at the end was literally the icing on the cake.

What kind of cake are we talking about, here?
posted by Edgewise at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2012 [12 favorites]

The eyes! The EYES!!
posted by Old'n'Busted at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog, no one is very interested and the frog dies of it is lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose."
posted by anazgnos at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

So a mefite, a redditor and a /b/tard walk into a bar, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Don't you know there are millions of people without reliable internet access at all, and you're sitting here reading jokes and watching funny videos instead of out working for social justice? Privilege can sure manifest in some ugly ways.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 12:00 PM on February 17, 2012 [43 favorites]

My god, this is exactly the way I'm always saying adverts should suddenly, unexpectedly go. And no real nod and wink at the end, which scores them a million bonus points.
posted by emmtee at 12:04 PM on February 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

Meta
posted by zarq at 12:10 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

re: People who say this advertisement doesn't sell the school, you clearly a) aren't the target demographic and b) haven't got a clue how advertising works. Advertising's got two goals: they want to convince you to watch the whole thing, and they want to persuade you of the qualities their product's got that might make you want to go there. You don't do that by showing smiley college kids on campus, because viewers aren't complete idiots.

Here's what I've learned from watching this advert:

– This college is centrally located, has city access, a pub, some cool-looking buildings/classrooms, and it's got a mine shaft;
– The students who go to this college not only seem like cool, funny people, but the college encourages these traits;
– They've got a pretty decent film-or-special effects department.

The snapping gimmick, subverted as it is, lets them show off a lot of cool things about the college. And the awesomeness of the advertisement lets me know that this is a place where I'd fit right in, meet cool people, have a lot of fun, and learn the things I (theoretically) want to learn. I bet this college gets a ton more applicants than it's used to getting. Remember also that thanks to the Internet, your advertisement doesn't necessarily have to close the sale; it just has to make people Google you.

I'd even say that the fact that this ad turns some of you off is a positive for the school. I've been in classes with unfunny stiffs before; good riddance to y'all.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:18 PM on February 17, 2012 [38 favorites]

Who do I see about the PTSD I have after watching that video?
posted by crunchland at 12:18 PM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

"Analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog, no one is very interested and the frog is lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose."

Oh man, now I want a Crunchy Raw, Unboned, Real, Dead Frog.
posted by The Bellman at 12:22 PM on February 17, 2012

Then, transporting form coffee shop to pub... yeah, I see the kind of students this educational institution was trying to attract.

Engineering students?


And what school WAS that again?

The Central Institute of Technology. Prospective students already know what kind of school it is from the name. After the ad, they know that its a school run by the kind of people who would approve this ad.

I want to enrol, and I already have a degree. And live in Canberra.
posted by PercyByssheShelley at 12:24 PM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Al Gore wasn't in that ad at all.
posted by kenko at 12:24 PM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

polecat: "It takes a sudden dark and emotional turn with a very graphic imagination of what would happen if you teleported into a solid object."

Eponysterical
posted by symbioid at 12:29 PM on February 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

I actually attended a couple of semesters at the Central Institute of Technology and I'm a little bothered by this ad. The truth is that there's a spiral staircase in one of the administration buildings that has a large bronze plaque mentioning that it figured (without explanation) in the death of some science students back in the 1960s. This apparently involved the same now-ended program that killed Seth Brundle, another CIT student who's had a film made about him.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:29 PM on February 17, 2012 [11 favorites]

the sockhat dude gave that poor unsuspecting guy at the mixing console the beer that the big guy spat in

Sockhat dude's whole character arc was a steady escalation of assholery followed by overreach and the inevitable come-uppance. He gives his unfortunate co-star a coffee, then thoughtlessly switches it with a beer, then even more thoughtlessly gives it to someone else, and shortly thereafter proclaims his own divinity - the very picture of hubris.
posted by Mars Saxman at 12:31 PM on February 17, 2012 [12 favorites]

I want to enrol, and I already have a degree. And live in Canberra.

Yeah, any pretext will do.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:33 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Man, there is ample eyeball wash for those negatively affected by the video, directly linked at the end. And yes, the kitten survives.
posted by anazgnos at 12:45 PM on February 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, but if you actually teleported into a solid object you'd suddenly have a whole load of molecular bonds in a state of some unhappiness, not to mention (depending on how the teleportation actually worked) the potential for quite a lot of interestingly exothermic nuclear readjustments. It's hard to say exactly what would happen, but the chances of Perth still being there in any meaningful fashion are quite slim.

And they call themselves technologists. For shame. Full-body impaling's too good for 'em.
posted by Devonian at 12:55 PM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

1. That was an awesome advertisement
2. Would have liked to have seen more of the woman at 0:36
posted by Renoroc at 1:00 PM on February 17, 2012

It's hard to say exactly what would happen, but the chances of Perth still being there in any meaningful fashion are quite slim.

Oh come on. Matter is what, 99.9999999% empty space - the chance of the nuclei of one set of atoms getting close enough to the other set of atoms to induce a fission reaction is slight. At the most we'd just get an ordinary chemical explosion.
posted by Jimbob at 1:00 PM on February 17, 2012

This is hilarious, and makes me homesick for Australia (and goes some way to making up for that godawful Gina Rinehart poem), but from the moment the guy threw up I figured it wasn't an actual TV ad. Not free-to-air Australian broadcast TV, anyway.
posted by rory at 1:01 PM on February 17, 2012

Do people in Australia really wear stocking hats? If so, why?
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:02 PM on February 17, 2012

kenko: "Al Gore wasn't in that ad at all."

I was going to be the third person to say this. And now, I guess I am.
posted by that's candlepin at 1:04 PM on February 17, 2012

I imagine that the technical safety vids for this school are fairly similar to Stapelfahrer Klaus (german, no subtitles needed, seriously just keep watching)

gore warning you wussies
posted by FatherDagon at 1:08 PM on February 17, 2012 [7 favorites]

Their enrollment is going to go through the roof.

So to speak.
posted by idiopath at 1:12 PM on February 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

So, it really is an actual official thing, right there on CIT's YouTube page. But I'm guessing it was an ad made for YouTube rather than TV, and is already paying off handsomely.
posted by rory at 1:16 PM on February 17, 2012

Even the public service announcements about which deadly snakes & spiders are in plague proportions this season don't go past 30 sec.

I would really like to see one of these.
posted by palliser at 1:17 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Jimbob - I bet it's possible to calculate all that Sounds like the sort of question to throw at student physicists. Perhaps we could email the CIT and ask them.
posted by Devonian at 1:19 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

So, it really is an actual official thing, right there on CIT's YouTube page. But I'm guessing it was an ad made for YouTube rather than TV, and is already paying off handsomely.

I assumed it was one of a number of student videos made for a film/whatever class.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:26 PM on February 17, 2012

the chances of Perth still being there in any meaningful fashion are quite slim

Isn't this just a statement of fact?
posted by maxwelton at 1:28 PM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Do people in Australia really wear stocking hats? If so, why?

Drop-bears. If one lands on your hat, you have a split second longer to rip the hat off & throw it as far as you can.
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:29 PM on February 17, 2012 [31 favorites]

I think the ad sells CIT very well, especially when you think about where it sits in the marketplace. I don't know it well, but it looks to be a TAFE (for US-ians: think community college). There are multiple Universities in Perth, and CIT is certainly not the most prestigious of them: UWA has that title locked down. Students that were always intending to go to University are very unlikely to be convinced to attend CIT rather than go to UWA (or whatever). Trying to compete against heavily funded research-intensive universities on their own turf (i.e. students who choose schools by prestige factors) is stupid.

Instead, if you're CIT you want to do what any good TAFE does: expand the pie. Aim to attract the kinds of people who probably would have been uninterested in a university education. Ideally, you want to find smart people who, for various reasons, don't care to attend a fancypants sandstone university. And there's a lot of people like that. Advertising via YouTube, and showing a sense of humour in doing so is a pretty good step in that direction. God knows I wish my university's marketing department would show a bit of humour instead of acting like a bunch of pretentious self-absorbed wankers. Sadly, I do work at a sandstone university, and I think "self-absorbed wankers" is actually on our coat of arms.
posted by mixing at 1:33 PM on February 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

I don't like gore anymore. Maybe it's my middle age creeping in, but it's just, I don't know, so cheap. I get the premise here, that the trope of the magical guide as is run up against the real world, etc etc. But you can make that point without the gore, which is in fact a crutch. They wanted to hammer that comedy down, make sure you know this is FUNNY, cause it's so gross, amirite? To me it's trying too hard.

Your homework: how could they have ended the skit with the same comedic point (teleportation is, like, fucking dangerous) with NO gore? Best answer gets five bonus points.
posted by zardoz at 1:35 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I hate the term USian. Really stresses me out. Could we have a warning on threads where that term appears?
posted by found missing at 1:37 PM on February 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Aw, you're just a special snowflake.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:41 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Teleporting into air will do similarly nasty things to you. When I research teleport spells, I include either an exchange of matter, or a "shove aside" effect to make room for the incoming caster. In both cases, anything being in motion creates interesting physics problems, and you need to zero out the rotation of the Earth, the Solar System, etc or else the inertial differential will, without exaggeration, shred you and make near-light-speed missiles of whatever you swapped with, even the air. (We call these zeroing conditions "the Circumstances" of the spell.)

These "safety codicils" do not make teleportation safe, they merely make it safer for you. Rather like driving an SUV, the brunt of your errors will largely be borne by others. We have a saying at the Institute: look before you leap. Much like indicating before hou change lanes when driving, scrying before you teleport must become so habitual that the two become one action.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 1:42 PM on February 17, 2012 [15 favorites]

TV in America sucks. --- What part of it sucks in relation to this commercial? Is it that our commercials don't have enough death by teleportation errors, or is it that they're allowed to use the word "fucking" in their ad copy?
posted by crunchland at 1:50 PM on February 17, 2012

(I was thinking 'Justified,' but, yeah.)
posted by crunchland at 1:53 PM on February 17, 2012

That turned from funny to NOT OK pretty fast.

Well, I can understand how that can hit home. Have you lost someone in a transporter accident?
posted by lumpenprole at 1:58 PM on February 17, 2012 [19 favorites]

When FatherDagon says that Stapelfahrer Klaus is German, no subtitles needed, seriously just keep watching, he is correct on all counts. Seriously, just keep watching.
posted by Devonian at 2:41 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

For the knit hat people: When I lived in a very hot place in Africa I saw both men and women wearing stocking caps all the time. It could be 90F in the shade and they would be doing out-door work, say harvesting in a field, sweating to beat the band, and be wearing what I always think of as a winter hat. I could not understand it at all, but it was so very common. Maybe it's just something you grow up with and get used to?
posted by Belle O'Cosity at 2:45 PM on February 17, 2012

Your homework: how could they have ended the skit with the same comedic point (teleportation is, like, fucking dangerous) with NO gore? Best answer gets five bonus points.

teleported so his hands where stuck inside a block of: concrete/steel/wall of coal/ a giant rolling ball of cheese.

Or, gets his dna mixed up with a fly and his fingers/arms becomes fly arms, no more snapping

Or, whole body is encased in an ice sculpture

Or, gets doused with gallons of mineral oil/cooking oil/machine oil right before teleporting into mid air and falling
posted by edgeways at 2:48 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is seriously awesome. I laughed so hard I almost threw up. And I speak as one who has a unique perspective on this, being both a creative ad type person, and someone who has actually studied at the CIT (their art and design school, though only for a year) many years ago. I have to say, it's great to see the place hasn't changed much at all.

It doesn't surprise me that this institute would approve an ad like this, I credit the place for completely unfettering my (at the time) uptight private schoolgirl mind - it was anything goes. And by anything goes, they wanted us to push all boundaries. I remember being asked to draw what the inside of my mouth felt like. (Not looked like, FELT like.) Whilst everybody else was slaving over their illustrations of lips and teeth, I got one of those red dental chewable mouth dye things that highlights plaque on your teeth, chewed it up, spat it on a piece of paper and presented it as my assignment. I got a high distinction. (Make of that what you will, I was trying to take the piss, but they loved it.)

I recall another project being about found objects. My friend went to an abandoned house where he found dead rats, wood and a hive of dead bees. He nailed them all together in a mishmash of decaying gore and turned it in. He got the top mark.

I just remember running amok, doing whatever crazy shit came into our heads and having all the lecturers/resident artists trying to push us further and further. I have some out there stories but if any of those guys are still there, it could quite likely get them into trouble, they were extremely permissive in an illegal kinda way. At the time as a young person, being there was one of the best years of my life. Damn, I wish I could go back. Great if you're an art student. Probably wont appeal to the uptight business type. Thank God.
posted by Jubey at 2:59 PM on February 17, 2012 [25 favorites]

That's some top notch shrieking.
posted by hot soup girl at 4:49 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

So where are my scholarships for American international students to attend community college in Australia?
posted by nicebookrack at 6:48 PM on February 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm thinking this would be way better without all the lingering.
posted by Artw at 7:30 PM on February 17, 2012

So where are my scholarships for American international students to attend community college in Australia?

Shouldn't have left the Commonwealth, dude. You got the tea party, we got the scholarships to study in Australia.
posted by chapps at 11:54 PM on February 17, 2012

Aaron n Henry are graduates from this TAFE and were asked to make a film for the college. A friend of mine does their filming. They are loving this on Facebook right now as they've thus far only been enjoying local fame. And local fame in Perth is pretty lame. I encourage you to look up their other short films.

Also, when TAFE was casting about for a new name they considered 'Central Learning Institute of Technology.' My husband works there and did point out in a brainstorming meeting that, um, you know acronyms, right? This might not work.

[Unrelated: I had an Aaron and Henry post deleted here on the blue. Fair call, they were homophobic in the midst of other hilarity.]
posted by honey-barbara at 3:22 AM on February 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

Yeah, how do you pronounce CLIOT? Is it cl-eye-ot, or clee-ot? That shit would never work.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:27 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Love it. Love it. Love these guys. And love gore. Mad props.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:20 AM on February 18, 2012

Libraries, labs, beer, mine shafts, women's clothing, bodily mutilation... pretty well some up my college experience.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:36 AM on February 18, 2012

Shouldn't have left the Commonwealth, dude. You got the tea party, we got the scholarships to study in Australia.

CURSE YOU HUMORLESS YANKEE REVOLUTIONARIES FOR FOILING MY OFFBEAT EDUCATION
posted by nicebookrack at 10:15 AM on February 18, 2012

It could have been funny. The gore was not. And I say that as someone who enjoyed Kill Bill back in the day.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2012

I know someone who thinks there is nothing funnier than "Two and a half men".

True story
posted by found missing at 11:44 AM on February 18, 2012

Well, this ad is only one and a half, ultimately.
posted by stebulus at 11:52 AM on February 18, 2012

Please, be advised that this did actually happened.
If you're so squeamish that the C.I.T ad made you skip various heartbeats and run away from the video display in wich you were watching that screaming in terror, DO NOT watch this.


LET ME REPEAT MYSELF: THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED (in front of a live audience?)
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 3:31 PM on February 18, 2012

Why the disapproval of the "gore"? That ending was the LAST thing I expected when I watched the ad - the unexpected is funny. The fact that an ad for a serious education institution is so... non-sensitive: hilarious!

Also, the hat is referencing a cultural stereotype - the clicking guy is the kinda dude who plays hacky sac whilst he's waiting for his environmental studies class to start. (NB. I say this as a biologist who went to uni with these folks, and was friends with folks who fit this archetype).
posted by Alice Russel-Wallace at 3:40 PM on February 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

If you found this ad funny, definitely check out the links Honey-Barbara and Potomac Avenue included. My favourite is the Facebook on the camping trip one.

Also check out their E-Motion Capture short made for the WA Screen Awards.

Shakespeherian, are you sure we're talking about the same CIT here? I used to work there a decade ago and never saw a spiral staircase.

Who do I see about the PTSD I have after watching that video?

Central has some fine allied health professional graduates!

Do people in Australia really wear stocking hats? If so, why?

Perth is pretty damn hot in summer, and only mildly cool in winter. Yet hipsters and fashionistas here are all about the hats - straw fedoras in summer, anything else in winter.
posted by harriet vane at 12:54 AM on February 19, 2012 [3 favorites]

One episode of "Breaking Bad" > thirty years of Australian TV.

Except that "Fly" episode. That one sucked.
posted by kisch mokusch at 3:42 AM on February 19, 2012

Australian advertising is pretty full-on - really disgusting public health ads run all the time (a special treat during the dinner hour). For that matter, there are full-color ads on buses, so you can be walking down the street, going innocently about your business and then, bam, here's an eight-foot-long picture of a bleeding incision with a cheery note about how they still didn't get all the cancer.
posted by gingerest at 2:42 PM on February 19, 2012

Australia is just doing its part to reduce the bad habit of watching TV while eating dinner! Also, i really mean it about wanting to see a PSA about spiders/snakes.
posted by palliser at 3:29 PM on February 19, 2012

Except that "Fly" episode. That one sucked.

*sputters* Whaja, whoja, what? That episode was directed by Rian Johnson. It's one of the best bottleneck episodes of any show ever.

"I mean, I truly believe there exists some combination of words. There must exist certain words in a certain specific order that can explain all of this . . . "
posted by Think_Long at 4:10 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also, i really mean it about wanting to see a PSA about spiders/snakes.

Sorry, but I was just winding you up; there are no such ads. Everybody already knows to check under the toilet seat before sitting down, in case of redbacks, or to look out for telltale funnelweb spider webs in the centre of the TP roll.

I was telling the truth about the drop-bears, though.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:03 PM on February 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Shit, UbuRoivas! I was searching on youtube for, like, a half-hour. I did find some Australian guy who was really bad at removing enormous spiders from his house and filmed the hilarious results. I would emigrate immediately if I ever saw a spider as big as the ones he was dealing with.
posted by palliser at 5:15 PM on February 19, 2012

Interview with Henry and Aaron on RTRfm (local community radio, lots of ties to the arts community). Apparently the marketing and college heads didn't find the ad all that funny, but figured that the kids'd love it. Good on them for taking a chance on something different.
posted by harriet vane at 9:04 PM on February 19, 2012

I finally got around to watching this. It wasn't as horrible as I imagined. I've seen plenty worse on TV.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:30 AM on February 20, 2012