Highlights from a 2002 VHS tape of “Futurama”. Presented by David M. Green.
Featuring:
– A Tedious Anecdote about Futurama, working at Kmart and the struggles of obtaining video in the early 2000s
– Channel Seven Adelaide Promo
– Today Tonight Promo
– Telstra Mobile TVC
– Telstra Mobile $5 Plan with Nokia 3315 TVC
– Mr Bankrupt strangely toned down TVC
– Vanilla Coke TVC featuring Aaron Paul
– Truscott Hi-Fi Big End of Year Sale TVC
– McLeay carpet store TVC featuring Jeff Sunderland & Bob Francis
– Keith Bowden Electrical TVC
– DMG calls Today Tonight with a few story suggestions
Footage recorded from Channel 7 Adelaide, December 2002 and used here for review, parody and satirical purposes.
Special thanks to Alexis Kotlowy, John Hnatowych & Tim Wray.
It’s the 10th episode of 31 Questions for your YouTube viewing pleasure. This one features a cameo appearance from host of Deal or No Deal Australia, TV’s Andrew O’Keefe.
And thanks to the marvelous editing of Anthony McCormack, you’ll hardly even notice the terrible audio issues we had while shooting that sketch, and which we didn’t notice until we got to the editing room.
Let this be a free lesson for the aspiring television-maker: It’s not enough to just monitor the audio levels on the camera’s little viewing screen. You have to actually be listening with HEADPHONES. Otherwise you won’t pick up weird clicky noises caused be faulty XLR cables and be forced to dub scenes with audio from different takes.
But hey, that’s the fun of TV…
Thanks again to AO’K for being such a good sport and allowing us to blow him up for the entertainment of others.
We’ve had quite a bit of feedback from viewers recently, which is FANTASTIC!
Here’s a fine post about us from Bother’s Bar on the other side of the planet, where he describes me as “Tim Vine-esque”. I’ll certainly take that!
Fun fact: During my 2010 interview with Tim Vine, we jointly came up with the “Typo Magazine’s Man of the Ear” gag, which I later used in Ep #6 of 31 Questions.
That’s one of my favourite lines. I originally came up with “Typo Magazine’s Man of the Beer”. But Tim Vine suggested “Ear”. A superior punchline. Or punch “word”, really. In my opinion, it should be a contender for “World’s most perfect joke”. Just six words long, but it’s all it needs to be.
Of course regardless of its comic perfection, when I delivered that line in Ep #6 the joke bombed.
Makes ME laugh…
We also had a YouTube comment on Ep #10 from a guy called “jedimerchants”. It’s quite bizarre. This video response pretty much sums it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkEDlQNoiaY
Thank you once again beautiful contestants!
Ep #11 arrives on your television screen (assuming you live in Melbourne or Geelong AND don’t live in an apartment building that automatically blocks out Channel 31… found that one out the hard way last weekend…) tomorrow (Saturday) evening 10PM on Digital 44.
It’s episode #8 of 31 Questions! Featuring the gag segment “Low Brow” – where contestants need to identify celebrities from photos of said celebrities with their hair and eyebrows removed.
You all like celebrities, right?
Contestants Emily and Nick used to be friends, but they haven’t thought of each other lately at all as they go head to head to see who has the superior command of general knowledge and pop culture.
How many questions can YOU answer?
…I’m asking you a question!
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Anyone actually go chrome for Chromosome Day?
A few weeks ago I received this email out of the blue:
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:15:47 +0100
From: Marcus Taylor
Hey David,
Hope you’re having a great start to the week 🙂
I just wanted to get in touch as I came across your Youtube channel and really enjoyed your review of How to Win Friends & Influence People – great book!
I’m currently looking for some awesome video bloggers like yourself to review a book coming out this Thursday called Get Noticed, which is described as being ‘a how to guide to being in the right place at the right time, all the time’ and has been dubbed as a ‘must-read’ by New York Times best selling author Debra Fine.
You would be one of the first people to review this book, so there’s a great exposure opportunity in place. As a little added benefit we’d also be offering you:
ÂŁ4.20 (roughly $7.50) commission for any sales you refer from your video review.
Exposure on the Get Noticed website
Promotion of your video from the author’s Twitter & Facebook accounts
A free e-copy of the book to read
Invitation to an exclusive UStream interview with the authors (you also have the opportunity to interview the authors with any questions you have)
Hopefully together we can promote your video and channel to get some benefit from the buzz around the book launch.
If it sounds of interest I can send through a copy of the book and we can go from there!
Â
Thanks,
Marcus
Now, I get spam like this all the time. So naturally, I did a little research. This guy seemed legit. He’s some author from the UK who’s written what I could only assume was some kind of self-help book.
But what the hell was he contacting me for?
When did I ever review “How to win friends and influence people”?
Oh wait… surely he doesn’t mean THIS…
Ah yes, last year my good friend Lachlan Cowlishaw and I, for a bit of fun, set up a couple of cameras and chairs in Lachlan’s garage and goofed around for a few hours.
We just used things lying around his garage as props. One of them happened to be a copy of the original 1936 self-help book “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie. And in the midst of ab-libbing, we made a few references to it.
Okay, so this Marcus guy is familiar with my sarcastic brand of comic japery. And the temptation of a quick buck is a boon for the spam email industry… so I figured I had nothing to lose by asking a few more questions:
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:06:34 +1100
From: David M. Green
Hi Marcus,
Thanks for your email. Sounds interesting.
What kind of deadline are you wanting?
DMG
—
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:17:22 +0100
From: Marcus Taylor
Hi David,
Thanks for getting in touch, there’s no deadline per se but the sooner the better as there will be a lot of buzz about the book during the launch this week. I’ve attached a copy for you to have a look at and base your review on. If there’s anything extra that would help you just let me know and i’ll see what I can do 🙂
Cheers,
Marcus
So I took a look at the book. My first reaction was “100 pages!?! This is like an entire book! I don’t have time to read this!”
For the first time in my life, I’m working full time (6 day weeks for a while there) and really don’t have time to do anything.
At the same time I welcomed the opportunity to make another funny video; I don’t seem to make enough of them these days…
I figured this Marcus guy was a savvy character. He’s written a book. He wants to promote it. Surely, he’s sent out dozens of these emails to YouTube people, right?
So I did a browse, but couldn’t find anyone else who had uploaded a review.
I did find one though from the authors themselves:
I also saw THIS, which is just too good to be true…
Note the upload date and number of views for his video “How to Get Noticed on YouTube”:
Okay. So a guy who ironically has a video on YouTube about how to get views on YouTube, that’s had 6 views in 4 months, wants to give me a $7.50 commission for every book I sell for him.
Now, I’m no whiz with these money-making schemes. I sure as hell don’t make any money from this website. How exactly would this work?
I inquired.
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 23:12:13 +1100
From: David M. Green
Cheers Marcus,
I’ll take a look at that.
Just out of interest, how will you track the number of sales I attract?
DMG
—
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:20:48 +0100
From: Marcus Taylor
No problem, the sales are tracked with an affiliate tracking code that’s unique to you. So we’ll give you a unique link to the site, which if sales are referred from we’ll know that you referred the sale.
Marcus
—
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:48:38 +1100
From: David M. Green
Ok sounds good. And you’d just want me to upload the video to my own YouTube account?
DMG
—
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:11:36 +0100
From: Marcus Taylor
yep! 🙂
So long story short, my good friend Anthony McCormack came round and helped me make THIS:
Hold on to your hats folks, because what I’m about to say may shock you…
I don’t think Marcus likes it.
You may have noticed (but you probably didn’t, no offense), there’s no link anywhere in the video or its description for you to go and purchase a copy of “Get Noticed”.
The saga continues…
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:38:36 +1100
From: David M. Green
Hi Marcus,
I’ve “reviewed” your book.
If you’d be so kind as to send over that unique tracking code link, I’ll put it in the video description.
Kind regards,
TV’s David M. Green
—
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:31:55 +0000
From: Marcus Taylor
Hi David,
I appreciate you taking the time to do this, however I’d like to raise a few points.
The video I was referencing in my e-mail was this one:
which although not a ‘review’ per se, I found quite funny.
Also, Get Noticed is not a ‘self help’ book as such, it’s aimed towards creative people & entrepreneurs and is about getting noticed to become more successful at what you do. I did show the video to a few friends who have read the book and they were very confused by the claims you were making.
No hard feelings, but i’d like to ask you kindly if you can remove the video if you wouldn’t mind. I don’t feel it positively serves what either of us are trying to do and I was under the impression from your emails that you were genuinely interested in reading it – I’ve always felt that making personal attacks & uninformed negative reviews publicly is not productive and after all, what goes around tends to come around.
With that in mind, i’d appreciate it if you could remove the video, but if you feel strongly about leaving it live we can discuss further, as I really don’t want to create negativity online about each other’s work as i’m sure we’ve both got much better things to get on with.
Many thanks,
Marcus Taylor
Co-author of Get Noticed
“Uninformed negative reviews”?
Now personally, the idea that there’s a group of people on the other side of the world “very confused” by my video, I find hilarious.
What I found confusing was how he could set “The All New Garage Show” as the benchmark for a good, wholesome and funny book review (I could just end that sentence there, but there’s more), AND THEN be surprised at the video I produced for HIS book?
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:54:15 +1100
From: David M. Green
Hi Marcus,
So, you are aware that I’m a comedian. What exactly were you expecting?
DMG
Hehehe… this just gets better and better…
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:46:16 +0000
From: Marcus Taylor
Hi David,
Honestly, I was expecting a genuine review of the book with a touch of humour but in a way that you’d be able to maybe share some of the tips from the book, opposed to humouring the book & myself directly. I wasn’t entirely sure how you’d go about it, but I figured you’d do it in a way slightly differently to most video bloggers, which is kind of what i’m after.
I am going to be living in Melbourne for six months next year, which I notice is where you’re based, so I’ll try and come along to a show if you’ve got anything lined up then as I do enjoy your comedy (obviously excluding the review…) and we’re also looking to do some cool stuff promoting the talents of creative & artistic individuals so i’d be keen to see you do some stand-up.
Is there any possibility that you could remove the video?
Thanks,
Marcus
Hmmm… puts me in a predicament doesn’t it?
Do I take it down in exchange for some “promotion” or do I leave it up and get the “promotion” I was originally promised, like they gave to Mattias Gronborg from Stockholm, who I can only assume “passed” the Get Noticed review challenge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW2A1xBdijk
I never seem to learn my own lesson: DON’T WRITE REVIEWS!
The last review I wrote got me kicked off a TV show.
But you know what? This time I’m standing up for free speech.
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:02:43 +1100
From: David M. Green
Hi Marcus,
Thank you for the compliments.
I must say though, I find this whole thing fascinating.
You have actually watched that video, yes?
You do realise that in that “review”, Lachlan (Kevin) reveals he hadn’t actually read “How to win friends and influence people”? (This is stated multiple times throughout the video)
So I have not at all misrepresented myself. I have not tricked you into thinking I do serious book reviews. My review of “Get Noticed” was in a similar style.
You say you figured I’d do my review “in a way slightly different to most video bloggers”. I believe I’ve done exactly that.
When you asked me to review your book, you didn’t set any guidelines. You did not say “don’t call it a self-help book”. I apologise if I’ve misrepresented your “it’s aimed towards creative people & entrepreneurs and is about getting noticed to become more successful at what you do” book by calling it a “self-help book”.
In an editorial, I can actually express any opinion I want, so long as it’s not defamatory, which of course it wasn’t. In fact, I think I’ve given you a fairly positive review. The whole video is essentially me saying how great your book is and how everyone should buy it, albeit in a tongue-in-cheek way.
You can’t commission a review and then kick up a fuss when the reviewer doesn’t give you the exact review you want. If you made a film and I gave it 3 stars and you think it’s worth 5, well then bad luck. That’s the risk you take when you put your product out there.
Are you going to hold up your end of the bargain by giving me my affiliate tracking code link?
Kind regards,
David M. Green
And strangely enough I have yet to receive a reply.
I’m guessing I’m not going to see any money from this…
So if you enjoyed my video review of “Get Noticed”, please share the link. Post this to your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
If you’d actually like to buy a copy of “Get Noticed”, you can do so here. But keep in mind, as I don’t have an affiliate link, I’m not receiving any commission. So if you would be so kind as to use the “donate” button on the left hand side of my website to shoot me over $7.50, I would be very confused.
Also, I have not read this book.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Hey, made a good blog entry at least.
We all hate spam. Well, I assume we all do. I certainly do. But hey, maybe you love it. But if you’re like me, which I assume you are, although I’ve been known to be wrong, and hence I’m no better than you… annoying… right, the spam. My website receives about 20 spam blog comments a day. Most of them are a jumble of links and random characters, sometimes not even able to be displayed, and hence it’s just a string of those little rectangles. But some of them are just completely random comments that have no connection at all to anything I mentioned in any blog, ever. For your enjoyment, here are some of my favourite random spam comments:
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