Top 10 Funniest Viral Videos of 2008

From the better late than never files: 2008 was the year that YouTube started to notice its voice changing, and felt its body changing in other new, and frightening ways. While web videos played a huge part in the presidential campaign, allowing cash-strapped candidates to get their message out cheaply and keeping them honest with an endless archive of what they really said, they were also a boon to creativity.

The John McCain "Celeb" ad was a perfect case-in-point. While the ad got massive exposure on the web and in the press, it probably made up fewer minds than the Paris Hilton commercial parody it inspired.

With that in mind, here is our list of the 10 funniest political videos of the year, in no particular order.

10. Barely Political - Political Sex Scandals: This ode to the Spitzers of the world is a lot like having oatmeal in your pants. It's funny and uncomfortable.



9. 23/6 - Swift Kids for Truth: These dead-on parodies of 2004's Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads were both hilarious and devastating. Bonus point for reminding people of the Swift Boaters right before John McCain hired one of them.



8. The Colbert Report - McCain Vogues: John McCain's hot mess of an acceptance speech after the last GOP primary, shot against an unappealing green background, inspired dozens of hilarious remix videos. This one is my favorite.




7. Funny or Die - Paris Hilton: As I said in my intro, it was made in response to McCain's idiotic "Celeb" ad, and it cut McCain badly. Barack Obama could never have mocked McCain's age so openly (my fave:"old enough to remember when dancing was a sin"), and Paris' policies sounded pretty good next to McCain's. When you consider that the parody got 4 times as many hits as the original, you just have to laugh.





6. Barely Political - Snipergate Parody: There were lots of YouTube videos making use of the Tusla footage, but this one was the funniest, and the most effective, devastatingly contrasting Hillary's account of what happened with the real footage.



Note from Caleb: I'm about a week late doing my part on this, and really didn't have the time to search for hilarious videos. Besides, Tommy already stole all the best, as is his wont. Therefore, half of these are going to be my own. So there, Tommy! Hey you set the bar this low calling those stupid swift kids ads "dead-on" and "devastating". Now THAT is funny.

5: Caleb Howe: Code Pink in St. Paul. You've heard the clips on Unusable Signal, now view the insanity in person. This took place the day after the anonymous video was shot in Minneapolis.



4. Affleck as Olbermann: Simply on the money.



3. 1984: No not the Clinton one, the Obama one. Because it's timelier, y'all.



2. The Onion - No We Can't: Again, so totally right on the money.



1. Of course, there was nothing funnier this year than the plaintive and misplaced earnestness on display in the slobbering, celebrity-riddled worship service put out by Obama zombie Will.I.Am laughingly called "Yes We Can". The more apt title, I think, would be "Yes We Can Grovel". Could anything in the world be any more melodramatic? Oh ... right.


Runner Up: Ok, not really a runner up to best video of 2008, but relevant to the news today and not last week. Harry Reid, we love you man:


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