Larry Strong and Kevin Arbouet, who directed the first few Obama Girl shorts for Barely Political, are shifting gears this summer — the two have tipped NewTeeVee that they’ll be producing a feature film tentatively starring DJ Qualls (Road Trip, Hustle and Flow) and Jerry Stiller (King of Queens, Ben Stiller).

Strong and Arbouet were already experienced media pros before responding to a Craigslist ad searching for Obama Girl directors — but it’s their work in online video that has really helped open doors for them in Hollywood. More details about the project, which is titled The Last Day of Summer, to come. In the meantime, for more information about the two, check out their web site.

And, just for old times’ sake — Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl:

Moms, love ‘em or leave ‘em, are overall a class of human beings worth celebrating at least once a year (maybe twice, if your family is generous about birthdays). But how to do it? It depends on what kind of resources you have at your disposal. Kids make things out of macaroni and construction paper. This is because kids don’t have much money. Guess who else doesn’t have a lot of money? Members of the online video community! So it’s little surprise to see a number of videos celebrating mom-dom circulating at this time of year.

Mittymoo’s short video odes to motherhood have been cracking me up since Christmas 2006, when Christmas Tree redefined the act of tree-trimming forever. And for Mother’s Day 2008, he’s topped himself:

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Nerve’s new list of comedy classics, The 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies of All Time, is in some respects a pale imitation of its 50 Greatest Sketches of All Time list from last month. But I tried to find for you, dear reader, the five hidden gems of this list that you may not have seen.

And it was easier this time. First, I eliminated the SNL entries about vaginas. Then, I eliminated the other ones about vaginas. Then I eliminated the other SNL entries. This reduced the list from 50 to eight. And of the eight remaining sketches, there are definitely a few you might not have see — or may just really want to see again…

MADtv: “Levitrol” (2006)

This is totally sold by Keegan-Michael Key’s performance as a man who asked his doctor if Levitol was right for him…and didn’t get quite the answer he was expecting.
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We’re at that point in the election cycle right now when the sheer mention of superdelegates makes me think about leaving the country. But like it or not, the 2008 Democratic primary will continue to dominate the online video world. If only because the Internet needs something to talk about.

For example, this week anti-Clinton commentators tried to make Clinton’s struggles with a convenience store coffee maker into the 2008 equivalent of George Bush Sr. being stunned by a bar code reader (which, it turns out, was completely distorted). The evidence against:

So the woman needed more than a few seconds to figure out how to operate a coffee maker (and sometimes the buttons on those stick, and sometimes machines break — comment debate on these clips seems to circulate around these topics). It could easily be an innocent misunderstanding — really, this is hardly enough material for a mash up… Oh, who am I kidding.

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This week’s Pennsylvania primary confirmed that American politics will continue to be sad and complicated, at least for the time being. And thus the appeal of an extended stay overseas grows. Maybe Japan! It’s a whole other country. As far as I know, their electoral system isn’t at all based on superdelegates. And I love sushi. But what holds me back from making that leap is the language barrier — fortunately, there are plenty of non-conventional approaches to mastering a foreign tongue.

For one thing, so much of our communication with one another is non-verbal, which makes How to Speak Fluent Japanese Without Saying A Word so appealing as a potential lesson plan. Maybe it’s a bit exaggerated in tone. But these basic responses to statements and questions could be helpful, both at home and abroad.

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Joey and David of joeyanddavid.com have, by way of original comedy pieces like 14 Days in a Civic and eHarmony’s Minor Matchmaker, already gotten Hollywood’s attention. But does making shorts for the Internet mean Joey and David know anything about making viral videos? Well, they managed to convince Warner Bros Studio 2.0 that it does. Their new web series Viralcom, professionally produced by the studio, brings audiences into a world where random YouTube sensations are actually professionally produced by major studios. As far as parodies of online video go, it’s a fresh approach, and when I first saw the trailer, I admit to laughing repeatedly.

But now that the show’s actually begun, I’m feeling a bit let down. The trailer’s fast pace did a great job of selling the premise while also delivering the best bits, but having seen the first two episodes, the series seems a bit too forced. When stretched out to their full length, scenes like a casting agent bitching about the difficulty of finding a farting baby are just one joke being told over and over again.

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