IFC's Commercial Kings Court Eccentrics, Hilarity
In the proverbial So-Bad-It's-Good Hall of Fame, a wing must be devoted to the local commercial. Amateurishly shot, oddly cast and often hawking things you never knew you needed (and, even after the commercial has aired, probably still aren't convinced), these things camp up local TV in a distinctly scrappy way (my all-time favorite: Select Dental). A few years ago, YouTube hitmakers Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal hooked up with MicroBilt and began producing commercials for small businesses that would go on to garner millions of views on their YouTube channel. These commercials have all the stiltedness and eccentricity of regular local commercials with an added layer of cleverness (see their SOBERING Tattoo Commercial, in which tattoo artists from Austin, Texas' True Blue Tattoo gravely list the repercussions that come from being inked, like, "Elderly women will be afraid of you"). McLaughlin and Neal achieve an impressive balance, teasing out the weirdness of the businesses they rep without ever coming off as mean.
They're bringing their local-commercial shooting from the computer screen to the flatscreen with IFC's Rhett & Link Commercial Kings, which premieres Friday at 10/9c...
Fri, Jun 24, 2011
