Bert & Ernie Mashup Hits 10 Million Views

A blast from the past that hit 10 million views today. 8 years ago I was feeling a bit bored, so I edited together some old Bert & Ernie episodes to the sound of M.O.P.'s Ante Up. It was the first video I uploaded to YouTube, and it blew up pretty fast.

This was back when YouTube sent you an email for every new comment, and I remember checking my email after class, not being able to get to the end of my inbox. Featured all over the web, it was my first encounter with having a video go viral.

This was also back when record companies were targeting normal people left and right with ridiculous lawsuits. So I remember being terrified I’d get sued.

That didn't happen.

Then I remember thinking with a million views I was gonna get rich.

That didn't happen either.

To this day I think it's one of the funniest things I ever made. The juxtaposition of the two elements - the childish nature of Bert & Ernie vs. the hardcore gangster image of M.O.P - works so well.

The video was later featured in the documentary R.I.P. - A Remixer's Manifesto. The documentary featured Girl Talk, and Lawrence Lessig, and looked into how media consumption was changing with the new technology, the internet.

I've always found Lessig's thoughts on copyright very interesting. It's probably a bit dated at this point, but I would recommend his book Free Culture, that brought up a lot of interesting points about how copyright does and doesn't work.