And perhaps you will soon be as well, if you choose to check out the growing legion of law “revue” performances now available through the miracle of YouTube. I posted about this last year in my much-heralded “YouTube and Legal Education: An Unempirical Study.” At the time, the primary law school comedy clips were videos by U of C impresario Dave Haendler. Now, however, there appears to be an uptick in the content available as clips from this spring’s shows are posted online.
- NYU. This Mac parody ad has gotten some attention from ATL’s David Lat. It draws on some tried-and-true stereotypes but is very professionally produced. There’s also “Bill It,” drawing on the time-honored “your life will suck once you join a big firm” theme. Nice production values, but I recognized the “firm’s” library as the NYU faculty library, shattering my suspension of disbelief. In addition, I have to note that not only is “Beat It” old, it has also been parodied by Weird Al. The ground is a little too well-trod upon. Can you do better, Columbia? (And no, the video here doesn’t count — not with the “Blair Witch Project” unsteady-cam.)
- UVa. The YouTube site for this user has three videos from this year’s show, including this Beastie Boys parody to start the show. Again, the material seems familiar, but the production values were great, especially the segue from video to live performance.
- Cardozo. Ali-G is a popular muse for law students: here’s an earlier Emory version, while the Cardozo Ali has two videos, here and here.
By the way, despite my title, I do not think these shows are a “waste” of time. They help build law school community, and you can earn the respect and admiration of your colleagues through a good performance. In fact, I know at least one big-name prof whose performance in a parody show earned him a ton of respect (at least from me). So for all of you law school thespians sitting on a video clip, I encourage you to join the YouTube revolution.
Posted by Matt Bodie on April 2, 2007 at 02:04 PM
» Bar/Bri Parody: from The Volokh Conspiracy A pretty funny segment, from the 20006 UVa Law parody show. Thanks to Matt Bodie for the link. [Read More]
Tracked on Apr 3, 2007 1:11:52 AM
Comments
Heya, I shot, edited and directed the videos for a law revue in Australia and put the clips up last year.
It’s awesome to see all of these international law schools putting their vids up – I hope the Aussie humour in some of our videos doesn’t go over your head…
I hope you check them out and tell me what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=almostfamous83
Posted by: James | Apr 5, 2007 12:15:01 PM
The UVa Bar/Bri one was hilarious.
Posted by: Orin Kerr | Apr 3, 2007 1:06:13 AM
And on a slightly larger scale…
http://www.amazon.com/Story-presents-Relatively-Talentless-T-O-R-T/dp/B000M8N5XY/
Posted by: R | Apr 2, 2007 8:15:45 PM
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3457283072101440759
Some can con..
Posted by: c | Apr 2, 2007 6:28:32 PM