Going Viral

Not quite six days ago, Marc Rosenbush and I put a video up on YouTube, and launched a companion website. The video was of course the one embedded a couple posts below, about the entirely mythical candidacy of Michael Palin for President, and the website is of course called Michael Palin for President.

Last time I looked, our silly little satire has been viewed 103,000 times. And counting.

This is, I suspect, fueled chiefly by two things: (1) we brought the funny, mostly thanks to selecting good clips of Michael Palin being funny, although I think the fact that there is a point being made doesn't hurt; and (2) the more I learn about Sarah Palin, the less I like her, and I don't think I'm alone in that.

Comments (over a hundred of them) have been about 90% positive, which could mean that the video really works well, or that the people bothering to comment are mostly members of the choir. Endless variations of comments like "The only Palin I'd vote for! Vote for the other one and we WILL get the Spanish Inquisition!" But of course there has been the other side heard from as well. Examplars of considered political discourse such as "If you have a child, I hope he dies in a car fire!" (That, by the way, was the only part I could repeat here without violating FCC decency standards.)

I have to say, it's been a lot of fun. Making an actual movie is such a long process, months and years of effort. But Marc and I put this video together in eleven hours last Monday, and over a hundred thousand people have seen it since. That's almost certainly people more people than saw me in my entire theatrical career, over the course of years.

At the same time, I'm starting to feel a certain sense of responsibility. I mean sure, the Constitution bars a British citizen like Michael Palin from becoming President of the United States, but enforcement of the Constitution has been a bit slippery for a while now, so maybe this little joke is something I should take a bit more seriously.

Because, as one YouTube commenter put it, "His cabinet would no doubt be an interesting bunch." And I don't think that, as a general rule, we need new government departments--but a Ministry of Silly Walks would be an admirable use of taxpayer money.

Who's with me?

P.S. Just found out that the Pythons' official website is now featuring our video. Speaking as a lifelong Python geek, that is just too cool.