Hooking Up and Selling Out
For those of you who don’t spend 12 hours a day on YouTube – HBO is launching a new web series on YouTube today called Hooking Up. Hooking Up “stars” lonelygirl15’s Jessica Rose, sxephil, kevjumba and Deanna Casaluce of Degrassi. Occasional cameo appearances are made by charlestrippy, whatthebuckshow, davedays, nalts, smpfilms and even the fiveawesomeguys own Toddly00.
HBO uploaded a teaser trailer one week prior to today’s premiere. The trailer has received numerous criticisms from both professional and amateur reviewers.
While I am good friends with the show’s creator, Woody Tondorf III, and some members of the cast (every YouTuber in Hooking Up, save for kevjumba and lonelygirl15, has made an appearance in my past videos) – I felt this show needed to be parodied, and parodied hard.
I created a video that mocks their trailer (no matter how much I sweet talked my connections at HBO, I just couldn’t get an advanced copy of the first episode to parody it in a timely fashion). My friend Lea, achampag, helped with some of the script writing and casting. We called the show Selling Out. The parody video serves both to get a laugh, but also to call out some of the self-described “terrible actors” who took part simply for a paycheck.
Our solid cast of spoofers includes hayleyghoover as lonelygirl15, vanawesome as sxephil, willypizzle as kevjumba, and thebeeobee as smpfilms. The video was written in one night and collab clips were filmed over two days.
I have no idea how the YouTube community will receive Hooking Up. Fans of the show’s actors seem to be excited, while original content creators hover between disgusted and neutral. I wish Woody luck, but also wish he’d have cast better actors for the job. Various vloggers are good at what they do, rapid-fire speech and topical jokes combined with numerous jump-cuts so that you know when the punchline hits. But few are diverse enough to bring a new, scripted character to life.
Of course, HBO is in on the joke. Why else would they spend almost a minute of the trailer talking about the cast members’ total YouTube views, and only 15 seconds showing us clips of the show? The criticism and parodies alone will bring in more views than the positive reviews.
Love or hate the new series, I hope you enjoy my parody of it:
UPDATE: Woody Tondorf III, creator of Hooking Up, has a lengthy interview about the show on Tilzy.tv, in that interview, he name-drops my channel as an example of great collaborations and how to get your name out there on YouTube. Thank you Woody!
13 Responses to “Hooking Up and Selling Out”
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October 1st, 2008 at 11:06 am
[...] goes into a bit of detail about the making of this video over on his blog. It’s worth a read, if for nothing else than to see Alan try to shake hands with Woody [...]
October 1st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Parody was great. I just watched the first episode, I thought they did an alright job acting. But the writting left a lot to be desired. Or was that, an alright job writting, but the acting left something to be desired? In anycase, it’s certainly not written for my demographic… I’m too old
October 1st, 2008 at 11:42 am
I was wondering why they themselves didn’t promote it. Probably didn’t want to be perceived as selling out. I’m going to assume they’ve done wrapped for the season since the account was created in the summer. Probably filmed in a few days. But that’s just from a guy who doesn’t know anything about that stuff. Will be interesting to see where this goes.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am
Alan- I think you could have played a Freshman.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
I have not watch hooking up yet, but i will watch your video FIRST!
October 1st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
must the best parodies get made in a hurry when we are sick? lol
you already know how i feel about working w you.
=)
October 1st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
The first episode of Hooking Up was okay but I really got into it with the second one. I still really enjoyed your parody; I did not like the trailer at all. I’m thinking that in a few days I might post a video about the series and what being a creator of original content (although not at the level of this or Hooking Up) and fanboy.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Hooking Up = BAD, Selling Out = GOOD
Hmmmm, when I read that back it doesn’t sound quite right, but we’ll just pretend it’s opposite week and everything makes perfect sense.
It really was baaaaaad. Left a comment on your vid, i’m sure you’ll see it eventually.
October 1st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I have to say, I really loved the video, you do an awesome job editing and scripting! I actually liked your fake show better than the real one!
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 am
[...] fallofautumndistro wrote an interesting post today onHooking Up and Selling OutHere’s a quick excerptVarious vloggers are good at what they do, rapid-fire speech and topical bjokes/b combined with numerous jump-cuts so that you know when the punchline hits. But few are diverse enough to bring a new, scripted character to life. b…/b [...]
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqmKtMg6TcU
I’m throwing my Hooking Up joke into the ring.
A necrophiliac pedophile is no way to go through life, son.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKGBPEHSj5M
There’s mine.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:20 am
[...] splendor of web celebrities with little comedic substance. I actually have enjoyed a few parodies, Selling Out, by Alan Lastufka, a.k.a. fallofautumndistro even more then the program itself. Perhaps in a month [...]