Law Revue Video Contest: Dishonorable Mentions

We launched our second annual Law Revue contest earlier this month. Over 20 law schools entered the competition, including a couple from the Great White North — a special “eh” to our Canuck readers! — with each school submitting up to two videos.

Last night, your ATL editors had a special after-hours viewing. It wasn’t the most entertaining three hours of our lives, but it was funnier than White Chicks, and less painful than a second viewing of Avatar sans 3D glasses.

We watched and rated the videos, separating them into three categories: Good, Borderline, and Crap. We’ll bring you our top seven finalists — the cremé de la cremé — on Monday, when reader voting will begin.

Today, though, we bring you the sour milk entries. There are three entries we placed in the “crap” category that we felt deserved special, dishonorable mention…

We appreciate your entering the contest, but these videos were particularly painful.

1. University of Chicago – “Gunner’s World”

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ELIE: There were some obvious problems with this video. Distracting problems… I’ll just let Kash explain.
KASH: In rating these skits, we put a certain emphasis on “costume design.” This rapid fire singer’s sweatpants-with-muscle-shirt ensemble was an unfortunate choice. Sweatpants (without underwear?) resulted in his package stealing the show.
LAT: We suspect that this was more entertaining to the audience in the theater that night. Alas, video of a live performance usually isn’t pretty — and this is no exception. Indeed, this clip is so bad it could torpedo the SCOTUS hopes of Judge Diane Wood. It’s really just a string cite set to a beat, an excuse for the performer to show off his talented tongue — and sizable package. It might help him score some dates, but it won’t help Chicago in our contest.


2. University of Wisconsin – “Top Gunners”

KASH: Top Gun came out in 1986. Move on.
ELIE: Top Gun was one of the cheesiest “great movies” of all time. It is exceedingly easy to parody. Jerry Bruckheimer sets it up; how can you fail so miserably to knock it down? Oh, and in the middle of the worst recession anybody can remember, nobody makes a Goose joke? Please don’t tell me that the first time you saw Anthony Edwards was on ER. I weep for the future.
LAT: Video makers, you need to grab our attention immediately, then never let it go. When Kash started checking her Blackberry about a minute into this video, we knew it was flat. But props for playing volleyball in the Wisconsin snow — especially you, shirtless guy!


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3. Any parody of On a Boat.

Offenders: Bowen School of Law (I’m on the Books), University of British Columbia (I’m on the Moot), University of Miami (I’m on the Bricks), and George Washington University (I’m on a Board).

Here’s our favorite of the bunch from Boston University:

KASH: If you’re going to parody something that’s already hilarious, you’re setting yourselves up for failure. It’s better to take something unfunny, and transform it into a laugh riot. See e.g., the Hitler Downfall meme.
ELIE: I hate all of you. You insult Andy Samberg, do you think what he does for a living is easy? I actually preferred the Canadian one to the BU one, as they were the only people who seemed to get that one of the (many) funny things about On a Boat is its absurdity. T-Pain doesn’t actually have sex with mermaids! Don’t you get it? It’s an aspirational song, not a list of things one does on a boat — or in law school. Jesus jet-skiing Christ.
LAT: So many problematic videos, not enough time. Miami: What are “the bricks”? UBC: Does “moot” rhyme with “boat” if you have a Canadian accent? GW: Huh? (But at least your female lead is very pretty.) Bowen: CHECK YOU AUTO-TUNE.

BU: You’re the only ones who even came close to getting this right. Boasting of writing a note is the correct law-school analogue to bragging about being on a boat. So, good concept — and nice male eye candy (especially the guy in the Westlaw t-shirt).


Check back Monday, when we will unveil the finalists for the reader vote!

Earlier: Above the Law Wants to Review Your Revue