ME TOOB. YOUTUBE.COM

I think generations from now, televisiologists will look back at this period in the history of the medium and declare YouTube.com as the next true evolutionary step. It is the first baby steps of the technology being taken over by the masses to produce their own content for a national audience, without interference by networks or sponsors.

Well, not too much interference so far. It's also a time when the people using it are pretty much able to upload content that already belongs to the networks and the production companies. And they take that content and tweak it in hilarious ways.

Two excellent cases in point:

1) 'Star Trek' Meets "Monty Python And The Holy Grail"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cnCvpJwKKpw&search=%22Star%20Trek%22%20%22Holy%20Grail%22

Images from the TV show are wed to the music and lyrics of "The Knights Of The Round Table". Who knew the image of Captain Pike trapped in his wheelchair could be so damned funny?

Well, okay, yeah. When Fry spoofed it on 'Futurama', that was pretty damned funny too.

I first saw this at work, where we can't have speakers on the computer at the desk. So I had to sing along with what I remember from the song (and okay, I admit it - it's pretty much all of it). It was still hilarious.

This is one fine and inspired example of editing. I hope Paramount doesn't threaten the site to take it down, but instead embraces it. Perhaps even buy the rights to it and stick it into some future DVD release.

(Thanks to TVSquad.com for pointing me toward this.)

2) The alternative ending for 'Doctor Who' - "Doomsday".

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5q3t9lW_rts&search=Doomsday%20%22alternate%20ending%22

I finally got to see the last two episodes of this season's 'Doctor Who' this past Thursday. Seeing Rose in Norway, on the day she died, was so sweet, so elegiac, so moving.

Leave it to a YouTubist to transform it into Loony Toons!

(My thanks to Mark for showing it to me.)

BCnU!
Tele-Toby