Having redefined politics, made a minor celebrity out of an androgynous and emotionally unstable Britney Spears fan and led to a drop in the productivity of office workers with an internet connection, YouTube has risen from novel online depository to sociological phenomenon.
An endless galaxy of rare video and sound bites, album leaks and the trailers to films you've long-since forgotten, YouTube is also chock full of crap. Like drunk undergraduates booty dancing. Or grown men talking like pirates. It will be the job of this column to seize the twinkling gold scattered throughout this muddy stream and report it to y'all. We'll start with an oldie but a goodie. Type ''king's walkway'' into the search field and you'll find a clip of some schmuck filming himself hiking along Spain's Caminito del Rey, a dilapidated narrow path that snakes around a mountain. The result? Think David Blaine's holiday slideshow.
The death-defying cameraman tip-toes on metal pipes like a trapeze artist over sheer drops all for our entertainment! What a clown! The clip, which runs for more than six minutes, plays out like the opening of the most recent Bond film minus terrorists, Daniel Craig and choreography. The only letdown is having to endure the tasteless chase music chosen to accompany the spectacular footage mute and enjoy.
From daredevils who put their bodies on the line to those with the audacity to put millions - nay, trillions - at risk, YouTube provides when it comes to amusing commentary on the United States's head-first slide into a cesspool of debt. The search words ''dark bailout'' will lead you to a devilishly clever creation (that may or may not breach copyright) which interweaves a recent appeal for calm by US President George Bush with a scene from The Dark Knight.
Snippets of Bush's address appear on a television being watched by Gotham's crime bosses, who all react cynically to Bush's analysis of credit crunch. Suddenly, in walks Heath Ledger in make-up who promptly compares Bush to boobs on a bull before offering his own services to those assembled. Whether the Joker is meant to represent Barack Obama, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Hank Paulson or Osama Bin Laden is all in the interpretation but whatever your conclusion, The Dark Bailout is a slick clip that will appeal to both Kerry O'Brien devotees and Red Bull-sipping, Rebel Sport-shunning, emo-affected ''mallrats'' alike.
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