About a month back I came across an interesting post on reddit by user KhaoticLegacy. Apparently Thai insurance commercials are generally short films unto themselves that depict tragic human stories meant to evoke compassion, heartbreak, and a very strong sense that you need life insurance. Like, yesterday. This Google search pulls up a whole bunch of them so you can see for yourself (thanks tiexano). Anyway, KhaoticLegacy noted that if you take any one of these ads and use YouTube Doubler to change the audio to the music from the (much adored) Dead Island trailer, what you end up with is the most sad thing ever. Every time. For real.
Check out this one example:
It's uncanny how well this works with every single Thai insurance ad. Seriously, here's another "favourite" of mine (make sure to mute the Thai ad). The first time I watched on of these videos I was instantly transformed from a grown, reasonably competent adult into an angsty, "misunderstood" teenager. Equally devastating is the mashup of the Dead Island trailer music with the already heartbreaking opening montage from Up! that you can find here if you're just feeling too chipper today.
This strange but mesmerizing phenomenon raises a number of important questions:
1) Why are these instantly depressing videos so strangely compelling? What does it say about the human condition that we can enjoy the experience of sadness?
2) Have the composers of the Dead Island trailer music found the perfect combination of notes to instantly evoke simultaneous feelings of compassion, futility, and despair? Can it make anything sad? Is that dog dead?
3) What is the deal with Thai insurance commercials?!
These questions and more plague me while I continue to find new, more poignant combinations of internet videos with the Dead Island trailer music...
Editor's note: I've been meaning to post about this one for a few weeks, sorry for the delay Chris!
http://www.slashfilm.com/science-determined-saddest-movie-time/
ReplyDeleteWow, Thai schoolgirls are BITCHES. Although part of my laughed at the pointed heartstrings-pulling, because... I am a bitch myself, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI feel like if you took that final scene from The Champ and set it to the Dead Island trailer music you actually might permanently reduce the amount of happiness in the world. Thankfully all the clips of the scene on YouTube have embedding disabled so you can't put them through the YouTube Doubler to test my theory. Ergo I am correct.
ReplyDeleteI mean, it's pretty ridiculous. Melodrama to the max, literally. Still poignant though.
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