Clip By Clip: Idolator’s Favorite YouTube Fan Videos

noah | November 14, 2006 10:58 am

What do you get when you combine obsessive superfans, the ever-slippery concept of “fair use,” and way too much free time? The YouTube search-clogging phenomenon known as the fanvid. Juxtaposing movie and TV scenes with popular songs, these clips are filled with literal translations of lyrics, out-of-context romantic scenes, and on-screen bugs. But there’s a certain charm in their creators’ dedication; we can’t imagine how many times people have watched, say, the entire Office oeuvre in order to get the perfect shot of Pam and Jim making googly eyes at each other.

After the jump, we present a few outstanding examples of these YouTube-enabled tributes. Be sure to watch them now, as they may not survive the copyright crackdown that’s bound to happen sooner or later.

Evanescence/The Office: One of the approximately 9,542,120 Pam/Jim clips floating around YouTube, this clip underscores the importance of picking the right music, as evidenced by the first comment: “when I heard this song played with these clips it looks as if one of them died, just my point of view.” (The black-and-white misty memories didn’t help much, either.)
Elton John/The Cutting Edge: A musty song combined with bits from a movie that we haven’t watched since our slumber-party days? Yeah, this clip pretty much defines the fan-video genre. We have to ask, though: Is D.B. Sweeney’s tumble on the line about Jesus freaks supposed to evoke The Passion Of The Christ?
Green Day/Arrested Development: We watched this all the way through, waiting for some sort of comedic payoff, but then … nothing. Hello? Did someone decide to turn this show into ER while we weren’t looking?
“Weird Al” Yankovic/Star Wars: Sure, this video set to “Weird Al”‘s Yoda tribute is astonishingly literal even for a fan-generated clip, but hey–at least the song isn’t by Coldplay.
Nickelback/Gilmore Girls: Those Gilmore fans who, like us, believe that the Lorelai/Christopher relationship is a horrible, horrible thing will likely have their opinion bolstered by this simpering montage, which is set to the yarl-tastic strains of–ugh–Nickelback. Come back, Yo La Tengo! All is forgiven!
Eazy-E/Troll 2: No quick-edits here–this sync of Eazy-E’s “Eazy Street” is straight-up synced with a party scene from Troll 2. The end result isn’t unlike Leprechaun N The Hood, except it’s set at a barn dance, and the leprechaun is actually a gang-sign throwing goblin who lives behind a mirror.
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