I dunno. This sarcastic National Lampoon piece about residual chemicals in tapwater has a lot views and a 4.5 star rating on YouTube — but I think it’s long and not just that funny. And, ultimately, kind of depressing and pointless. I don’t really feel like paying the Due Diligence Test Panel for their thoughts, so what are yours?
Thanks to T.G. for pointing this out.
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It’s depressing, because it’s true! (Hmmm. Does that sound familiar?)
Yeah, the list of side effects went on way too long.
The interesting thing about this for me is that it shows the reach of awareness of water issues. If National Lampoon is making fun of it, people do know about it. That means our job is not so much about ‘raising awareness’ as telling people how they can take action. So in a twisted kind of way, it’s good news?
Funny, as most black humor is. This could actually be a terrifically popular and useful video short if they would limit the side effects to perhaps 10 of the funniest AND include a message about how those pharmaceuticals get into the water in the first place. That might give the audience a glimmer of how they can make a difference (not flushing old pills, etc.) and improve the situation that this video is parodying.
Actually, I think it’s in interesting piece that could briliantly work for us. But as it stands, it works against the conservation message entirely. Because of the long list of diseases – many of which are crude or ridiculous (and some were hysterical) — in the end, the listener knows the whole thing is a farce and something they can ignore. Pharms in waterways ARE an issue—but by the end of this thing, you’re either laughing or tuned out and you’ve minimized the issue. The conservation field could totally use this humorous idea to make a serious point, adding in the “tell ppl what to do” piece that it lacks.