Life Imitates Art or Too Funny to Be True?

[post 373]

Do the Keystone Kops ride again? This "dumbest cops" video has gone viral, billed as "actual bank robbery in Detroit."

You know me, I love examples of physical comedy in real life, and this sure would be funny if it were true, but it ain't. (Darn.) It's actually footage shot by an observer during the filming of this 2008 Chevy Mailbu commercial!



That choreography was just a little too perfect!

But this one, on the other hand, is more likely legit, and almost qualifies as a perfect three-part gag — except that there are four crashes. Well, we could edit that!

Keep your eye on the motorcyclist in white first visible in the upper-right-hand corner; first crash is at 7-second mark. Be sure to watch till the end....

Cut to the Chase: The Police vs. Rémi Gaillard

[post 351]

Just over 100 years ago ago, Mack Sennett hit cinema pay dirt and spawned American silent film comedy when he introduced audiences to the hapless Keystone Cops, forever the butt of the joke. Chaplin and Keaton and their fellow silent film comedians likewise mocked police incompetence and, more politically, condemned at least implicitly their treatment of the underdog. Nowadays such attitudes are rarer in film comedy, but certainly not in the work of French prankster and provocateur Rémi Gaillard, whose YouTube videos have had over a billion hits.

Here's one of his most popular compilations, showing his joy at taunting the police in segments reminiscent of those early chase scenes where the cops were doing all the chasing. "I do it for France!" Gaillard is fond of shouting. Ha!



You can see many, many more videos at his web site, and of course buy tons of anarchistic merchandise.