Holding It Down On The Engineering Tip

Recently, a friend of mine sent me links to three of the funniest, most brilliantly satirical television ads I've ever seen. For your comedic enjoyment, check out Volkswagen USA's Unpimp Your Ride.^*

Aside from the demonic relish with which the mad scientist trashes the posers' hapless attempts at automotive masturbation, what I love about these clips is that they lampoon precisely that aspect of hip-hop culture which I've always thought was most self-evidently ridiculous: the intentionally ungrammatical language, the comically affected hand gestures, and the pretentious self-importance. (Quoting Snoop Dogg is an especially witty touch.)

Incidentally, you may be asking yourself: "Self, what does anything in this post have to do with Sweden?" Well, it turns out there is a Swedish connection here after all. (Or, as we say in Swedish, "Jaha!") The eagle-eyed among my devoted readership (all three of you) may have noticed that the demented V-Dub is played by none other than legendary Swedish character actor Peter Stormare, who is perhaps best known for being on the winning end of the woodchipper (as opposed to Steve Buscemi, whose character was on the, uh... not winning end) near the conclusion of the Coen Brothers' dark comedy, Fargo.

^* From the Credit-Where-Credit-Is-Due Department: These were created by Miami-based ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. High-res pop-up versions are also available here.