The past few weeks have been especially good for online video. Here's a grab bag of recent highlights:
To prepare yourself for the return of "The Sopranos," which begins its final season this Sunday, some homework may be in order. To help, two superfans named Paul Gulyas and Joe Sabia have compiled a "whacked out" refresher course on the entire series.
Search YouTube for "Seven Minute Sopranos" to find their video, which moves at lightning speed through every major hit and plot turn in all six seasons. It's exhausting.
"300" has been an unqualified and unexpected hit, pulling in more than $180 million at the box office.
Adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novel, the story of vastly outnumbered Spartans defending against Persian invaders is utterly ripe for parody. A recent, hysterical "Saturday Night Live" sketch (available on YouTube) featured host Peyton Manning nearly unrecognizable as a boulder-throwing ogre from "300." But the viral spoof of "300" has turned out to be "It's Raining 300 Men," which melds the homoeroticism of the movie's manly multitudes with the Weather Girls' disco hit.
It's been more than a decade since Alanis Morissette made a stir with a music video. Her schizophrenic video for "Ironic," directed by Stephane Sednaoui, showed the many personalities of Morissette - but none was exactly funny. The video for her cover of the Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps," however, is.
Her quiet, somber version only highlights the ridiculousness of Fergie's original lyrics, and the video makes fun of Fergie's, well, questionable aesthetic. It still feels strange coming from Morissette. Her video is only part of the current two-pronged assault on "My Humps.
" In the new film "Blades of Glory," Will Ferrell plays a figure skater who insists the song is perfect for his routine: "No one knows what it means, but it's provocative. It gets the people goin'!"
Last week, we highlighted the video of the on-set dustup between director David O.
Russell and Lily Tomlin during the making of 2004's "I (Heart) Huckabees." The feud was reported in the New York Times several years ago, but this was the first chance for public consumption of the argument. One expert spoof has already surfaced.
Available at CollegeHumor.com, actor-comedians Paul Rudd (as Tomlin) and Michael Showalter (as Russell) re-enact the incident.
After a brief hiatus, NBC's "30 Rock" returns this Thursday.
Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin have - as they should - received the lion's share of praise for the witty sitcom. But Tracy Morgan's endless absurdity has been too often overlooked. A popular video on YouTube suggests it's not just an act.
Appearing on a morning talk show on ABC's El Paso, Texas affiliate KVIA, Morgan makes the much-ballyhooed Danny DeVito "View" appearance of last year look like child's play. Morgan repeatedly warns El Paso that on his visit, "Somebody going to get pregnant." He also takes his shirt off and slaps his flabby tummy, the sound of which he claims is "a mating call.
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The iTunes-dominated world of music downloads is showing signs of change. It may have to. On Tuesday, the European Commission confirmed it's investigating Apple's iTunes for antitrust.
In the meantime, iTunes has relaxed its monopoly like grip a little - including a deal with EMI Group to begin selling its songs free of copy-protection technology known as DRM. This means that you'll be able to play more and more iTunes music not just on iPods, but on other devices. At the same time, iTunes has also lowered the price of albums if you've already bought a single from it - a sensible move that should have been made long ago.
Finally, some of the constraints on iTunes are easing.
EDITOR'S NOTE - What's your favorite Web site? E-mail AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle at fcoyle(at)ap.
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