Not funny…this time.

My brother recently forwarded me an amazing YouTube clip.  Watch it here and then resume.  It’s only 44 seconds, I’ll wait.

Don’t read on if you haven’t watched it.  Back?  Amazing, right?  I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve been gone for 88 or 132 seconds.  I watched it four times.  And actually, there is a really good chance you’ve already seen it.  2M+ have watched it on YouTube and countless others elsewhere.  These sorts of clips are the WD-40 that grease a plodding day at the office.  Significant portions of the day can evaporate in laughter when one of these hit the inbox.

But what if I then told you it was fake?

What, no way!  When I told me brother, he actually got defensive like I’d said his poem wasn’t very good.

“How do you know this?”

“I Googled around a little and read up.  It was put together by the director of a little indie flick that was going to be based, ironically, around a viral YouTube clip.  So he made this movie with a cast and then, for the hell of it, stuck it on YouTube to see what would happen.  If anything it would be good press for his movie.  But it took off…”

He was bummed and I think you may be too (if you didn’t know already) when he found out it was staged.  Just a little bit, right?

So here’s my question: why?

It shouldn’t matter, right?  Watch the clip again.  It’s hilarious.  When the best man makes that awkward noise as he falls, when groom goes “NOOO” as the bride hits the pool or when the girl at the end mumbles “Shiiiit” through fits of restrained laughter… it’s all priceless… but you’re still thinking about how they’re acting.  This was probably the fifth take.  They’d rehearsed in bathing suits for the morning.  It was all staged.  So why is it less funny?