Review of For Parody Purposes Only

Mark Day is a San Fransisco-based stand-up comedian who has an exceptionally strong Scottish accent, a bald head, and a penchant for yelling about the many irrational aspects of American popular culture and politics. He was born in 1967, enjoys both jazz and Judas Priest, and has been posting videos on For Parody Purposes Only since August of 2006. Day is all over the internet, including Virgin Record’s online video contest, The Bleepin Awesome Awards. I’m surprised he even has time to do stand-up at actual venues, which he does throughout the Bay Area (see his Myspace page for details). He also has a Myspace vlog in which he details his various gigs and contests and posts some content that differs from his regular site.

Day’s videos are generally 3 or 4 minutes long, and are posted every month, as shown in the archive. Most are shot in his home against an unadorned, bright yellow wall, an amusing contradiction to the cynical and dead-pan rants of a Scotsman. Many pieces, are simply Day’s personal archive of videos he thinks are funny, creating a mix of his stand up routines and other content culled from the web. He touches on a number of subjects – everything from Britney Spears and George Bush to TiVo and TGIFridays. The clips are simply edited with Day’s popping up in different portions of the screen as he continues his rants, and many include a disclaimer near the end that assures the viewer that these videos are indeed for “parody purposes only.” 

While Day tends to stick to well-worn territories like celebrities and current political events, he often makes highly original and surprising observations. For instance, because hip-hop culture has sometimes associated itself with the 6^th century Chinese military general, Sun Tzu’s work, The Art of War, he suggests we send the Wu-Tang Clan into Iraq. He also notes that 50 Cent probably has better protective armor than our troops.