Brett Ehrlich Takes You to 'Viral Video Film School'

Brett Ehrlich is a Current TV mainstay – he’s, um, currently all over the latest political news for Campaign Update and in the past he’s delivered important messages about Current’s changes and purpose to its members in his own imitable (even mancrushworthy) style.

But for my web-video-obsessed money, Brett’s at his best during his Viral Video Film School segments for the popular, frenetic Current show Infomania. Looking charmingly less put together than he does on Campaign Update, Brett eschews the green screen for a seedy-looking wall of posters, deadpan wit, and quick edits of videos that send up a well-identified web video trope.

This “Bears” installment should give you the idea:

It’s clearly a rich field to mine, and many of you will see the similarities with Rocketboom’s Know Your Meme, pop17, Internet Superstar

and other shows popular among the ROFLCon set. However, Brett’s personality and ability to turn seemingly mundane or obscure themes into truly incisive observation and parody sets his work apart.

Brett’s other projects seem to have kept him from updating the series lately, and a lot of his early successes like “online video from financial publications” are no longer in Current’s archives (tragic if that’s due to Current succumbing to the legal muscle of the videos’ targets).

Fortunately he released “Dorm Room Tours” a few days ago to mark the beginning of fall, and it’s a true gem:

Keep telling us what’s what, Brett! Plenty of the freshly-camera-equipped and internet unsavvy out there could certainly use your wisdom.