Who’s Behind ‘Bad Lip Reading’?

There’s one thing we do know, and it’s that Bad Lip Reading is set for a hell of a rise on YouTube now that they’ve fully embraced the alchemy of catchy, politically satirical music videos. What began modestly just six months ago with a bad lip reading of Rebecca Black, has veered straight into the whack train that is Election 2012, issuing bad lip readings of Barack Obama, Rick Perry and now, Michele Bachmann.

The channel is fast becoming the Auto-tune the News of the 2012 campaign, taking the politicos’ speeches and TV interviews and re-dubbing as a malicious, yet cleverly faulty lip reader might interpret them. With 106,000 YouTube subscribers as of this morning, it added more than half of those in the past two months alone. Total views so far: 12.1 million.

“Trick the Bridesmaid – A Bad Lip Reading of Barack Obama” (below) remains my favorite, though so far it’s Rick Perry’s soundbite that tops their political entries.

The thing is, they are remaining anonymous—for now—as they ride the wave of novelty. The mystery of who these guys actually

are adds an element of intrigue into an otherwise classic fable of YouTube rising stars. A check on the badlipreading.com domain (which redirects to their Tumblr) finds it to be privately registered and hosted using a Canadian web shot called Dot Easy. Their YouTube channel lists them as male and from the United States, and it is possible to get an out-of-country host.

I’d expect this anonymity to drop soon, as YouTube’s Partner Program is no doubt calling, and beyond that the apparatus of the video industry itself with partnerships and branded deals. But I must say it’s refreshing to have a little veil of misdirection here, especially in a medium all too prone for over-sharing.

“Still being mysteriously mysterious at the moment. Will work on this.”

I actually had no idea the Bachmann video was coming, though it seemed all too fitting, when I featured BLR in my weekly vlog this week. Incidentally, they too would be victims of these proposed bills in Congress that would make streaming copyrighted material a felony…