‘Kick Ass 2’ Takes Over YouTube, Funny or Die, FreddieW

Move over, Breaking Bad. Your time as YouTube’s most hyped upcoming debut has ended. In your place, we now have the latest YouTube-chic Hollywood franchise: Kick-Ass. The tongue-in-cheek superhero story has popped up all over YouTube and Funny or Die in anticipation of the release of its sequel, Kick-Ass 2.

The most prominent video to emerge from the recent Kick-Ass push came from Freddiew. The FX master release his own sequel by bringing viewers the latest adventures of Milkman, the world’s only lactose-powered superhero. As the short’s origin story goes, Milkman has joined forces with Kick-Ass, only to be foiled by the film’s villain, Motherf**ker.

A couple of YouTube’s most prominent film-related channels have also joined in the fun. Screen Junkies included Kick-Ass in a supercut of superheroes introducing themselves, while Cinema Sins

took the time to count 74 sins in the first movie. Well, I thought it was a fun film.

Finally, in the grandest branding achievement of all, Motherf**ker took over the Funny or Die Twitter, where he gave the account’s followers some advice on how to be as evil as possible.

We’ve seen plenty of these brand pushes before widely-anticipated debuts, and they’re not necessarily a disingenuous use of the online video space. Sure, it may seem tacky to use an established creator’s voice to hawk a franchise, but if the debuting project is cool enough and the videos are good enough, then the YouTube push is more than welcome. In this case, yes, the videos were good, and yes, Kick-Ass is very cool.