Mark Malkoff Celebrates Skype’s 10th Bday By Chatting With 162 Nations

Skype celebrated its tenth birthday this August, and Mark Malkoff is reminding us how cool it is that we can instantly video chat face-to-face with anyone in the world. The stunt-happy comedian’s latest video has him Skyping with residents of 162 different countries, connecting the world in one neat video.

Malkoff used his Facebook and Twitter followers to help find his international Skype companions, and he was able to chat with 140 countries, including Afghanistan, Fiji, The Gambia, Papua New Guinea, and, most impressively, North Korea, where he connected to an international tour guide during a football game at the massive Kim Il-Sung Stadium.

Throughout the project, Malkoff had a variety of different experiences. Some of his Skype companions showed off the beauty of their home countries, some serenaded him, and one guy in Indonesia yelled at him for calling in at 2 AM local time.

“Though the world is separated by geography and cultural differences, this project illustrates that smiles and love are universal,” said Malkoff. “Many of these people have invited me to visit them and stay in their homes. It’s made me want to travel and see the world.”

Malkoff gets into all sorts of shenanigans on his MSN program, The Mark Malkoff Challenge. While his Skype experiment doesn’t match the audacity of some of his other stunts, its message of world peace is a warm and fuzzy one. If Skype hasn’t already paid Malkoff, it should thank him for all the free pub he gave it. Given how much he video conferences on his Ipad, Apple should kick in a couple bucks, too.