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U.S. Olympic Swim Team Enter The 'Call Me Maybe' Fray With Viral Video Parody

Posted 7/27/12 2:43 pm EST by in olympics, The Interweb

Carly Rae

By Bryant Gilmore

When you’ve been training as hard as the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, what do you do to blow off a little steam? Turn on the camera, crank up the iPod and make a parody video of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," of course.

Yes, the infectious summer hit and lightning rod for endless viral videos, has added another to the list and it features our Olympic hopefuls lounging and laughing poolside, hanging out in hotel rooms and laying down some dance moves, including a sweet underwater Robot as they bust out the lyrics to the song. It’s both hilarious and refreshing to see what the athletes engage in normal activity during their downtime.

One of the standout moments in the video comes at 1:04 when the ladies rise from their seats on an airplane to tackle the second verse of the song. Call us crazy, but we didn’t see the No Seat Belts sign go off, allowing them to do that, but when you’re going for Olympic gold on behalf of the entire country, we guess the TSA overlooks some things.

Good luck in London, guys. We’ll be watching, cheering you on and looking out for the next awesome parody. Maybe something set to, hopefully, "We Are The Champions," next time? In the meantime, check out the video below:

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British Pop Heartthrob Olly Murs Kicks Off 'Ollympics'

Posted 7/25/12 11:55 am EST by in Music, The Interweb

Olly Murs

Looking to have a little fun as the 2012 Summer Olympics take over his native England, pop singer Olly Murs is challenging his own athleticism – and the prowess of those in his band – by holding his own "Ollympics."

"I'm really excited about it, and of course, I wanted to keep my American fans interested in what I'm doing. I thought this would be really funny and do some viral stuff online, just me knocking around and the band sort of doing different events. It's me against my band," Murs tells MTV News. "The U.S. fans have been tweeting in what they'd like me to do, so we've collected all them together and we've done the Ollympics, which should be fun."

>> Exclusive: Olly Murs Kicks Off His Own 'Ollympics'

For his first challenge, the U.K. pop sensation, who toured the U.S. earlier this summer with One Direction and will release his stateside debut, In Case You Didn't Know (a hybrid of his hit U.K. debut and sophomore albums), on September 25, took on an actual Olympic event: Table Tennis. It did not go well for the 28-year-old heartthrob.

Check out the exclusive clip below:

"I thought that the band wouldn't be as good as they were. We decided the first game is of course table tennis, which of course is an Olympic sport," he says. "I did not win, which is pretty shameful, but you need to watch the rest and you know it's good. It's quite fun."

>> Is Olly Murs The Next Brit to Break? Four Other Pop Stars Who Paved the Way (Poll)

Future Ollympic events will be featured on Murs' website. Fans wanting to join in the fun can tweet at the star @ollyofficial with the hashtag #ollympics.

For the full story, check out MTV News.

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Justin Bieber Uses Twitter To Shine Spotlight On Aspiring Singer Madison Beer

Posted 7/19/12 11:45 am EST by in Justin Bieber, The Interweb, Tweet Beat

Justin Bieber

By Zachary Swickey

Pop star Justin Bieber is a force to be reckoned with on Twitter, and now he's harnassed the power of his 25 million-strong social media fanbase to change the life of an aspiring young singer he feels is a star in the making.

Bieber has given 13-year-old Madison Beer the same ringing endorsement he bestowed upon Cary Rae Jepsen … and we all know how that turned out! The pop superstar first showed his enthusiasm for Beer’s talent on Tuesday (July 17) when he tweeted a link to a YouYube video of her cover the Etta James’ classic “At Last.”

“wow. 13 years old! she can sing. great job. #futurestar,” he wrote along with the link.

That kind of endorsement from Bieber is all it takes to become a trending topic, which happened for Beer less than 24 hours later and increased views for the video to 222,243 at the time of this writing.

“@justinbieber OMGOGMFHAHDBSBAWHEBSBSHHWEHHDXHSHHAFBBAGEEHYBT I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING. I AM CRYING,” an elated Beer wrote to her nearly 20,000 Twitter followers.

Biebs kept showing the love too – he later sent Beer’s mash-up of Jepsen’s hit "Call Me Maybe" and his own single “Boyfriend” to Jepsen herself, and did the same with Beers' cover of a Bruno Mars hit as well.

“haha. @carlyraejepsen watch this. pretty funny. reminds me of my old videos. #MashUpFReakOUT,” Justin wrote. He continued, “this is just how i started. i love it. @brunomars u gotta see one. She is great. #STAR."

It appears Bieber is becoming quite the talent scout as Beer is now reportedly in talks to sign with the singer's manager Scooter Braun, who discovered him on YouTube and now also represents Jepsen.

Jepsen was a little unknown 26-year-old Canadian singer, before Bieber helped make her a sensation. Bieber called her single "Call Me Maybe" “possibly the catchiest song I’ve ever heard.” The song has gone on to become one of the biggest hits of the year.

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Beyonce Fan Straps On A Snuggie For Epic 'Countdown' Recreation

Posted 7/18/12 3:01 pm EST by in Beyonce, The Interweb

Beyonce

Fan-made recreations of big budget pop music videos are a tricky business. Want an even trickier one? Recreating a Beyonce video without upsetting her notoriously devout fans. But we think we know one young boy who may have pulled it off.

While recreating professional-level sets, photography and hair and makeup is darn near impossible, the stars of viral videos make up for it with sass and, usually, a hook that sets them apart from both the other imitators and the stars themselves.

For one big Beyonce fan, the hook comes in his astounding ability to edit his recreation of "Countdown" almost exactly as it was done by the video's director … but the sass is all in the Snuggie.

That's right, YouTube user KKPalmer1000's interpretation of Beyonce's Adria Petty co-directed clip is essential a shot-for-shot remake of the original that manages to remarkably mimic its color-blocked style and rapid fire cuts, while, inexplicably (though no one's arguing it's hella funny), including the maligned-but-very popular piece of loungewear.

Check it out:

What do you think, Beyhive? Pretty good, huh? This kid's moves are fierce!

Check out Queen Bey's "Countdown" video, minus all the Snuggie stuff, after the jump. And let us know what you think of the video in the comments below. Read More...

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A Musical Argument For and Against 'Fifty Shades of Grey'

Posted 7/10/12 12:40 pm EST by in The Interweb

Fifty Shades of Grey

By Bryant Gilmore

As the BDSM love story of Christian Grey and Ana Steele continues to cast its spell on the hearts of housewives in America – almost 20 million, in fact – the rumors about who is to bring to life the NSFW tale of true love on the big screen seem endless. At present, some of the hot contenders are "Vampire Diaries" star Ian Somerhalder, who’s been campaigning hard and "True Blood’s" Alexander Skarsgaard for Christian, and for Ana, "Pretty Little Liars" actress Lucy Hale and Emilia Clarke ("Game of Thrones").

Now, author E.L. James has hand-picked the producers behind the Oscar-winning movie "The Social Network" to help bring her bondage dreams to reality.

In the meantime, fans and non-fans alike will have to content themselves with the plethora of Internet goodies the series has inspired, including the comedic "Fifty Shades of Grey – The Musical." Put together by YouTube duo AVbyte, the two-and-a-half minute sing-song clip gives a hilarious perspective on fans and foes of the best-selling series. The video starts off with a hardcore "Fifty Shades" fan literally singing her praises of the book while another woman counter-sings about the series' negative impact on feminism and her hopes that men don’t the wrong idea. Not to be outdone, a down low male fan pops in to profess his love for "Fifty Shades" – secretly, of course.

The video has already gotten over 62,000 hits in just three days and while that may not be on par with a new music video release from Nicki, Rihanna or Justin Bieber, it’s still pretty impressive for.

Watch below and tell us what you think:

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Tina Fey Enjoys '7 Minutes In Heaven,' Continues To Reign As Queen Of Viral Video Internet Interviews

Posted 5/22/12 5:38 pm EST by in Television, The Interweb

Tina Fey is one of my favorite people and she's probably one of your favorite people too (unless you're a Sarah Palin super fan, in which case … well, to each his own).

So it's with great pleasure that we bring you her hilarious "7 Minutes in Heaven" interview with Mike O'Brien. Watch Fey riff on Liz Lemon's cameo on "Breaking Bad," throwing up at Gramercy Tavern, making out with John Goodman, which "Cosby" is she (and which would she be comfortable with watching her shower) and, of course, making out – as is the custom on the Internet sensation chat fest.

Watch:

This interview comes just a few weeks after she tore Zach Galifianakis apart on "Between Two Ferns," another online smash (though Fey's appearance did air first on TV before dominating the Internet).

Check it out, after the jump. Read More...

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Here's The Bon Iver Erotic Fan Fiction You've Been Waiting For

Posted 4/30/12 3:19 pm EST by in Music, The Interweb

Bon Iver

Yeah, you read that correctly. It's also the funniest thing you will read today.

We were recently alerted to the existence of Bon Iver Erotic Stories, a fan fiction Tumblr about having sexytimes with Justin Vernon. Now, before we go any further, let us start by saying that the whole thing is quite safe for work. This is more a work of comedic genius than a "50 Shades of Grey"-like exploration of anyone's darkest, dirtiest urges for the rugged guitar strummer from the Wisconsin wilderness.

The blog's creator is clearly out to have a bit of fun at Bon Iver/Vernon's expense. But fans shouldn't fret, the ribbing is gentle, we swear … just the way Vernon would no doubt like it.

Like the best Tumblrs (we're looking at you, #whatshouldwecallme … we always are!), the idea is simple – just pictures of Vernon matched with short quips about frolicking sexily with the singer or the various oh-so-hipster romantic things he's done for the object of his affection. The captions play so perfectly into the super sensitive man of nature persona that Vernon has going on that it's impossible not to laugh.

Nothing has ever so accurately reflected our feelings about a musician! After the jump, check out our 10 favorite quips at Vernon's touchy-feely expense.

Read More...

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Black Keys Frontman Will Produce LA Rocker's New Album, Blasts Spotify And Sean Parker,

Posted 4/3/12 11:30 am EST by in Music, The Interweb

Black Keys

By Zachary Swickey

The Black Keys have been busy selling out arenas – like their two-night stint at New York City’s Madison Square Garden – but that isn’t stopping frontman Dan Auerbach from producing the upcoming album of LA-based garage rock by solo artist Hanni El Khatib.

Auerbach will handle production duties on the follow-up to Khatib’s 2011 effort Will the Guns Come Out after the two hit it off in France. Khatib even provided the design logo for Auerbach’s personal studio. Khatib recounted their meeting to LA Weekly, saying, “A friend owns a bar in Paris and introduced us when I was deejaying after a show. He went deep into music and started dropping knowledge about all these obscure LA bands. We ended up going back and forth deejaying all night.”

In other Black Keys-related news, the other half of the duo, Patrick Carney, has continued voicing his dissatisfaction with streaming services and specifically blasted Spotify shareholder and Napster co-founder Sean Parker, calling him an “a**hole” who “steals” royalties from artists. Read More...

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Diplo's Mad Decent Label Launches First-Listen Subscription Service

Posted 3/15/12 11:10 am EST by in Music, The Interweb

Diplo

By Zachary Swickey

Philly-based DJ/producer Diplo has launched a new digital subscription service for his personal label, Mad Decent. The site – Mad Decent Premium – is being touted as an “exclusive club” for fans to hear new music from the label.

The pay-for site will give members first-listen access to all of the label’s releases in addition to remixes, mixtapes, live sets, videos, a membership card and a discount at their merch store for all your Mad Decent swag.

The site is said to work in the same fashion as recent streaming service Spotify – a user can stream and download as much content as they’d like from any computer for a flat fee of $10 a month.

To help get things started, Decent is giving a free T-shirt to the first 50 people who sign up and free stickers for the first 250.

If you need further incentive, you’ll automatically get several of the label’s notable releases, including Diplo’s brnad new Express Yourself, Mad Decent Jeffree’s Vol. 2 mixtape, Po Po’s Dope Boy Magick, and the Mad Decent super pack, which includes unreleased tracks by Diplo. Read More...

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Olivia Munn Laughs Off Nude Pic Scandal With Jokey Letter And Pic At SXSW Screening

Posted 3/12/12 4:38 pm EST by in Celebrity, Internet, The Interweb

Olivia Munn

People are still talking about the nude pics of Olivia Munn that showed up online last week after a hacker broke into her phone and leaked the images, but the starlet is taking it all in stride and is even laughing off the experience by fighting fire with fire.

(Soapbox: We get that, for one reason or another, people are super interested in celebrity nude pics, but can we please stop hacking their cell phones? It's a pretty cold thing to do. Snapping a pic of someone when they are out in public – fine. Breaking into and stealing their private property – not OK and pretty illegal.)

While Munn's pictures were not particularly explicit, the writing on them, allegedly by Munn, was. Like, VERY. The images had graphic text superimposed on them, most of which were instructions, and arrows pointing to where to, um, carry out her directions. They were basically illustrated sex instructions and they were something.

Well, this weekend at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, Munn was unable to attend a screening of her film "The Babymakers" because she was filming HBO's Aaron Sorkin series "The Newsroom," but she sent a fun letter with the film's director apologizing for her absence and detailing what she was doing when she wasn't sending lewd texts. She also included a picture of herself with some superimposed text to mock the mini-scandal. Both are kind of awesome.

"Oh, and one last thing – some of those pictures weren't even me," Munn at one point writes. "I mean, you can't even see my penis…"

You know you want to read it. Check both letter and pic out after the jump. Read More...

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