BoomTown » impression

Ford's Social Media Guru Scott Monty: "Social Media Is the Cocaine of the Communications Industry"

Kara Swisher — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:53:31 +0000

Today, BoomTown got the best quote ever from Scott Monty, when I asked him over lunch about his comparison of social media tools to an illicit drug.

“Social media is the cocaine of the communications industry,” said Monty, who has been global digital and multimedia communications manager for Ford Motor Company (F) since mid-2008.

Riding that Twitter train, high on Facebook cocaine?

I got him to repeat it, during a keynote interview with him at Blog World Expo in Las Vegas.

While we had some sound problems–par for the course at conferences–Monty got the attention of the crowd with the metaphor, especially after he launched into a spot-on impression of comic Bill Cosby doing a famous bit about cocaine.

All joking aside, Monty did make what was a very good point about the sometimes explosive impact of social networking media compared to the traditional kind.

Monty channeled Cosby for me again for a video interview here, in which we talk about that and also about how big companies are dealing with social media.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Viral Video: "Rocket Man" Shatner Channels "Maverick" Palin (Watch Out, Tina Fey!)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:53:09 +0000

In a genius pairing of subject and artist, here is the best online viral video this week from Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show,” featuring actor William Shatner reciting outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s recent farewell speech verbatim.

You simply can’t make this stuff up.

Done in Shatner’s perfect Captain James T. Kirk/”Rocket Man”-style, here is the video from NBC (as well as Shatner interpreting the Elton John-Bernie Taupin hit song, and also my favorite impression of Palin by Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live”):

"The Dark Knight": Joker Impressions Abound Online

Kara Swisher — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:09:41 +0000

Here’s a curious trend I’ve noticed developing quickly on YouTube, probably because of the acclaim that the late actor Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” has garnered.

His memorably malevolent turn in the latest Batman movie is likely to result a posthumous Oscar for Ledger. But perhaps more interesting is the number of fans who are doing video impressions of his performance, acting out various scenes from the movie, and posting them online in tribute.

Here are just such few videos, including ones that are dead serious and others not so much, as well as a compilation of Ledger’s various scenes at the end:

Joker/Batman Spoof

Joker Interrogation Scene

Joker Mob Meeting Scene

Joker Party Crashing Scene

Joker “Why So Serious?” Scene (as channeled by Hayden Black of “abigail’s ‘x-rated’ teen diary”)

Heath Ledger as Joker Compilation