Lazy Guide to Net Culture: The Empire Brokeback

Published on Monday 15 May 2006 16:31

I've long been into mashups.

Before I set any tittilating hares running, this is not some kind of web-based perversion involving multiple partners or indeed potatoes.

A "mashup" is a Web 2.0 term. Now, that normally means "bullshit jargon about the concept community that causes excitement in 0.01 per cent of the population". In this case, though, it means cool online gadgets.

Simply put, a mashup takes what one net company does and does something else with it. This is a simple definition. Anyone who cares enough to correct this is more than welcome to get a life.

An example of how it all works is the US site HousingMaps.com, which mixes up Google Maps and the properties for sale or rent in Craig's List without being affiliated with either of them. The result is a great service which shows houses available on a very flexible, easy-to-use map.

A British equivalent would be OnOneMap.com, which again takes information from a variety of house sellers and displays them on a map. As a result I've spent the past few minutes day-dreaming about lottery wins and living in Wester Ross. (I have to say it's coverage of Edinburgh could be better - the house for sale at the bottom of my street is not listed. Nor are others that appear on Property.scotsman.com.)

My all-time favourite mashup is Flickr Toys, which lets you mess around with any pictures you find on the photo-sharing site Flickr . I've raved about this before but you can turn the pics into motivational posters, mock magazine covers and bags of other things.

My love for combining clever things has reached a zenith not in a mashup but in a movie. For your delectation and the provocation of tears of laughter may I present: The Empire Brokeback?

Using snips of footage from Star Wars and music from the homosexual tear-jerker Brokeback Mountain, the spoof trailer casts the relationship between C-3P0 and R2-D2 in a whole new light. It starts with the tag line: "It was a friendship…that became a rebel alliance." Real quotes from Star Wars suddenly appear to have different meaning: "Looks like you boys have seen a lot of action." The piece de resistance is R2-D2's dialogue. The trademark clicks and whistles are subtitled with lines from the cowboy film, such as: "I wish I knew how to quit you."

The are many similar parodies but this is one of the best I've seen. Maybe not all Web 2.0 is bullshit.

But the funniest thing online at the moment is the footage of the BBC interviewing a taxi driver about music downloads while suffering from the delusion that he is an IT expert. He makes a pretty good fist of dealing with the issues, but the look of terror on his face is hilarious. Edit: It now emerges he was not a taxi driver, but a graduate waiting for a job interview with the Beeb. And the BBC have even interviewed him again about their cock-up. Presumably they told him he was on air this time...