Weekend Vid Picks: Comedy Kicking It Retro-Style

It’s probably a lot more fun to look back at the 1950s than it was to actually live through them. Girls had to wear skirts all the time, no one swore, and there was no such thing as pre-marital sex! At least, that’s the impression of the era given by its media — which of course perhaps bears a limited resemblance to reality.

But that 50s style is one often by viral video folks. One of the classic examples is POYKPAC’s music video for Doo-Wop Bee-Jay, which not only captures the visual look but the echo-y sound of recordings from that era. Contrasted against the borderline-NSFW content, it’s pretty hilarious.

Facebook Manners and You, a viral video promoting relationship web site YourTango.com, takes the 50s-style instructional video approach to illustrate the dos and don’ts of handling a messy breakup in the online space, as seen on Alice’s “computing machine.”

The newest example I found, Listen, Sister, Don’t Hate a Hipster, is a bit obvious in its combination of too-easy trends of 50s kitsch and hipster-bashing…

But it gets major points for its ending, which sees the performers transitioning to a 1960s-style protest. Because watching all this 50s-era stuff is just a keen reminder of the time period’s repression — and how it was no wonder that the chaos of the 1960s are what followed.