No joke…I think my entry for DoUpto.com’s video contest might be the funniest contest entry I’ve ever done. I made the friggin’ thing and I’ve watched it dozens of times. It just amuses the hell out of me.  The finalists are determined by views so do both of us a favor and watch this a billion times:

The sponsor of this contest, Doupto.com is a new website that allows people to sell any service for a fee. It seems like an interesting and possibly handy resource. Their explains how the site works. Normally I wouldn’t give a contest sponsor a free plug like this but I was impressed that their explanatory video opens with a hand flipping off the camera and features a narrator that casually drops multiple f-bombs.

Anyway, for the contest DoUpto asked people to simply make “viral” videos about giraffes. (Their mascot is a giraffe.) And that was the only requirement. The video just had to somehow feature a (real or fake) giraffe. You didn’t even have to mention the sponsor. So without any real game plan, a friend and I headed to the Brookfield zoo outside of Chicago and I got some footage of giraffes. For some reason, the giraffes just stood their licking trees like they were the most delicious things in the world. Later, I dubbed in the conversation I imagined their were having in their secret giraffe language.

The 5 people who’s videos get the most views during the month of September move on to the finals.  But the second round is actually a totally different contest.  In the finals, contestants have two weeks to get DoUpto’s logo as high as possible.  Whoever gets the logo highest wins $15,000.  And yes, I mean that the winner will be the person who literally gets the sponsor’s logo as high as possible.  So for instance, if make the finals I could film myself with the logo on the top floor of the Sear’s (A.K.A. the Willis) Tower in Chicago.  But I think I can do something more creative than that. I’ll cross that bridge if and when I get to it.   For now, do me a favor and watch my submission. Thanks!

9/10/2012 UPDATE: My pal and video contest superstar HappyJoel is also in this contest. There are 5 finalist slots so why not give his entry a view too: