Even battle-hardened, still-occupied, America-hating Iraqis are embracing this brave new media landscape of ours. According to newswire AFP, our wacky post-colonial subjects are posting some hilarious YouTube material lampooning us, our little war, and even themselves! Sort of. Mostly us, though.
There's nothing like a war zone to bring out the comedian in some people, like the wags that uploaded the clip of "a large-mouthed soldier repeating Arabic phrases told to him by a group of locals." The "locals" have the soldier explain that he'd like to go home and see his family. You can't make this stuff up!
Here is a clip the AFP called "hilarious."
The AFP description for this next clip was clearly written by someone who somehow managed to avoid the entire terrible ad campaign for Happy Feet.
One video clip shows a colony of penguins, led by a large male with distinctive orange markings on his neck, swaggering around the ice chanting "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada!"The 66-second segment, its soundtrack clearly recorded at a Mahdi Army gathering engaged in rowdy praise of the cleric, shows the penguins raising their flippers heavenwards, beaks wide open as they become more and more enthusiastic about Sadr.
The video, clearly doctored electronically, ends with the penguins forming a large heart-shaped gathering around their leader who stands bellowing in the middle.
Clearly doctored electronically? You mean real penguins didn't begin chanting in Arabic and them form a heart around the spirit of Shiite Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as channeled through a talking penguin? Illusions: shattered.
Iraqis Mock US Soldiers And Themselves On You Tube [AFP]