The old improv TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? used to say: the numbers are made up and the winner doesn’t matter. This video is in that tradition—we do our best to put numbers on the value of the product placement, but ultimately we’re just guessing, and the winner doesn’t matter. But, like Whose Line Is It Anyway?, it’s still a fun watch.
Notes in order of appearance in the video—
Honorable mentions:
The toys in Toy Story definitely deserve an honorable mention. Many of those toys—Etch A Sketch, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog—were basically forgotten before Toy Story revived them. I could have made a case for putting them in the top five as a group, but I found the other examples more compelling.
Number 5:
There’s been a lot of debate online (for example: this video) about whether the Stanley fire was staged. YouTubers keep replicating the fire and showing that the Stanley doesn’t hold up as well. Personally, I think the original video is real for two main reasons:
If you look closely, the fire damage is burned around the Stanley—it doesn’t look like the whole car went up in flames. My guess is that the fire was limited to certain parts of the car.
If it were staged, I think they would have charred the cup to make it look more dramatic. The fact that it looks pristine, with ice still in the thermos, suggests the flames never really reached it.
Number 4:
AI video is pretty frustrating. It’s not nearly as advanced as people think, and in my experience it’s not progressing very fast. For the Arnold clips in this section, I used Runway AI. First, I generated an image of a scientist who kind of looked like Arnold. Then I used Runway to animate that image using my performance as a guide. It was super finicky and took several tries just to get one usable take. And then it did the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen from AI—it randomly inserted unrelated images in the corner. Check it out below:
Note that the footage it was working off had nothing in that space:
The AI just totally hallucinated the old mustachioed man into the frame. Who is he? How did he get there? Is he a Telemundo game show host or middle Eastern dictator? Why is his tie so excited?
We definitely live in interesting times. Imagine me relaying what happened to my younger self “You will do an Arnold impression that a robot will map onto the face of Arnold. The robot will decide to add a older mustachioed man to the footage for no reason. When asked about it, the robot will feign ignorance and not be able to explain its actions. And oh yeah, all of this will be to teach people economics.”
Number 3:
Two big things I did not know
Apple got all that product placement for free, it’s good to be apple
Villains can’t use iPhones
Number 2:
Shoot out to the editor of this video Calvin Tran aka Nodehaus
for finding the original E.T. script with the M&Ms in it.
Number 1:
Does anyone actually like Cracker Jack? As Bill Simmons would say, Kettle Corn market corrected Cracker Jack.
Oh, and if you are wondering what the #4 most well known song is, it is here.
