The reason I say this is that I am in fact Josh D from Hedgehog Man. A spoof that was done well before there was a contest, as well as being used all over the contest description on a number of different websites. Not to mention that we were contacted directly by someone in program development telling us how much they loved our little film. I don't care that it didn't air... I don't even care about the $500 bucks since it was not done for this contest. I am more disappointed that it wasn't even mentioned on the show, yet the way they made it seem on the website was that it was the inspiration in part for this show.
Now I thought there were a few funny spoofs but for the most part they were horrible. I am not saying this out of bitterness, its just a fact that I sat through 99% of that show without even a chuckle or a smile. When just from my video on youtube there are plenty of much funnier things that could be considered spoofs of discovery faire. I mean what was funny about the kids buttering a cat and dropping it from the roof or the one where a young girl butters her brother and pushes him down? Even worse were the American Chopper spoofs. I can honestly say the only things that amused me were Chopper Mamas, Future Weapons Rocks, and the send up of American Choppers/Identity Theft commercials. Come on... Cash Cop? Really, I know that my stuff is a least better than that. I think my video is amusing, not the funniest thing I have ever seen, I am not that deluded about myself and my filmmaking talents.
You have every right to be that disappointed. You are right. It's pretty bad how this event was handled. I have been thinking about having people send me their vids and letting me re-edit and make the show DC should have made (Read my thread "The Way the Show Should Have Been").
If you look at the rules, "Grizzly Man" was not one of the programs they asked for people to parody-- that may be why they didn't include yours.
Also, did you actually send a copy of your spoof into the contest, or just hope that they would contact you? The reason I ask is that there were a number of legal disclaimers that were on the submission website that entrants had to acknowledge before their videos could be considered by the Discovery Channel. There's a difference between getting an email from the company saying "Good work" and engaging in a preliminary legal contract that makes you eligible for the contest.
Actually it was submitted into the contest. As well as having ongoing conversations with the program director for the show.
Like I said this wasn't done for the contest and Discovery Channel themselves posted on their website in a number of places in regards to this contest in the first line of the description most time the line "Youtubes Hedgehog Man". We contacted Discovery Channel in no way in regards to this. We were surprised as anyone to see that it was being used as the hey look at this this is what we are looking for in the contest description. I have screen shots of at least four pages that mention the video by name on Discovery channel's website and another of other pages using it in the listing of the show.
Do you think that I would be upset if I didn't bother to enter it into the contest and just assumed it would air?
Just so everyone can take a look at the screen i'm talkin about. Pic 1
This last pic is something that anyone entering the contest back in Sept/Oct would have seen and is still on the page before you submit. This is what tipped us off that they were into the video. Pic 4
As a side note if you read the rules my video is mentioned in the rules.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: silentjosh,
They did mention your parody as an example of what inspired the contest and what they were looking for in terms of style. However, in the rules they laid out for the competition itself, "Grizzy Man" was not one of the programs they wanted people to parody for the "You Spoof Discovery" show. They list the specific programs they wanted here:
"We just want it to be funny and immediately recognizable as a Discovery Channel spoof.
Specifically, here are the shows you should feel free to roast: American Chopper, American Hot Rod, Biker Build-Off, Cash Cab, Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs, Extreme Engineering, FutureWeapons, Going Tribal, A Haunting, I Shouldn't Be Alive, Monster Garage, MythBusters, Shark Week, Stunt Junkies, Survivorman and Walking With Dinosaurs.
While I think it was unfair of them to get your hopes up by leading you on, both by mentioning your spoof and by communicating with you via email, I was just suggesting that they may have chosen not to include your spoof because of the terms of the competition.
