ThingsThatAreNotNews.com: Hitler takes Carmageddon Road Rage to a Y2K Level: Interview with ThingsThatAreNotNewsmakers, Autumn Proemm & Chris Punsalan

Filmmakers Autumn Proemm
& Chris Punsalan

So what do Hitler, the 405 and Disney Dollars have in common? Absolutely freaking nothing which is why when they are all mixed together in a smoothie of funny, it quickly becomes a delicious viral treat. That's what Autumn Proemm and Chris Punsalan have done with the interweb's latest Downfall parody, Hitler Rants About Carmageddon.

Character Driven & Wacky Well Built Comedy

These musicians turned filmmakers have poured their heart and soul into another project, short film Nothing Is Cool - which offers a funny take on the impossible self importance and defunct lives of indy musicians. The film, which has been moderately successful in film festivalville, should have been their great launching pad into the world of viral relevance! But nope, not the film that took months of blood, sweat, (likely tears, although I didn't confirm that), and clearly a pretty kitty of cash.

Nope, instead it is this parody video made while en route home from a wedding in the Dominican Republic with a script written by Autumn in less than 45 minutes and edited by Chris on a laptop while on layover in the Charlotte airport that has made these kids this week's Things That Are Not Newsmakers.

I spoke to Los Feliz dwellers Autumn and Chris last night to find out why they think their little Hitler rant of hilarity has had over 35,000 views in four days. "I think Carmageddon is the whole Y2K thing all over again. It's either nothing or it is the end of the world." Chris astutely pointed out.

LA Weekly Blog, Simone Wilson

Anyone who lives in Los Angeles or anywhere surrounding has been barraged with the impending doom of freeway closure for the last month on local news, the radio, newspapers, and celebrity tweets. The 405 actually has begun tweeting about the matter (and following me on twitter), because that's just what a freeway needs?!?!

What makes THIS video work is timeliness, irreverence, and the fact that everyone really can relate to road rage and traffic angst. While it's an inside LA kinda thing, this story has been covered by global news. It may be positively absurd, but there is some dude working for the DOT throwing up high fives to the other dude that shares his cubicle. Talk about PR accidental genius!

Autumn, who is clearly as a pretty smart Chiquita, works in music licensing for a big ol' studio. She took time to make sure they were not violating any rights prior to releasing this little stroke of jet lagged brilliance. Turns out the 2005 German film, Downfall, has over 10,000 parody videos. While the original production company Constantin Films attempted to curb the enthusiasm of parodists everywhere, in 2010 YouTube declared that they all fell under Fair Use and have been making a pretty penny on them since.

The elephant in the room is clearly - How can Hitler be funny? This, and all the other vids, are a decided bitch slap to a really really bad dude. By taking him down quite a few notches and making his rage about Disney Dollars and HOV lanes, somehow it works. Laughing at Hitler feels good.

Now this creative couple must sort out what's next. Figuring out how to parlay this week's success into next week's opportunity is their biggest challenge. How do you take 35k hits and let it launch something monetizable? What do you do with a newfound audience? Not very many of these one-viral-hit wonders have figured it out, but something tells me these cats will.

Awwwww

Chris could use an agent. Frankly there are a number of agents out there who could use Chris. He's what the industry calls a Preditoriter (Producer, Editor, Writer (yeah I just added the writer part))

Autumn is on the hunt for writing gigs. She's got a few screen plays under her belt and clearly has a knack for witty dialogue.

Autumn's advice to the rest of us? "Be topical, short, funny, get to the point."