Video: Steve Jobs keynote parody hits all the right notes

Posted by Joel Johnson, April 16, 2008 6:06 AM | permalink

Just yesterday I was wondering why you never see good Steve Jobs impersonations. Is it because he's so vanilla? Does he have no sandy quirks that can be highlighted with layers of caricature? Is his measured, not-quite-human speaking style impervious to parody?

The answer is: I apparently know nothing about doing impressions. Because whoever is playing Steve Jobs in this College Humor keynote parody nails it. The voice, especially. I stepped away from the computer for a second while it was playing and had a hard time not mistaking his cadence for the real Steve.

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Discussion

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#1 posted by shutz , April 16, 2008 7:08 AM

I guess you don't remember seeing Fred Armisen's impersonation from a couple years ago on SNL, when he dropped in on a Weekend Update segment to present some new iPod models.

I'm not enough of an Apple or Jobs fan to know if he really nailed the impersonation, but the skit was pretty funny.

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#2 posted by Anonymous , April 16, 2008 7:17 AM

Steve wears _mock_ turtlenecks - not full turtlenecks, so that immediately kind of ruined it for me. (It looks like his shirt is choking him, plus the sleeves are too long; Steve actually wears clothes that fit.)

Also, the fake "i" product just isn't at all funny or clever. But otherwise the impression is pretty good. (Not Noah Wyle good, but not bad.)

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#3 posted by Anonymous , April 16, 2008 9:17 AM

This reminds me of the joke at homestarrunner.com when Bubs was marketing to kids by selling "iTems" in his store. All the iTems were on sale! Wow!

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#4 posted by Sal Pic , April 16, 2008 9:22 AM

Not funny or clever? They spend the entire parody talking about a product without saying what it does. That's funny! The giant product was a cop-out, yes, but even the the delivery, with the hand-in-pocket fake-out, was good!

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#5 posted by murray , April 16, 2008 12:26 PM

I absolutely love good impersonations; they're my favorite form of comedy. But there's one problem with impersonations: you have to be familiar with the person being parodied, or it just doesn't work for you. Having never seen a Jobs speech, this guy does nothing for me. I'm sad.

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#6 posted by anangbhai