The Website is Down – Ep. 2: Excel Hell

The Website is Down episode number two! Chip takes us on a wild ride into the life of a master salesman. How many sales can he make in a single video? One? Maybe?

4 Swirlies

“I’ve used up all the rows in my Excel spreadsheet.”

Mirroring the first episode, the visuals of “Excel Hell” are of Chip, the Sales Guy’s computer screen. It begins with him playing Wolfenstein 3-D, just as Derrick, the Web Dude was playing Halo in the first episode. Apparently, not much ever gets done at PlasTrolTech.

Then after installing software promising him MILF on MILF action, infesting his computer with spyware, he goes on a salescall and has problem entering the information in his Excel spreadsheet – so naturally, he calls tech support.

Anyone familiar with Excel, or really anyone with a pair of working eyes, will be able to tell straight off what his problem is, but what follows is an extremely entertaining exchange between Sales Guy and Web Dude, peppered with hilarious fake pop up ads for everything from ads for used Real Dolls to software from his own company, PlasTrolTech.

Being from Chip’s point-of-view, we see how much of a bullshitter he truly is (even of his Minesweeper abilities) and realize he is a bigger idiot than we previously assumed – so much so that he can’t understand the simplest things about computers – such as even what program he is using.

What should we do with the useless Chips of the world?

The Website is Down – Ep. 1: Sales Guy vs. Web Dude

Web Dude tries desperately to get his work done while assaulted on all sides by rampant incompetence. Will he survive???

5 Swirlies

Note: I realize many of you have probably already seen this video. In fact, it won a Webby in the viral video category. But if you haven’t it’s definitely worth checking out.

Most exciting use of Windows I’ve ever seen in a video.

Derrick, an IT person for PlasTrolTech Inc. gets a call from Chip in the sales department because he says the company’s website is down. Despite Derrick’s insistence that the site is up and running, Chip convinces him to reboot the web server and then all Hell breaks loose.

The entire episode is told from Derrick’s point-of-view. All of the visuals come from his computer screen. We see Derrick as he tries to troubleshoot the Internet problem, taking calls from various people after no one can get online – and most importantly, playing Halo, where he seems to gain the utmost enjoyment from shooting his comrade multiple times in the crotch.

The characters speak in a sort of South Park-esque style which adds to the absurdity of the situation. But what’s ingenious about it is that it speaks to anyone who has worked in an office setting and had to deal people that don’t understand how anything technical works. I’m not an IT person myself – but I’ve also been confounded by people’s ignorance when it comes to people not knowing how the Internet works even on the most basic level.

On the other side, I guess it also touches on how when people call tech support they often get the run-around or have more problems created, as is seen when Derrick reboots the web server “the wrong way” so the network needs to be rebooted on location.

But that might be pushing it a little because Chip is clearly an idiot, as we can see when Derrick uses Remote Desktop to access Chip’s computer and finds it with six million programs open and desktop icons arranged in a comical, insulting manner. Someone played a prank on Chip years earlier and he never knew how to rearrange them.

But simply put, the video is funny. Much funnier than most videos on the web. And although it’s the first in a series, it’s wonderfully self-contained. It tells a full story and doesn’t rely on you having to watch 20 episodes of it to figure out what’s going on. (Actually, that would be pretty annoying considering there’s only four episodes so far.)

And the show’s site has fun features to play around with too, such as a fake UNIX terminal and a Sales Guy Simulator (though that more relates to the second episode).

Finally, as it did win a Webby, I’ll just throw up a funny little promo video the creators made to announce this show was a nominee. I’m not reviewing it as it’s not really a separate episode. It’s more of a DVD extra, if the Internet was available on DVD:

Sales Guy vs. Web Dude vs. The Webbys