When the video was removed, the comedian blog The Apiary got in contact with Eric Cunningham, a member of Full Ginsburg. Cunningham pointed the blame to iOwntheWorld and, sure enough, the site had posted numerous letters that they had received from the real Crayola after asking all of their readers to write in with their complaints. One of the letters reads as follows:

“Thank you for your email.
We appreciate you expressing your concern that Crayola may have been involved in the making of a parody-type video clip about recent political activities. The video depicts a spokeswoman acting as the CEO of Crayola, the Crayola logo and products, as well as both verbal and visual messages that were not authorized by Crayola.

Crayola was not involved in the making of this video, nor did we in any way authorize the use of our brand name, the Crayola logo or the products shown. We are currently investigating the video, and will take the necessary steps to ensure our consumers are aware that we were not involved in the making of this video.

We appreciate your contact and hope we have restored your confidence in the Crayola brand. If additional assistance is needed, you may reach us by telephone at (800) 272-9652 weekdays between 9 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time or e-mail by visiting Crayola.com.

Sincerely,

Consumer Affairs Lead Representative
CRAYOLA”

This, however, was not enough for the blog who continued their crusade until Hallmark got YouTube to remove the video. Later yesterday, they posted this message after the parody was pulled:

“But as I said, having the video pulled from YouTube is not enough. These filmmakers tainted the Crayola name. I’m not so sure I feel the same about Crayola anymore. A have a Pavlovian response to Crayola; I hear Crayola and I feel as if I’m being hated and my beliefs besmirched and my way of life ridiculed. I don’t think I can bring myself to buy a Crayola product anymore, or a Hallmark card – unless of course I hear that they are suing these filmmakers. Only then will I be fully confident that they never had anything to do with this, and they are serious about restoring their good name.”

Wow, that certainly sounds like a stick in the mud response. Especially coming from a site that describes itself as “a consortium of independent creative thinkers producing political satire, humor, cartoons, illustrations, videos, parody and more.” How does a site that claims to employ political satire, not understand the obvious parody in the Crayola video? Well, they actually do. As Cunningham alleges in the Apiary piece, it appears that iOwntheWorld actually just pretended to think that Crayola had a hand in the video so that the company would be frightened into taking action. It was a pretty smart plan and one that clearly worked for them. However, it is completely unethical, especially coming from people who claim to be satirists.

Look, you may like the sketch and you may not, but you can’t try to silence comedians just because you don’t like what they have to say. Didn’t this blog learn anything from the South Park fiasco last week? Sure, it’s an enormous stretch to compare these guys to terrorists who made death threats. They threatened boycott though, which is the business equivalent of threatening murder. Are liberals going to have to whine to the Communist Party so that that Victoria Jackson song gets taken offline?

Obviously these people aren’t going to learn to “all get along” any time soon. You’d think though, that they could learn to grow a thicker skin.

The Crayola video is (for the moment, at least) still being hosted on Funny or Die. We’ve also got it for your viewing pleasure below.

UPDATE: Eric Cunningham contacted us to let us know that the video had more than 80,000 views when it was removed from YouTube. We wrote him back to see if he had anything else to say on the topic.

From his response:

“I mean, it’s all just weird.
Obviously Crayola’s always gonna be awesome in our books, it’s just a pain that these tea partiers tried to force the company to act by using a boycott. …Over some internet video.”

We would like to point out that the blog in question obviously doesn’t represent all of the Tea Party and, personally, this writer finds it more interesting to view this story as a battle between satirists more than a right vs. left issue.
iOwntheWorld also responded to this post with one of their own, entitled “They Don’t Get It, Do They?”

We pointed that out about Obama yesterday, noting how similar his answers were to John King and George Stephanopoulos for his El-Completo-Ginsburg-Sunday-show-blitz. But then we noticed that, for all the kerfuffle about the pay-to-read Megan Fox Rolling Stone cover, she’s on the cover of Cosmopolitan, with a coverline advertising “Juicy stuff she could only say in Cosmo!” Well…not quite.

Here’s Megan Fox in Rolling Stone, talking about her “powerful, confident vagina”: “Men are scared of vaginas…[a woman is most powerful when she is] completely in charge of her sexuality.”

Here’s Megan Fox in Cosmopolitan, talking about the power of — yep — vaginas: “Women hold the power because we have the vaginas. If you’re in a heterosexual relationship and you’re a female, you win.”

Fox also talks in both magazines about using that power to mess with men’s heads, saying in RS something to the effect of, she has harnessed her sexuality and knows how to use it to mess with men’s heads. (Paraphrased from scanning it earlier in a Duane Reade.) This, however, is backed up by what she told Cosmo: “It’s fun when someone intends to put you in his back pocket, but instead, he walks away wounded. I make it a mind game so they don’t know if I’m hitting on them or mocking them.”

Rolling Stone’s Erik Hedegaard also asks her, twice, if she’s ever drawn blood during sex. She responded by being “stonily silent.” Cosmo asked her about her ideal date. She responded with a Rosh Hashanah gift to Jewish men for the ages: “A sexy sandwich with Andy Samberg and Jonah Hill.” Verdict: Cosmo FTW!

To clarify: Barack Obama does not have that last bit in common with Megan Fox. And we’re sure he likes Michael Bay just fine.

Upshot: Both Cosmo and Rolling Stone were a-twitter about their Megan Fox exclusive, but as we have seen in the past, Megan Fox doesn’t reeeaaaallly seem to care about what she says. But hey, it’ll sell magazines.

Related:
Megan Fox, America’s Sexiest Bad Girl: New Cover of Rolling Stone [RollingStone.com]
Megan Fox Hearts Jewish Men, Vagina Power [The Hollywood Gossip]
Megan Fox Cosmopolitan Magazine October 2009 [PopCrunch]
About 800 Pairs of Megan Fox’s Boobs [Mediaite]
Gawker’s Guide to Coverage of Rolling Stone’s Coverage of Megan Fox [Gawker]

Here’s what Obama told Stephanopoulos: “Are there some people who don’t like me because of my race? I’m sure there are.”

Here’s what Obama told King: “Are there people out there who don’t like me because of race? I’m sure there are.”

That’s not to say that he didn’t say other stuff, but let’s put it this way: Don’t worry if you don’t manage to catch all the interviews. You’ll probably be fine.

Stephanopoulos likened his interview with Obama to a “speed date” and said they covered health care, taxes, ACORN, Afghanistan and Jimmy Carter‘s comments (see above); King’s interview, according to CNN PR, covers health care debate, the economy, and “how his family is preparing for the potential H1N1 flu pandemic.” Oh, also Jimmy Carter’s comments.

Extra point for King in eking out a Ronald Reagan reference (ah, remember those early Republican debates? How they all loved Ronald Reagan! Made for some excellent drinking games. Remember how crazy everyone went when Obama told the Iowa Independent that he admired Reagan? Wow. We were all sort of nuts in January 2008. And we hadn’t even met Sarah Palin). Anyhow, here’s what Obama said about Reagan, and FDR, too:

I mean, the things that were said about FDR are pretty similar to the things that were said about me, that he was a communist, he was a socialist. Things that were said about Ronald Reagan when he was trying to reverse some of the New Deal programs, you know, were — were pretty vicious, as well.

I still think “socialist” is a code word, based on how often it’s been used in the context of things that have nothing to do with socialism. But those of you who use it directly and are merely afraid of Obama’s government hands on your Medicare, well then, never mind.

CNN’s got the picture, but ABC’s got the video. Enjoy.