Comedian Pranks TED Talks and Hilariously Lampoons the Whole Concept

Apparently the recent TEDx event at Drexel University had very lax vetting in place, because comedian Sam Hyde was able to pose as a documentary filmmaker and take the stage for 20 minutes of hilarious gibberish tech-speak that lampoons the concept of the lecture series at its core.

Hyde lectures about his big ideas like a “2070 paradigm shift,” “teaching Javascript to African refugees,” and “bulletproof coffee,” all while wearing a suit of gold armor.

One particularly funny quote from the speech:

“Great ideas come in all shapes and sizes. 9/11, September 11th. We’re gonna use some reverence here and not be silly about this, but look at what they accomplished with no weapons and just 11 guys who didn’t even speak English? And that proves that sometimes great ideas are actually horrible ideas.”

How on earth did Hyde get past the conference’s vetting? He explained to Philadelphia magazine:

“I told them I had just returned from Mogadishu where I was shooting war journalism following this group of women cleaning up the neighborhood, and by picking up trash, they had lowered crime rate. So it’s like broken window theory there, or whatever the fuck. A little Malcolm Gladwell. [They] wrote back and said, ‘Wow, that’s exciting. We got some real hard hitting stuff here.’”

Have a look below at the full speech, via YouTube. It’s well worth it:

[h/t Uproxx]

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