Techland

OK, I know this thing has been kicking around since 2004, but I only just got to it this weekend. (I checked it out after watching the trailer for the Harry Potter fandom documentary We Are Wizards.)

Brad Neely -- the comic who did Babycakes and suchlike disturbing/funny Internet stuff (if you haven't watched it, you might think twice ... oh never mind, you're totally going to) -- made a voice-over narration for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The whole movie. Basically it's from the point of view of somebody who knows almost nothing about Harry Potter, which is part of what's funny. He calls Snape 'Snake' and thinks he's a woman. He calls Hagrid 'Hagar the Horrible.' For some reason he calls McGonagall 'Hardcastle McCormick.'

But the other funny part is, he sort of grasps a deeper truth about Harry Potter. In a sick, insane way he gets to the emotional core of the story -- he narrates it as a kind Nietzschean triumph of the will, with Harry as a nascent godling who's crammed with sorcerous energy that he's dying to unleash. The whole movie is about him embracing the power that is his birthright.

Also he swears a lot and makes fun of the actors. This is Neely's voice-over for the big Quidditch match:

Catface Meowmers -- because she looks like a cat! Ahahahaha.