Browns Surprising Everyone But Themselves
November 8, 2010Man, That Was Fun
November 8, 2010Over the last three days, no Cavs-related story has been hotter than Cleveland’s so-called “response” to the LeBron James-adled Nike commercial titled “Rise.”
From outlets like ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption to CBS’s hoops blog penned by Matt Moore, the response to the, um, “response” has been overwhelmingly positive. PTI called the Wantz piece “brilliant,” and Moore stated that if “zings were weapons, it would be an atomic bomb.” The multimedia mavens over at The Basketball Jones said though it took two weeks for Cleveland to reply, it was “well worth the wait.”
The only catch is that it didn’t take two weeks.
It only took a matter of days for Cleveland to respond, at least in the eyes of local comedian Chad Zumock whose response to James hit the Internet’s shelves on October 29th – almost one full week before the now viral video created by Wantz.
In Zumock’s video, the afternoon drivetime co-host of WMMS’ The Alan Cox Show has some one-on-one time with the two-time MVP. Wantz’s rendition captured the thoughts of several different would-be representatives of Cleveland (hey, the bar is called The Clevelander, right?), where Zumock’s dialogue relied on verbal jabs combined with excellent editing that placed the antagonist along James’ side through the duration of the Nike spot.
In the video titled “Just Apologize,” Zumock is the sole audience member of James’ MVP speech, side-by-side with James amongst the halls of St. Vincent-St. Mary’s, on the street corner with Don Johnson and even getting the pixilated treatment after James asks if he should “just disappear.” While the message is the same, the medium is a bit different as Zumock opts for humor and blunt replies (he is a comedian). Wantz, via the use of various locals, opts more for cinematic emotion and inner-relation to fellow Clevelanders who continue to long for answers themselves.
But for one reason or another, Zumock’s response has received a fraction of the views of Wantz’s – as of Saturday afternoon, Zumock’s creation (though having had six more days of air time) had been viewed just under 9,000 times on the New York based video hosting service Vimeo with the help of fellow comedian Jeff Etters. Wantz, opting for Silicon Valley’s YouTube and the help of thousands of email forwards, has had his video viewed over 1.1 million times in less than two full days.
Zumock admits that the commercial is intrinsically easy to parody, as had been done last week by Trey Stone and Matt Parker of South Park. And while all parties put a different spin on it, he also says that the whole thing may very well just be a weird coincidence. But by having the medium of local radio for four hours a day, Zumock believes wholeheartedly that Wantz saw the first video before producing his rendition.
Wantz tells WFNY that he did the video because he felt that Cleveland’s side of the situation was not being heard or perhaps just being misrepresented.
“LeBron [James] was more than a basketball player to this city,” said Wantz via email.
So what should Wantz do? Should he get have his video removed? Should he, like Zumock, make us laugh?
“Like what I asked of LeBron in my video, I think he should apologize,” said Zumock. “He should admit that he saw my video a week before he made his. I would love to have him come on the [Alan Cox] show and talk about it.”
When asked what he thought of the “Quitness” version of the response, Zumock said that it was “alright.”
Unfortunately, when asked about the allegations that he may have borrowed a bit of his idea from Zumock, Wantz opted to not comment.
—
Disclosure: Author has appeared as a guest on The Alan Cox Show
31 Comments
I wonder who will play Zumock in the movie version of this debate over who came up with the idea first.
It’s not wholly original to make a video in which you answer a rhetorical question. Zumock needs to get over it already.
ZUMOCK THINKS THEY COULD’VE DID BETTER, JUST LIKE LEBRON!!
IF HE WEIGHS THE SAME AS A DUCK, HE’S A WITCH!!
Wantz > Zumock. Didn’t think Chad’s was all that funny.
Not to nitpick here Scott, I believe you may have meant “Clevelanders duel”.
They should meet at the flag pole at 2:45pm and settle this once and for all.
/Acting like 14 year-old girls
/The second one was better, so who cares. People have been making parody videos since the invention of moving pictures. It’s not an original idea in the first place.
Maxwell is more funny than this hack anyway.
just check the Zumock video. what a non-story. his piece is … high school-ish and not cool.
wantz’ is professional and perfectly done.
how and why this even becomes a story calls into question who is reporting it. come on wfny, you’re better than this.
That’s Vimeo v YouTube also. The latter spreads farther/easier.
Maxwell may be funnier than him but, my dead cat if funnier than Maxwell.
Chad’s is awful. It was annoying to watch. Wasnt it Barkely that said he’s not a role model, not Jordan (side note)?
The Wantz video was done in a much better way and doesnt make cleveland look like kids that had their awesome cool toy just stolen from them. Thats what I got from the “just apologize” video.
And still, if LeBron come out and said Im sorry, does it change anything? will anyone think its true? I wouldnt. He just doesnt get “it.”
“But for one reason or another, Zumock’s response has received a fraction of the views of Wantz’s…”
yes, attempts at humor that do not succeed frequently elicit that sort of ho hum reaction.
Since when does getting agitated and spewing cuss words make anyone funny? Not since Sam Kinison, and that was a LONG time ago (not to mention he’s posthumously unfunny). Wantz doesn’t even need to address this clown.
Zumock’s is terrible in comparison… there really is no comparison. Wantz did it in a much more effective manner than just simply having a guy yelling “apologize” over the original commercial.
WMMS has been dead to me in the afternoons for long as i can remember…
I caught word of Zumock’s version on their show one day. Hate to break it to him but not everyone listens to that show. Could be due to his awful jokes.
look at WFNY trying to help the lame mms afternoon show with ratings. why is this even a story?
What jimkanicki and bobby and … well, everybody else said.
Why exactly are you writing a post about this guy’s sour grapes? His video didn’t blow up the internet. So sad. So he accuses this Wantz guy of copying his idea? That’s pretty arrogant, especially considering it’s pretty easy to see how Wantz’ video could have taken longer to produce. You see, he filmed several people in several different locations instead of just yelling “Apologize!” a bunch of times and doing some video editing.
All said, I’m glad the Wantz video is the one making the rounds. It certainly portrays Clevelanders in a better light. I don’t want the whole internet thinking we stomp around all day whining that LeBron should say he’s sorry. Of course, I don’t see why an apology would make everything better anyway, so this Zumock guy’s whole premise is dumb, as far as I’m concerned.
a majority of people probably thought of answering the questions in the commercial the minute they saw it. Not an original idea, though the 2nd one was def better. who is chad zumock anyways?
Chad’s video was great!! Certainly a lot of haters on here.
Chad Zumock’s response might have been first, but since it took 15 min to make it should have been…the second video was better, and the lebron gay commercial was better
Feel pretty strong about this topic, eh Brian?
The video from Wanz makes the whole city look retarded. Like we take this so seriously and we actually all believe those answers! Zumock’s is great! It’s a JOKE people…and it makes fun of LeBron. It makes LeBron and his arrogance look bad, not the city, not us.
Sheesh.
Will Leitch once said: The Internet is a Meritocracy
In this case the better video won. This is not news.
One of the worst posts on this site. Ever. Come on, guys. Between this and the false Varejao report, you seem to be slipping.
Love everything else, though!!!!
Bob O’Brien wrote:
Will Leitch once said: The Internet is a Meritocracy
In this case the better video won. This is not news.
Not true. It’s all about WHO sees the video. If the person who can feature a youtube video on it’s front page or can put a video up on the front page of Yahoo News only sees one but not the other, that has zero bearing on which is better.
SOOOO, as I have stated before, I blacked out all logo’s on my Lebrons from last year, and only wear them to the gym…went to breakfast with my wife and Father in Law, waitress asked “Are those Lebrons?” (I live in VB) when I answered yes but they where blacked out, she wanted to know why…when I told her because he (WFNY edit: crapped) all over his hometown team with out winning jack, she still wanted to debate…she shut up when I asked how she would feel if she was engaged but her Fiancee took her on National TV to dump her…she walked away, and my wife was pissed that I was too blunt.
Why is it unfortunate that Wantz decided not to dignify an absurd allegation? I hadn’t seen Zumock’s video until I saw this post, if that helps.
I don’t see anyone “dueling” here.
Amazing.
Honestly Zumock needs to get off his high horse. Other then using clips from the commercial, the two rebuttles have literally nothing in common. The reason why Zumock’s is so much less viewed is because it SUCKS. Literally anyone in the world could make the video he did. It’s not clever at all, the punchlines aren’t even funny, and it honestly just seems petty. Wanz’ on the other hand is very clever, artistic, and in the end leaves you thinking “damn, lebron just got burned!” Honestly Zumock has nothing to complain about here. Good job Wanz!
I like both of the videos. Each is different and has their own spin.
BTW the Alan Cox show is pretty good. I try to listen when I can.
You Maxwell lovers can hear that guy on the AM against Rover… listen now b/c he won’t last long against Rover.
Didn’t know Maxwell was on the AM? Me either till Rover brought up how bad their ratings have been.
“Disclosure: Author has appeared as a guest on The Alan Cox Show”
Looks like the D-Bag Zumock got his buddy to write him an article in support of his video. The fact that Zumock continues to reference Wantz on his show, makes him look even more pathetic than before. Zumock’s video sucked and looked like it was a project for a 9th grade video production class. On the other hand, Wantz’s video was referenced as “brilliant” and can easily be compared to the original Nike commercial. The only relation between the videos is the Nike Commercial, none of the content within.
Ultimately, it sounds to me that Zumock is simply jealous.
You Cavalier fans are some real bitter as people. You better be worried about keeping’ boobie and AJ on your squad. Word around town is that they’ll be gone by Christmas lol. Bums…