A couple of comedians left this Nissan Leaf on a Los Angeles street during the weekly two-hour period reserved for street sweeping. And then they narrated a 40 minute live stake-out waiting to see how long it’d take to get a parking ticket, which an astounding 13,000 people sat tuned in for.
When Road & Track livestreamed the view from their office, I naturally thought “this is dumb” and then proceeded to watch it for 15 minutes. I said the same thing tuning into Brent Weinbach and Doug Lussenhop’s “Live Parking Violation,” yet here I am telling you about it.
There’s undoubtedly something inherently compelling about “liveness.” Combined that with the crushing boredom many people seem to feel at their places of work and you’ve got yourself an audience.
As of this writing, 28,612 people and myself have watched the live-ticketing. As to why, I guess we just broke that down. But as to why it was filmed:
“It’s an idea that comes out living in L.A., because everyone gets parking and everyone wonders how they happen and when they happen,” Super Deluxe Executive Producer Cyrus Ghahremani told LAist, adding “Sure, it’s performance art. It’s a social demonstration.”
I mean, it’s a couple of guys trying to be funny. This tradition that can be traced back to cave drawings. Live video entertainment isn’t new either but Facebook’s weapon of mass procrastination is, and now every person and business with a smartphone has the ability to live-broadcast.
(It also probably helps that this was done by Super Deluxe, home to such hilarious video wunderkinds as Vic Berger IV.)
When we first met this new frontier self-distraction I asked what you’d like to watch. “Parking tickets” was not among the 100 responses to date. Maybe the real question is what won’t we watch?
Hat tip to Creative Accidents and LAist!