When it comes to video sketch teams, smart, funny, L.A.-based the Kids Table isn’t doing too shabby, with more than 778,000 views and 11,100 YouTube subscribers. But compared to vloggers, who regularly get 2 million views for just showing off their shopping haul, TKT is merely a blip on the ad revenue radar.

And that pisses them off. After witnessing the cult of celebrity around vloggers at VidCon, TKT members Igor Hiller and Marvin Lemus decided to try a new sketch series: Igor’s Anti-Vlog Vlog.

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Lemus films and edits while Hiller, or rather his on-screen persona, satirizes the most common vlogging gags. In “Honest Pick-Up Lines,” Hiller asks girls at Venice Beach for their number so he can “get to a million views.”

“We stole today’s video from — oh, everybody,” Igor announces to camera in his self-satisfied deadpan as similar videos from popular vloggers pop up on screen.

It can take TKT several months to pitch, write, rewrite, shoot and edit a sketch. Their award-winning “Vine Tries to Make a Commercial for Vine in Vine,” which has 212,000 views, took seven drafts. Vloggers often post every day and get far more views, which is, understandably, frustrating to groups such as TKT, which strives for better-quality videos.

Ironically, perhaps to TKT’s dismay, the Anti-Vlog is a downright hilarious testament to why vlogs are so popular: awkward interactions with strangers, audience participation, lists and, most of all, feeling in on the joke. In this case, the joke is that vlogs are a lame, derivative, cheap waste of time. But in self-aware 2014, where we love/hate everything (ahem, the Kardashians), the Anti-Vlog kiiinda fits right in.


The Tangled Web We Watch is our column on what’s worth watching online. You can watch Igor’s Anti-Vlog Vlog on The Kids Table’s YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheKidsTableComedy. Read Stephanie Carrie’s full interview with Igor Hiller on her blog, tangledwebwewatch.com.

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