Why is the cloud so hard to make funny?
Clearly, it’s not for lack of trying. Just do a quick search on YouTube if you need proof. There you’ll find a number of “hilarious” songs about the cloud, which call on everyone from Joni Mitchell to Vanilla Ice for inspiration. (Yes, someone changed “Ice, Ice Baby” to “Cloud, Cloud Maybe.” Yikes.) Simply put: The cloud + amateur comedians = a recipe for crickets.
Luckily, The Onion has finally turned its comedic attention to the cloud. And this may just be as close to funny as the cloud ever gets.
After all, standing alone, the cloud isn’t really a subject that’s supposed to elicit laughs. I mean, there are only so many jokes one can make about servers and elasticity that people without CS degrees can appreciate. Enterprise virtualization?!? OMG LOLs!!
To give credit where credit is due, there have been some decent attempts in the past.
One Microsoft spoof on VMware is funny but not Onion-quality funny. It features Tad, the sales guy from VMlimited.
And then there’s “The Cloud Consultant.” He has no credentials but lots of friends who are social media experts.
Or, hey, there’s Meme Hitler learning about a security issue. But, let’s be honest, the Hitler spoofs are getting tired — there are so many on YouTube now that these have to be really, really good to stand out.
Of course, on the other hand, most cloud videos are so awful that they become funny in their own cringe-inducing way. Laughing at rather than with.
Microsoft’s “To the Cloud,” campaign ranks high in that category, for example:
I did a quick search to see if I could find any other cloud spoofs from The Onion, but I’ve yet to find any. Which just goes to show that, if even The Onion hesitates to touch the subject, it has to be pretty dry.
Or maybe the cloud just needs more cowbell?