Awesome Videos

Air New Zealand yet again celebrates its country’s role as the backdrop for Peter Jackson’s epic films with this big budget safety video starring Elijah Wood and Jackson himself, along with dwarves, orcs, elves and wizards.

A man forces his way through a parking garage gate, then decides to reverse back in, eventually causing over $40,000 in damages. We choose to believe that alcohol or anger was involved. No sane man would do this. We hope.

Zach Galifianakis returns to his hilariously incompetent interview show, this time digging painfully into the life of superstar Brad Pitt, along with some Q&A about his new film, Furry. At least he gave Pitt a gift for his troubles.

Viral ad maker LifeHunters went to a food expo and had people sample their organic food, which was actually from McDonald’s. Just another reminder that when it comes to food, it really is mind over matter. Turn captions on.

The Honest Trailers guys do their best to disrespect what was actually a good movie that was overshadowed by two other great Marvel movies released in the same year. Though their Terminator 2 plot observation is a little too true.

Paraglider Arnauld Longobardi takes us on a breakneck flight through the French Alps, skimming treetops, pulling dizzying spins and elegant water flares, and culminating in a stunt where he zooms just inches from a cablecar.

In this beautifully-animated CGI short film by HouseSpecial, a creature made of rock does everything in its power to protect a small village threatened by a huge boulder. Despite the best of intentions, things don’t go according to plan.

Vsauce3 reminds us how awesome our planet is. Even our next door neighbor is so different and hostile. The moon has longer days and nights, wildly varying temperatures, no atmosphere and lots of radiation.

IKEA Singapore pays tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film The Shining, following a child on his tricycle as he winds his way through the store. This confirms what we already knew – shopping at IKEA can be the stuff of nightmares.

Watch out YouTube, Vimeo has stupid videos as well. Visual effects artist Dave Fothergill made this funny clip while testing the Miarmy crowd simulation plugin for the 3D animation software Maya. How can we turn this into a game?

Royce Hutain improves his daughter’s stick figure LED costume (which are now for sale, along with adult versions). The new Minnie Mouse edition has multicolored LEDs and reacts to sound. See more of Zoey’s Disneyland trip here.

Get ready for a bumpy ride with this helmetcam video from motorcycle rider Ben Hemingway as he takes us through narrow corridors, up and down staircases, and over logs in the prologue of the Extreme XL de Lagares enduro race.

Despite the shortcomings of this clip (vertical video, broken teeth from frozen Starburst), we still find the idea of replacing the ice in our freezers’ ice maker with candies to be truly inspired – especially those mini Reese’s PBCs.

Expert domino setter-upper FlippyCat created this maze of dominoes which form a tree and its roots. What makes the small display impressive is how he managed to set up all of those overlapping branches without knocking anything over.

This one-man helicopter is powered by hydrogen peroxide gas rockets attached to the tips of its rotors. While we’re guessing it’s not the safest aircraft ever made, we’re duly impressed that it gets off the ground at all.

“The oooodds grow ever slimmer. Which one? Choose.” Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon plays the intense Egg Russian Roulette with guest Bradley Cooper. As the video’s length attests, this is one for the books.

Designed by Alex Chinneck, Take My Lightning But Don’t Steal My Thunder appears to be a stone building with its upper half suspended in mid-air. The polystyrene structure is actually supported by a thin steel frame at its corners.

(NSFW: Language) Parody street artist Hanksy puts his notoriety and knowledge of street art to good use in The Hundreds‘ documentary series Surplus Candy, where he takes us on a tour of the graffiti scene in various cities.

Pittsburgh detective Jack Mook volunteers at a local boxing gym that welcomes and trains poor kids. In 2012, two young brothers suddenly stopped going to the gym. Jack decided to find out what happened to them. Unofficial mirror here.

Despite all of the buzz, the social network Ello is actually a pretty useless place. In this video from Buzzfeed, they do a good job explaining what it’s like for any of you who have yet to get an invite. They’ll probably become billionaires anyhow.

Husband and wife team Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp are back with our favorite existential hero in a conch shell. Watch him talk about a grape and sing a heartbreaking rendition of A Perfect Day. He also has a new book.

In The Simpsons’ latest Treehouse of Horrors Halloween special, the family was visited by their original incarnation. Lisa wondered what’s stopping “an evil marketing corporation” from making more of them. The answer? Nothing.

For a recent halftime show, the OSU Buckeyes marching band performed a medley of rock tunes from Van Halen to The Stones to The Who. The formations are great, though it’s really hard to rock without electric guitars.