With Facebook’s elegiac bio-pic The Social Network generating a huge buzz, other websites are jumping on the bandwagon and filming their own origin stores. Here are the trailers:
yelp.com presents Judgement Day: Pastrami on Rye
[Scene opens in an empty city deli. Two idealistic young computer programmers sit down at an empty booth.]
Kevin: Jack, do you notice anything… weird about this sandwich?
Jack: [taking a bite] It–it’s delicious.
Kevin: Good God, man. We need to do something about this!
Jack: We need to tell the world.
Narrator: Garibaldi Deli was a national secret. Until two men broke the story wide open. World wide web open.
Jack: We’re going to make a website where anyone can review restaurants!
Kevin: No more secrets. No more lies.
[_Jump Cu_t]
Kevin: Submit review! I said, submit review!
Jack: It’s too late, Kevin. Cindy already went to the overpriced deli across the street.
[Jump Cut]
Jack: Dammit, man! Only three stars? The service was impeccable!
Kevin: I. Asked. For no. Mustard.
[Fade to black while choral arrangement of The Beatles’s Mean Mr. Mustard plays.]
match.com presents Matchless Love
[In a darkened room, a young woman presses her hand longingly against her computer screen.]
Jessica: Who are you kirbymario1818@hotmail.com?
[Suddenly, an IM appears.]
Connor: Oh, LilCuteStar. I know your a/s/l, your IP address. And yet, I feel like I still don’t know a thing about you. Except that–
Narrator: It took two perfect strangers…
Jessica: Except, what?
Narrator: …to have a perfect love.
Connor: That it’s like a team of experts matched us based on 29 points of compatibility. I-I love you.
Jessica: Marry me!
Narrator: But when their families tried to tear them apart…
Jessica: Mom! Dad! Our love has compatibility. It’s like a fool-proof formula!
Father: Poppycock!
Narrator: …a matchmaking website with mathematically proven success rates…
Jessica: [aside] I’ll show them, I’ll show them all!
Narrator: …was born.
Connor: C’mon, Jess. Come out of the romantic chemistry lab for dinner at least.
Jessica: But I’ve finally done it, I’ve created an infallible dating website born of our pure love. I’m certain of it! So certain, that I can offer a 6 month guarantee!
Connor: That’s twice as long as eHarmony!
[Fade to black while choral arrangement of Love Potion No. 9 plays.]
Overstock.com incepts Inception
[Two men smoke cigarettes in a small, dark conference room. Their exhausted faces are barely visible through a cloud of smoke.]
CEO: How are we going to push more products? No one wants our cheap, overproduced crap.
Employee: It’s impossible! Unless…
CEO: Unless what?
Employee: Inception.
Narrator: A web start-up on the brink of destruction is about to pull off the heist of a lifetime.
Employee: All we have to do is go inside our customers’ minds and convince them that they need to buy more bedding, more mahogany-finished clothing hampers, more reasonably-priced dog beds.
CEO: And that Overstock.com is the place to do it.
Employee: If we’re going to do this, we need an architect.
CEO: The best architect. Thinking what I’m thinking?
Employee: We need an advertising agency.
[Jump Cut]
Architect: This commercial is only 30 seconds long, so we need to get in and out of there. When the screen fades to black, that’s the kick.
CEO: What happens if we fail?
Architect: Then the website will stay in limbo. People will remember hearing about Overstock.com, but no one will actually know why it exists.
CEO: So…basically the same then?
[Fade to black while choral arrangement of the Inception theme song plays.]
