• At first glance, this just looks like an editing trick: Someone spliced together a bunch of clips of Oregon lawmakers to make it look as if they’re singing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Right? Wrong! In fact, the whole thing was an elaborate prank hatched by the lawmakers themselves; they schemed to surreptitiously insert the song’s lyrics, one by one, into their speeches on the House floor. After over a year of editing (!), Rep. Jefferson Smith, the brains behind the operation, released the finished product into the wild. It was a true bipartisan effort, involving Democrats and Republicans (the chamber is split 50/50). “Just having a little fun together helped develop some professional relationships,” Smith explained. Hopefully, this kind of fun will soon spread to the federal level (nudge nudge, Harry Reid). source

Posted by Seth Millstein • Permalink