McCain Girls Mystery Solved... See Who Made The Music Video

The McCain Girls mystery has been solved. The women belting out campaign slogans for the "straight talker" in the hits, "It's Raining McCain" and "Here Comes McCain Again", are the brain children of comedy site 236.com. John McCain gave a shout out to the group on Fox News, but at that time he didn't even know who the McCain Girls were. The New York Times has the full report below. Read more about the videos at 236.com.

The McCain Girls videos, which were posted on YouTube last month with no clues about their provenance, are clearly meant to be imitations of -- or parodies of -- the "Obama Girl" videos, which themselves are parodies (right?).

While the Obama Girl looks like a pinup and sings catchy tunes, the McCain Girls could not be confused with fashion models or pop music stars. Their first video, "Raining McCain," set to the tune of "It's Raining Men," was posted on YouTube four weeks ago. A sample lyric: "In the 2008 election, the forecast calls for rain; the first time in history, it's gonna start raining McCain."

That video recorded more than 1.6 million views and earned mentions on CNN and on ABC's "Good Morning America," with people alternately mocking it and wondering who was responsible. The singers seemed intentionally bad, which led many bloggers and YouTube commenters to assume that it was meant to insult Mr. McCain. The liberal blog Eschaton put it this way: "I believe the YouTube era begins the age when it is impossible to tell parody/irony/performance art from completely sincere product."

Drum roll, please: The creators of the McCain Girls turn out to be the comedy team behind 23/6, a five-month-old Web site owned by an affiliate of IAC/InterActiveCorp that parodies the news. The site, at 236.com, uses the motto "Some of the news, most of the time."

Comments

[Wildcatdiva]

WHERE'S MAYHILL FOWLER?

[STFU2]

Will HuffPo acknowledge that IT is the owner of 23/6? Isn't it unethical to create something and then report on it, all the while not reporting the potential conflict? Slate seems to think so: http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead/archive/2008/04/14/huffno.aspx

[Oilygarch]

If this is a representative cross-section of McCain's following, why does McCain's wife look like she could be Barbie's mother?

[tbone99]

Guess there are some goodlookin'l bloggers out there that are totally offended by the looks of everyday people. Better stick to your world of porn where you can be the ' Adonis I'm sure you are.( online anyway)

[desthmoneses]

we just don't advocate obesity, which is in higher proportions in conservative states

[desthmoneses]

What a poorly made video, those women need to join a gym instead of wasting their time like this.

[NoRepresentation]

If they could use one image for FUGLY I would show everyone the picture of the three together

[MercedesGabriella]

At Whole Foods today they were playing the Eurythmics version for the shoppers, and all I could think about was the McCain girls... as propaganda, it works.

[swilliams888]

Whoever they are THEY SUCK.
It is so terrible I have to change the channel whenever some 'news organization' attempts to play.
It is not funny, sounds terrible, and not at all easy to look at.

[amanda85]

"Whoever they are THEY SUCK."

Nothing says "Republican" like someone who really sucks at something...

[Cinnamonape]

As to the Eurythmics and the Weather Girls suing...well, they could...but they wouldn't win. Parody is has been protected speech since about the time of Weird Al starting his schtick. No one is gonna confuse this stuff with Annie Lennox.

I sort of picked up that this had to be parody when the main "songstress" did the interview with lots of foul language over people who said they sounded like Mitt Romney's dog on a vacation ride-along. It was just a bit over the top.

[Gifts]

McCain wishes for Ron Paul's young appeal and creativity! McCain clearly cannot reach the Ron Paul level, he might have the bought GOP party support, but there is no way he has grassroot movement. Most Republicans just follow the bouncing ball. McCain is reduced to the ridiculous with this attempt to copy Ron Paul.

[CountryOver]

I thought that it was a retard's serious effort , especially because they were violating copyrights blatantly (Here Comes McCain Again was removed) and seemed angry about the negative comments. Damn.

[donchep]

Actually, parody is protected. Copyright protection does not apply to works that are done for the purpose of satire or parody. That also includes slander or libel protection.

[fishbrake]

So 23/6 made something that sucked on purpose? At least that's a change from all the other things that suck by accident.

[tompaineaz]

The next question; who was really, I mean really, behind "Obama Girl" video?

[Sioen]

I'm so disappointed. I thought they actually were that earnest and sucked that much.

Damm you, good parody! Tricked again!

[dadw5boys]

236. COM is not a 257 but close.

WHERE ARE THE KARL ROVE GIRLS???????

[bobdevo]

Karl Rove is more into boys. You don't get a nicknme like Turdblossom by accident.

[scorpioleidy]

Eww ... they look just the way I envisioned a McCain supporter would ... UGH!

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Good fit.

[Whinger]

Jeez! The three witches of Eastwick, with the supreme wizard in the background!

[kirksong]

Freaky promo video for McCain! Celebrating his 23 bombing missions in Viet Nam - how many innocent lives destroyed? You become a hero only if shot down and imprisoned. Expect more of the same from McCain - war, war, war, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran...

[jhamm1]

Go figure that these idiots are too stupid and lazy to compose anything original, to say nothing about the fact that these lame-ass renditions were probably compiled on a 20 dollar Sony keyboard.

These guys suck.

[CitizenRob]

It's comedy. It's meant to look cheap, and feel lame. That's the joke.

[dag73]

But comedy is supposed to be funny.

[shaf]

I don't care if it was supposed to be a parody. Every time it gets played on somebody's radio/TV show, I'm desperately looking for knitting needles to jam in my ears.

Damn you, 236.com.

[Exit]

Everybody is trying to cash in on this election. Usually in regards to anything associated with Obama. Who is this McCain guy?

[ariannapig]

WOW, what a riveting story!

[nyboomer]

Trying to parody a joke is a fool's errand. The news is a joke in this country. The news producers intuit that the public does not care about Iraq all that much and could care less about administration lies, distortions and onfiscations. Of course that intuition leads to imagine that McCain is potential leader of a country going down the tubes after many years of Republican maladministration.

Hooray for the news media whose motto is "Failure? No one cares about it? Truth? Never heard of it."

[nastyvirus]

"Trying to parody a joke is a fool's errand." by nyboomer

OK! Here goes!

Wha...wha...what's an "onfiscation"?

[cindyw]

Obfuscation?

[tasukibeth1]

I'm so disappointed - I really thought they were authentic.

Curse you 23/6!

[VOTER]

LOL

[Cay]

Put Sam Seder back on the radio 5 days a week.

[strifeknot]

Seder's a dullard. It's painful whenever he substitutes for Maddow.

[sleepless]

Write to [e-mail] . Sam was great last Friday when C-Ro played some of the second McCain girls. Sam's 23/6 work is brilliant and he was deadpan about this group. McCain should use this as his convention song.