She Likes to Watch

Step aside, Dr. Horrible: Evil League of Evil seeks applicants 

Back in July , a singing supervillain captured my heart.

“Buffy” creator Joss Whedon struck Internet gold with “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” an online series starring Neil Patrick Harris as a mad scientist with only two ambitions: to win over the girl of his dreams and join the Evil League of Evil led by Bad Horse, “the thoroughbred of sin.”

“Dr. Horrible” was such a hit that Whedon and company took the next, inevitable step and invited ordinary criminals to join the Evil League of Evil.

Most of these applications tend to be awkward, embarrassing or just plain painful. However, there are a few gems — such as the tiny tyrant depicted in the above video.

As her mom explains, the Pint-Size Pirate has been terrorizing the neighborhood “almost as soon as she could walk.” Her crimes include accosting strangers in the streets, robbing banks and kidnapping the governor in order to make him her cabin boy. She’s even lured her own sister into a life of crime. Despicable.

Sneak Attack launched a campaign against all cute Australian critters after her husband was “spurred to death” by vicious platypuses (platypi?).

She seems to be trying the same tactic as the Cutinator (pronounced “Cute-i-nator”), a charming puppy with a lovely singing voice.

This bizarre application from the brain-sucking Skull Spider — complete with accordion music! — gets my “Best Use of A Puppet” award.

Law Ninja combines one of my favorite things, ninjas, with one of my least favorite things, lawyers. And the demon Pickle Jar has some pretty impressive credentials; he’s responsible for “the knife, bathroom graffiti (and) the concept of heating a liquid to a dangerously high temperature and then throwing it on someone.”

However, the award for “Best Effort” has to go to the Canadian fellow who crafted not one, not two, but six application videos for the Evil League tryouts. His personas include Custodius Rex (King of the Janitors), The Allergen and crusty pirate cook Captain Shrovewreaker.

Oh Custodius Rex, you’re an inspiration to us all!

You never known what you’re going to find on YouTube.

A dorky kid swinging a homemade light saber? Yup. A distraught teenager defending Britney Spears? You betcha. Chad Vader? Tron Guy? “Chocolate Rain”? Check, check and check.

As music and movie buffs have discovered, however, the Web site has also become an amazing resource for concert footage, music videos, trailers and film clips.

Britain’s “The Observer” has hunted down 50 of the best arts videos currently available on YouTube. They range from Jimi Hendrix and The Who smashing their equipment to Jack Kerouac reading from “On the Road.”

Some of these clips are a bit erudite for the average viewer, but here are some of my favorites:

Nirvana, circa 1988: The band, minus drummer Dave Grohl, rehearses “Love Buzz,” “Scoff” and “About A Girl” in a dingy Aberdeen, Wash., garage. Witness a raw but inspiring performance by Kurt Cobain and Company, three years before they hit it big with “Nevermind and launched a grunge revolution.

Kurt Russell and Carrie Fisher try out for “Star Wars“: A surprisingly baby-faced Kurt Russell puts a genial cowboy spin on the character of Han Solo. And Carrie Fisher turns on the husky sensuality for her Leia tryout, opposite Harrison Ford.

James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti sing “This is A Man’s World”: Sounds like an odd pairing, but turns out the Godfather of Soul and the legendary opera tenor make a good team.

The Beatles’ final concert: The Fab Four unite one last time on a New York rooftop in 1969. Awesome music. Incredible historic significance.

Vladimir Nabokov talks “Lolita”: One of the world’s greatest writers discusses his greatest novel in this two-part video. Nabokov’s Russian accent is pretty thick, but his comments on his “shocking” novel are enlightening. (Hint: He’s the chubby guy wearing glasses.)

I remember the first time I tried Red Bull.

I sipped. Shivered. Quivered with a caffeine high. Then I realized just how terrible it tasted.

Nevertheless, energy drinks have become a beverage industry giant, pulling in more than $5 billion a year.

These days, they come with sleek silver “bullet-cans” with eye-ball melting colors and outrageous names like Cocaine, Xtazy and Pimp Juice. They have weird ingredients like guarana and taurine. And they still, in my opinion, taste pretty awful.

That’s why I’m turning to a new beverage: Powerthirst.

“Sound the alarm! You’re going to be uncomfortably energetic.”

This faux ad for Powerthirst features a hyper-aggressive announcer hawking flavors like Schockolate and Rawberry and Schockolate. Who wouldn’t love an energy drink that turns your babies into Kenyan sprinters?

You’ll want to use your headphones for this one. It’s loud, raw and has one stray F-bomb for the unwary.

Tom Waits is one of the marvels of the modern world.

He’s a musical icon and a force of nature, a raspy-voiced prophet of booze, brothels and circus freaks, a gentleman scholar, and a stone-cold cat. As this video and this NPR interview prove, he’s also a natural cut-up.

Here, the ever-lovin’ rebel promotes his Glitter and Doom summer tour.

Wait for the punchline. It’s worth it.

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Thanks to reader Robot Downey Jr. for the suggestion.

I like to follow in the footsteps of greatness.

So when Gizmodo.com says “The Great Nerf Office War” is the funniest Friday-at-work video ever, I sit up and take notice.

Talk about workplace agression. This is sales versus IT, red ties versus blue in the fiercest Nerf battle you’ve ever seen.

Check it out.

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Today’s “Video of the Week” comes to us courtesy of the comic geniuses at RunAwayBox.com.

That’s right, the folks who brought you “One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song” and “Ooh Girl — An Honest R&B Song.” Gotta love ‘em.