I spend a lot of time on this blog ragging on the incredibly stupid things people put on the Internet. Like a cop who has to deal with the scum of the world on a daily basis, I can sometimes lose myself in the ugliness and risk becoming a part of the ugliness. So, every now and then I need to wallow in something that isn't inherently awful, if only to remind myself that the Internet is a neutral tool that depends on its users to make it good or bad. For the record, they usually choose "bad". This week's selected video actually consists of several layers of goodness and I'm going to talk about all of them today.

First, let's touch on the immediate not-suck of "LIPDUB - I Gotta Feeling (Comm-UQAM 2009)". Unlike the overwhelming majority of Youtube videos, it is well-planned, obviously rehearsed and thoroughly engaging throughout. The amount of coordination required to pull this one off could only have been massive, especially considering that getting college kids to stop jerking around and commit to something is roughly akin to teaching a house cat to value the feelings of others. According to the French/English description with the video, it took two hours and fifteen minutes to put this one in the can. That means every participant ran through the same setup at least 20 times. Oh, if only every Youtube video involved so much practice.

As we venture deeper into what makes this video a good thing, let's consider the song. The kids at UQAM managed to make a Black Eyed Peas track bearable. I cannot begin to fathom how to do that in my daily life. It's like some sort of cultural alchemy, taking a poisonous element and turning it into something of value.

Further investigation reveals that this particular video has, like many things on Youtube, inspired some copycats. Well, maybe "inspired" isn't the word. In true facsimile fashion, the attempts by other, less creative groups of bored college kids to do the same thing with the same song come out cheaper and all around less novel.

But the bad copies are useful as educational tools. For example, without Nihon University College of Art's lackluster attempt at their own LIPDUB, I never would have learned that Japanese art school students suck at making movies. Also, my suspicions have been confirmed concerning the extent to which Japanese humor is dependent on silly costumes. The answer is "a lot". Thank you, UQAM and Black Eyed Peas for making me more racist!

Youtube, like so many other parts of the Internet, doesn't have to be awful. The digital folk art streaming from the site is good just frequently enough to justify its continued existence. I doubt I'll spend much more of my time in this column saying nice things about the videos that land on my desk, so consider today's entry in Youtube Nation a necessary excursion to a vista where one writer's soul can take root and replenish some of its withered hope. Don't get me wrong, I still don't think Youtube is ever going to be mostly good, but I'm willing to wager a little faith that it won't get entirely swallowed up by awfulness, either.