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# A Clickhole into Conceptual Video Art
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-clickhole-into-conceptual-video-art/
- Published: 2015-06-05T21:01:02.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:47:11.000Z
- Description: Clickhole, the Onion's clickbait-parodying spin-off, is producing some of the best video art on the internet.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: Opinion, Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman, John Baldessari, Video, Videodrome, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![(gif by Hrag Vartanian)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/ham-escalator-640_360-png.gif)

(GIF by Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)

[Clickhole](http://www.clickhole.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the [Onion](http://www.theonion.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s clickbait-parodying spin-off, is producing some of the [best video art](http://www.clickhole.com/features/videos/?ref=hyperallergic.com) on the internet. The site’s administrators seem to have integrated the tricks and aesthetics of conceptual and video art, from matter-of-fact performance videos like Bruce Nauman’s “[Walking in a Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square](https://youtu.be/oDhuZ2Ya2wM?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (1967–68) to the deadpan humor of John Baldessari’s “[I Am Making Art](https://youtu.be/MOF3qhM6vIA?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (1971) and “[Baldessari Sings LeWitt](https://youtu.be/Q6eSfKeJ%5FVM?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (1972). Witness, for instance, Clickhole’s “You Can Write Whatever You Want On A Baby … And Here’s The Proof.”

The site’s video artists have also incorporated the tactics of more mainstream fodder. For instance, I found it impossible to watch “Get The Tissues Ready: Watch These People React To The First 10 Minutes Of ‘Up!’” without being reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s viral stream-of-consciousness [live commentary](https://youtu.be/GSqnFxVaIx4?ref=hyperallergic.com) on *Conan the Barbarian*. The futility of responding to a film by simply describing what is happening on screen is a bottomless well of comedy — Schwarzenegger inadvertently stumbled into it, and now Clickhole has tapped it.

Recently, Clickhole ventured into self-reflexive territory pioneered by Douglas Gordon in his installation “[24 Hour Psycho](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24%5FHour%5FPsycho?ref=hyperallergic.com)” with the maddeningly jumpy “[Sorry, We Slowed Down This Video Of A Hummingbird Too Much](http://www.clickhole.com/video/sorry-we-slowed-down-video-hummingbird-too-much-2560?ref=hyperallergic.com).” There are even nods to Andy Warhol’s appropriations of advertising and mass-produced packaging in Clickhole videos like “[Don’t Believe The Hype: This Can Has No Peas In It](http://www.clickhole.com/video/dont-believe-hype-can-has-no-peas-it-2436?ref=hyperallergic.com)” and “Yes! Ham Goes Up An Escalator.”

So take note, curators: If Clickhole isn’t included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial or 2018 New Museum Triennial, I will write a scathing takedown — on a baby.