I was quite taken with Bryan Weaver’s first campaign video — an homage to Paul Wellstone and a piece of much-needed levity in an election season that has taken itself far too seriously, far too often. Plenty of other people thought the same: Weaver’s charismatic performance has now hit over 77,000 views on YouTube. That’s not too shabby for a guy that, until this summer, most people outside of Ward 1 had probably never heard of.
The Ward 1 Council candidate’s camp dropped the highly anticipated follow-up earlier this week, and while it’s fun — the moment with the man slamming the door in Weaver’s face proves his obvious ability to enjoy a laugh at his own expense — it just doesn’t have quite the same punch. (Plus, while we don’t have an issue with his hard-working campaign staffers getting some play, Weaver probably would have been better served to get his mug on screen a little more, what with the election less than two weeks away.) I will say that if you ever wanted to imagine what would have happened if Kevin Smith decided to make short-form political advertisements instead of a movie about retail employees in 1994, it’d probably would have looked a lot like this.