Inside every horror filmmaker lurks a budding comedian struggling to claw its way out, showering the audience with the goo inside. At least that's Microsoft's hope, as this week the company tapped a handful of directors, known for creeping us out in films like Hard Candy and Friday the 13th, to create a set of freely downloadable comedy shorts for release globally this fall over Xbox Live to coincide with the service's major facelift.

The brainchild of Slither's James Gunn and Peter Safran of Scary Movie infamy, the film series has a number of notable directors on board, including James Wan (Saw), David Slade (30 Days of Night), Lucky McKee (The Woods), Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror) and Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). With each itching to trade in their bloody hatchets for hilarious, madcap antics, with now look forward to the filmmakers' unique take on what promises to be sidesplitting comedy.

Scott Gairdner posts a short, sweet video about the advantages of riding a Yoshi over a Segway. The subtle edits and great production entertain, even if the theme is less epic than other videogame riffs. Keep a close eye--and ear--on the action for Super Mario World in-jokes.

See the video after the break.

[Via VideoGamesBlogger]

Come one, come all! Boys and girls, children of all ages, and feast your eyes on this spectacle -- a rare performance by the insufferable duo of Mr. Kyle Orland and Mr. Dan Dormer. Tonight, we'll be live blogging a piece of gaming culture -- the fusion of Guitar Hero with Comedy Central's South Park. Hit the jump, and keep refreshing to witness all the action.

While The Onion has already run a similar parody -- Sousaphone Hero -- Black20 throws its implausible instrument into the band with Harmonica Hero. The snappy fake commercial combines equal parts harmonica and gaming jokes for a tasty send-up slurry. Even those of us who don't know our Rock Band from our Guitar Hero III were amused by the video.

See the clip after the break.

A new Super Deluxe music video shows a loose parody of "Cat's in the Cradle," covering the life of a gamer dad and his newborn son. The sometimes nonsensical (and mildly NSFW) lyrics amused us as much as the made-up videogames the dad plays. It's longer than our typical video-of-the-moment picks, but entertains through the full five-and-a-half-minute runtime.

Oh, and it features Dana Snyder, who voices Master Shake, if you're into that sort of thing. See the video after the break.

[Image Credit via BoingBoing]

In this NSFW (for language) video short, CollegeHumor applies the message-board mechanics to a business setting for amusing results. Quality writing offsets the week-and-a-half age. (And we're sure you'll be inspired to tell us off in the comments after viewing.)

Watch the video after the break, and leave your own hilarious message.

[Image credit]

While the Halo 3 multiplayer beta is trickling its way out to the masses, pass the time while all of your neighbors try to download it simultaneously with the latest from Red vs. Blue. (Oh, who are we kidding? We know you're going to watch the progress counter ratchet up to 100 percent, with the same adoration as if you were reading Hemingway the multiplayer guide.)

As the Red vs. Blue guys inch closer to the 100th episode blowout, the latest short shows off some important basics players need to know about the multiplayer beta. Think of it as an orientation initiation into Halo 3. Welcome to the social.

See the video after the break.

If you've been watching G4 lately (and if so, may we ask why?) you've probably seen a couple thousand 30-second spots promoting a mysterious, retro-stylized game company called GameAVision. The viral marketing got even weirder yesterday with an e-mailed press release that touts the two advertised games, Crosswalk and Bar Fight, as "featur[ing] movable character, sound, and several exciting colors." The ads and the release both direct players to the GameAVision web site, which includes some unplayable, Atari 2600-style Flash games and some amusing help wanted ads, among other things.

What's going on here? Turns out the cryptic campaign is for an upcoming animated series that G4 commissioned last year. According to the October 2006 press release, the show will feature "Dave and Jerry, two video-game programmers whose lives are turned upside down when GameAVision, the freewheeling company at which they've spent their whole careers, is purchased by Bob Larrity, a crazed Texan businessman who knows nothing about video games except that they 'sell good.'"

The premise actually sounds interesting, and the involvement of Minoriteam creator Adam de La Pena is encouraging. It's also nice to see G4 filling its schedule with some new, vaguely game-related programming instead of more reruns of Cops or something. Here's hoping the show lives up to its promise.

Sure, a recent MySpace video posted by comedian Matt Bessler (you may know him from such comedy troupes as The Upright Citizens Brigade) has a little fun at the expense of gamers. But there's enough on-the-nose stuff here that it's probably a bit self-deprecating as well. All the classic stereotypes are touched on: Cheeto addiction, pot use, never knowing the touch of a woman, and the soul-crushing, barren emptiness that is the life of the gamer ... no, not you of course. Everybody else.

Bessler may not be breaking down any stereotypes, but he has made a particularly bold musical choice for the video, which the more theatre-savvy among you will recognize as young Cosette's heart-wrenching ballad "Castle on a Cloud" from Les Misérables. Wow, it's almost a shame that musical geeks and gaming geeks aren't warring factions. Bessler could be both Romeo and Juliet. Juliomeo, even. Feel the drama, right after the break.

[Thanks, Ethan]

First they faced off against a deranged eye fitness guru, then a talk show host followed by the toy mafia and Abe Lincoln. Now Sam and Max have to overcome a foe of a different kind: the internet! The fifth installment of the episodic Sam & Max adventures is available today on GameTap. Reality 2.0 is filled with the signature Sam & Max humor wrapped in an adventure-lite game. This time around the jokes poke fun at everything geek-related. Expect some video game parodies as well, such as when Sam yells "Its-a me, Sam!" before leaping into the air to collect a coin.

You can grab Reality 2.0 from GameTap starting today, or download it from Telltale Games on April 12th for $8.95.

Real Life Mario Kart, created by Panda Smash, is our pick for today's video. While this comedy short runs a little long at six minutes, we laughed at this group's Mario Kart race staged with tricycles. Our favorite part was finally recognizing one of the players as Fishin' Lakitu, resetting the racers after the many times they tipped over.

See the video after the break.

Irish funnyman Jimmy Carr is set to become the first major comedian to perform stand-up in Second Life. On February 3, as Carr takes the stage in London, his routine will be simultaneously broadcast to a select audience in the virtual world. Will his signature deadpan survive the translation?

Carr is giving away tickets to the event through a competition on his MySpace page.

[Thanks Joe]

(Note: the BBC story grossly exaggerates the size of Second Life's user base. See: Analyzing the press' Second Life obsession)

Here's a little bit of comedy for Friday, courtesy of Something Awful. For those of you who have played the game, you know of the security guard Otis. He's the guy who gives you a transmitter -- quite possibly the biggest mistake you can make. Otis will provide you with "scoops," which are essentialy the side missions of the game.

However, it seems that Otis only calls you when you're being swarmed by a group of zombies and, when he calls, you can't attack (as you're holding the phone while the text is displayed on the screen below). Doing so will hang up on Otis but, no worries -- he'll call back. "Don't hang up on me," he says, "it's rude." Way to be understanding there, Otis, you fu ...

... you know, we'll save the rant for Something Awful. It's pretty funny, so click on the link and enjoy.

The wacky sketch-comedians over at Olde English were going to film a sketch in New York's Bryant park this weekend when they ran smack dab into Nintendo's Pokemon Day. Instead of going home dejected, they made the best of the situation and did some improv Pokemon comedy on the spot. Die-hard pokefans might not like the disrespectful tone of some of the jokes, but anyone who can't laugh at the kid who's jealous of the level 200 Rayquaza probably has no soul.

Kyle Cease, a stand-up comedian who also had roles in 10 Things I Hate About You and Not Another Teen Movie, covers NES sub-culture in this clip from one of his acts. Kyle sends up everything from out-of-touch parents ("MOM! PRESS THE B BUTTON!"), the fragility of the cartridge slot and the "suspenseful" music made out of bleeps.

Before you click continue to watch the video, be aware that this is definitely NSFW.