Like the creators of The Onion before them, the sideburned jokesters responsible for those "Chad Vader" YouTube videos are trying as hard as they can to escape from Madison, Wisconsin. They're represented by William Morris! They're flying out to New York to participate in something called "Battle of the Internet Superstars" (uggghh)! And as long as they keep pumping out lame Star Wars parodies, people will continue trying to figure out how to make money off of them. Is it wrong, though, that we'd kinda rather subscribe to the YouTube channel of militant North Carolinian jihadist Samir Khan?

Nothing personal—we're sure the Chad Vader folks are very nice, even though they refer to Madison's "quirkiness"—but "grainy car-bombing tapes" turned into "slick hip-hop videos" sounds way more sickly intriguing than yet more joyless sketch comedy.

Also Khan has his own "Blue States Lose"!

His neatly organized site also includes a file called "United States of Losers," which showcased a recent news broadcast about a firefight in Afghanistan with this added commentary from Mr. Khan: "You can even see an American soldier hiding during the ambush like a baby!! AllahuAkbar! AllahuAkbar!"

See, that's funny. These violent extremists understand the Internet: it's built on pointless cruelty and hatred. We presume Khan will miss a few Manhattan dinner parties. He'll survive.

In a City Far, Far Away From Hollywood, the YouTube Tales of a Lesser Vader [NYT]
An Internet Jihad Aims at U.S. Viewers [NYT]