Ashley’s Funniest Home Video

As an aspiring young film maker, 15 year-old Ashley received her very own digital camcorder for her birthday. She had been using her father’s old VHS camera for quite a while, but she knew if she ever wanted a future in cinema, digital was the way to go. Well, she spent the next several days shooting footage of everything she laid her eyes on, much to the annoyance of the rest of the family. Late one night as she was viewing her work, she had a brain storm. Ashely decided to film something funny and send it to the TV show. Maybe she would win the $10,000 for the funniest video!

The next morning Ashley told her older brother of her plans and asked him if he could do something stupid for the camera. “Yeah, like what?”, he replied. Ashely thought for a moment then made a proposal. “Grab your skateboard and we’ll go to the park. You can grind or something, then just fall and pretend to hurt your groin. Everybody loves groin shots!” Later that day Ashley reviewed her footage and realized it wouldn’t work. It was too contrived, too fake. She knew that anyone who saw this video would know it was a set-up. Back to the drawing board.

The next day Ashley pitched her mom with a proposal to let Dad scare her. They put him in a closet with a Halloween mask and then stationed the camera to face the door. Mom walked in to the room, innocently pretending to need something out of the closet. As she opened the door she was met by the gruesome stow away and fell to the ground in animated horror! Ashley was sure she nailed it this time, but on further review it was the same thing, too contrived.

The determined young lady continued on, staging her father dancing at a wedding, her baby brother making a mess at the table, even the family dog being cute. But no matter what she tried, it just wasn’t funny. By the end of the week Ashley was miserable. She sat on the couch, camera in hand, complaining that she would never be a filmmaker. Big brother pulled out his cell phone and started recording her pity-party, with Ashley screaming for him to turn it off. She jumped up to run out of the room, looking at her brother as she retreated. In her haste to escape, she ran head-first into the door and fell on her behind.

Ashley cried…

Everybody else laughed…

And they won $10,000.

The moral of the story: The best family videos are spontaneous. Don’t try to set them up!