Amusing and Amazing Video on the Web

Faux sporting events, a whole village that risks life and limb to get groceries, and an enterprising artist who does Etch A Sketch portraits of his sports heroes: The Internet brings on the weirdness so we can get through the workweek.

Hipster Olympics. With such events as "Ironic T-Off," "MySpace Photo Sesh" and "Music Collection Bragathon," this sporting event is so hip that it'll probably be passe by the time you read this. Brooklyn-based sketch group Poykpac sets its sports parody in the nation's cool-conscious capital: Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood. Amid the skinny jeans, aviators and western shirts, keep a sharp eye out for the hilarious player bios (strengths: squatting, keeping it real; weaknesses: actress Chloe Sevigny).

The clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM.

Bridges? Who Needs Bridges? You will never hate on the Metro again after seeing this report about residents of a minuscule Colombian jungle village who have to use a zip line hanging "1,200 feet above a raging river" to travel more than half a mile to get into town. They use wooden hand brakes, and amazingly enough no one has been seriously hurt. Yet.

The clip: http://www.nerve.com/nerveblog/nervevideo.aspx?id=144e13974#13974.

The Amazing Etch A Sketch Artist. You can have your baseball cards. Sports fan George Vlosich III, 28, prefers to immortalize his heroes in a famously ephemeral medium: the Etch A Sketch. See him in action a few years ago, meeting ballplayers and demonstrating his double-dial mastery.

The clip: http://vidmax.com/index.php/videos/view/3228.

-- Greg Zinman