Is Zuckerberg’s Metaverse a pretentious vanity? Time will tell. Inspired by Iceland, a public-private entity that promotes Iceland and its products, thought Zuckerberg’s strangely stilted manner and awkward positivity was funny enough to turn into a parody.
Its video parodies Zuckerberg’s October 29 introduction to Meta and its metaverse where “you’re going to be able to do almost anything you can imagine”.
The Iceland video features a Zuckerberg lookalike named Zack Mossbergsson, Iceland’s chief visionary officer, who shares Zuckerberg’s Caesar haircut, black long-sleeved t-shirt and really uncomfortable hand gestures.
He begins the explainer with “Hi and welcome to this very natural setting. Today I’d like to talk about a revolutionary approach on how to connect our world without being super weird,” before presenting Iceland’s very tangible world as a “not-so-new chapter in human connectivity”. The Iceland-werse, he notes, is “enhanced actual reality“without silly looking headsets”.
There’s a scene in which Mossbergsson gets into a pool wearing far too much sunblock. Inspired by Iceland had certainly done its homework. It came from a story that did the rounds when Zuckerberg went surfing in Hawaii with enough sunscreen on his face to block UV rays for a century.
“In our open-world experience, everything is real,” Mossbergsson points out. “It’s completely immersive, with water that’s wet. With humans to connect with.” Then he concludes by inviting viewers to look at the Icelandverse “rogo”.
The video’s humour is elegantly restrained and incisive, a combination that’s apparently hard to achieve. It’s rare and delightful.
