Who isn’t making viral videos these days? Obviously, the children are making viral videos. They’re the ones who started it. But historically, whatever the children are doing will quickly be co-opted by major corporations and turned into a marketing tool. So, obviously, Pepsi is making viral videos. They’re lovin’ it. Your mom is always forwarding you Pepsi’s latest video. She’s like, “saw this bird pooping in a man’s mouth and thought of you, Lots Of Love, mom.” Your mom’s a total viral video head. This is when thing start to get weird, though. Because by the time major corporations co-opt what the children are doing and turn it into a marketing tool, it’s not even cool anymore. So anyone who’s taking their cue from Pepsi to check out this internet thing and see what it’s all about is really behind the curve. Enter Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot, who has turned to the internet to encourage his constituents to e-File their taxes this year in a video called Real Taxpayers of Genius (via BuzzFeed):

Pretty good, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot. It definitely has that unhinged, wait-is-this-real-because-sometimes-I-have-trouble-believing-that-I-live-in-a-world-where-something-like-this-could-be-real quality to it. But there’s obviously room for improvement. Like, what if someone tried to do their taxes on a trampoline? Or maybe they could do their taxes on a Roomba? Or, I mean this is obvious, but what if someone put their taxes in their butt and then they also put a firecracker in their butt, and then they lit the taxes and the firecracker on fire, and they jumped off the roof of their garage? You know what I mean, something to really get your message out there about e-Filing your state taxes. Because that’s what weird, amateur viral videos tinged with insanity do: they bring important messages to people. Always.