Mystery Hour's "Instagram Husbands" video goes viral
"Instagram Husbands": It began as a quick comedy sketch during Jeff Houghton's Dec. 4 taping of "The Mystery Hour," his late-night local TV show broadcast on Fox affiliates in Springfield and the Joplin area.
Four days later, the 2:45-minute video spoof of husbands complaining about their wives making them take pictures for Instagram went viral on a global scale: more than 749,000 views by Wednesday morning.
Time.com writer Samantha Grossman posted the video to the magazine's Newsfeed Internet blog late Tuesday afternoon.
"Boyfriends and husbands of the world who’ve ever been scolded for taking a sip of their cappuccino before it was properly photographed, this video is for you," Grossman wrote.
"I'm basically a human selfie stick," one Instagram husband jokingly complains in the video. "I've had to delete all the apps off my phone just to make room for more photos."
By Wednesday morning, "Instagram Husbands" had been picked up by Buzzfeed, Popsugar, Who What Wear, Uproxx, Reddit, along with a CNN reporter's Twitter account.
If anyone is surprised by the popularity of "Instagram Husbands," Houghton said he is.
"This is craziness, my phone keeps dinging all day," Houghton said in an email to the News-Leader Tuesday evening. "We've put out a lot of videos, some great, some crappy, so it's nice to have one stick like this.
"When I thought of the original idea this summer I thought it had potential, but you really have no idea. Perez Hilton and Ad Week? This is bonkers."
"The clip is an impressive bit of social satire," wrote Ad Week's David Griner, "especially coming from such a relatively obscure source."
Internet gossip blogger Perez Hilton dubbed "Instagram Husbands" "HIGHlarious."
The video stars unpaid actor/writers with "The Mystery Hour," among them Houghton; Michelle Houghton, his wife; Sarah Jenkins, Nate Black and others.
It was shot and edited by Brandon Goodwin with Neighbor Studios.
The Mystery Hour also created InstagramHusband.com, a Tumblr-like wall of selfies posted by men pretending to be miserable Instagram husbands, among them recent "Mystery Hour" show guest Danny Lutman, a Los Angeles-based comedian/reality show developer.
As of Tuesday evening, Michelle Houghton had 2,095 followers on Instagram.