Apple Severely Lacking In The Sense Of Humor Department

You may have seen this video clip earlier in the week, but if you missed it, this is from the Ellen show. Ellen had made an iPhone parody advertisement and guess who didn’t find it amusing? The ad closely resembles many of the iPhone 3GS ads you’ve undoubtedly seen on TV, where the camera is closeup on the phone with a set of fingers whizzing through the applications at an impressive pace. In Ellen’s ad, it’s pretty much the same set up, except she doesn’t find it quite so easy to use. Her voice-over adds to the visual account of the struggle to press the right buttons on the screen.

Apple complained about the parody and Ellen it seems was required to make an apology.

Sometimes I talk about a product and it’s a good thing, and sometimes it’s not so good at all. I got in trouble recently because of a…well, today I got in trouble…

They thought I made it look like it’s hard to use, and I just want to say that I’m sorry if I made it like the iPhone is hard to use. It’s not hard to use. I have an iPhone. Portia has an iPhone. I just learned how to text on an iPhone, it’s the only phone that I can text on, and I love it. I love my iPad, I love my iPod. I love IHOP, if you have anything to do with that.

I thought the fake ad was pretty funny. I like my iPhone too and I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels like they’ve got Homer Simpson-esque fingers when they’re using it. So will Steve Jobs be sending the boys around any time someone makes a joke about an Apple product?  This makes them look pretty sad and the fact that Ellen is pretty much laughing the whole way through the apology is a good thing, showing the contempt the whole thing deserves.

What did you think about Ellen’s iPhone ad and subsequent apology?