How Auto-Tune makes the news funny

There is nothing funny about an intruder entering a woman's bedroom.

But when the story itself has a happy ending and then it falls into the hands of the Gregory Brothers and their Auto-Tune software, then humor miraculously rises out of a local news event.

The Gregory Brothers, who live under the brand name Auto-TuneTheNews, discovered that their own hidden talent lay in taking news clips, finding music that somehow feels appropriate, and then Auto-Tuning the voices in the clips to create something of which Michaelangelo, had he been blessed with a little more technology, would have been proud.

The Gregory Brothers, who are, in reality, three brothers and a sister-in-law, first began to create these heavenly mixes during the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. However, their latest, the story from Huntsville, Ala., of the woman saved by her brother from an intruder's intrusion, is a veritable tour-de-force.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, the brothers explained that in order to get the best out of Auto-Tuning, they need the speaker to have some inherent drama in his or her voice. Ergo, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are divine subjects for Auto-Tuning, whereas President Obama ends too many sentences on a down beat.

In this latest, and perhaps greatest, expression, Antoine Dodson, the hero who saved his sister, is an inherently dramatic figure who exudes theatrical flair. With just a few software enhancements and a perfect music track, a piece of local news transmogrifies into almost 3 million views since last Thursday.

Where the use of Auto-Tune on politicians and TV presenters offers obvious sources of comedy (I have embedded one of the original political news videos from a year ago), this new video seems to have accessed a far more beautiful and palatable way of presenting not merely news, but life.

Surely you will now rush out and Auto-Tune some of your own home videos, just to give, say, your granny, a little extra comedic flavor.