Comedy news: Mock BP Gulf oil spill video by New York's UCB Theatre becomes online hit

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A satirical video about the inept response to the Gulf oil spill by BP has become a runaway online hit.

The three-minute long spoof, made by New York improve group the Upright Citizens Brigade, (UCBComedy.com) has had over 7 million hits from a short movie which recreates the spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a coffee spillage during a meeting at BP’s headquarters.

As a number of company executives try to stop the spill, the actors in the short sketch try ever-more desperate measures to stop the ‘spill’ from devastating the contents on the table, which include some sushi and a map of Louisiana. They even call in Kevin Costner to see if he can help. The short sketch aims to highlight the ineffectual response to the spill by both the oil company and the U.S. government.

WATCH THE CLIP ON SSP HERE

The video, which was filmed in two days, has become a hit online, being watched by almost 7 million people on YouTube and shared 300,000 times on blogs, facebook and twitter feeds. 

Founded in 2007 UCBComedy.com aims to give its members, who perform at New York’s Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in mid-town Manhattan, an online platform for their ideas an sketches.

"What we're trying to do with videos is get out there to the general public the talent that we have," says Todd Bieber, 30, the website's director of content and production. "We can reach New York and L.A. audiences pretty easily, but there's a whole world out there that we can't reach through the theatres."

The popularity of the sketch has elevated the reputation of UCBComedy and even been compared with the most successful online comedy video site, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Funnyordie.com. 

"There are so many terribly ridiculous things going on in the world that there's plenty of room for commentary. If we can be looked in the same way as FunnyOrDie, that would be terrific. We'd love to get the hits that they do." Bieber added.