T-Pain owned by Vocoder robot machine

FunnyOrDie has a pretty good short in which hip-hop artist T-Pain gets in an argument with his Vocoder -- the device that gives that metallic tinge to singers' voices -- reference Tupac's and Dr. Dre's "California Love," Cher's "Believe" and Lil Wayne's "Lollipop." There are also a good number of home-brewed Vocoder videos on YouTube -- this one's fun.

In the video (policy forbids a direct link due to mature language, but just Google it), the Vocoder feels slighted because it doesn't get any credit for T-Pain's success.  Taking matters into its own hands, the Vocoder machine electrocutes a studio technician before forcing T-Pain to sing a song entitled "Thank you Vocoder":

"Thank you Vocoder / You are wonderful. You have helped me out tremendously."

Props to T-Pain both for his quality acting and his willingness to lampoon what has clearly become a sound-effects cliche in both hip-hop and pop music in general. Thanks to this video, I now see that the Vocodor is an evil robotic force that must be stopped.

— David Sarno