Talking smack is an important part of fantasy football. It’s fun to trash talk with your friends and leaguemates. But it’s not always easy to do well. Here’s an example I found recently of someone taking their trash talk to the next level with a fake news smack talk video.
Watch it and then we’ll review how good the trash talk was.
Why This Is Good Smack Talk
The first thing to get your attention is the video’s production quality and graphics that make it look like a local news station special report. I call it the Fake News Fantasy Trash Talk format. The guy who made the video does a great job playing the role of reporter while getting in some shots at the target, a guy named Steve, who is also the league commissioner.
This format works because it looks legitimate, as if an actual investigative journalist uncovered the true reasons why the league’s commissioner really sucks at fantasy football. There’s even a picture of the target labeled with “Fantasy Flunk-Out” during the opening and newsy sounding background music throughout the video.
The reporter then makes fun of the target’s team name, “General Luckster’s Brass”, calling it “General Lackluster’s Brass” while highlighting the team’s loss the week before. Twisting the target’s team name is one of my favorite smack talk techniques. Most of this league’s team names look lackluster to me, but that’s another topic.
The fake poll results screen worked well for a couple reasons. First, it finally added some specifics of why the guy sucks. These included sending lots of “terrible trade proposals” (a major fantasy football mistake) and drafting Perine when Kareem Hunt was still on the board.
There was also a little self promoting smack talk with a poll comment saying that “Everyone sucks compared to The Monarch”. That, coincidentally, is the team managed by the guy that made the video and is playing the target this week.
The Best and Worst Smack Talk In The Video
The best part was the sister. Getting the target’s sister to betray her brother, saying that he was “always a disappointment” was huge. Brilliant idea to get the sister involved and totally humiliate the target in this way. It should be a fun conversation when their family gets together on Thanksgiving.
The weakest part of the video is the anonymous league member. This guy made some lame generic statements that Steve is the worst player and commissioner without any specifics to back it up. It comes across as sour grapes. He’s probably the guy Steve beat in week 1. Remember to include specifics in your smack talk to make it more effective.
What Smack Talk Tips Can We Learn From This Video?
1. The Fake News Fantasy Trash Talk format is effective. The format’s design enables you to keep hammering the target in multiple ways (overview, surveys, interviews, etc). Video works great for this format, but you could also do it in written form.
2. Have fun with the target’s team name. It’s a fun, easy way to trash your opponent in any format.
3. Include specifics. Doing this wherever possible strengthens your smack talk attack.
4. Promote your own team. The reporter did this by slipping in the survey comment about his team and closing the video saying that he’s the league championship favorite.
5. Be creative and have fun. The fake survey results and getting the sister to join in were great ideas that make the trash talk memorable.
Final Thoughts
This video earns an A- from me. It would’ve gotten a higher grade if there were any details on what makes Steve the worst commissioner.
If you have good video editing skills, or want to learn some, give this format a try to trash talk your opponents. As an extra bonus, you might even earn some ad revenue on top of trash talking your competition like the creator of this video is probably doing.
Hopefully Steve took the video in stride and is busy thinking of ways to retaliate. Of course, winning their game would be the best revenge. Though, according to the video’s comments, that didn’t happen.
What do you think of using a video for your league’s smack talk?