The People vs Winter: James Herring’s Icy Fails Compilation for The Poke

Ice turns the simplest winter jobs into slapstick. The People vs Winter, a compilation edited by James Herring and published by the British comedy site The Poke on January 21, 2013, strings together about 20 home-video clips of people losing the battle with snow and ice, set to one of the grandest pieces of music ever written.

The People vs Winter: what the video shows

Herring built the edit from short amateur snow-and-ice fail videos already on YouTube, and the description lists each source clip. The Poke sums up the content as “ice-induced pavement pile-ups, out of control vehicles, winter fail wipeouts and the usual death defiers.” The cuts are fast, and each clip lands on the moment that control disappears.

The Poke's description of the video carries its deadpan disclaimer: "Nobody was hurt in the making of this video apart from the people who were hurt."

Why Zadok the Priest makes it funny

The soundtrack is "Zadok the Priest" in a recording by the BBC Concert Orchestra. George Frideric Handel wrote the anthem for the coronation of King George II in 1727, and it has been sung at every British coronation since. Football fans know its echo too: the UEFA Champions League anthem was adapted from it.

Pairing a royal coronation anthem with a hatchback drifting sideways down a frozen hill is the whole joke. The music builds to a triumphant climax while the people on screen are at their least dignified, and the contrast turns ordinary winter accidents into a mock epic.

Why ice defeats shoes and tyres

Ice is slippery because its surface carries a very thin, water-like layer that lubricates anything sliding across it. Meltwater on top of ice makes it slicker still, and black ice on wet-looking tarmac is hard to see until a foot or a tyre finds it.

A car on ice behaves like a pedestrian on ice: once grip is lost, steering and braking have very little effect, and momentum decides where it ends up. That is exactly the sequence the compilation repeats again and again.

How to walk and drive on ice

Health and motoring organisations give the same core advice every winter:

• Walk like a penguin. Take short steps, point your toes slightly outward, and keep your hands out of your pockets for balance.
• Wear grip. Wear well-fitting boots with good grip, and add slip-on ice cleats outdoors; take them off indoors, where they can make you slip.
• Treat dark or wet pavement as ice and use handrails on steps and ramps.
• Drive gently. Accelerate and brake smoothly, avoid cruise control and leave five to six seconds of following distance on snow or ice, as AAA recommends.
• Keep rolling when it is safe. Starting from a full stop takes far more traction than keeping a car rolling, so slow early enough to keep moving until a light changes.

For more practical help, read practical ideas for icy paths and winter preparation without improvised hacks.

Related reading

• Janitor’s Revenge: A Snow-Shovelling Visual Joke
• An Icy Path, a Laughing Narrator and a Missed Warning
• A Snow-Covered Car and the Window That Changes the Joke
• Dogs and Cats Encounter Snow: A Winter Video Compilation
• Freaky the Snowman: Costume Design and Comic Timing

Sources