Portal 2 + The National + Music Video Contest = Sad Sock Puppet?

Quick backstory: As with its predecessor, Portal 2 includes a catchy theme song. Instead of tapping Jonathan Coulton for more of his geek-centric melodies, Valve Software teamed with somber indie pop darlings The National to create “Exile, Vilify,” a tune that is, at once, catchy and valid justification for crying in the dark.

Since Valve’s fans are the most creative people on the planet (did you see this fucking cake?!), it was inevitable that people would start creating music videos for the tune, so Valve and The National decided to make the whole thing into a contest. Who doesn’t like free press, right?

This morning Valve issued a press release announcing the winners, and to say that they are “dope as hell” would be both true and a really baffling way for me to praise these clips. Let’s just say that if MTV still did the music video thing, Matt Pinfield would dub them Buzzworthy and we’d all wonder whatever happened to Bill Bellamy.

(Seriously. I’m honestly concerned about that guy.)

That first video up there? With the inexplicably twee sock puppet? That was the grand prize winner. Beyond the jump you can find the “1.00000000001th Place” and 2nd Place videos respectively, as well as a link to all the runners-up that are also rad, but apparently couldn’t compete with the power of a mopey sock.

Now that the song is lodged in your brain, have a link to a handful of other awesome entries.

Addendum: It’s completely unrelated to the contest, but by some strange coincidence, the below video also appeared today. It’s a fan-crafted “thank you” to Valve for creating Portal 2, using the game’s other song.

Fair warning: “Want You Gone” includes some spoilers for the game, but you really should have finished it by now. Don’t make this awkward.