VIDEO: Icelandic Tourism’s Epic Trolling Of Mark Zuckerberg Is Genuinely Meta

Move over SNL. Alex Moffat’s superb rendition of Mark Zuckerberg has some stiff competition, and it’s coming from a very unlikely place. Iceland is now calling itself the “Icelandverse.”

A smart new video published yesterday to promote Icelandic tourism parodies the video released last month in which Zuckerberg announces Facebook’s much-hyped name change to Meta. In that video, the often-maligned CEO introduces the so-called “metaverse,” a transcendent alternate-reality utopia where “you’re going to be able to do almost anything you can imagine.”

Iceland’s new tourism spot opens with a Zuckerberg doppelganger sporting a familiar Caesar haircut and trademark black, long-sleeved tee with a penchant for awkward hand gestures. “Hi and welcome to this very natural setting,” he deadpans. “Today I’d like to talk about a revolutionary approach on how to connect our world without being super weird.”

Offering an alternative to connecting through avatars and teleporting, Icelandverse Zuck extolls the virtues of the tangible world with a winning wink and nod. “And what do we call this not-so-new chapter in human connectivity? The Iceland-werse, enhanced actual reality without silly looking headsets.”

This tourism ad is brilliantly self-aware, celebrating the wonders of travel by cleverly sending up the notion that AR could ever really compete with IRL. “In our open-world experience, everything is real,” Icelandverse Zuck says. “It’s completely immersive, with water that’s wet. With humans to connect with.”

Then the spot takes viewers on a eye-popping tour that showcases Iceland’s stunning landscapes under the Aurora Borealis — “skies you can see with your eyeballs” — complete with real rocks, real wildlife, real geysers “you can watch from a safe distance” and myriad spectacular waterfalls.

“Icelandverse has been built with experts in government, industry, nature and academia, plus a few volcanoes,” said Sigridur Dogg Gudmundsdottir, head of Visit Iceland, in a press release.

“The Icelandverse is a world with possibilities so endless they’ll be here forever,” says Icelandverse Zuck at the conclusion of the video. “So join us today…or tomorrow…or whenever. We are really easy-going.”